ave a halt once in a while. That old
bear trap sure took a nasty grip on your leg, didn't it, though?"

"It gave me an ugly pinch, Mr. Scout Master; and only for the fact of
the springs being so weak and rusty that the owners had abandoned the
trap, I might have been lame for three months. The witch hazel
liniment you rubbed on helped a lot."

"Well, I'm glad to see you're all such a grateful lot, considering the
little I was able to do for you. It's sure a pleasure to be patrol
leader and assistant scoutmaster to such a wide-awake lot of boys as
we have in the Silver Fox Patrol. Don't you think so, Toby Smathers?"

Thad Brewster turned a smiling face upon the sole man of the party, a
genuine woods-ranger, such as the Government employs to look after the
great forest reservations in the region of the Rocky Mountains, and
the Coast, away up in the Northwest region.

"Wall, it strikes me they're a purty lively lot of scouts, all right;
and lucky at that to hev a leader as leads, and holds the reins tight
over 'em. And I'm glad myself to be guide to such a hefty bunch. That's
what I'm asayin', Mr. Scout Master," the party addressed replied.

Outside of the guide there were just eight lads in the party; and from
the fact that various parts of their attire suggested the well known
khaki uniform which all Boy Scouts wear, the world around it was
evident that these young fellows belonged to such an organization.

This was the exact fact, since they had come from far-away Cranford in
an Eastern State, and were known as the Silver Fox Patrol of Cranford
Troop; there being another patrol known as the Eagles, mustered in
during the late winter.

Thad Brewster was the patrol leader; he was also a First Class Scout,
and had qualified for the position of Assistant Scout Master,
receiving his certificate from Headquarters many moons before.

Second in charge came Allan Hollister, a Maine boy, who had had
considerable actual experience in wood's life, and to whom the rest of
the patrol naturally turned whenever a knotty problem faced them
during an outing.

The exceedingly fat and good-natured youth was Bumpus Hawtree, bugler
of the troop, even though just now he was minus the instrument on
which he was accustomed to sound the various calls, such as
"reveille," "assembly," "taps," and so on, the most popular being the
second, as it was usually associated with meals. Bumpus had been
looked upon as the real tenderfoot scout, up