slowly."

"But don't you think that we'd better find some place where we can take
you?" asked Fitz.

"You fellows leave me, then, and go on. Somebody will come along, or
I'll follow slow. Those Red Foxes must get to their train, and you two
Elks must carry the message through on time."

"Not much!" exclaimed both the Red Foxes, indignant. "What kind of
Scouts do you think we are? You'll need more than two men, if there's
much carrying to be done. We stick."

"So do we," chimed in Fitz and I. "We'll get the message through, and
get you through, too."

The major flushed and stood up.

"If that's the way you talk," he snapped (he was the black-eyed, quick
kind, you know), "then I order that this march be resumed. Pack the
burro. I order it."

"You'd better ride."

"I'll walk."

Well, he was our leader. We should obey, as long as he seemed capable.
He was awfully stubborn, the major was, when he had his back up. But we
exchanged glances, and we must all have thought the same: that if he was
taken seriously again soon, and was laid out, we would try to persuade
him to let us manage for him. Fitz only said quietly:

"But if you have to quit, you'll quit, won't you, Tom? You won't keep
going, just to spite yourself. Real appendicitis can't be fooled with."

"I'll quit," he answered.

We packed Sally again, and started on. The major seemed to want to hike
at the regulation fast Scouts' pace, but we held him in the best that we
could. Anyway, after we had gone three or four miles, he was beginning
to pant and double over; his pain had come back.

"I think I'll have to rest a minute," he said; and he sat down. "Go
ahead. I'll catch up. You'd better take the message, Fitz. Here."

"No, sir," retorted Fitz. "If you think that we're going on and leave
you alone, sick, you're off your base. This is a serious matter, Tom. It
wouldn't be decent, and it wouldn't be Scout-like. The Red Foxes ought
to go--"

"But we won't," they interrupted--

"--and we'll get you to some place where you can be attended to. Then
we'll take the message, if you can't. There's plenty of time."

The major flushed and fidgeted, and fingered the package.

"Maybe I can ride, then," he offered. "We can cache more stuff and I'll
ride Sally." He grunted and twisted as the pain cut him. He looked
ghastly.

"He ought to lie quiet till we can take him some place and find a
doctor," said Red Fox Scout Van Sant, emphatically. "There must be a
r