CHAPTER X.

AROUND THE COUNCIL-FIRE.

A misfortune had indeed overtaken Alec and Hugh soon after they had turned the tide in favor of the Blue Army.

In descending from a ledge of rock that overhung the valley to a lower level where a path wound along the side of the hill, Alec, carrying his flags in one hand, and clinging to saplings that grew in the crevices of the rock with the other, slipped and fell, barely saving himself from tumbling headlong over the cliff.

When he attempted to rise, an excruciating stab of pain in his left ankle gave warning of a bad sprain.

“I’ve twisted my ankle, Hugh,” he said ruefully, gazing up where Hugh knelt on the ledge above him. “I can’t bear my weight on it just now.”

He spoke lightly, but there was a catch in his voice.

Admiring his pluck, Hugh looked at him with an expression of deep concern.

“Wait a second, Alec. I’ll help you up out of that little ravine you’ve fallen into. Jingo! I thought you would surely slide over the edge when I saw you fall! I was so thankful that you had the sense to stop short!”

“Were you?”

“You bet I was!” While he was speaking, Hugh was lowering himself cautiously down from the ledge, and creeping along until he stood beside Alec. “At last! Are you badly hurt? Let’s see your ankle. Why, it’s beginning to swell already! Here, let me take off your heavy shoe.”

“If you do, I’ll never be able to get it on again! As things are now, I don’t see how I’m going to get down to Oakvale. And as for getting back to Pioneer Camp!—it seems to be at the other end of nowhere, so far away!”

“Don’t despair. As a matter of fact, I believe our camp is nearer this spot than Oakvale is. What do you say, Alec, to trying to make our way back to Rainbow Lake? I remember Joe left an old canoe there, and we can paddle across and then find the trail back to camp.”

“Go ahead,” responded Alec. “Sorry I can’t go with you.”

“Oh, yes, you can. And you’re coming with me, too.”

“I tell you I _can’t walk_! This darned ankle hurts like sin! It may be broken, for all I know.”

“I can tell in a moment,” said Hugh, reassuringly, and with no touch of boasting.

While he carefully felt the injured member, Alec was suddenly reminded of a remark of his own, a sneer at Hugh’s qualifications in first-aid. “At my expense,” Alec had said, and now here was Hugh turning his knowledge to Alec’s benefit, very modestly and simply, quite as a matter of course!

“No bones broken,” announced Hugh, “but you must let me bind it up with a handkerchief soaked in cold water, and then put on one of my sneakers. Then we’ll start for camp, before it gets any worse.”

Alec plucked up a little more courage at this.

“If I could only get up out of this ravine,” he said, glancing around him in search of foothold, “I might——”

“I’m going to carry you,” said Hugh quietly. But first he followed his own directions for binding Alec’s ankle firmly.

“Now!” he exclaimed, when that was done to his satisfaction and to Alec’s relief, “I’m going to get you out of here. Just drape yourself across my right shoulder, will you, and let your legs hang down in front so that I——”

“But, Hugh, you’ll never be able to haul me up out of this! I weigh as much as you do, though I’m not quite so tall!”

“You’ll see. Please do just as I tell you, and let’s not waste any more time about it.” To his own surprise, Alec obeyed. Hugh knelt on the ground while Alec slid forward over his shoulder, throwing his right arm back over Hugh’s left shoulder. Then Hugh passed his right arm between Alec’s legs, seizing Alec’s right hand; then, shifting his burden a little, he rose slowly. In this manner he staggered up the sloping sides of the ravine, and reached level ground and the path.

“Pretty tough on you!” he ejaculated, breathing hard, as he placed Alec gently on the ground. “How much farther do you think you can stand it.”

“Look here, Hugh,” cried Alec, “what are you thinking of? You can’t carry me any farther. I won’t have it! I’ll be ever so much obliged to you if you’ll break off that branch of ash over there,—the one with a long knob at one end of it,—so that I can use it for a crutch,—and then please make tracks toward Pioneer Camp as fast as you can.”

“And leave you here alone? Not much! What do you think I am?”

“There’s no danger, Hugh. Besides, the sooner you get to camp and send Joe and a search-party out after me, the sooner I’ll get there, too.”

Hugh shook his head decisively.

