to him. As he had explained to Dick, cricket was easy for any boy
who could play baseball fairly well. And it was the same way with
football. After the far more strenuous American game, he shone at
the milder English football, the Rugby game, which is the direct
ancestor of the sport in America.

All these things helped to make Harry popular. He was now nearly
sixteen, tall and strong for his age, thanks to the outdoor life
he had always lived. An only son, he and his father had always
been good friends. Without being in any way a molly-coddle, still
he had been kept safe from a good many of the temptations that
beset some boys by the constant association with his father. It
was no wonder, therefore, that John Grenfel, as soon as he had
talked with Harry and learned of the credentials he bore from his
home troop, had welcomed him enthusiastically as a recruit to his
own troop.

It had been necessary to modify certain rules. Harry, of course,
could not subscribe to quite the same scout oath that bound his
English fellows. But he had taken his scout oath as a tenderfoot
at home, and Grenfel had no doubts about him. He was the sort
of boy the organization wanted, whether in England or America, and
that was enough for Grenfel.

Though the boys, as they walked toward their homes, did not quite
realize it, they were living in days that were big with fate. Far
away, in the chancelleries of Europe, and, not so far away, in the
big government buildings in the West End of London, the statesmen
were even then making their best effort to avert war. No one in
England, perhaps, really believed that war was coming. There had