CHAPTER XXXI

HOLLY HOLLIS

Overlook Cabin had not been built for season occupancy. It had been thrown up as a little storehouse for paraphernalia used on the hill, which was called Black Hill because it rose above a treacherous marsh and overlooked Black Lake. The reader will find helpful the accompanying rough sketch of the locality. Black Hill, as will be seen, lay to the east of the camp. The slope was gradual from the south where the highroad passed. But on reaching the brow of the hill one looked down from a dizzy precipice.

Between this precipice and the lake was a marsh about which weird stories were told, but the worst that was actually known of it was that it was the foregathering place of a choral society of frogs whose croaking made it seem weird enough at night. From the lake you could pole a boat into this marsh, but not all the way to the base of the cliff. Sometimes, after heavy or prolonged rains, the marsh would be entirely submerged, but usually it was visible as a rank and vivid green area with patches of scum.

The cabin on the brow of the cliff had been built for the accommodation of certain scout activities which had been conducted there. Close to the edge was a rather odd contrivance, conspicuous from the lake below, and newcomers seldom failed to ask about its purpose, though now in its time of disuse and comparative dilapidation, few took the trouble to ascend the hill and view it at close range. This was a square wooden frame about eight or ten feet in size, standing upright and held by means of braces in the ground. It was loose and rickety from the force of heavy winds. Stretched in this was a sheet of canvas, bound to the frame with windings of light rope, by which it could be tightened. The canvas came to within a few inches of the frame all the way round.

[Illustration: Map of Scout camp and surrounding country]

This affair was known as a signal easel and had been used for practice in signalling. Illuminated at night by a bonfire at a safe distance in back of it the screen was as brilliant as the silver screen of the movies. Then a scout standing between it and the precipice was revealed in striking silhouette as he manipulated wigwag flags. From all the way across the lake he could be seen, a weird and vivid sight in the night time, and in this way codes were tried out and practiced. Once, on a memorable occasion, that redoubtable showman, Pee-wee Harris, had given a motion picture exhibit here with his prize outfit at the appallingly low admission fee of ten cents. But there being no gate, the place was overrun by deadheads and the exhibition ended in a riot.

The cabin was filled with old signalling paraphernalia, flags and smudge buckets. It had three bunks and some rough camping necessities used by hunters in the winter. A ghost was also said to live there, but if so he must have been of a retiring nature for he was never seen. The rental charge which Connie Bennett had mentioned was made so as to limit the use of the place to older visitors at camp, field men and the like. Eagle Scouts may come and go, but it is probably true that Danville Bently was the only boy of scouting age at camp who could so easily have made arrangements to use the place.

It was here that he and Skinny settled down to a kind of frontier life, to a companionship which Danville regarded in a humorous way, but never so as to belittle his odd companion. They ate down at camp, of course, and usually attended camp-fire, but otherwise they led a life apart, stalking, tracking and hiking about the woods. Danville did his fourteen mile hike, but there was no boy to train for a tenderfoot, so there he remained for the time being; he seemed not greatly interested in scouting progress merely for its own sake. He was easy-going and casual, a good looker-on. He seemed never to think about how near he had come to wearing the Gold Cross; so far as Skinny could see, that badge of the highest heroism meant nothing to him. Perhaps he did not care for things because it was so easy for him to get them. The pomp and fuss and honors and awards did not appeal to him.

He showed no resentment toward the Elks for their shabby treatment of Skinny, but the Elks knew that he had seen them at their worst and they avoided him. Every scout in camp felt that here was a boy of unlimited reserve power; a boy who would never do a thing simply for a thrill or a badge, but who would prove invincible when aroused to act for a purpose. They all respected him and there was no hint of banter in the nickname of _White Scarf_ by which he came to be known. That spotless white scarf was a familiar sight in camp and singled him out from all other scouts and made him conspicuous.

As for the Elks, they got what they wanted and basked in the glory of it. An Eagle Scout is a wonderful thing, embodying all the heroic romance of scouting. He is a glory to his patrol. And at Temple Camp such a one was an asset to his patrol since only certain endowment rewards were open to Eagle patrols. Holly Hollis came not unheralded by his new patrol colleagues, and it must be admitted that he filled his place with a becomingness never achieved by poor little Skinny. On the evening of his arrival he attracted a good deal of attention as he passed through the "eats" pavilion with the Elks on his way to supper. A number of scouts arose and gave him the full salute, and there was a rather discordant attempt on the part of a few enthusiasts to sing

"You can't go higher than an Eagle, As every scout should know; You have to stop when you get to the top, It's as high as you can go."

He wore his full regalia with his Eagle badge above his left breast pocket, and his sleeve was covered with his twenty-one merit badges. A slim boy he was, with very black hair and a look in his pleasant face that bespoke something rather more than powers--a touch of the venturesome. No stick-in-the-mud was this Eagle of the darting and roaming black eyes.

And those eyes did not fail to notice things, for no sooner had he taken his place at table than turning to the proud Connie he asked, "Who's that fellow over at the third table with the white scarf?"

He was to know that fellow well before his season at Temple Camp was over.