Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: TOM HAULED THE LOGS BY MEANS OF A BLOCK AND FALL. Tom Slade at Black Lake--Frontispiece (Page 96)] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TOM SLADE AT BLACK LAKE By PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH Author of THE TOM SLADE AND THE ROY BLAKELEY BOOKS Illustrated by HOWARD L. HASTINGS Published with the approval of THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA GROSSET & DUNLAP Publishers--New York Made in the United States of America ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright, 1920, by GROSSET & DUNLAP ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE. Several persons have asked me when Tom Slade was ever going to grow up and cease to be a Scout. The answer is that he is already grown up and that he is never going to cease to be a Scout. Once a Scout, always a Scout. To hear some people talk one would think that scouting is like the measles; that you get over it and never have it any more. Scouting is not a thing to play with, like a tin steam-engine, and then to throw aside. If you once get caught in the net of scouting, you will never disentangle yourself. A fellow may grow up and put on long trousers and go and call on a girl and all that sort of thing, but if he was a Scout, he will continue to be a Scout, and it will stick out all over him. You'll find him back in the troop as assistant or scoutmaster or something or other. I think Tom Slade is a very good example. He left the troop to go and work on a transport; he got into the motorcycle messenger service; he became one of the greatest daredevils of the air; he came home quite "grown up" as you would say, and knuckled down to be a big business man. Then, when it came to a show down, what did he do? He found out that he was just a plain Scout, shouldered his axe, and went off and did a big scout job all alone. So there you are. I am sorry for those who would have him too old for scouting, and who seem to think that a fellow can lay aside all he has learned in the woods and in the handbook, the same as he can lay aside his short trousers. It isn't as easy as all that. Did you suppose that Tom Slade was going to get acquainted with nature, with the woods and streams and trees, and make them his friends, and then repudiate these friends? Do you think that a Scout is a quitter? Tom Slade was always a queer sort of duck, and goodness only knows what he will do next. He may go to the North Pole for all I know. But one thing you may be sure of; he is still a Scout of the Scouts, and if you think he is too old to be a Scout, then how about Buffalo Bill?