"Many hands make light work," and so plentiful were the several varieties of nuts that it was not long before the fourth bag was half filled. No doubt those boys felt better because of this act. The chances were they would never get any credit for what they were doing, but as Elmer told them, the consciousness of having done a decent act should always be quite enough for any ordinary scout.
"And every one of us has a clear title to turning our badges right-side up, after working so hard for our enemies," Chatz declared, as they "knocked off."
"Well, how about that dinner, camp style?" demanded Toby, drawing out the waistband of his khaki trousers to show what a quantity of room he had for a supply of cooked food.
"It's long after noon, so we might as well get busy with dinner," Elmer replied.
After stowing all the sacks away in the bushes, where they were not likely to be discovered, should any outsider wander on the scene while they were employed elsewhere, the scouts busied themselves in making preparations for the camp meal which all of them had so long been anxiously looking forward to.
First of all a fire was started in the most approved manner, some flat stones being built up in two parallel ridges. Long ago these lads had found that there was nothing so splendidly adapted for camp cooking as a gridiron of some sort, made after the pattern of the shelf in the kitchen oven at home, with grill bars. This could be easily placed on stones, or even mounds of earth if the first were not available, and there was no danger of anything upsetting; while the flames, or the heat of the red coals had a chance to accomplish the work. So they never went forth, when there was a possibility of cooking being done, without carrying this contrivance along with them.
They had been thoughtful enough to also fetch along a coffee-pot, an extra large frying-pan made of sheetiron, and the necessary tin platters, cups, knives, forks and spoons.
Soon the delicious odor of dinner began to steal forth, causing Toby to sniff the air with rapture, and loudly declare:
"Fried onions, coffee, ham, potatoes, and plenty of fresh bread and butter; that's the bill of fare, is it? Gee! whiz! you couldn't beat it if you tried all day. And every minute's going to seem like a whole hour to me till I hear the welcome call to the feast."
"We're a lucky lot to be sitting around here like this, and a bully dinner coming on, when we think of that bunch of soreheads hustling for home, not even half a dozen nuts in their pockets, and even their gunny sacks lost," Chatz remarked.
"Yes, provided somebody don't get too gay, and upset all that coffee into the fire," grumbled George, who evidently would not feel sure of his dinner until he had devoured it, because, as he was fond of repeating, "there's many a slip 'tween the cup and the lip," and Toby was so apt to be so clumsy in moving around.
As usually occurred, however, George's fears proved groundless, because no accident happened to the splendid dinner, which they were soon enjoying to their hearts' content. There was enough and to spare, so that even Toby admitted he could find no more room, when Elmer pressed him to have a third helping.
"If we had Ty Collins and Lil Arthur Stansbury along there never would be even a crumb left over, no matter how much you cooked," said Toby, as he heaved a sigh, and released another button so as to add to his comfort; "I'm a pretty good hand, but when it comes to crowding the mourners, and stowing the grub away, they take the prize."
For a while afterward the boys sat around the fire, and talked of the recent happenings. There was plenty of time to get home before dusk, which was really all that they wished to do, so none of them showed any desire to hurry off.
Later on, however, when some one happened to mention the fact that if there was nothing more to be done they might as well bring the wagon up, load their cargo of well filled sacks, and be moving along toward town, Toby suddenly remembered something.
"Well, I declare if I didn't nearly forget one of the most important things of the whole excursion!" he exclaimed.
"What?" asked George, ready to object at once, if the thing did not meet with his approval.
"Why, you know I told you I'd been fixing up another little stunt connected with the wonderful science of aviation, and right here's where I see a golden opportunity to try it out for the second time. It seemed to work all right with me in a ten-foot drop, and next thing is to make it thirty. If she does that, and I live to tell the tale, you're apt to see the name of Jones right often in the papers pretty soon."
He had pounced on that mysterious package of his while speaking, and was busily engaged in unwrapping the same, while the others crowded around, curious to learn what it could be that the aspiring inventor had hit on now. So many of Toby's startling devices had turned out to be the rankest fizzles, that his comrades had come to be very skeptical with regard to his ability to make good.
"Why, I declare if it ain't only an old umbrella after all!" exclaimed George, with his accustomed sniff of disdain, as the contents of the package became visible after the paper had been cast aside.
"You're away off there, George," affirmed Toby; "because every bit of it's brand new. My own invention too; nothing just like it ever known before."
"Huh! I believe you!" grumbled the skeptical George.
"It's what they call a parachute," Toby continued, glibly. "You know the kind the hot air balloon men use at county fairs when they go up; well this is an improvement along that line, and is intended to let an aeronaut drop a mile and more, if anything happens to his machine when he's up among the clouds."
