"Well, I don't see that it's anything to laugh at," Smithy was heard to remark, with a lugubrious expression on his face; "if it comes down on us while we're on the tramp, and without any sort of protection, we'll soon be all mussed up, and in a nice pickle. I'd be considerably better pleased to have Bumpus discover the sun peeping out at us before setting."

"What can't be cured must be endured, you know, Smithy," Thad told the former dandy of the troop, who was every now and then showing traces of his old faults, though he had been cured of numerous shortcomings. "If it rains we'll have to get our rubber ponchos over our shoulders, and then look for a place to spend the night. Things are never so bad but what you'll find they could be worse."

That indeed was the whole secret of Thad's success, and the cheerful spirit he invariably displayed when up against difficulties; and every boy who makes up his mind to look at his troubles in the same hopeful spirit will surely profit from such a course. Things are never at their worst, though we may temporarily think so. The few drops that came down did not last and as the scouts continued to push along the river road they kept their eyes on the watch for some valley farm, where they might possibly find shelter against the coming storm.

It began to look as though they must have struck a portion of the country where, for some unknown reason, farms were few and far between, which is not often the case along the picturesque Susquehanna, since most of the land is under some kind of cultivation.

Thad even began to fear that as the evening was now close at hand they might be compelled to abandon their hope of finding a house, and use the little time remaining in building some sort of rude shelter.

The idea did not appeal very strongly to him, because he knew that if a heavy downpour came upon them it might last for twenty-four hours; and such a primitive camp would prove a dismal refuge indeed, with no fire to cheer them, and dripping trees all around, not to speak of a rapidly rising river.

On this account he was determined to keep pushing on until the darkness became too dense to allow further progress. When they found themselves up against such a snag as this it would be time to consider the last resort, which must consist of shelter under some outcropping rocks, or a rustic hangout made of branches and every other sort of thing available.

The boys were not talking so much latterly. It seemed as though they might be feeling too tired for merriment, or else the increasing gravity of their situation began to impress them.

One thing Thad regretted very much. This was the fact that after the rain had come and gone they could hardly expect to follow the man who wore the old blue army coat by means of the tracks he left behind him, for these would have been utterly obliterated. They must then depend on information given by the inmates of such houses as they came upon along the road.

"It's sure commencing to get dark, Thad," grumbled Giraffe, after a while, as if to explain why he had stubbed his toe, when by rights all that clumsy business was supposed to be monopolized by poor Bumpus.

"That's partly because we happen to be passing under a big patch of woods here on the right," the patrol leader explained; "which helps to shut out more or less of the light from the west. Over there across the river the sky is so gloomy you couldn't expect it to help out any."

"But inside of half an hour at the most it'll be so black you can't see a hand before your face," Step Hen observed.

"I suppose you mean we ought to be thinking of stopping," Thad returned, "and I'm of the same mind; but I hate to give up the hope of striking some farm, where we could get another chance to sleep in the haymow. But give me ten minutes more, boys, and if we fail to strike what we want I'll call a halt."

"Whew! I've got a hunch we're going to run up against an experience before long that we won't forget in a hurry, either!" volunteered Davy.

"Here, none of that croaking, Davy Jones!" cried Bob White. "We've all been through so much that it doesn't become any member of the Silver Fox Patrol to show the white feather, suh."

"Nobody's thinking of doing that same, Bob White," retorted Davy; "I was only trying to figure out what sort of a night we had ahead of us. If it comes to knocking up against trouble, I reckon I'm as able to hold up my end of the log as the next one. My record will prove that."

"We're all in the same boat, Davy," Step Hen told him, in order to "smooth his ruffled feathers," as he called it.

"And I'll time you on that promise, Thad," remarked Allan, as he took out his little nickel watch, and held it close up to his face in order to see where the hands pointed, which action in itself proved the contention of Giraffe that the daylight was certainly growing quite dim.

They continued to plod along, now and then some one making a remark, and all of them looking continually to the right, in hopes that they might discover a haven of refuge in the shape of some sort of house, they cared little how unpretentious it might be.

Indeed, just then there was not one scout present but who would have hailed the appearance of even an old abandoned shanty having a leaky roof with delight; for with their ingenuity a worn-out roof could easily be made to shed rain; and a supply of firewood was to be gathered in a hurry.

The formation of the country was not favorable in one respect, and they failed to run across anything in the shape of an outcropping ledge, under which they might find shelter. This had saved them from a ducking on more than one former occasion, as they well remembered; but fortune was not so kind to-day.

Minute after minute dragged on.

