The Boy Scouts of the Flying Squadron Part 12

They noticed that he did not approach from the front, and this explained that Ralph had no intention of trying to enter the place while it had a hairy occupant.

He had first gathered up something and made a bundle of it under one of his arms.

Bud, looking closely, believed that he knew what the other scout had collected.

"Dead weeds, as sure as anything! Bears don't eat dried weeds, do they? If he had 'em dripping with wild honey p'raps it might do the business, because they say bears go crazy when they get sniff of honeycomb."

"All of which is true enough, Bud," Hugh told him; "but when you think Ralph expects to coax the bear to come out, you're barking up the wrong tree. It's my opinion force would be a much better word, because he means to compel him to vacate."

"Now you have got me guessing, Hugh; If you know, please take me into the game. There, Ralph's climbing up where the roof is lowest.

It wasn't much of a boost for a fellow as active as he is. What d'ye think he'll do next?"

"Make for the chimney, unless I'm away off, which I don't think I am.

There, you see he's up already. What does he seem to be doing now, Bud?"

"Why, I declare if he isn't crunching all that dry stuff down the old chimney! Oh! now I've got it, Hugh! He's going to smoke the bear out!"

"I shouldn't wonder but what that is just what he expects to do,"

chuckled Hugh; "and let's watch and see how it works. Ralph knows how much alarmed a bear will always get after smelling smoke. It seems to be a part of his nature to dread anything that has to do with fire. And in case he has had to hustle at some time in the past to save his bacon from a raging forest fire, of course it's all the worse. But Ralph is getting ready to put a match to the dry stuff he has in the chimney. After he has it smouldering good I reckon he'll give the same a kick, and send it down into the fireplace. Then watch him clap that short piece of board on top of the clay chimney, forcing all the smoke to ooze out into the cabin, filling it full."

Both boys, and the soldier as well, kept their eyes glued upon the figure of the scout on the roof of the cabin. Ralph was taking his time. He usually did his work very systematically, and could be depended on to make a complete job of anything he undertook.

"There, it's beginning to come out of the door, the smoke, I mean!"

exclaimed the anxious Bud.

"I want to get a snap-shot of the event when the bear rushes out,"

said Hugh; "because there are a lot of fellows these days who want to see the proof every time you tell them a story that seems out of the common run. The light is good right now, and I believe I can make a fair picture, with Ralph pressing his board down on the chimney-top, and the smoke oozing out around him. Now to see how much the prowler can stand for."

"He peeked out just then, and must have seen us, Hugh, because he pulled in again," Bud shrilly cried. "Guess he don't think much of human beings. He must have had some experience with the little shooting sticks they seem to just point straight at him, and then with the cough he feels an awful pain. P'raps he's a better smoker than you think. What if he just declined to run the gauntlet as long as we stand here."

"It's only a question of time," Hugh a.s.sured him. "He can only stand for so much, and then he'll make the rush, no matter what happens."

"The smoke's coming out thicker and thicker, let me tell you,"

Bud continued, fairly dancing in his nervous excitement. "If he can stand that much longer I'll believe he's a regular old salamander."

"He won't," Hugh a.s.sured him. "He's pretty nearly all in right now. Twice we've seen him peek out as if he wanted to get the lay of the land, so he could make his rush. The third time he's apt to come. So everybody get your breath ready to let out a whoop that'll make him think the end of the world has arrived for keeps."

"Look! there he comes, Hugh!"

Even as Bud said this a bulky object rushed headlong out of the cabin door. It was the bear, doubtless already half-blinded with the bitter smoke that smarted his eyes and created a panic in his mind.

Immediately the two boys and the soldier set up a series of whoops that made the forest ring. Ralph, too, joined in, and waved his hat from the roof of the cabin, even as Hugh pressed the b.u.t.ton, and snapped off the lively scene, with the frightened bear in full retreat.

Bud outdid himself in shouting, he was so tickled over the success of Ralph's plan. Twice he raised the double-barrel shotgun belonging to Ralph, which the other had placed in his hands for safe-keeping before starting to evict the unwelcome guest who had taken to using their shack during their temporary absence. Of course after what Hugh had said, about not wanting to injure the bear, backed up as he had been by the third scout, it was far from Bud's intention to pull either trigger, and wound the poor beast. But just like most boys he wanted to boast afterwards as to what "terrible things" he could have done had he cared to take the trouble.

The bear must have received more or less of a shock, what with the smoke, and that volley of shouts greeting his appearance outside the cabin; for the way he galloped away was indeed comical.

Hugh laughed heartily, and then as Ralph jumped off the low roof of the shack to join them, he complimented the one-time trapper on his knowledge of Bruin's weak spots.

"Oh! that's an old story," Ralph declared. "You never want to forget that all savage animals, except, perhaps the two-horned rhinoceros, which of course we don't have in this country, are afraid of fire. With a blazing torch you can pa.s.s safely through a woods where half a dozen hungry panthers are jumping about through the trees following you, but nine times out of ten not daring to make a leap as long as you swing that fire stick around your head."

"Is that so?" Bud remarked; and then quickly added: "But how about the tenth time, Ralph?"

"Oh! well," said the other, with a chuckle, "I guess they might take chances of the fire, and get you the tenth time, Bud. But it's the best thing you can ever do if you're besieged by wolves, or any wild animals."

