rm clouds.

"Come here!"

CHAPTER XI.

HELD AT BAY.

"Don't move, Aleck!" said Thad, instantly, and he raised his voice
enough, to purposely let the three men hear what he said.

Of course the boy did not budge. Perhaps he even gave Kracker back
look for look, only that there may have been a smile of contempt upon
his boyish face.

"Don't you hear what I say, come here!" roared the colonel.

"He hears you all right, but he feels quite satisfied to stay where he
is," said Thad, in a cool tone.

The other turned those blazing eyes on the speaker.

"Who asked you to put your finger in my business?" he demanded, harshly.

"I'm not. It's you who keeps on meddling with things that concern this
boy and his mother only. I suppose you are Colonel Kracker?" Thad went
on.

"That's my name, and anybody who knows me would tell you that you're
doing the most foolish thing in all your life, when you try to
interfere with any affair on which I've set my heart. I want that boy
to come to me!" and he shook his fat finger threateningly toward Aleck
as he said this.

"Then you'll have to take it out in wanting, let me tell you;" replied
the patrol leader, "for he belongs in this camp of Boy Scouts; and
we're going to stand back of him."

If Thad was excited he certainly did not seem to be so; in fact
Giraffe wondered how in the world he could command his voice so well,
and speak so calmly, when on his part he was fairly shivering with the
nervous tension.

"What's that you say?" shouted the big man, bristling all over with
rage until he seemed to swell up larger than ever. "Why, you little
imp, d'ye know what I've a good notion to do with you for this
insulting talk?"

"I don't know, and neither do I care," replied Thad, "but there's one
thing I do think _you_ ought to know."

"Oh! you do, eh? What might that be?" demanded Kracker, sneeringly.

"Turn your head a little to the left, and you'll see a pile of rocks,"
the scoutmaster went on. "Now, look up on top of that pile, and you'll
see a young fellow on one knee, holding a big rifle straight on you.
That's one of our chums. He's from the State of Maine, where they teach
boys to be able to hit a leaping deer straight in the heart every shot.
Try and take just three steps this way, if you want to test his skill
with the rifle. Or any one of you start to raising a gun; and my word
for it you'll never know what hit you. Get that, Kracker?"

Evidently the big