that fellows wearing the same totem
are brought closer together than others.
Since it chances that the exciting incidents which we have started out
to chronicle in the present story fell almost exclusively to the
portion of the boys belonging to the original Wolf Patrol, it might be
well to give a brief description of who and what they were, before
going any further.
Elmer Chenowith, being the patrol leader, comes first in line. He was
a manly lad, with many winning qualities that made him a prime favorite
among his fellows. At one time his father had had charge of a vast
farm and cattle ranch up in the Canadian Northwest, and while there the
boy had learned a thousand things calculated to be useful to him in his
capacity of a scout.
He had long ago received official authority from Boy Scout Headquarters
to act as a deputy or assistant scout master, whenever the regular
overseer, young Mr. Roderic Garrabrant, could not be present. Elmer
filled the position in such a clever fashion that no one ever
questioned his ability to play the part of guide.
Then there was Mark Anthony Cummings, who was looked upon as Elmer's
chum. He was the grandson of a famous artist, and there were those who
prophesied that some day Mark would follow in the footsteps of his
illustrious ancestor; for he would draw off-hand charcoal sketches of
his chums, mostly in a humorous vein, that excited roars of laughter.
Mark was also something of a musician, and had in the beginning been
elected to fill the position of bugler to the troop.
Ted Burgoyne was afflicted with a dreadful lisp, on account of a
hare-lip, so that as the boys used to say if offered a fortune he could
get no closer to the real thing when dared than to say "thoft thoap."
But then Ted was a marvel in his way, for he had more knowledge of
medicine than all the other boys of the troop combined; and on this
account they often called him "Doctor Ted," or "Old Sawbones."
In cases of snake-bite, fainting, cramps, near-drowning, cuts from the
camp axe or hatchet, gun-shot wounds, broken bones, or, in fact,
anything likely to happen to campers, Ted was what Lil Artha always
called "Johnny-on-the-spot," though Toby could never pin him down to
saying "which spot."
Toby Jones was really the "funny" boy of the patrol. His grandfather
being one of those Zouave veterans, who had accompanied Colonel
Ellsworth to Washington when the war between the States broke out, and
saw the
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