ind might be expected to lurk, "discretion must take the part
of valor, and noise be utterly prohibited." He could distinctly
remember the patrol leader saying just those very words, and not so
long ago, either. So the explosive Giraffe had to bottle up his
enthusiasm for another occasion, when the cork might safely be removed.

The scouts had already discovered that in one thing they guessed
truly; for Aleck Rawson did prove to be a boy, about the size of Thad,
and possibly in the neighborhood of sixteen years of age.

He was beginning to get back his breath now, and even moved a little
further away from the edge of the precipice, as though it possessed
only terrors for him. Nor could Thad blame him in the least; for it
must have been frightful torture to be left all alone on a narrow
shelf of rock, where he could not have any too good a foothold at the
best, and might slip off if, overpowered by exhaustion, he dared allow
himself to lose consciousness in sleep.

Presently, when the other had recovered his wind, he might offer to
tell them what it all meant; and just why that vindictive old
prospector and miner, Colonel Kracker, had dared place a boy in such a
position of peril; for it seemed a monstrous proceeding in the mind of
the scoutmaster.

Now the boy was moving. The first thing Thad knew, a hand clutched his
in a warm, fierce clasp, and he heard Aleck saying:

"Oh! how can I ever thank you for getting me out of that scrape?"

"I wouldn't try it, then," replied Thad, laughing softly. "Why, we're
only too glad to have the chance. It's been an experience to remember,
too; the talk with the torches, the climb up the face of the mountain,
and then hauling you up safe and sound. We're Boy Scouts, out looking
for adventure, and doing a little hunting; and this has all been just
great, for us."

"But think what it's been for me?" said the other, with a quiver in
his voice, although he tried very hard to disguise it. "My poor mother
and little sisters came nearer to losing their man of the house, than
I'd like them to know; because, you see, I've just had to try and take
my father's place ever since he died."

"Your father, then, was Jerry Rawson, I take it?" said Thad.

"Yes, that was his name," answered the other, who had gone over and
shaken hands with the guide, with Giraffe, and finally with Allan, in
each instance giving a convulsive squeeze to their hands in a way that
told more eloquently than words c