"Did, eh? Well, don't that go to prove what I said; and you just wait
till we get back to the meeting room in the church. Paul's just bursting
with some sort of secret, and I reckon he'll just have to tell us
to-night," and Jack laughed good-naturedly as he still led his two
comrades on toward the retired lane, where his father's big mill adjoined
the storage place for lumber; convenient to the river, and at the same
time near the railroad, so that a spur track could enter the yard.

Besides these three boys five others constituted the Red Fox Patrol of
Stanhope Troop. In the first story of this series, which appeared under
the name of "The Banner Boy Scouts; Or, The Struggle for Leadership,"
the reader was told about the formation of the Red Fox Patrol, and how
some of the boys learned a lesson in scout methods of returning good for
evil; also how a cross old farmer was taught that he owed a duty to the
community in which he lived, as well as to himself. In that story it was
also disclosed how a resident of the town offered a beautiful banner to
that troop which excelled in an open tournament also participated in by
two other troops of Boy Scouts from the towns of Aldine and Manchester;
the former on the east bank of the Bushkill, about six miles up-stream,
and the latter a bustling manufacturing place about seven miles down, and
also on the same bank as Aldine.

In this competition, after a lively duel between the three wide awake
troops, Stanhope won handsomely; and had therefore been given the banner,
which Wallace Carberry proudly carried at the head of the procession
whenever they paraded.

The second book, "The Banner Boy Scouts on a Tour; Or, The Mystery of
Rattlesnake Mountain," was given over almost exclusively to descriptions
of the wonderful things that came to pass when Stanhope Troop spent a