Howard Payson - The Boy Scouts at the Panama-Pacific Exposition

"Seems to me, Rob, I ought to know that old tub of a motorboat we'reoverhauling."

"Why, yes, Andy, it's Captain Jerry Martin's Sea Gull. Time was whenshe had a reputation for speed, but her engine is a back number now."

"Huh! that must have been away in Noah's time, I reckon, Rob. Why, wecould make circles around her, if we chose to drive our little Tramp tothe limit."

"As we happen to be in no hurry to-day, there's no use making the oldskipper feel that his boat is down and out. With vacation opening upbefore us, I've been trying to settle on some scheme for the scouts ofthe Eagle Patrol to have a rousing good time this summer."

"Well, I know where I'd be if I had the cold cash to pay my expenses;and, Rob, chances are you feel the same way about it."

"Now, I suppose you're thinking of Tubby Hopkins' great good luck inhaving his uncle, Dr. Mark Matthews, the famous globe-trotter, carry himoff three days ago for an extended trip to the big show out inCalifornia?"

"Just what was on my mind, Rob. I don't believe I ever wished so much foranything as a chance to hike away out to the Pacific. Nothing comes myway any more, seems like. Some of us scouts were lucky enough to have ourturn down in Mexico that time Tubby's uncle was taken sick, and couldn'tget there to meet his old friend, General Villa, so as to dispose of thecattle on his ranch before they were stolen by the raiding Mexican rivalarmies. How the rest of the boys envied us that glorious trip, Rob!"

"I admit it was a rare streak of good fortune to have things come our wayas they did," the boy named Rob remarked, as he gave a slight turn to thewheel of the bustling little motorboat, aboard which he and Andy were thesole passengers. "We ran up against quite an interesting bunch ofexperiences, you remember, Andy, that none of us will ever be apt toforget."

"As if that wasn't enough fun for Tubby and Merritt and you," continuedthe boy called Andy at the wheelsman, "it came about that you all got achance to go across the water to England and Belgium late last summer onan important mission for Merritt's family, and saw a heap of what wasgoing on in the fighting zone where the Germans are up against the armiesof France, Belgium and Great Britain."

"We've shaken hands with ourselves dozens of times since, I give you myword, Andy, on account of that fine streak of luck. Yes, we did encountera whole lot of remarkable adventures over there, and saw sights we'llnever forget. Some of them I wish I could put out of my mind, becausethey were mighty unpleasant. But that page is turned down, Andy; and nowthe next thing to consider is what we are going to do this summer to makethe time pass happily."

"Oh! I suppose I shouldn't complain," Andy Bowles continued, trying tosmile away the discontented frown that had settled across his forehead."Here, in this good old Long Island town of Hampton, there are lots ofways a pack of lively up-to-date Boy Scouts can have good times duringvacation. With the big bay at our doors, and a bully little motorboatlike this to go fishing or cruising in, there's no reason for us not tobe hustling most of our spare time."

"Yes," Rob Blake went on to add, wishing to soothe the ruffled spirit ofhis comrade, "and you know what glorious camping trips we can have with alot of the boys, just as we used to in other summers. There is the fullEagle Patrol, except our fat chum, Tubby, who's gone to see the sights ofthe Panama-Pacific Exposition, and Merritt Crawford, who expects to beaway for a month and more with his folks."

"Besides," continued Andy Bowles, as though the fact gave him more orless solid satisfaction, "all the other patrols are fulleight each inthe Hawk, the Black Fox and the Badger, with a new one forming in thebargain. Boy Scout activities are at flood-tide around Hampton thesedays."

"One reason for that, I take it," mused the skipper of the littleTramp, "is the fact that through our activities in the past we havemanaged to keep our troop in the public eye, more or less. People knowwhat the Eagles have done, and on the whole they favor their boys joiningthe newer patrols. There's been a big change in the young fellows ofHampton, I'm told, since this Boy Scout movement first came to town."

When the young leader of the Eagle Patrol made this modest assertion, hecertainly hit the truth squarely on the head. During the last two yearsthe members of the Eagle Patrol had made a name for themselves in BoyScout annalsas the new reader will find out for himself if he cares toread the earlier books of this fascinating series.

Among other things they had, through a happy chance, become associatedwith certain scientific gentlemen connected with the United StatesGovernment, who were experimenting with a new and secret model for a bigairship patterned somewhat after the famous Zeppelins of the Germans.

On another occasion they had been enabled to assist in saving the designof a wonderful submarine, also intended for the use of the Government,and the secret of which it appeared was coveted by emissaries of a nationsupposed to be hostile to the United States, and desirous of learning allabout such an important discovery that was apt to play an important partin future ocean warfare.

Some of the scouts later on were given a chance to pay a visit to thewonderful canal that was then being dug across the Isthmusat Panama;and the record of how they made themselves exceedingly useful while downthere will always be a bright page in the history of the Hampton Troop.

Mention has already been made by Andy Bowles, the bugler of the troop, ofthe trip to Mexico, with its attendant adventures; and also of theforeign tour undertaken by several of the Eagles on the previous summer,just when hostilities had broken out between the nations of Europe; andBelgium, where they were compelled to visit, was torn from end to endwith the mad struggles of warring factions.

Yes, surely the Eagles could rest upon their laurels from this time on,and history would accord them the laurel wreath as the most enterprisingpatrol known to the Boy Scouts of America.

Still, what boy is ever satisfied with what has happened in the past? Thepresent and the near future is what engages his attention and excites hisinterest. Even sensible Rob Blake secretly sighed when he contemplatedhaving to put in the whole summer around the home town while TubbyHopkins was having such a glorious time out there on the Coast; and hisother chum, Merritt Crawford, was up in Canada with his folks at a camp.

It was a beautiful and warm day in the early summer. The sun shone froman unclouded sky, but there was enough sea breeze to fan their heatedbrows, and to make them think that there could be few things equal tobeing in a speedy little motorboat, spinning over the surface of thatlovely land-locked bay, with the ocean booming on the outer edge of thesandy strip to the south.