He was on the home stretch now, as luck would have
it, and nothing would stop him--nothing....
_Nothing!_ He would send a line to his mother that very night and tell
her all about it, and put E. S. after his name. _Eagle Scout._ The
bicycle his father had promised him when he should attain that pinnacle
of scout glory, he would now demand. That would be where dad lost
out....
If Tom Slade knew some secret about a higher award, that meant more
stunts, Hervey would do those stunts, too; the more the merrier. He
should worry....
Yes, he was on the trail at last, and at the end of that trail was the
stalking badge--and the Eagle award. _Hervey Willetts, Eagle Scout._ It
sounded pretty good....
He realized now that this discovery of his was just a streak of luck,
that the chances would have been altogether against his finding real
tracks in these two remaining days. "I'm lucky," he said. Which must
have been true, else he would have lost his life long ere that....
Darkness was now coming on apace, and it must be long past supper-time.
But this was no time to be thinking of eating. Nothing would stop him
now, _nothing_. When he set his mind on a thing....
The tracks changed again in traversing the fields. They were not tracks
at all, in fact, but a narrow belt of trampled grass, which was not
visible close by. It was only by looking ahead that Hervey could
distinguish it. Half way across the field he lost it altogether, but,
remembering the fact that it could be seen better at a distance, he
climbed a tree and there lay the long narrow belt of trampled grass
running under the rail fence at the field's edge and into the sparse
woods beyond.
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