P. and the Scout Badges

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SCOUT NEWS THRILLING 5TORIE5

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Scouting Stories Page Story in Pictures Page Second Shot ...... 7 Patrol Camp Adventure . . 36-40 The Green Chair ..... 20 Puzzles, Quizzes, Problems Patrol Camp Adventure .... 36 Tree Crossword . 1J Cold Comfort Camp .... 44 Ladder Puzzles . . . . 1 c or The Camp that Disappeared ... 52 Twenty Questions . 1 o The Pathfinders 70 Spot the Knot . LI18 The Horror in the Store Tent ... 88 Find the P L 28 A Test of Initiative 99 Rhyming Fish . 60 Caving Quest ...... 116 Tree Puzzle . 84 True Adventure The Ferry Puzzle . . . . 87 The Well and the Wall . . 112 The Man With God in His Heart . . 29 Bravest of the Brave .... 48 The Farmer's Field . 1 10 In Leopard Country 66 t^an TOU Keaa itc Scouts Who Became Famous ... 79 Water Sport B.-P., Military Detective . . . .108 Fun in the Water . . . . 14 Eels are Fun 61 Scout News Pioneer Days Australian Scouts ..... 60 Creator of Kim 86 Scouting Has Many Faces .... 65 Training Scoutmasters .... 83 B.-P.'s Letter of Sixty-five Years Ago 124 Facts About Scouting .... 93 Troop Yells From Near and Far 94 1st Burgess Hill . 17 1st Llanishen . 83 Campcraft, Woodcraft, Nature Lore Making a Spoor Collection ... 41 Comic Cartoons Countryside Creatures . . 51,64,91,111 The Troop Terror . 17 A Camp Hot-Water Machine ... 65 Summer Camp Memories . 28 The Peat Fire 85 "Albert, did 1 hurt you?" 64 Camp-Fire Blanket 90 So Considerate . • . 69 Make a Tree-Board . . . . .113 Bliss 83 Seaside Jewels 115 The Heretic 91 Overdoing It . . 107 Do It Yourself Putting the "Out" in Scouting . . 113 Can You . . . Have You ... Do You ... ? . 6 About Words Bookworm's "Dummy" .... 43 Ours is a Queer Language, Ours is 84 A Cheap Shower Bath .... 43 Word Wisdom . 87 Cycle Tips ...... 47 Make an Indoor Telephone ... 92 Photo Pages Facing page Make a Natty Knife Sheath . . .106 Scouting at Chalfont Heights 32 Make a Portable Troop Progress Board . 112 In the Footsteps of the Chief Scout 33 Do Your Own Duplicating . . . 122 Air Scouting Thrills . 48 Sea Scouting .... 49 Scout Badges Round the World Camp Cooks 80 The Scout Badge . . . . . 15 Camp Cameos . 81 B.-P. and the Scout Badges . . . 16 Hiking, Touring, Climbing 96 The Arrowhead ..... 33 Indoors, Outdoors, and on the Air 97 0

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Illustrated by ALLAN RAE

MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY PURNELL AND SONS LTD. PAULTON (SOMERSET) AND LONDON (San QJou . . $tave QJou . . . CDo QJou . . . ?

Can You . . . ? I. Tie a reef knot behind your back ? 2. Make a plaster cast 4 of an animal's track? 3. Erect a hike tent by yourself? 4. Work a Primus ? 5. Fix a washer on a tap ? 6. Mend a fuse ? 7. Cook a twist? 8. Whip a rope? 9. End-splice a rope? i 10. Sew on a button ? f

Have You . . . ? 11. Slept at least once without cover in the open air? 12. Boiled, fried, poached, or scrambled eggs? 13. Made I a camp oven out of a biscuit tin ? 14. Set (or orientated) a map ? 15. Lighted a fire with tinder and small twigs with two (or not many more) matches? 16. Covered a mile at Scout's pace—i.e., in about twelve minutes? 17. Mended a cycle puncture? 18. Sharpened an axe? 19. Cooked a meal in aluminium foil ? 20. Followed a trail by means of hardly visible signs left for you by someone else?

