"And really, Mr. Sands," said Roy Norton quickly, "when you hear what strange, unusual experiences the boys have had, you will not wonder at their forgetting the convenience of a little, every-day matter like the telephone. For myself, I offer no excuse. I should have been more thoughtful. But I, too, have dropped the customs and responsibilities of home life about as thoroughly as have the boys, I am afraid."

"That is all right, Norton," said Mr. Sands. "I spoke hastily, for my nerves were a little frazzled.

"Now, boys, make yourselves comfortable and clean, and then come out on the veranda and tell me the tale of the exciting trip."

It was an eager quartette of boys who responded to this invitation; and when they finally started to relate their experiences, Mr. Sands found it necessary to hear them in turn in order to get any clear idea of connecting events.

At length, however, he had followed them on their trip south, in imagination; had seen the panting tarpon on the deck of the _Arrow_; had taken the winding waterways into the Everglades; had encountered the revenue cutter and the filibuster; had watched through a night of adventure with the scouts on picket duty; and had finally swung safely through the dashing waves to the Life Saving Station.

"Well, boys, I little thought when I put you aboard Captain Lem's sloop for a little cruise south that you would see so much variety and excitement. But if you are not sorry, I am not. You are all home again, safe and sound, and none the worse for your experiences.

Take it easy, now, for the rest of your stay here and have the best time you can."

This advice the boys were not at all reluctant to follow. For a day or two they lounged about the broad piazzas in hammocks and easy chairs, reading books from Mr. Sands' well stocked library or from Alec's own bookshelf.

On the second evening of this quiet home life, however, Billy's uneasy spirit led him to say:

"Fellow scouts, I move you, sirs, that we take to the road. My hiking muscles are aching for use. We have sailed and paddled and motored.

Now I propose, sirs, that we tramp."

"Second the motion!" echoed Chester.

"What do you think of the idea, Alec?" asked Hugh, turning to their young host. "Will your father think we are ungrateful guests if we go off for a day or two so soon after the cruise?"

"We'll plan a trip," replied Alec readily, "and submit the scheme to him to-night. If he has no objections, we will telephone Mark and ask him to join us, and perhaps Norton can go along, too."

Alec's suggestion was carried out, and Mr. Sands not only approved the plan but added interest to it by producing some excellent road maps and proposing a tour of adventure.

"Suppose," said he, "instead of traveling as one company, you divide your forces, three of you taking one route and three another to your night's camping place. Here is a good spot to camp,"

indicating it on the map, "and I will send the machine there with the essential supplies so that you can 'hike' without being heavily burdened. How does that strike you?"

"As being far better than our first plan," applauded Billy.

The other boys agreed enthusiastically, and the details were promptly arranged.

Early the next morning, as the arching sky and gray waters began to take on a rosy glow from the approaching sunrise, the automobile shot out of the driveway between the palms and down the sh.e.l.l road in the direction of Red Key, carrying Alec and Chester to meet Mark Anderson.

The whir of the motor drowned the twitterings of the awakening birds, but could not dull the fresh odor of the jasmine, nor the beauty of the flowering vines and dew-wet hedges.

Even Chester was stirred by the "newness" of the whole world.

"Cripes, Alec, as Captain Vinton would say, this morning air and the view are worth crawling out at an unearthly hour to enjoy!" he exclaimed. "That ocean looks about a million miles wide, too; you can't even tell where the sky begins."

"There is Mark!" was Chester's next comment as the machine swung around a curve that had hidden an intersecting road.

"'Morning, Mark," called Alec in greeting as the two boys jumped out of the car to join the waiting lad. "Now we're off!"

He turned to the chauffeur, a.s.suring himself that the man understood the directions for reaching their camp with supplies late that afternoon, and then fell into step with the other scouts for their all-day hike. Beneath their feet the broken sh.e.l.ls of the road crackled, overhead the towering palms waved, near the roadside the stiff gra.s.s bent noisily in the breeze, and around them momentarily day grew clearer and brighter.

As the morning advanced and the boys strode on nearing the pine woods, robins and bluebirds, shrikes and chewinks greeted them; and as they stopped for luncheon near a broad, open trail in the barren woodland a buzzard sailed above the tree-tops and peered at them curiously.

In the meantime Norton, Hugh and Billy had started promptly twenty minutes after the departure of the machine. Billy was in high spirits and declared that he scented adventure in the air. For an hour, however, nothing occurred to disturb the peaceful sway of Nature, and Billy was about to abandon his att.i.tude of expectation.

Suddenly the stillness was broken by the uneven rattle of rapidly moving wheels over the sh.e.l.l road. Then the clatter of pounding hoofs further shattered the silence.

"It comes!" shouted Billy dramatically. Around a bend in the road came a galloping white horse, old and lean, dragging at its heels a reeling hurdy-gurdy cart.

Billy sprang for the horse's head. Almost at his touch the old creature stopped submissively.

"The poor old nag is all in," said Billy sympathetically, patting her quivering neck.

Meanwhile Hugh and Roy Norton had righted the music cart, and Hugh impulsively seized the handle of the machine and turned it to test its condition.

"Hi---yi---yi!"

A dark-skinned foreigner came into sight, running toward them down the road.

He frowned at them darkly and dashed up to the old horse, swinging a short whip threateningly. Before the lash could fall on the still trembling beast, however, Hugh and Billy had sprung simultaneously upon the man.

"None of that!" cried Hugh, wresting the whip from the man's grasp.

The infuriated foreigner turned upon him with an avalanche of rapid words, struggling to break away from his captors.

At that Norton stepped into view before him. With a few gestures, a few faltering Italian and French words, and with great calmness and good nature, he managed to tell the man that his wagon was safe, and that the boys were willing to let him go if he would not beat the poor, tired, old horse.

Norton's manner, more than anything else, impressed the angry man.

His scowls gave way to a pleasant expression and he nodded smilingly. The boys stepped back and the hurdy-gurdy driver busied himself at once, testing the harness and wheels and even patting the thin old nag.

Then he climbed upon his seat and gathered up the reins. Hugh picked up the fallen whip and handed it to him. The dark foreigner smiled suddenly and, reaching over, put the whip into its socket.

Then, clucking to his horse, he moved slowly down the road.

"Well, what do you think of that?" cried Billy, puzzled at the sudden capitulation.

"That?" returned Norton. "That is a bit of southern Europe---tempest and sunshine, rage and child-like faith combined."

"Like a small boy, he needed to be managed," said Hugh, "and you knew how to do it."

With a new respect for Roy Norton, the two scouts joined him again on their inland hike. But they did not forget the incident, nor did they fail to relate it that evening to the other three boys, whom they found already established at camp around a blazing fire.

The next morning the returning parties exchanged routes for the homeward trip, but nothing more exciting was encountered than glimpses of orange groves, of pine barrens, of cypress swamps, and of numberless birds.

But their "hiking muscles" had been well exercised and they felt nearer to the heart of Florida because of their long tramp.

There were a number of letters waiting for the boys, some from their home people and others from the scouts who were enjoying the "Geological Survey" at Pioneer Camp. These the boys shared, eagerly discussing the news and wondering what plans would be made for the fall and winter.

Some of the things that actually did happen the following fall are related in "The Boy Scouts of the Flying Squadron."

THE END