Once Allan even took out his watch, and examined its face, only to laugh.

"Beats all how you get fooled when you're counting the minutes," he remarked.

"You mean we haven't been walking that ten Thad allowed us?" asked Step Hen.

"Just six to the dot, boys," the timekeeper told them.

"Oh! dear, I thought it was closer on half an hour," sighed Bumpus, who was dragging his feet along as though each one weighed a ton. "Four whole minutes left! But Allan, mebbe that watch of yours has stopped! I had one that used to play tricks like that on me, 'specially in the mornings, when by rights I ought to have been out of bed. It was the most accommodating thing you ever saw; I'd wake up, take a look and see it stood at a quarter to seven, and then roll over for another little snooze. Then I'd look again after a while, and see it was still a quarter to seven, which allowed me to have another nap. And when my dad came up to ask me if I was sick, I'd tell him he'd have to get me a better watch than that if he expected me to rise promptly."

"And did he?" asked Davy.

Bumpus shrugged his fat shoulders as he replied:

"I climb out of bed every morning now when a great big alarm clock rattles away close to my ear. Dad sets it there before he retires, and I can't chuck it out of the window, either. So you see watches go back on their best friends sometimes."

"Well, mine is running like a steam engine right now," Allan remarked, "and the four minutes are nearly down to three. Keep a stiff upper lip, Bumpus, and the day's hike will soon be over, no matter what the night brings."

That was the thing that bothered them all, for the night was setting in so gloomily that it filled their hearts with secret misgivings and forebodings. The lonesomeness of their surroundings had something to do with this feeling, perhaps, although these boys were used to camping out, and had indeed roughed it many times in far-distant regions, where wild beasts roamed, and made the night hideous with their tongues.

At least nothing of that kind might be expected here along the peaceful Susquehanna. Their sufferings were apt to come mostly from the severity of the weather, and their unpreparedness to meet a storm such as now threatened.

The three minutes had certainly dwindled to two, and might be even approaching the last figure to which their progress was limited, when suddenly Giraffe gave a shout.

"We win, boys!" was the burden of his announcement; "because, as sure as you live, I glimpsed a light ahead there. Look, you can see it easy enough now. We're going to have a roof over our heads to-night, after all! What a lucky thing it was you said ten minutes, Thad. Suppose, now, you'd just notched it off with five, why, we'd have missed connections, that's what!"

"But hold on, Giraffe, don't you see that light's on the wrong side of the road," remonstrated Allan. "It ought to be on the right, but instead it lies close to the edge of the water. Now, no man would be silly enough to build his farmhouse on the river bank, where any spring rise might wash it away."

"It must be a boat of some kind!" Thad now declared; "yes, I can begin to get a glimpse of the same through that thin screen of bushes."

"Wow! looks like a houseboat to me, boys, or what out on the Ohio and the Mississippi they call a shanty boat, which is a cabin built on a monitor or float!" was what Step Hen announced.

"I believe you're right there, Step Hen," Allan put in; "but no matter, any port in a storm; and when a crowd of scouts are hard pushed they can squeeze in small quarters. We'll fix it somehow with the owner of that craft to let us pile in with him till the clouds roll by."

All sorts of loud remarks followed, as the party hastened their footsteps, some of the boys even laughing, for the improved prospects made Bumpus and Smithy temporarily forget their troubles.

All of them quickly saw that the object of their attention was really a clumsy-looking houseboat. It seemed to be moored to the bank with a stout rope, and, judging from the fact that a light shone from a small window, it must be occupied.

Laughing and jostling one another, the eight boys pushed on. It was not so dark as yet but what they could have been seen after passing the screen of leafless bushes, had any one chanced to look out of that window.

Thad led the way aboard. No dog barked, nor did they hear any sort of a sound inside the cabin.

"Give 'em a knock, Thad!" said Step Hen.

This the patrol leader did, but there was no reply. Thad waited half a minute, and, hearing nothing, once more rapped his knuckles on the door.

"All asleep, or else up the road somewhere; s'pose you open the door yourself, Thad!" suggested Giraffe impatiently.

When he had knocked a third time, and received no reply, Thad proceeded to open the cabin door, after which the rest of the scouts were so eager to enter that he was actually pushed ahead of them into the place.

They stared around in bewilderment, for while a small lamp was burning on a table screwed to the wall on hinges, and some supper was cooking on a small stove, there did not seem to be the first sign of any human presence. There was something so strange and uncanny about this that the scouts looked at one another uneasily.

Chapter 9 ANY PORT IN A STORM.

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