majority stayed on and had better times than ever on the lake and in
their cabin. After Christmas they began work in earnest on their share of
the big scout rally, which was to be given in the spring to illustrate
for the towns-people the aims and purposes of scouting, and also as a
means of gaining new recruits. Every troop was to take part, and not
a little good-natured rivalry developed between them.

Troop Five was to illustrate the various uses of the scout staff in
a number of drills and formations, the most effective and also the
most difficult of which was one that Mr. Curtis called the riot wedge.
Though necessitating a good deal of hard work, most of the boys were keen
about it, for they were determined to excel the work of the other troops.
Perhaps the only fellow who complained was only Bob Gibson, and he
wouldn't have seemed himself at all without finding something to grumble
about.

"Gee! but I'm sick of this silly drill!" he growled under his breath one
night when they had been practising steadily for an hour. He slumped his
shoulders a bit and his staff tilted to a slovenly angle. "What's the
sense of it, anyhow?"

"'Tention!" rang out the quick, decisive voice of Scoutmaster Curtis,
standing slim and erect before the line of scouts. "We'll try that once
more, fellows, and get a little snap into it this time. Bob, if you could
manage to support your staff in an upright position, it would improve
the looks of the line."

There was no sting in his tone, and Bob, grinning sheepishly,
straightened his shoulders and brought his staff to the same angle as the
others.

"Prepare to form riot wedge!" ordered the scoutmaster, crisply. "One!"

There was a rapid thud of feet and a swift, scurrying movement which
might have seemed to the uninitiated meaningless and without purpose. But
when the stir had ceased and silence fell, each of the three patrols had
formed itself into a regular wedge with one of the largest, strongest
boys at the apex and the patrol-leader standing in the middle of the
base. Their staves were upright, but at the sharp command of "Two!"
these swung into a horizontal position, the ends crossing and the whole
becoming a continuous barrier with the boys behind it.

"Fine and dandy!" approved Mr. Curtis. "That's more the way it ought to
go. Now, let's try the double wedge I showed you last week. Eagle patrol,
dress a little to the left; Beavers to the right. Ready? One!"

This time ther