m lost his mate and gave the Wolf-call very
low. But, unluckily for the Wolves, that call did much mischief.
First of all, it brought up Chippy, who promptly settled the caller,
and then it brought up the caller's companion, whom Chippy bagged also.
So the leader of the Ravens now wore four yellow flags in his hat--two
on either side of his own black one.

Right away on the other side, No. 3 of the Ravens, a very wideawake
scout, had captured Nos. 7 and 8 of the Wolves by sheer speed and
clever throwing, and, so far, the Ravens had made a big sweep of their
opponents. But the odds were not so great as they looked. Dick and
Billy were by far the cleverest scouts among the Wolves, and the
destruction by the Ravens had been accomplished by their two cleverest
men.

Before long the odds went far to be equalized by the capture which Dick
made of No. 3 of the Ravens. This able scout fell a victim to his own
impulsiveness. He saw six Wolves on the hill; he became most eager to
seize the other two; he forgot that for a scout there is only one
word--caution, caution, always caution.

So he jumped into a little gully to hide himself, without first making
sure that no one was there already. As it happened, Dick had crept
into it three minutes before, and No. 3 felt Dick's missile before he
knew what was in the wind. Rather crestfallen, he gave up his own
black flag and the two yellow ones, of which he had been so proud, and
made his way to the Beacon. Dick had now five flags in his cap--two
black and three yellow--and he redoubled his vigilance now that he had
become so valuable a prize. He went on and on, but he never saw
another Raven. Soon he became aware that Billy had not only seen some,
but seized them also, for Raven after Raven marched up to the summit,
until Billy's captives numbered three fresh ones. When the patrol
leader and his corporal met at last under the oak, they greeted each
other joyfully.

'Well done, Billy!' said Dick. 'You've pulled 'em down in great style.
I've only had one; but he'd got a couple of our fellows' flags.'

'Oh,' said Billy, 'a couple of 'em were very easy shots. The third
chap was rather more sticky, but I had him at last.'

'Now we'll work back and tackle the other two,' said Dick. 'There are
two on each side in the game now.'

'All right,' said Billy; 'we'll go for 'em in style this time.
There'll be some flags handed over, whoever gets collared!'

Each of them showe