we'd still be in if Elmer here hadn't taken a notion to look us up!" observed Larry. "It's a fine thing to have a scout leader, who feels a personal interest in his men. Because, honest Injun, I don't yet know in just which way home lies. That's about west over there, because the sun is heading yonder; but where's Hickory Ridge?"
"Give it up," said Jasper, shaking his head as though the problem were too much for him. "I'm like you, Larry; I know the cardinal points of the compass only because the sun happens to be shining now. When it was dark I couldn't have told north from south."
"Well, you must get over that failing," declared Elmer, positively. "Now, just take a good look at all these forest trees; you notice that nearly every one has a certain amount of green moss, as we call it, on one side, and also that it decorates the same side of every tree!"
"Sure enough it is, Elmer; and if a fellow only knew which side, he could always find out how he stood," cried Jasper.
"In nine cases out of ten that moss is on the north side of the tree. If it varies at all, it will be found on the northwest bark. Remember that, fellows, and you need never want for a compass when in the woods," suggested Elmer.
"Well, now," remarked Larry, chuckling, "what a couple of silly geese we were after all, Jasper, to think of coming away up here in the woods, and never carry even a compass."
"That's a fact," replied the one addressed, with a sickly grin; "but the trouble with us, Larry, was our being so dead sure we knew all about it. After this I'm going to buy a neat little trick of a compass, and carry it along with me. Honest, now, I never knew it was so easy to get twisted around. Some day I'll turn up missing on my way to school."
"Here's a compass, all right; I seldom go without one," remarked Elmer; "though it's mighty seldom a fellow, who is wide awake, would ever need such a thing where the trees grow. Now, out on those tremendous prairies where hundreds of miles of open country surround you on every side, and one section looks exactly like another, it's a different question."
"I've heard it said that a fellow can use his watch, if he's got one, for a compass; how about that, Elmer?" asked Larry.
"It's a fact," replied the scout leader, "though I don't ever remember of being put to that test. Still, I can explain just how it's done, though we haven't time right now to take the matter up. I reckon we'd better be heading toward home."
"That suits me to a dot," declared Jasper, cheerfully.
He was feeling quite chipper after the recent terrifying experience. In a great measure it had done the boy good. His confidence had been strengthened, and in many ways Jasper saw how necessary it was in times of emergency to retain both determination and assurance.
They were soon walking briskly through the woods, with Elmer promising that in a short time he would surely take his comrades to the road over which they could make their way to Hickory Ridge.
"I've got a little news for both of you," said the scout leader of the Wolf Patrol, as they journeyed on, chattering like so many jackdaws.
"I hope it ain't bad news then?" remarked Jasper.
"That remains to be proven," Elmer continued, gravely. "It may turn out good or bad, as happens to enter the active mind of one Matt Tubbs."
"Oh! the bully of Fairfield – the fellow who did more to break up the baseball games with our rival town than all other causes bunched together. Now, what under the sun has Fighting Matt gone and done, Elmer?" demanded Larry, eagerly.
"Well," replied the scout leader, calmly, "what do you expect, but get in line, and organize a new and rival troop of Boy Scouts!"
CHAPTER III.
MORE RUMBLINGS OF COMING TROUBLE
"Whew! you don't say!" exclaimed Larry, frowning.
"Takes my breath away, that's what!" gasped Jasper.
"Seems to me that both of you look on the event in the light of what my chum, Mark Cummings, would term a catastrophe!" chuckled Elmer.
"Well, I know that Matt pretty well," grumbled Larry. "To tell the truth, him and me have had more'n a few battles inside the last five years. And I owe more'n one black eye to his way of carrying his fists. If Matt Tubbs has gone and organized a gang of scouts it spells trouble with a big, big T for our fellows. Huh!"
"See here, why do you call the new troop a 'gang'? Is that respectful, and the way to treat fellow scouts?" laughed Elmer.
"You know just as well as I do, Elmer," went on the indignant Larry, "that with such a bully as Matt Tubbs at the head of it, no collection of scouts could ever get a charter from Headquarters. Why, the tough crowd he trains with couldn't begin to subscribe to the twelve cardinal laws of the organization."
"Well, it makes me smile," said Jasper, though in reality he looked disgusted. "Think of Matt Tubbs, the bully who uses more hard words than any fellow I ever ran across, promising these things: To be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient to authority, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and last of all but hardest for Matt, reverent! Oh! my, the world will come to an end before Tough Matt can hold up his hand in a scout salute, and solemnly say that he believes in that list."
"It does seem next to impossible," remarked Elmer; "and yet sometimes miracles happen even in these days, fellows. Who knows but what we Hickory Ridge scouts may be given the chance, and the privilege as well, to open the eyes of Matt Tubbs?"
"That would sure be a miracle!" scoffed Larry, who believed that he ought to know the subject of their talk better than Elmer, since the latter had not been living in the neighborhood more than a year or so, having come with his father from Canada, where Mr. Chenowith had had charge of a great ranch and farm.
"All right, we'll wait and see," Elmer went on, evenly. "Anyhow, I've had the news straight that they have two patrols enlisted, of eight fellows each. That is doing better than the Hickory Ridge scouts; because up to now our patrols are not completed, there being but six in each."
"Say, that's always been a puzzle to me, why Jack Armitage and Nat Scott were left out to start a new patrol to be called the Eagle," remarked Jasper.
"I thought you knew about it," replied Elmer. "But you must have been absent at the time it was talked over. You see, it's hardest to find fellows qualified to be scout leaders, and assistant leaders. Plenty of raw recruits can be enlisted on the other hand. Myself and Mark happened to be selected for the first patrol, and Matty Eggleston, with Red Huggins, came along and qualified for the second. That gave us just six members for each patrol, you see."
"Yes, I'm following you, Elmer; please go on," said Jasper, eagerly.
"It just happened that the next two boys to enlist were Jack and Nat, both of whom knew considerable about woodcraft, and were ambitious to learn more. When Mr. Garrabrant and myself talked it over – for I was a duly appointed assistant scout-master by that time, you know – we concluded that it would be wise to start a third patrol, with those two fellows at the head, and after that fill up our three patrols to the limit of eight each."
"Thank you, Elmer; I get on to it now," Jasper remarked.
"And I understand that several good fellows have applied for membership in our troop?" observed Larry.
"Yes, their names will be proposed at the next meeting, which by the way comes this very night. Hope neither of you will be so leg tired that you stay away. Before Fall comes around the church improvements
