Chapter 18

A QUESTION OF MONEY

With the inter-troop baseball series a thing of the past, Sanson and Trexler promptly turned their attention to swimming. They had already been out to the lake several times, but with baseball practise almost every day, it had not been possible to spend very much time there. Now, however, they both took advantage of every free afternoon, and before a great while Paul emerged from that first hopeless, helpless state when it seemed as if he were never going to be able even to support himself in the water. He was still far from being a good swimmer, but at least he could behold the miraculous ease and skill of the other fellows without a feeling of despondent envy.

Frank Sanson naturally made much quicker progress. Knowing the rudiments, he did not, like Paul, have to start at the very beginning. His strength and endurance, too, were greater than his friend's, and he had practically none of Trexler's nervous timidity to combat. All he needed was practise, and he was not long graduating from the novice class.

The latter was uncommonly large this year. It was the first time the boys had had the freedom of Crystal Lake, and practically every scout who did not know how to swim seemed bent on learning before the summer camp started. Many of the enthusiasts went out there every afternoon, while Saturdays always saw a big crowd, most of whom brought their lunch and made a day of it.

As a matter of course, since swimming could not very well be indulged in all the time, there developed a great variety of scout sports and activities. Often a scoutmaster or two showed up, and by dint of a little suggestion would introduce among the purely entertaining games one designed to test the boys' ability at signaling or first aid, or his knowledge of tracking and trailing and woodcraft generally.

The system was entirely successful. Fellows who lacked the ambition or push to acquire these important details of scouting--and there are always such in every troop--found themselves, to their surprise, absorbing the knowledge through the medium of a game or competition. More often than not they discovered that it wasn't so hard or uninteresting as they supposed, and in many cases real enthusiasm developed. Moreover, members of the different troops came to know and understand each other in a way which would have been impossible without this close and constant companionship. Hitherto they had kept pretty much to themselves, each boy traveling mainly with his own crowd and generally meeting the others as opponents on gridiron or diamond.

Now unexpected friendships developed. Paul Trexler, who had revived much of his interest in bird study, was amazed to find a kindred spirit in Jim Crancher of Troop One. This big, rather rough-and-ready, chap of whom Paul had always stood somewhat in awe, proved to be quite as keen as himself about birds and nature generally, and the two had many a pleasant and profitable tramp through the woods together. There were many other similar cases, and before long it was no uncommon thing to see boys who had hitherto been rivals eating their lunch together and chatting intimately about what they would do at camp.

The latter subject became more and more a topic of interest and discussion. For the first time the various troops were planning to join forces in a common camp, and for months a committee of scoutmasters had been at work on the details. Funds for equipment had been secured by the local council, but the question of a proper location threatened to prove a serious difficulty. Dozens of sites had been investigated and found lacking in some important particular, either in quantity or quality of water, in woods not extensive enough for hiking, and the like. Most of the really attractive lakes in that part of the State were lined with summer cottages and bungalows, while the wilder, mountainous sections were too inaccessible to be wisely considered in a camp of this nature.

The boys were beginning to grow seriously worried when suddenly the rumor swept through town that a novel and totally unexpected solution of the difficulty had presented itself. It was said that the committee had been offered the use of a large tract of land in the southern part of the State bordering on the ocean. Such a situation had never been even remotely considered, and the excitement of the boys, many of whom had never seen the ocean, rose to fever-heat at the enthralling possibility.

At the earliest possible moment Troop Five in a body hurried around to obtain further details from Mr. Curtis, only to discover that he had gone with other members of the committee to look the ground over. He was away for three days, returning the afternoon of the troop meeting, from which, it is perhaps needless to say, not a scout was absent.

"You've heard about it, I see," the scoutmaster remarked as he surveyed the line of eager, bright-eyed boys before him. "Well, I don't know that we can employ our time better to-night than in going over the camp proposition thoroughly and finding out what you fellows think of the situation."

"Is it going to be at--at that place on the ocean, sir?" put in one of the boys.

"Yes; we've practically decided to accept Mr. Thornton's offer. The distance was the only drawback; it's almost a hundred miles from here, but I think we can get around that. Everything else is ideal. The land is a wooded point of six or seven hundred acres. One side faces the ocean, the other a wide, sheltered bay that runs inland several miles, joining finally with a small river. The whole point is rather high ground, with stretches of sand-dunes on the ocean side, and wooded with scrub-oak and stunted pines. Back of that, the land is mostly covered with second-growth timber, and rises gradually to an elevation called Lost Mine Hill--"

"What's that, sir?" interrupted Court Parker, eagerly.