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Do You .. . ? 21. Know an oak-tree, an elm-tree, a beech-tree, a plane- tree, a horsechestnut-tree, whenever you see one? 22. Know the sixteen points of a compass ? 23. Know what you need for a weekend (or longer) camp ? 24. Recognise black• birds, thrushes, chaffinches, rooks and robbins whenever you see them? 25. Know what makes a good camp site? 26. Know your personal measurements—e.g., height, span of outstretched arms, height of knees from ground, span of thumb and little finger, length between elbow and finger• tip? 27. Know all the roads, bus routes, and public build• ings within a mile radius of your house ? 28. Do a good turn to someone at least once a day ? 29. Carry in your pockets things that will help you to some extent to live up to the Scout motto, "Be Prepared"—e.g., notebook and pencil, length of thin cord, clean handkerchief, etc? f you ask me," said Peter disgustedly, i "you're just plain daft." "Nobody's asking you," retorted Len, with an obstinate shrug of his shoulders. "If I want to walk round to Skip's by the road, that's my affair." Leighton Houghton "But if you cut through the farm it's only half the distance," said Peter, trotting to keep up with him. "I mean, I don't mind trekking an extra mile, if that's what you want, but you might tell me what the idea is." "Old Chandler—that's the idea, if you must know," answered Len, looking straight i ahead and quickening his pace. "Old Chand• ler and I had a disagreement—months ago. He was in the wrong, but he thought he was in the right, and you know what a stubborn bloke he can be. He said I was to keep off his land. There, now you've had it! I'm not cutting through the farm, because the farm belongs to Mr. Chandler. Is that okay?" "What was the disagreement about?" "This." Len patted the .22 rifle he was carrying in the crook of his arm. "It was just after my uncle gave it me for my birth• day. My mum didn't like the idea of my using it in the garden, though I'd fixed up a target range that was as safe as houses; she was frightened I'd go potting at the neighbour's cat—or maybe she was fright• ened for the neighbours. Dad said there The Scout's Pathfinder Annual I r4 m "4 • 'It 8*HI. 0• r MI himm. i r • M 01 mm ... 11 «//,/'/»'/ lid"/' r /I i '1 / LUi

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Hi/'. I • / were masses of rats round Chandler's out-^ and came tearing round the corner of the buildings, so I wandered along there in the barn like a fury. The rat wasn't waiting for evening and waited near the barn. I went to that, you bet; he spun round and made a the house first, of course, to ask if it was dash for his hole. I knew I wouldn't have okay, but there wasn't anyone at home. Well, another chance and I pulled the trigger in a I figured no farmer would mind a fellow kind of panic. I missed the beast." shooting his rats for him, so I went to the Peter nodded. "You hit the dog." barn, settled myself behind the wall that "How did you guess1?" Len paused, wait- runs alongside it, and waited. The light ing for him to reach him. "Well, I'd only had was beginning to fade and everywhere was the gun a day—hadn't fired it a dozen times, as quiet as a grave. Then suddenly I saw a Mind you, the dog wasn't hurt—not badly, monster rat pop out from a hole in the The bullet grazed one of its forelegs; it hardly barn wall. He popped back again almost bled at all. But you should have heard the at once, but I kept waiting, squinting down fuss it made, rushing round in circles, howling the barrel." and yelping. Then old Chandler burst on the Peter said eagerly, "And you got him! So scene and—oh, boy!—was he hopping mad? what? I don't see why Mr. Chandler " You see, he wouldn't believe that I'd been "But I didn't get him." Len clicked his aiming at a rat, and there wasn't any rat tongue. " Oh, the blighter came back all right, there to prove my point. He accused me of but by that time the light was pretty bad. I potting his blessed dog on purpose. Anyway, waited till he was right out, hopping along he ordered me off his land and told me I was the barn wall. I'd got the sight dead on his to keep off. That satisfy you? Now you ugly skull when there was an interruption: know why every time I go along to Skip's I the noise of a car driving into the stackyard have to leg it by the highway." on the other side of the barn. A dog barked "Chandler's a prize dope," said Peter. 8 Second Shot

