ound? Huh! consider it as
good as done right now!"

Half a dozen boys who wore khaki uniforms, were chattering like so many
magpies as they stood in a little group on an elevation overlooking the
bustling Indiana town of Beverly.

Apparently they must have been practicing some of the many clever things
Boy Scouts delight to learn, for several of the number carried signal
flags; two had pieces of a broken looking-glass in their possession;
while the tall lad, Seth Carpenter, had a rather sadly stained blanket
coiled soldier fashion about his person, that gave off a scent of smoke,
proving that he must have used it in communicating with distant
comrades, by means of the smoke code of signals.

Besides Seth there were in the group Jotham Hale, Eben Newcomb, Andy
Mullane, Fritz Hendricks, and a merry, red-faced boy who, because of his
German extraction, went by the name of "Noodles Krafft."

The reader who has not made the acquaintance of these wide-awake scouts
in previous volumes of this Series will naturally want to know something
about them, and hence it might be wise to introduce the members of the
Beaver Patrol right here.

Eben was the official bugler of Beverly Troop. He had been made to take
this office much against his will, and for a long time had the greatest
difficulty in getting the "hang" of his instrument, so that his comrades
guyed him most unmercifully over the strange medleys he used to bring
forth when meaning to sound the various "calls." But of late Eben seemed
to have mastered his silver-plated bugle, and was really doing very
well, with an occasional lapse excepted.

Andy was a Kentucky boy, but outside of a little extra touch of pride,
and a very keen sense of his own honor, you would never know it.

Seth was the champion signal sender, and delighted to study up
everything he could discover concerning this fascinating subject.

Fritz, on his part, chose to make an especial study of woodcraft, and
was forever hunting for "signs," and talking of the amazing things which
the old-time Indians used to accomplish along this line.

As for good-natured Noodles, if he had any specialty at all, it lay in
the art of cooking. When the boys were in camp they looked to him to
supply all sorts of meals that fairly made their mouths water with
eagerness to begin operations long before the bugle of Eben sounded the
"assembly."

Last of all the group, was Jotham Hale, a rather quiet boy, with an
engaging