“Sure I am; go right along, Arthur, but cut the story short. I think I’m wanted about now to carry a message downtown for my mother. What happened?”

“Why, it isn’t much to tell. You know the Sprawl family that live in the old shack down near the blacksmith shop? The man is a cobbler when he cares to work at all, and there are about forty-eleven youngsters flocking around the door all the time, barefooted and dirty.”

“Yes, I’ve often carried them things from our house,” Hugh assured him.

“Well, I came on one of the little Sprawl girls a-cryin’ on the road and searching in the grass. She carried an old battered pitcher in her hand, and when I asked her what was the matter she said she had been sent for five cents’ worth of milk and had lost the money. You ought to have seen how her face lighted up through the tears and the dirt when I drew out a nickel and gave it to her! Guess that entitled me to turn my badge, even if it wasn’t much, didn’t it, Chief?”

“I should say it did, and you’ll get a heap more satisfaction out of remembering the look on that little girl’s face than you’d ever have had from spending your nickel for a glass of soda water. But I’ll have to break away, Arthur. Look for us at one, alongside the church. I have a few stunts for us to practice while up there among the cliffs of the mountainside. So-long!”

When Hugh had attended to his errand downtown, he walked around to the sporting-goods store, in the window of which was exposed the handsome silk banner which had been offered by a leading gentleman of the town as a prize to the patrol winning the highest number of points in the competition that had been arranged by the efficient Scout Master.

There was hardly a time throughout each day that one or more lads did not have their noses pressed against the glass of that window, while they indulged in all manner of talk and speculations concerning the possible destination of that beautiful prize.

Doubtless many unique, and perhaps even remarkable, expedients would be resorted to by the energetic and ambitious members of the Hawk, the Otter, the Fox and the Wolf patrols of the Boy Scout Troop, in order to sum up the largest number of points in the contest. And when the time came to read off the list of things accomplished and to award the prize to the lucky patrol, there would be surprises all along the line.

Two boys were standing at the window as Hugh approached: Billy Worth and Bud Morgan. They turned toward Hugh with something like a mixture of indignation and amusement written upon their faces; and Billy immediately fired the first shot, as usual, for he was ready with his speech, if sometimes hesitating when it came to quick action.

“What do you think, Hugh? Alec Sands and Sam Winter of the Otters were just here, and you should have heard them talk! It was ‘our’ banner, and ‘how proud we’ll be when we march with that waving over the Otters’! I tell you, I was mad enough at first to eat my hat; and then Bud whispered that they were doing it just to get my goat, so I cooled down and added to the merriment by asking all sorts of questions about just how they felt so dead sure of winning.”

“Yes,” added Bud, “but it didn’t work, Billy. Alec was too sly to give his secret away. He only put on that wise look of his, winked his eye, and said: ‘You Wolves just wait and hear something drop. You’re going to get the biggest surprise of your lives before long. And let me tell you right here, we’ve got that banner cinched!’ And then they walked away, chuckling and looking back at us as though they might be having lots of fun.”

“Well, chances are they were, if you fellows let them see you were worried any by their big claims,” Hugh declared.

“What do you think about it, Hugh?” asked Billy. “Have they found out some way to add a lot of tallies to their string,—an easy way, and yet one that would come inside the restrictions set by the committee? If that’s so, then the rest of the patrols might only be wasting their time trying.”

“Don’t you believe that,” the other instantly told him. “No matter if they are beaten in the race, there’s no discounting the good the patrols will get out of the effort they make to roll up a strong count. Lots of things are bound to be attempted that would never have been thought of only for this keen competition. In my opinion, this is going to be the best thing that ever happened for the troop. And the whole town has got the fever by now, so that even men and women are interested. When the time comes for counting the tallies and telling how each bunch was won, there won’t be standing room in the biggest hall in town for the crowd that’ll want to be there.”

“Then you think Alec might have been boasting, just to rub it into us, knowing all the time we’d tell you about it?” remarked Billy.

“We all know that Alec is as smart as a steel trap,” said Hugh thoughtfully. “Now, it’s just barely possible that the Otters haven’t any wonderful run of luck at all, and that he’s adopted this scheme, thinking he may discourage the rest of us. You know, if some boys once get the notion in their heads that they’re beaten long before the end of the race, they’re apt to throw up the sponge and quit. He may think that we are that kind.”

Billy snorted with disdain as he said hastily,

“Huh! guess Alec isn’t much on reading character, then, if he thinks Hugh Hardin would get weak-kneed for a little thing like that. And every one of the Wolves are made of the stuff that fights harder than ever when they see that they’re up against a tough job. But anyway, you’ve made me feel better, Hugh. Someway I always do seem to look at things in a different light when you are around.”

“How are you fellows fixed for meeting Arthur and myself at one o’clock to-day?” the other calmly asked, though it must have given him a flash of pleasure to hear Billy’s remark.

“Does that mean we’re going for another hike to-day?” asked Bud. “I’m on deck, you may be sure; only I hope we won’t run across another storm like that one yesterday. It was the worst I ever struck.”

“No danger of that, with this fine bracing air and that cloudless sky,” Hugh replied. “Arthur is wild to get pictures of those places where we met our adventure yesterday; and I have a few tests connected with cliff climbing that I’d like to put through while up there in that rough country. Can you go, Billy?”

“Count on my being there at one, prompt, Chief,” came the immediate reply. “You know I’m never half so happy as when out in the woods. We might have another lesson in that Injun picture writing while we’re at it, Hugh. Never thought I could be so wrapped up in anything as that study’s turned out for me.”

“If we have time we will,” said Hugh. “By the way, I notice that neither of you scouts have turned your badges yet for to-day. Arthur was telling me over the ’phone of a nice little stunt he’d pulled off that let him make the change; and while he’s out a drink of soda water, he’s in a whole bushel of good feeling in his heart. No, I won’t tell you how it was; you must ask him that. And I’ve got to be off now, as my folks will be wanting what I came downtown after. Better get busy, Billy, and you too, Bud. The sooner it’s done, the quicker your mind will be free for the whole day.”

“Oh! I’ve got that