The scoutmaster smiled. "At the time of the Revolution there was said to be a copper-mine located thereabouts, the entrance to which has since been lost track of. At least, that's what one of the old residents told us."

More than one boy's eyes sparkled. There was a fascination in the mere name.

"Whether it's true or not, I have no idea," continued Mr. Curtis. "To return to the camp. This would be located on the bay side of the point, facing the village, which is over a mile distant and practically the only settlement around. The beach shelves gradually here, making an ideal place for swimming, and there are three or four small islands about a quarter of a mile from shore. The fishing in the bay is fine, and there are lots of crabs and eels in the coves and inlets farther up. We should have to do a lot of clearing out, of course, for the undergrowth is pretty thick, but that would be more fun than otherwise."

A long, concerted sigh went up from the listening scouts. Ocean and islands and a lost copper-mine seemed too entrancing a combination to be possible. Several boys began to ask questions at once, but stopped at a gesture from Mr. Curtis.

"One at a time, fellows," he reminded them. "The only practicable way of getting there, Bob, is to hire an auto-truck and motor down to Clam Cove, crossing over in a motor-boat. We haven't enough tents or equipment to accommodate all the fellows at once, so we've decided to divide in two or three relays of say thirty-five boys to a group, each crowd to stay two weeks. The truck could make the trip in seven or eight hours, and by starting early could take one bunch down and bring another back the same day, thus considerably lessening the expense."

"How much do you think that will be, sir?" asked Dale Tompkins, quickly, an anxious wrinkle in his forehead.

"About five dollars a week for board and a dollar extra for transportation."

The troubled expression deepened in Dale's face, and he scarcely heard the various other questions and answers that followed. Six dollars a week--twelve in all! There would be other necessities, too, in the way of clothes fit for camp. He had no shorts, for instance, or decent sneakers. Fifteen dollars would barely cover the outlay; and though he had worked hard for two months at least, he had little more than half of the amount saved. Where was the rest to come from?

When Mr. Curtis, with pencil and paper in hand, started at the head of the line to note down what boys were going, Tompkins roused himself and listened with a touch of envy to the ready answers: "Yes, _sir_!" "You can count me in every time, sir!" "Can't a fellow stay longer than two weeks?" or, from Larry Wilks, "No, sir; I'm going up to Maine as soon as school is over." Not one of them seemed troubled by the problem which worried him.

"How about you, Dale?" asked the scoutmaster, after jotting down Vedder's prompt acquiescence.

"I--don't know, sir."

"What's the trouble? Want to talk it over at home?" said the scoutmaster, dropping his voice.

"N-o, sir. They'll let me go all right," answered Dale, adding, in a still lower tone, "only I--I'm not sure about the--money."

Mr. Curtis nodded understandingly. "I see. Well, there will be at least two weeks before even the first crowd goes. We'll have to get together and think up ways and means."

He passed on, leaving Dale not very greatly encouraged. It would be like Mr. Curtis to invent some work about his place whereby the scout might earn the required amount, but Dale was determined to stay at home rather than take advantage of the scoutmaster in that way.

"He's done enough for me already," the boy said to himself with a stubborn squaring of the jaws. "If I can't raise the funds some other way, I'll just have to go without camp."

That night he lay long awake, trying to think of some possible method, but his efforts were not very successful. He still had his paper-route, but the money from that went mostly into the family treasury. He might, and probably would, get some odd jobs during the next two weeks, but there was only grass cutting, now, or weeding gardens, and neither of these chores was particularly well paid in Hillsgrove.

On the whole the outlook was distinctly discouraging, and for the next few days Dale had a struggle to maintain his usual cheerfulness. For months he had looked forward to camp as the supreme culmination of a more than usually happy year.

"It doesn't seem as if I _could_ give it up!" he muttered rebelliously at the end of a day which had brought him just twenty cents for a laborious weeding job. "Oh, gee! If I'd only started to save for it sooner, I--" He broke off and bit his lips. Presently a crooked smile struggled defiantly through the gloom. "Oh, thunder!" he exclaimed whimsically. "Quit your grouching, Dale Tompkins. If you're going to let a little matter like earning ten dollars stand between you and a corking good time, you're no kind of a scout at all."