Scouts to the Rescue (1939), Chapter 4: “River of Doom”
For this chapter, try to keep up. I don’t want these recaps to grow to gargantuan length, but especially this time out there’s plenty of happenings shoved into the one installment, and I don’t want to leave out anything that might turn out to be important down the road. Much of what happens is silly, admittedly, but that’s never stopped us before. And anyway, this time out we get to see many more of the central scouting skills on display.
For instance, tracking. When last we left Bruce Scott, Boy Scout Wonder, he and a few other Scouts had tracked the eagle who had stolen the satchel with their two-way radio. Bruce circles one direction while the other couple go around the hill the other way (which, I think, betrays a certain two-dimensional character to their tactics, given that eagles have the entire sky open to them); Bruce falls through a hidden pit trap, and is quickly encircled about by Indians.
The other Scouts, coming around the hill, see the chase and capture, and run back to camp for reinforcements. They manage to convince the rest of the troop surprisingly easily that, no really, there are Indians up here in the hills! Even Marvin, Ace G-Man who’s just arrived back at their camp, utters only one “Indian? Impossible” before nevertheless accepting their assertion and throwing in with them to help rescue Bruce. I was expecting a little more skepticism; being captured by Indians in 1939 is only one degree more plausible than being captured by Bigfoot.
Fortunately, the Indians are taking Bruce back to their main enclave with much whooping and hooting; not only does that make them easy to track, but darned if they don’t move slowly. The Scouts trail them as silently as, um, Indians (jeez), complete with their own bows and arrows. These Scouts are really are old-school; my son is in the local Scout troop, and I don’t think he’d be able to get a shot off from a bow without puncturing either his foot or his eye. Also in their corner is Marvin and the few grenades that he just happened to pick up last time in Ghost Town. He tosses a couple from a cliff top, and the Indian party drops Bruce and scampers.
What follows shows the elastic nature of the Scout mind, I guess, as we’re not treated to wild questions and speculation about an undiscovered Indian tribe living in the hills. Nor are the boys anxious to pull up stakes and get about to town — this, remember, while knowing that their camp is adjacent to both a gang of deadly counterfeiters and The Indians That Time Forgot. Instead, they decide to go back to their plan of moving their camp back down toward the river, like they had been planning to do. They don’t even remember to use the now-rescued radio to contact anyone in town and tell them that all hell’s breaking loose, and them without horses to leave quickly.
However, Bruce and Marvin do get antsy about Skeets; you’ll remember that Marvin had sent him from Ghost Town toward the camp, but he never arrived. Instead, he’s still under the watchful eye of Rip the hooligan in Ghost Town, keeping him hostage so his father Pat Scanlon will engrave for the counterfeiters. But again, we’re seeing those patented Scouting skills pay off, as Skeets engages Rip in a discussion about — knots! (Another side note: My son, the Scout, can barely tie a square knot. Clearly, the standards of the Boys Scouts of America have slipped somewhat.) Rip’s so dismissive of that “baby” Scouting stuff that Skeets challenges him to a contest: They’ll each tie up the other’s feet, and whoever can untie himself first, wins.
I think you can see where this is going; Skeets easily unties the knot Rip ties, and while Rip struggles with his own ankles, Skeets starts in a-running. Rip decides to forfeit the contest by using his pocket knife on the rope — sore loser! — and chases him out of town, through caves, up cliffs, across gullies… Eventually, clean living once again helps Skeets; he jumps a ravine easily, but when Rip tries to follow, he ends up hanging on a cliff face. If it weren’t for Bruce, out looking for Skeets (and having just missed him), Rip would have ended his life of crime early. Once rescued, though, Rip brushes off Bruce’s invitation to clean up and come Scouting.
Meanwhile, Skeets has made it to the river, though not so far as the new Scout camp; instead, he just happens to be sighted by a lone Indian, paddling around in his canoe. That’s right, the cavedwelling Indian tribe still manages to sneak out of concealment to paddle around. The Indian tries to grab Skeets and toss him in his canoe, but in the struggle the canoe drifts out into the river, so instead the Indian shoulders the struggling Scout and starts dragging him home overland.
Meanwhile again (and here’s where a whiteboard would be helpful), Rip makes it back to Ghost Town with the news that Skeets has escaped, but is probably headed for the Scout camp up on the river. One of the gangsters drives with him up toward the camp, because, supposedly, if that kid tells what he knows, they’ll all in big trouble. (I think they’ve forgotten that Marvin already knows enough to cook their gooses.) But on the way, they meet Mary Scanlon, Skeets’ big sister, driving the same direction. Have I ever even mentioned Mary before? Possibly, back in the first chapter. She’s been mostly hanging around the periphery of the action, wringing her hands, but now she’s come up to see if Skeets is safely at the Scout camp. Rip and the gangster run her off the road and attempt to take her as a replacement hostage, but — again — Bruce just happens along, shoots the gangster’s hat off with his bow and arrow, and dives into Mary’s car with her as she peels out. (Bruce has managed to run into just about everyone else in the hills except for Skeets, the one person he was looking for.)
Right about when Mary and Bruce get to camp, the Scouts there discover the canoe driving down the river and bring it to shore. Skeets’ hat is in it, and they wonder if he fell out of it somewhere. Marvin and some other Scouts head upriver to search, while Bruce, Mary, and another Scout take the canoe to explore downriver. Alas, here is where Scout training breaks down, because this qualifies as “unfamiliar water” for all of them. Sure, it’s smooth and gentle right where the Scout camp is, but it only takes a few minutes before they encounter rapids rough enough to be rear-projected in, and then — you guessed it — a thunderous waterfall over a rocky cliff! Hang on to your hats!
Next Week: “Descending Doom”
Scouts to the Rescue | Nathan Shumate February 9, 2008
