Boy Scouts in Mexico; Or, On Guard with Uncle Sam

ow's head, and not what's in his p

That time in the South we had nothing worth mentioning

you ever told

ome unaccountable way, yet we had our heads with us, and we rode the Cumberland and

ack eyes and a resolute face, sat back in his chair and laughed at the me

an adopted son rather than merely as a worker in his office force. Seven years before, Mr. Cameron had become interested i

sly furnished clubroom of the Black Bear Patrol, in the upper portion of a handsome uptown residence, in the

boat?" asked another member of the group. "House

ugh to take us to Chicago in Pullman coaches. The joint purse was

d tell us about it! I believe it does a fellow good, once in a while, to get where he's got to hus

ate land," said another voice, "but it isn't so funny right there on the s

d the group before the fire. This was Frank Shaw, familiarly known to his friends of the Black Bear Patrol, Boy Scouts of America, as "Fa

the group. "How did you ever get him int

h a friendly glance at young Shaw. "His fath

ny book about it!

laughed Fremont. "The cards were descriptive of

ring?" was asked. "The soldiers are on the border, and

Perhaps we can get one in the same way. It would be fun to build a boat

he Gulf. That is, I guess we could. The Rio Grande is shallow, and large boats

he built his boat an

Frank Shaw brought out the brilliant thought. He was doing a thinking part just then,

nking, all right

ng transportation for us to the Mississippi. Then he went on and told how we could build a flat-boat with a cabin on it and be

st you wait until we get a houseboat i

ards together in pretty good shape, considering. Boy Scouts can do almost anything now, since they're learning how to help themselves. There isn't a boy

getting this story out of you, we won't get started t

haped, and bought matched flooring for the bottom. We put tar into all the seams, joints and grooves to keep the water out. Then we bought half-inch boards and built a cabin at the back end

to cook when we get down to the Rio Gr

oal stove on that. The hole where the magazine used to fit in made a place for the frying pan, and the open doors in f

the sleeping

en a pair of back-number bed-springs, which we put on the floor of the cabi

. They wouldn't bite. Still, we had all we needed to eat, and found our checks at Cairo. It took us eight days to float to the Mississippi. We were told at Nashville that we would spill out on the rapids, that riv

r than walkin

ers. When you want to buy anything you ring a bell left in view for that purpose, and the proprietor comes out of the field and waits on you. Frank

he runs the whiter he gets, through fear, and he left white streaks behind him all along the Cumberland r

roval of the plan, and Frank said

s on the border," Frank said, "and I m

lads' love of out-of-door adventure to the sizzling point. They capered about the handsome room in

, boxing-gloves, and such trophies as the members of the patrol had been able to bring from field and forest. Above the door was a red shield, nearly a yard in diameter, from the raised center of which a Bl

atrol present. These were Harry Stevens, son of a manufacturer of automobiles; Glen Howard, son of a well-known board of trade man

sippi had so fired their enthusiasm for the great out-of-doors that they were ready to start at short notice. They took down maps and hunted up books descript

r. As Glen says, the Rio Grande del Norte is a funny kind of a stream, like all the waterways in that s

ch water to run a houseboat. If we get stuck, you ca

ry. "We'll take an auto trip across the

Tolford estate papers, and he asked me to call at the rooms and go home with him. He's alway

the latter decided to wait for a taxicab. The night had c

with you," Frank said, as they waited. "

uncanny after dark, and the elevator will not be ru

and many a time after that night they both had good cause to remember how different the immediate future of one o

ere lights in the Cameron suite. Believing that his benefactor would be there at his work, Fre

ployed at night to clean the halls and offices were not in sight. The boy started suddenly half a dozen tim

t he would find the door locked from the inside. Then, his premonition of approaching evil by no mea