Boy Scout Explorers at Emerald Valley

Once well away from the mining camp, the Scouts doubled back to the river. The stream, fed by recent rains higher in the mountains, raced as fast as a mill stream.

“Just a minute, please,” Mr. Livingston interposed as the mining engineer started to leave the office. “We’ve come a long distance to see Appleby Corning. I feel I must know mor...

From his hiding place, Jack watched Rhodes and his wife walk to the cottage. Taking leave of Mrs. Rhodes at the doorstep, the engineer went directly to a supply shed nearby.

Once as he passed a street light, the two Explorers caught a fleeting glimpse of his face. They gained an impression of an individual with a large, flat nose and square jaw.

When Haredia understood that Mr. Livingston and the Scouts were determined to question the native, his attitude abruptly changed. He spoke again to the man in the dugout, who no...

“Fair.” Reluctant to discuss the subject of emeralds, the mining engineer dismissed the matter. “You’ve pitched your tent, I see,” he remarked. “Well, you can take your meals wi...

War took up the story. “Not very much, Hap,” he admitted. “We took careful note of those flashes and started off down the trail. After awhile, the fellow who was signaling, gave...

Even before the dust from the slide had cleared away, Mr. Livingston and the Scouts were frantically at work. Descending into the pit, they organized the miners and themselves s...

Common sense told them that although the plantation was an extensive one, they eventually would reach a loading shed where directions could be obtained. The worst they would suf...

Mr. Livingston had paused before a doorway on a shadeless, rather depressing back street of Cartagena. Only a moment before, a carriage had deposited the Scout leader and the fo...

Mr. Livingston was unable to explain the strange communication. The failure of the mining engineer to meet his party had worried him more than he had confessed to the Scouts.

The Scouts found the mining engineer at the cottage, breakfasting with his wife. Though somewhat pale, Rhodes looked much better, and was able to be about. His right arm remaine...

In a frenzy of excitement, Rhodes led the others to a rock cavity where he had cached a supply of dynamite. He had hidden it there weeks before, intending to use it in an emerge...

At the risk of a bad fall, Jack half slid down a steep slope. The cylinder had tumbled into a crevice but he retrieved it before Rhodes could get there.

Leaving their mules at the trail entrance, the Scouts plodded up the narrow, rocky path in the wake of Rhodes and Carlos. Fearful of losing the pair in the darkness, they kept a...

“If this stuff is still active, it’s a miracle it hasn’t been set off,” Jack remarked, pacing nervously along the fence. “Why, there’s enough explosive here to blow that automob...

The situation, though alarming, did not dismay Mr. Livingston or the two Scouts. Knowing that the washed-out log bridge was not far from the mining camp, they reasoned that Will...

Finally, the one for whom they waited, arrived at the dock. A handsome woman of forty, dressed in a white linen suit, came hurriedly to the sled-boat. Porters carried her luggag...

“The bandit is Carlos, who long has terrorized the hills,” he told them nervously. “He says he will not harm anyone, if his commands are obeyed. We are to turn over all money an...

“Only ten more minutes, Jack, and we’ll be off duty. That gives us just time enough to get to the Scout meeting by seven o’clock. I’ll be glad to call it a night too!”

The mountain mist swirled about them as they crept through a tunnel of trees to an outcropping of rock which gave an unobstructed view. Below, but invisible, lay the valley.

Within an hour after the capture of Blackie Williams, the Belton newspapers carried front page accounts of the nitro-glycerin discovery. Photographers, reporters and hundreds of...

“No such thing.” Rhodes replaced the gem in a pouch which Jack noticed contained even larger emeralds. “Visitors interfere with the work. I was willing to make it worth your whi...

For the next few days, the Scouts saw no more of Mrs. Rhodes. Upon their arrival at the banana port of Santa Marta, they were disturbed to learn that Mr. Corning had failed to s...

“Just as I thought,” he remarked when he had finished reading. “This is from Appleby Corning, an old college classmate, now an engineer in Colombia. The emerald is a sample from...