E-text prepared by David Edwards and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 32460-h.htm or 32460-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/32460/pg32460-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32460/32460-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/boyscoutsforuncl00pays Transcriber's note: Obvious punctuation errors were corrected. Breaks in the text were represented in three different ways in the original: a blank space, a line of dots, and a line of stars. The blank space has been replaced by a line of hyphens, the line of dots by addition signs, and the stars by asterisks. THE BOY SCOUTS FOR UNCLE SAM by LIEUT. HOWARD PAYSON Author of "The Boy Scouts of the Eagle Patrol," "The Boy Scouts on the Range," "The Boy Scouts and the Army Airship," "The Boy Scouts' Mountain Camp," "The Boy Scouts at the Panama Canal," etc. [Illustration: Every eye watched the distant yacht anxiously. _(Page 75)_ _(The Boy Scouts for Uncle Sam)_] [Illustration] A. L. Burt Company Publishers New York Printed in U. S. A. Copyright, 1912, by Hurst & Company Made in U. S. A CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE EAGLES AT HOME 5 II. THE FACE AT THE TRANSOM 14 III. AN OCEAN DERELICT 26 IV. A MYSTERY OF THE SEA 36 V. A MESSAGE FROM THE PAST 46 VI. A STARTLING ADVENTURE 53 VII. TRAPPED BY FLAMES 61 VIII. A BOY SCOUT SIGNAL 69 IX. THE BOYS MEET A "WOLF" 76 X. A NEW RECRUIT 84 XI. BARTON THE MACHINIST 95 XII. THE SUBMARINE ISLAND 102 XIII. DOWN TO THE DEPTHS 112 XIV. FACING DEATH 120 XV. THE STRANGE FLAG 129 XVI. SCOUTING FOR UNCLE SAM 138 XVII. ROB'S BRAVE ACT 146 XVIII. THE ISLAND HUT 154 XIX. A CHASE IN THE NIGHT 163 XX. ON BOARD A STRANGE CRAFT 173 XXI. OFF ON A SEA TRAIL 182 XXII. A MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE 190 XXIII. THE DEPTHS OF OLD OCEAN 198 XXIV. ROB MAKES A DISCOVERY 209 XXV. THE DEAD MAN'S HOARD 217 XXVI. WHICH WILL WIN? 228