



Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net









                             The Boy Scouts
                              On the Trail


                                   OR

                 Scouting through the Big Game Country

                           By HERBERT CARTER

      Author of "The Boy Scouts' First Camp Fire," "The Boy Scouts
           in the Blue Ridge," "The Boy Scouts on the Trail,"
                  "The Boy Scouts in the Maine Woods,"
                    "The Boy Scouts In the Rockies"

                            Copyright, 1913
                         By A. L. Burt Company

"Did you get him, Thad?" shouted the boys. "Come over here, all of you!"
                           said Thad. Page 83
                                        --_The Boy Scouts on the Trail._




                                CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
  I. What Took the Scouts up into Maine.                               3
  II. The Troubles of Bumpus.                                         11
  III. A Strange Discovery.                                           20
  IV. The Ignorance of Step Hen.                                      31
  V. The Tell-tale Tracks.                                            40
  VI. A Sheriff's Posse.                                              51
  VII. The Birch Bark Challenge.                                      60
  VIII. Out for Big Game.                                             69
  IX. "GOOD Shot! Great Little Gun!"                                  77
  X. The Old Trapper's Cabin.                                         85
  XI. On the Wings of the Night Wind.                                 96
  XII. A Face in the Window.                                         106
  XIII. The Marked Shoe Again.                                       115
  XIV. Figuring It Out.                                              123
  XV. The Luck That Came to Bumpus.                                  131
  XVI. A Little Knowledge, Well Earned.                              148
  XVII. The Coming of the Hairy Honey Thief.                         156
  XVIII. A Mighty Nimrod.                                            164
  XIX. The "Whine" of a Bullet.                                      173
  XX. A Wonderful Find.                                              181
  XXI. The Dummy Packet.                                             190
  XXII. The Night Alarm.                                             198
  XXIII. A Flank Movement.                                           206
  XXIV. What Woodcraft Does.                                         215
  XXV. Surprising Charlie.                                           223
  XXVI. The Sheriff Gets His Shock, Too.                             231
  XXVII. Down the River--Conclusion.                                 240




                             THE BOY SCOUTS
                              ON THE TRAIL




                               CHAPTER I.
                  WHAT TOOK THE SCOUTS UP INTO MAINE.


"There never was such great luck as this, fellows!"

"You're right there, Step Hen; and never will be again, that's sure!"

"Let's see; first, there was that silly old epidemic breaking out in our
town, and forcing the directors to put up the bars in the school till
after the Christmas holidays; that was a great and glorious snap for the
Silver Fox Patrol of the Cranford Troop of Boy Scouts, wasn't it?"

"But that was only a beginning, Giraffe; there were better things still
headed our way."

"Sure there were, Davy. As luck would have it, just at that same time
Thad Brewster's guardian found that it was mighty necessary he get word
to a gentleman by the name of James W. Carson. He wired up to Maine, you
remember, only to learn that Mr. Carson, who was a great hunter, had
started into the big game country after moose, with a couple of guides,
and wouldn't be back until late in the winter."

"Everything just worked for us, seemed like," remarked the boy called
Davy. "Thad suggested that he be sent up to follow this party, and
deliver the message, and his guardian fell in with the idea right away,
didn't he, Thad?"

"I think he was only too willing, boys; because he knew we wanted to get
up in Maine the worst kind; ever since our comrade, Allan Hollister here,
began to tell us such splendid stories of the fun to be had in the pine
woods of his home state. But go on, Step Hen, finish the story while
you're about it."

"Why, of course, when Thad, he found he could go, that gave him an idea;
and sure enough, the whole of the patrol got the fever. Bob Quail had to
give it up, because he had too much on hand to leave home just then; and
Smithy had the hard luck to get a touch of the plague that had dropped in
on Cranford for a visit; but didn't the rest of us hit it up, though?"

"I should say we did, as sure as my name's Davy Jones!"

"Well, the upshot of the whole matter was that one fine day six of us
left Cranford, bound for Maine, with all our camp stuff along; and here
we are at last, in the country of big game, canoes, guides, tents, and
everything along we need for a month of good times, or more if we want
it."

"But don't forget, Step Hen, that the one main object of the trip is to
find Mr. James W. Carson," interrupted the boy named Thad; who seemed to
be looked up to as the leader of the scout patrol, which office he really
filled.

"Sure," replied Step Hen, who was stretched out comfortably by a blazing
fire. "But we've got heaps of time for hunting besides, and trying out a
lot of things we've been learning as scouts. It was fine for our rich
chum, Bob Quail, to insist on handing in a big lump of coin to add to the
funds contributed by our folks. That put us on easy