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"He does enough shooting himself. You'd "Marksman!" Len's face brightened. "You think he'd have a hit of sympathy." mean me and my gun? But Dad won't let me Len's quarrel with the farmer had not have it—says I've got to wait." ended that evening. Mr. Chandler later paid "Your dad will give it back to you if he a visit to his home and told his father what realises you're going to use it properly. I've he thought of irresponsible boys who walked done a spot of thinking. Maybe you know round the country trigger-happy with a .22 there's a disused quarry at the bottom of my gun. Shortly afterwards Skip heard about it, garden. Well, we could fix you up a range too. Meantime, Len's father's solution had there and you could have all the target prac• been to confiscate the gun and lock it away tice you need—and you'll need plenty, I can in a cupboard; neither he nor Len's mother tell you; the standard's pretty high. I'll had approved of Uncle Eeg sending their have a word with your dad, and you and son a rifle for his birthday, anyway. I can get cracking Saturday morning." But Skip had come up with a better solu• "Smashing!" Len grinned. "Couldn't tion. One evening, when the Troop meeting you come and see Dad right now? " was finished, he called Len aside and handed For the next three months Len practised him a copy of P.O.E., open at one of the his target-shooting in the quarry every Satur• pages which listed the Proficiency Badges day morning and on other days when time for under-15s. Len frowned at the print, and weather permitted. Skip perfected a read the first few lines about the badge gadget consisting of a length of wood and a described, and shook his head. complicated arrangement of strings: a string "Skip, I'm not ready for my Lifesaver. I pulled at a safe distance caused one of three can't swim well enough—not by half." cardboard rabbits to appear for ten seconds "I'm not asking you to. Look lower down above the board. When Len succeeded in —paragraph 469." hitting the rabbit more or less constantly 9 The Scout's Pathfinder Annual Skip shortened the time of the rabbit's "I guess I could take it now, Skip." Len appearance to seven seconds, then to five. stood up, looking at him expectantly. "I'd Before long, other members of the Troop like to be tested, if it's all right by you." caught the enthusiasm and most Saturdays "Yes, I reckon you've got a pretty good would find half a dozen of them at the quarry, chance." Skip nodded. "Actually, you'll be taking turns with the gun. the first Scout in the district to gain this Skip's house lay outside the village and, badge if you get it. In fact, when I told as Peter had remarked, by cutting through the D.S.M. what we were up to he had to the farmyard and skirting a couple of fields admit there wasn't even an examiner ap• one could lessen the distance by the best part pointed and we had to set about finding one. of a mile. To Len, visiting Skip several times But it wasn't too difficult. Johnny, you shoot every week, the longer journey by the road three targets while I nip back to the house was an irksome reminder of the injustice he and phone; I might be able to fix your test had once suffered at the farmer's hands. He for this afternoon." did not relish the possibility of meeting Mr. Johnny's targets produced scores of 91, Chandler when he was passing, carrying the 89, 94. Skip, coming back a few minutes gun, but by good luck Mr. Chandler was later, agreed that it was worth risking a test never about when he went by. For more for him as well. than three months he practised his shooting "Good for you, Johnny!" Len linked arms and the farmer knew nothing of what he with him. "Is it this afternoon, then? " was doing. "Half-two." Skip grinned. "I hope you're "You can have first shot today, Pete." In lucky. The examiner wants you to call round a sudden moment of generosity, pleased by at his place. He can fix you a range there, Peter's sympathetic reception of his account but you'll need to take your own targets." of Chandler's treatment of him, Len passed "Where do we go?" asked Johnny. him the rifle as they turned through the gate There was a moment's pause before Skip into Skip's garden. "Eighty in ten shots— replied, and a shadow of a smile hovered that's the minimum score for a pass, and— round the corners of his mouth. oh, boy!—does it take some getting!" " One of the locals, as a matter of fact. It's Len himself was in good form this morning, Mr. Chandler, up at the farm." and the first target he shot showed a score "Mr. who? " Len gaped at him, stuttering. of 93. "B—but, Skip, I won't have a chance. You " You keep that up and I'll okay you to the know what he thinks about me. Mr. Chand• examiner," said Skip, passing him the target. ler! If this is some kind of joke " "It has to be an outside examiner; you know "It's no joke, Len," retorted Skip seri• that. Try another couple of targets, then ously. "Now, just you think. It's because of we'll let Johnny have a second go." your row with Mr. Chandler that I suggested Len dropped on to the old mattress which him to the L.A.—apart from the fact that had been placed at one end of the range, he's far and away the best shot in the village. brought the rifle up to his shoulder and Our Mr. Chandler got it stuck in his head that levelled the bead on the bull's-eye twenty all you wanted a gun for was to go potting yards away. The quarry echoed to the shots. at anything that happened to be alive and As he ejected the tenth cartridge Peter ran just for the fun of it. Well, we've got to show forward to retrieve the target. him he's wrong. We've got to prove that he "You've done it again!" He cocked a misjudged you." thumb at him. "All bulls except one, and Len frowned, biting his hp. "I suppose that's an inner. Smashing!" you're right—provided it's a fair test. Old The third target produced a score of 91. Chandler! Just saying his name gives me Second Shot butterflies in my stomach! Gosh, if only I could shoot two super targets—make a 'A fabulous score—if only I could show him!" mm "It's up to you, Len. You'll have Johnny to give you moral support. Incidentally, Mr. Chandler doesn't know it's you that's com•

