Then suddenly the string fell slack, the arrow whizzed through the air and a mighty cheer split the sky as it winged true and swift to the roof top, falling almost at Rob's feet. Hand over hand he drew in the string, and at last he had hauled up enough rope to knot one end fast about some ornamental stone work at a corner of the building.

While doing this he had laid the child down. Now he was seen to pick her up again, and holding her in his arms for an instant he appeared to consider. To slide down that rope he must have at least one arm free. How was he going to do it? The crowd almost forebore to breathe as they sensed what the boy on the roof was puzzling over.

It was Rob's scout training that solved the problem--one of life and death for him--as this same training is doing all over the world for lads in every grade of life to-day. He was seen to give the child some emphatic instructions and then throw her over his left shoulder much as he might have done with a bag of meal. In this position the child's head hung down between his shoulders. Her legs were across his chest.

Seizing the baby's left arm so that it came over his right shoulder, Rob extended his left hand between its knees and grasped the little one's wrist firmly. In this position she was held perfectly securely in what all Boy Scouts know as "The Fireman's Lift," one of the most useful accomplishments a Boy Scout can master.

This done, the most difficult, dangerous part of Rob's task came. He had to slide down that rope with his burden on his shoulder with only his right arm and his legs to depend on for a grip. But it had to be done.

Without hesitation he swung himself from the coping and gripped the rope.

For one terrible instant he shot down for a foot or so before he succeeded in checking his downward plunge. But his knees gripped the rope and his right arm stood the strain, although he felt as if it must snap.

How he reached the ground Rob never knew. Those last terrible moments on the roof had come very near to breaking his nerve. He was conscious of a sudden flare of light and a crash as his feet touched the ground. It crossed his mind hazily that part of the roof must have fallen in--perhaps the part on which he had been standing. Then came a rush of feet, shouts, cries, and arms flung about him, and through it all Rob could hear his mother's glad cry of relief after the awful tension she had endured. He tried to say something and failed, and then everything raced round and round him at breakneck speed.

"He's fainting!" he was conscious that somebody was shouting, and he could hear himself, only it seemed like somebody else, saying:

"No, I'm all right," and then everything grew blank to the Boy Scout who had won, through "Being Prepared" for a great emergency.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE ENEMY'S MOVE.

Rob Blake was sitting on the porch of his home in Hampton. In his hand was a book on Woodcraft. But he was not just now devoting his attention to the volume. Instead he let it hang idly from one hand while he gazed up through the maple tops and dreamed of many things. As Rob himself would have put it, the "spring was in his blood." More strongly than usual that morning he felt the "red G.o.ds calling."

Suddenly two hands were thrown over his eyes from behind and a voice cried:

"Surrender, you leader of the Eagles! That's one time you're caught napping."

"Tubby!" exclaimed Rob, springing up and facing round.

"How in the world did you get in?" he asked the next minute. "I never heard you coming, and----"

He broke off with a laugh as his eyes fell on a big section of apple pie with one crescent-shaped bite missing, that the fat boy was regarding affectionately.

"Oh, I see. The back door, eh?" he inquired.

"Ye-es," drawled Tubby, "and I must say your cook makes good pie and is inclined to look favorably on a starving Scout."

"Starving! Why, it's not two hours since breakfast!"

"Well, two hours is a long time--sometimes," mumbled Tubby, who had taken another bite while Rob was speaking.

"What news from the Academy, Tubby?"

"Haven't you heard? They haven't been able to find another building big enough to house the scholars, so I guess it's a holiday till the beginning of September for all of us," cried Tubby with shining eyes.

"Hullo, what's that? A Latin grammar?"

He picked up a volume that lay on an adjoining chair. He regarded it attentively for a few seconds and then flung it forth into the garden where it landed in a rose bush.

"Let it lie there till September," he chuckled. "Well, how are you anyhow, old fellow?" he rattled on. "It's a week since the fire and you ought to be feeling fit again."

"Never felt better in my life, although I was knocked out quite a bit; but you see I've had very good care, and----"

"Oh yes, Lucy Mainwaring has been to see you--once or twice, hasn't she?"

and Tubby, with an air of apparent abstraction, fell to studying a white cloud that happened to be drifting by far above them. Suddenly he faced about with a mischievous laugh.

"You looked sort of pale when I came in, Rob," he chuckled, "but you've got plenty of color now."

Rob, boy-like, looked embarra.s.sed and changed the subject rather abruptly.

"Everything fixed for that meeting at headquarters to-night?" he asked.

A rather odd look pa.s.sed over the fat boy's face.

"Oh yes, it's all ready," he said with rather a marked emphasis on the words.

"Good; you and Merritt must have worked hard."

"We've all taken our part. The hall looks bully. It'll be dandy to have you around again."

The meeting the boys referred to was the regular weekly meeting of the patrol. But when Rob reached the hall above the bank that night he felt rather astonished to find that chairs and stools had been arranged all over the s.p.a.cious hall, and that decorations consisting of the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Patrol flags were strung everywhere. Off the main hall opened the Scouts' gymnasium and general store room. In this room Rob found his Scouts a.s.sembled. They greeted him with a cheer as he appeared. Rob began to feel uneasy. He hated anything like that, but he took the congratulations that were showered upon him in the spirit in which they were offered.

When he found an opportunity he drew Merritt aside.

"What are all the chairs arranged outside for?" he asked suspiciously.

"Oh, just so that the folks can see what we've been doing with our time during the winter," was the reply. "We've arranged some single stick bouts and an exhibition drill and so on--you don't mind, do you?"

"No, it's a fine idea," declared Rob warmly. "How soon will the company--audience I mean--arrive?"

"Guess they're beginning to come now," said Merritt as the sound of feet tramping into the hall became audible.

"Better send out Walter and Martin to act as ushers, hadn't you?"

"Yes, I guess so," and Merritt hastened off to dispatch the two second cla.s.s Scouts referred to.

The hall filled rapidly. In the front rows Rob could see his parents and beside them Commodore Wingate, the scout master of the district, and the parents of most of the boys. The other chairs were filled with villagers and all at once--Rob's heart beat rather quicker--down the aisle came the Mainwaring party. They took the three seats which had been apparently reserved for them close to Rob's parents.

Little Andy Bowles, who arrived late, came into the gym in a state of high excitement.

Like most of the other scouts he had come in by the back stairway which led directly into the gym. He came straight up to Rob.

"Say," he exclaimed, after he had given the scout salute and congratulated his leader, "say, who do you think are hanging about outside?"

"No idea," rejoined Rob.