The Banner Boy Scouts Afloat or, the Secret of Cedar Island by Warren, George A.

Just then the leader gave the signal for another advance, and the six scouts who followed set about completing the last leg of the climb.

They finally found themselves at the roots of the cedar tree that crowned the elevation, and which proved of a size far beyond what any of the scouts had imagined.

"Well, here we are at last," said Phil, breathing hard after his exertions.

"And," added Bobolink, also badly winded, though he would chatter; "now to see Paul get one of the other fellows on the line, to wig his wag at us, or do something that sounds that way. There he goes at it. And looky there, they've been watching us climb, I reckon, because almost before Paul made the first sign, that other fellow began sendin'."

They watched the fluttering red flag with the white centre. Some of them had taken more or less interest in sending and receiving messages; but the boy in the tree proved too fast for any of them to follow. They suspected that it was Jud Elderkin himself; for outside of Paul and Jack, he was the best hand at that sort of thing.

"My stars! he keeps right along doing it; don't he?" muttered Bobolink.

"Must be some message, too, believe me," added Phil.

"N-n-now, what d'ye s-s-suppose has happened at c-c-camp since we q-q-quit?" remarked Bluff, anxiously waiting for the message to be translated.

Not once did Paul break in on the sending of the message. He sat there, close to the base of the big cedar which sheltered his back from the north side of the island; and seemed to be wholly engrossed in transcribing the various signs of the flag code.

They could not see the boy in the branches of the tree; but from their elevated position the white and red flag was in plain view. Up and down, and crosswise, it continued to write its message, that was doubtless like printed letters to Paul and Jack, while unintelligible to those who had never taken lessons in wigwagging.

Finally came the well known sign that the message was done; and that the sender awaited the wishes of the party with whom he was in communication.

Paul turned upon his comrades. They saw that the frown had come back again to his usually smooth forehead, as though he had learned something to add to the perplexities of the problem they were trying so diligently to solve.

"It's Jud," he said, simply, "and he's just sent an astonishing message. This is the way it ran, boys: 'Presence here known. Man in aeroplane passed over camp. Went down lake half hour ago. Out of sight now. Answer!'"

No wonder Bobolink fairly held his breath, and the other five scouts looked at each other, as though they could hardly believe their ears. For a full minute they sat there and stared; while Bobolink remembered the far-away black object that, at the time, he had thought to be a buzzard.

CHAPTER XXIII

STILL FLOUNDERING IN THE MIRE

"Whee!"

It was, of course, Bobolink who gave utterance to this characteristic exclamation.

Like most of the others, he had been so stunned by the message read by Paul, that for the moment he failed to find words to express his feelings.