Page:Fairview Boys and their Rivals.djvu/58

54 was called, three at either end. The other six were called "scouts." They were sent out to rout out and capture "the enemy." Any of the latter who got into the fort without being tagged, became a "ranger" for the next game as well.

Every once in a while it was the rule that a ranger should give out a signal shout, so as to direct the scouts in the direction of his hiding place.

Bob kept with his fellow rangers until they scattered to different points along the bluff side. Then he tried a scheme of getting into the fort on his own hook.

There was not a foot on the bluff that Bob did not know by heart. He aimed to reach a point where a sharp descent led right down to the campfire. If he could get on a line between the stakes, and could run, tumble or slide fast enough, he counted on landing in the fort before any one could reach and tag him.

Edging along in among the shrubbery. Bob finally reached the bare spot in the shelving bluff where he was to try his dash for the fort.

"I guess the way is clear," he said to himself, peering around the edge of a nest of shrubbery on a shelf of rocks.

Then Bob was a good deal surprised to catch the sound of voices. At first he thought it was some of the Burr crowd lying in ambush, and pricked up his ears sharply.

As he listened. Bob traced the voices right beyond him. They were men's voices. By stooping and peering through a network of vines. Bob made out two men lying on the ground. There was light enough from the campfire to show that they had made a bed of leaves and branches, and that one of them had a green patch over one eye.

"I know the other man," said Bob to himself. "He is the tramp I met to-day."