America First. Greene Frances Nimmo

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СКАЧАТЬ man swinging in the wind!"

      "Listen!" exclaimed Biddie under his breath.

      It will have to be recorded that they all jumped violently at the exclamation.

      "What?" demanded L. C.

      "And hear old Danny being quiet!" finished the teasing scamp.

      "You bet you, and he'd better be quiet – " began Roger.

      But Whitman interrupted:

      "Danny's afraid of ghosts, anyway," he declared, "I tried to leave him in the graveyard once, but he was home in his mama's lap before I started running."

      "I'm not any more afraid of ghosts than you are," Danny protested hotly.

      "Oh, aren't you?"

      "No, I'm not!"

      "All right, then," the big boy taunted; "I've been to the haunted tree by myself at night – these fellows all know I have – now suppose you go."

      "Sure, tenderfoot," put in young Rowell; "here's a perfectly good chance to show your nerve."

      "He hasn't any," sneered Alex Batré.

      But Danny drew back, aghast at the proposition – go alone to a spot like that, and at night!

      "Go to it, kid," was suddenly spoken quietly in his ear.

      Danny turned to see whose was the kindly voice that advised, and looked into Biddie Burton's eyes.

      "Don't let 'em make you take a dare," came in another whisper. "Go." Biddie was not smiling now, and there was a note of serious friendliness in his voice.

      It suddenly came to Danny that he would give more to merit that new confidence on Biddie's part than to break down the taunts of the others. And yet he could not. He could no more command his shaking nerves to carry him to that unhallowed, ghostly spot than he could command the unwilling nerves of another. His will-power had deserted him.

      "I dare you to go!" badgered L. C.

      Danny's spirit flamed for one brief moment. But in the very next his head dropped, and he turned away.

      "This is going too far," the wretched little fellow heard Biddie Burton exclaim sharply.

      "What is 'going too far'?" a new voice asked out of the darkness, and Willard McKenzie advanced into the group. "What is 'going too far'?" he repeated, glancing from one to another. No answer being volunteered, his keen glance quickly singled out the shamed tenderfoot.

      "What have they been up to, Danny?" he asked.

      Danny turned and faced him.

      "Nothing that makes any difference," he said.

      It was generous in him not to "peach," and so Biddie Burton's friendly glance assured him.

      The incident passed with that, for McKenzie was full of something repressed, and, seeing it, the boys gathered close about him in eager questioning – all except Danny.

      All except Danny! His brief career – his career that only an hour ago had promised so much – had ended, and in disgrace. He had taken a dare! Nothing would ever matter to him again – Danny told his aching heart – the boys despised him, all except Biddie Burton, and, somehow, Biddie's pity was harder to bear than despite.

      "I went to the gap and wired Mr. Gordon," McKenzie was saying now, "and he told me I could put you to it at once. He's had an accident to his car and may not get here for some time."

      "What's up?" It was Roger who asked the question.

      "Something serious," answered McKenzie, "but Mr. Gordon didn't say what. Have you had supper?"

      They replied in concert, eager to receive orders.

      "Well," continued McKenzie, "we've got to cover the mountain here, for signs of – anything unusual. You'll have to be careful not to run into trouble yourselves, but you must know your ground. There'll be a good moon if the clouds break."

      "Glory be!" Danny heard Elsie Whitman breathe in expectant ecstasy, and he would have given the world to have felt with him that eager joy. But Danny had taken a dare!

      The others were chattering now, as eager as Whitman to be off on the trail of adventure.

      McKenzie was giving orders:

      "Whitman, you can take the north trail, and bear down over the mountain. Ham will strike out down the creek to the left there, and work around to your territory. There's an old cabin hidden by scrub-oaks and rocks about a quarter below the bridge there, Ham. Know it for what it is, but don't you run your long neck into danger."

      In spite of his hurt Danny was getting interested. He crept up on the outer edge of the group and listened, wide-eyed, as the other boys eagerly accepted their several commissions.

      "Roger and Ed," their leader was continuing, "bear south till you get below the drop of the cliff, and then separate and work that territory between you" – with a sweeping gesture. "Alex and Biddie – let me see – you two go over the mountain to the right of Elsie – No, there's the Death Head trail – " He paused a moment in thoughtful survey of them, and the boys looked at each other apprehensively. Not one of them was anxious to work the trail of evil name. Suddenly, however, McKenzie's eyes lighted on Danny Harding, and an inspiration seemed to come to him.

      "Say," he exclaimed, "I'll give the new recruit a chance at that. Come here, scout." And he laid a kind hand on Danny's shoulder and drew him into the circle.

      Somebody on the outskirts of the group laughed.

      "Now you are going to do your first service for your country," McKenzie said to the tenderfoot; "but whatever you do, be wary, because – "

      Somebody else laughed, and McKenzie looked about sharply. "What's the joke?" he asked.

      "Danny's afraid," the mocker explained; "that's where the dead man swings."

      Biddie strolled forward. "Alex will be enough to work Elsie's right," he said to McKenzie. "Give me the Death Head trail. You'll need Dan here about the camp."

      But Danny raised his head quickly. It is true that his face was dead-white, but his head was up.

      "I'll go to the Death Head," he said to McKenzie.

      The crowd was dumb-struck.

      "But you got white-livered and backed down – " L. C. began, after the first shock of his surprise.

      "I wouldn't go when you dared me to," said the tenderfoot, "but this is – different." And he added in his heart: "This is for my country."

      "But he is afraid," put in Roger. "Look at him!"

      McKenzie took a long, straight look into Danny's white face and determined eyes, and then turned to Roger.

      "All the gamer of him," he said, "to go in spite of being afraid – that's the stuff that Pershing is looking for. And Mr. Gordon says that a boy who 'isn't afraid of anything' hasn't sense enough to be trusted with a commission. "Kid," he continued, turning to Danny, "you find out all that there is to be СКАЧАТЬ