"That sounds pretty well, Toby," remarked Elmer, though there was a shade of doubt on his face, for up to then Toby had really never managed to impress his chums with his greatness as an inventor; he was always getting excited over things, but seemed to lack the ability to successfully grasp the ideas that were floating around in his mind.
"You'll soon see that this time I have got a grand scheme in this safety device," the inventor boasted; "you know there are an awful lot of casualties among air-men these days. Some sort of thing goes wrong when they're away up, and nearly every time it means they fall like a stone.
My wonderful parachute will make it _impossible_ for the aviator who carries one along with him to be killed. Let his machine head for the earth like a meteor, and as for him he'll drift down as softly as you please."
"Go on and tell us how all this is meant to do the business," asked Chatz, as Toby amused himself in opening and closing the folds of the big stout umbrella, which certainly seemed to work smoothly enough.
"Why, you see it's fixed so that it will be attached to the back of the man in the aeroplane all the time he's up; a sort of insurance plan, because while he may not need it at all, if he does it's there handy.
When he finds his machine has gone back on him all he has to do is to jump boldly out into space. The Jones patent parachute does all the rest. It's as reliable as United States bonds, and will save lots of the poor fellows who, but for my thinking up this scheme, might have lost their lives this next year."
"Of course you've tried it out, Toby?" suggested Chatz.
"Never will work in the wide world," affirmed George; "because in nine cases out of ten it'd get caught somehow in the planes or the machinery of the aeroplane, and the poor chump who had pinned his faith to the Jones Parachute would come down ker-plunk with his wrecked motor!"
"Shows how little you know about some things, George," Toby flashed back; "if the directions are faithfully followed there never can be an accident like you say. As to trying it out, I've had one little drop, say of about ten feet, but that was too short, because the umbrella didn't have a chance to get fully open; and when I struck the ground it near rattled every tooth in my head out. But now I want to get up at least thirty feet, and then drop with the thing already open."
"But see here," Elmer told him; "I should think you'd have found a way to test the opening of the thing by throwing it over some precipice, with a heavy rock tied in place of a man."
"Just what I did, Elmer!" cried the other, hastily. "I spent a whole Saturday morning up at that big rock that overlooks Lake Jupiter, and five different times I tossed the parachute, folded up, over the edge, with a stone weighing more than a hundred and fifty pounds fastened to the same."
"And how did it work?" asked Chatz.
"Like a charm," replied the happy inventor. "The umbrella opened as quick as it began to drop, and after that it floated to the ground all right. Course it hit a little hard, because you couldn't expect it to sail along like a thistle-down, with all that weight attached; but the shock wasn't enough to hurt--much, I guess. And while we sat here eating I saw the very tree I'm meaning to climb. Look over there, and notice that half dead one, with one big dead limb hanging out, and nothing else on that same side. How high would you call that, Elmer?"
"Nearer forty feet than thirty, I should judge; and enough to kill you if you fell straight," replied the scout master.
"Don't worry about me, now; I'm all fixed for it, and I've got on my rubber-soled shoes in the bargain, so I'll be light on my feet. But I would like some of you to give me a lift up that tree."
"It's got plenty of branches on this side, so that you won't have much trouble climbing, once you get a start," Chatz told him, starting forward to lend what assistance lay in his power.
"Better not try that risky game, Toby," objected George, possibly really concerned about the safety of his comrade, but more than likely voicing his natural liking for being on the side of the opposition, for some boys are built that way, and never so happy as when throwing obstacles in the way of success.
Toby, however, paid no attention to this grumbling on the part of George. Ted and Chatz helped him into the tree, and then handed up the wonderful parachute which, if it turned out to be one-half as successful as its proud inventor claimed, was going to be a great boon for all those who took their lives in their hands and went up among the clouds in air machines.
Higher climbed Toby, managing somehow to lug his burden along with him, although it certainly could not have been any light weight.
His objective point was a large decayed limb that stood out all alone on one side of the trunk. As Elmer had calculated this was all the way from thirty-five to forty feet from the ground, and that distance offered him a good chance to experiment with his parachute.
"Be careful, Toby, and don't take too many risks!" Elmer called out to him, making use of the birch bark megaphone, so as to impress his words more positively on the other.
"Oh! look there what's running up ahead of Toby, would you?" cried George. "As sure as you live it's a 'coon, with its striped tail, and scared half to death because a critter with two legs has clumb his private tree. He must have popped out of that hole you c'n see where Toby is. And say, if the little fool hasn't gone and run out on that very limb where Toby's planned to jump from."
"Keep back, everybody!" warned Elmer; "give Toby and the 'coon all the room they need, because our chum is attaching the parachute to his body right now!"
CHAPTER VI
LOOKING AROUND
"HERE goes, fellows; now watch me make the jump!"