“Sorry, but I won’t do that. But, speaking of search-parties, why can’t we signal to the National Guard camp and ask them to send one? Where are the flags?”

“They dropped out of my hand and fell over the cliff,” replied Alec.

“Too bad! Well, it can’t be helped.” Hugh broke off the branch Alec had pointed out, whittled it smooth, and gave it to his companion. “There you are! Now, do you think we can stagger on?”

“I guess so. I’ll try, anyway.”

Together, they did stagger on, Hugh assisting Alec over the rough places, or going before him to sweep aside the entangling vines and brakes and low-hanging boughs that obstructed their path. The sun and their little pocket compasses were their guides through the mazes of the forest, and the fact that they were never hopelessly lost was proof that they were good woodsmen.

Time and time again, during that long, tedious, wearisome, painful journey, Alec urged Hugh not to wait for him but to go ahead and return for him with friends from camp. Finally, seeing that Alec was in great distress, Hugh resolved to comply with this wish.

“I will leave you just as soon as we come to Rainbow Lake, if you insist,” he promised reluctantly. “But if you are attacked by any wild animal, or if you should trip and have another bad fall, I’m not responsible.”

As it happened, they had followed an old Indian trail through the woods, one which led them to the northern end of Rainbow Lake in less time than they had counted on. This trail must have saved them at least four miles and twice as many hours.

But twilight had begun to fold in the hills and to creep across the surface of the lake like a veil, when they at last stood upon its shore. It was too late to go to Pioneer Camp that night, even had the canoe been on hand for Hugh to use, instead of lying beached on the bare pebbly shingle at the other end of the lake.

“We’ll have to camp out again to-night, here,” said Hugh. “Have you any matches to light a fire with, Alec?”

“No, but I always carry my fire-stick, drill, and bow with me. You get some good tinder, Hugh, and I’ll make a fire in two shakes.”

In a few minutes Hugh returned with a handful of pounded cedar wood, dry and sweet-smelling, and while he went to try and gather a few berries for their supper, Alec prepared to start the fire. First he gave a few strokes with the drill, then rearranged the tiny sticks he had placed over the tinder, and tried a few more strokes. No success. He gave half a dozen deft twirls to the drill—the smoke burst forth. He covered it with the tinder, fanned it a few seconds, and then a bright flame arose, just as Hugh returned with his cap full of luscious blackberries.

The berries were all they had to eat that night, but both youths were so tired they did not complain. Long before actual night had fallen, they were sound asleep, wrapped in their blankets, side by side.

And still Alec had said nothing, as yet, about the rebuke which Joe, the half breed, had given him. Time enough for that, when they were safe at Pioneer Camp once more.

The next morning Hugh went in quest of the canoe, which he secured after considerable delay. Then he paddled back to the place where Alec awaited him, and soon the pair were gliding swiftly over Rainbow Lake and down the brawling stream which connected it with Pioneer Lake.

When at last they burst upon the waters of the larger lake and sent a yell of joy echoing across it, their cry was answered by another yell from camp, and soon the shore and the pier and the raft were crowded with eager friends waiting to welcome them.

Around the council-fire that evening sat the entire troop, for the leader of the signal corps was to be elected, after the reports of the hike had been read.

Alec, pale as a ghost, had sought Hugh after mess, and told him all he had tried to do to thwart his rival and to deprive him of the chance for leadership. It was bitterly hard to make that confession, but, in spite of his faults, Alec Sands “came up to the scratch” in the final test, and acquitted himself by telling the truth.

“I’m heartily ashamed of my actions and my thoughts concerning you, Hugh,” he said, in a low, shaky voice. “In the future, after your kindness to me yesterday, I’ll be all the more ashamed, and sorry, too.”

“Well, I’m sure I don’t want you to remember anything unpleasant between us!” laughed Hugh. “Let’s forget it, Alec, and be friends!”

They shook hands upon that compact.

“Hugh, I hope—I feel sure—that I’m shaking hands with the leader of the signal corps!”

And Alec’s remark was indeed true, for Lieutenant Denmead announced that evening that Hugh Hardin was appointed leader of the corps.

Thereafter, with Alec’s former hostility removed, there was not a scout in Pioneer Camp who did not congratulate Hugh with genuine pleasure,—for, when the history of the maneuvers was told, all felt that Hugh’s reward had been fairly won.