"Be prepared!" grinned Lil Artha, as he swung a particularly dangerous looking club around his head until it fairly whistled through the air. "That's the motto of the Boy Scouts, and I reckon it applies in a case of this kind, just as much as when stopping a runaway horse. I'm prepared to give a good account of myself, that's dead certain."
Mr. Garrabrant had fetched out a couple of lanterns, making sure that the oil receptacles were well filled, so that they would last through the journey, going and returning.
"Now we're off, boys," he remarked, with a pleasant smile. "The rest of you stay here and look close after the camp. I've appointed Mark Cummings to serve in my place while I'm gone, and shall expect every scout to pay him just as much respect as though I were present. Lead off, Oscar, we're with you."
Red took up his place at the head of the little bunch. He carried one of the lanterns with which he cast sufficient light ahead to see where he was going.
"First to take you to the seven sentry chestnuts," he said. "We named 'em that, of course, when we came on 'em. The blazed trail commences right there, sir. We didn't think it worth while to do any more slicing of bark after that, because we knew we could easy enough find our way back to that place."
And he did lead the party to the seven chestnuts, with only one or two periods of hesitation, during which he had to puzzle things out.
"There's the first blaze on that oak yonder," he remarked, pointing as he spoke. "We tried to make the marks close enough so as to show by lantern light, because we both had an idea you'd want to come on before morning, sir."
Elmer was at the side of the leader by this time, prepared to lend his experience in case the other ran up against a snag. He took especial note of the general direction in which the numerous blazes seemed to run. And when presently Red confessed that he was "stumped" if he could see where the next mark ought to be, Elmer had them hold up while he walked forward in the quarter where, on general principles, he imagined the blaze should be. And in another minute his soft "cooee" told his comrades that he had, sure enough, found the missing mark.
Many times did Red have to fall back on Elmer to help him out. His blazes had apparently been further apart than he had realized at the time he made them. But the boy who had lived in Canada, and experienced all sorts of frontier life, knew just how to go about making the needed discovery; and in every instance success rewarded his efforts.