"Well," Hugh interrupted, "now that our unwelcome visitor has taken his departure, and the cabin can be entered, let's get what truck we have left there together, and be heading for the road."

They found that the bear had made inroads with regard to some of their provisions, but as they happened to be homeward bound it did not matter much. The rest of the things they gathered up, and were again ready for a continuance of their journey home.

Once more they were on the tramp. Having nothing to carry, made things very easy for all hands. The miles they had to cover before reaching the road that would take them back to town did not appall them in the least, for they were used to making long hikes; besides, they had so much to talk about that almost before realizing it they had arrived at the first sign of civilization in the shape of the turnpike.

Half a mile down this road was a farmhouse, where Hugh fancied they might hire some sort of conveyance to take them home. If this could not be had, possibly the up-to-date farmer had telephone connections with town, and over the wire they might influence the owner of the livery stable to send out a rig to take care of them.

They were spared this long wait, however, because luckily enough the farmer happened to be going in town for supplies and readily made terms with the scouts to carry them and their bundles.

So they said good-by to the soldier in khaki belonging to Uncle Sam's Flying Corps, and were soon pa.s.sing along the homeward road.

No doubt that farmer p.r.i.c.ked up his ears and did considerable eager listening, when he began to hear what his three pa.s.sengers were talking about. Never having seen an aeroplane in all his life, and having only a faint conception of the wonderful uses to which the fliers could be put, the tiller of the soil gasped many times when he heard these mere lads tell of their feelings when half a mile up in the air.

And when later on he chanced to discover from words let fall by Bud, that the several packages in the back of the wagon contained a miniature aeroplane, the old man cast more respectful glances back at them. He also changed his manner toward the scouts, and even addressed Hugh once as "Mister Hardin."

In good time, long before the sun gave token of setting, they arrived in town; and Bud was made happy in seeing his precious miniature flier safely deposited at his own door. He still had the look of one whose mind was soaring away up in the clouds and Hugh did not have the heart to disillusion him just then. There would be no harm done in letting poor Bud dream a little longer before giving him that rude if necessary jolt.

Hugh was more than satisfied with the result of their latest expedition.

Neither he nor Bud, at the time they started out, could possibly have dreamed of the remarkable experiences that were fated to come their way. It had only been to enjoy one more little outing before winter came along in earnest and to learn what the scout inventor had accomplished, that had induced Hugh to go forth immediately after eating his turkey at the Thanksgiving feast.

And there was Ralph, who also had obeyed an inward mentor urging him to spend a day or so with his gun in the region where he had in times past trapped many a little fur-bearing animal, whose glossy coat he covet coveted as a means of eventually paying for his tuition in the School of Mines. He had only expected to wander in some of his familiar nooks, and perhaps to knock over a few quail to tempt his sick mother's fickle appet.i.te; but see what had come out of such humble beginnings!

When the scouts had their next weekly meeting, Hugh thought it worth while to give the troop some description of the events that had come the way of himself and his two chums. He purposely avoided more than casual mention of Bud's invention, because he had found a chance to bring the other down from the heights where he had been sailing, and Bud now knew that he had made his bright discovery "a mile too late," as he himself expressed it, looking exceedingly downcast at the time.

Of course the three were looked upon as the luckiest fellows ever known by the rest of the troop present. Others among the boys had experienced some notable things since joining the troop and a.s.sisting the rival armies in the field of maneuvers as signal corps operators; but nothing that had come their way as half as wonderful as being taken up in a genuine war aeroplane and being given a wild ride through the clouds.

What Hugh had to tell about the two foreign spies also excited the delighted interest of Billy Worth, Arthur Cameron, Walter Osborne, Blake Merton, Don Miller, Cooper Fennimore, "Spike" Welling, Alec Sands, Sam Winter, d.i.c.k Bellamy, Tom Sherwood, Ned Toyford and Jack Durham, all of whom were present. They asked him many questions, and seemed never to tire of hearing about how the army air pilot had fired those volleys of small bombs down at the skulkers, actually driving them from the field for good.

A week later when Hugh met Bud Morgan on the way to school, he saw from the way in which the other looked at him that in some sense the die had been cast.

"What's doing now, Bud?" asked the patrol leader, possibly guessing what the answer would turn out to be.

"Smashed her into flinders this A.M.," replied Bud, firmly.

"I reckon you must mean that aeroplane model of yours," ventured Hugh.

"And you hit the bull's-eye plumb center when you say that, Hugh.

I just made up my mind that I was too young to bother my brains over a man's work and go to high school at the same time. My lessons aren't any too good as it is, and they'd get so rotten bad soon I'd be sent home with a note to my dad. I've been trying to find out where I got that idea of the stability device, and finally discovered an article about the Wright invention tucked away in one of my books. Must have read it once and then forgotten all about it, so there's how I fooled myself into believing the idea was original with me. Served me right, too, but, anyhow, she worked, Hugh, didn't she?"

He grinned as he made this last triumphant observation, and Hugh shook him by the hand to show how sorry he felt for the disappointed inventor.

"Worked like a charm, Bud," he remarked; "and if the famous Wright brothers could have seen what you did, after only glimpsing the article long ago, they would have said, just as I do, that you deserve a heap of credit, that's what."