[ i ing ; I only told him there were two Scouts. • He's fixing a range in his barn. I reckon you'll both pass—and with honours. You'll wear uniform, of course." Despite Skip's assurance that all would be well, Len felt nervous and uneasy as he 1 • / walked up the road after dinner, glancing back anxiously to see if Johnny was coming. "Now for it!" Johnny came running as he I, reached the gate to the farm. "Who'll go first? Better toss for it!" He spun a coin. Len called and won. "First shot for me, then." r

Ah 11 V 1 Win* I t "You hang on to the gun, in that case," said Johnny, and pushed the gate open. There was a long, winding drive to the farm, bordered by unfenced meadows, with dry ditches either side to keep the cattle from 7 ir straying. As they came in sight of the build• ings a dog barked and the golden retriever

/ that Len had accidentally wounded six 7 0 months ago came leaping towards them. Mr. Chandler was strolling behind it. "So you've come." He nodded brusquely to them, not recognizing Len, whom he had not previously seen wearing Scout uniform. \ "I've cleared space for you to shoot in the barn. Your Scoutmaster told me it would do if you showed me targets you'd already shot, but I said I'd prefer to see the job done properly and I'd like you to shoot 'em here. Two targets, as you know, an' when you've shot 'em there's a question or two I've to be asking you. Come along, then." He turned to lead them towards the stack• \ yard, but Len did not move. He was staring So you ve come, said the farmer at the retriever, which had jumped the ditch The Scoutfs Pathfinder Annual

Before the farmer could move Len squeezed the trigger

and was standing, ears pricked and one paw enough harm to the dog, wounding her. She'll poised in the air, near a patch of sandy earth. be gun-shy for the rest of her days. What With a gesture to Johnny to remain still, crazy sort of shot are you? " he flicked the rifle open and slipped in a Len was not listening. He walked to the bullet. The farmer, finding that neither was ditch, leapt it and, stooping, lifted something following, spun around. from the sun-dried grass. "What the blazes? " He caught the click of Mr. Chandler stood gazing at him, sud• the safety catch being released. "Lower that denly silent. gun, boy! What d'you think you're ? " "Last time it was a rat, sir." Len spoke Before the farmer could move, Len lifted calmly, facing him. "You wouldn't believe the gun to his shoulder and squeezed the me. I never meant to shoot your dog that trigger. The bullet pinged into the earth an time nor this. This time I didn't miss." inch beyond the retriever's paw, kicking up He lifted his hand, displaying the object a spurt of dust. The dog uttered a shrill he had picked up. The sun glinted on some• whine of fear, turned and fled. thing long and thin and shining, the olive "So it's you again!" The farmer was body blotched with darker markings and with running towards them, red of face and brand• blood dripping from the flattened head. ishing his stick. "You're the boy I ordered "An adder!" The farmer stared at the off my land last spring, and you're back at limp corpse; then, glancing aside, measured your tricks again, as though you haven't done the distance with his eye. "Twenty-five 12 Second Shot yards and you've got its head. Boy, I reckon District for as long as anyone can remember. you're going to pass this test." I reckon I owe you an apology." The farmer He wheeled round and strode towards passed the two papers to them, having the barn. Len winked at Johnny and scribbled his signature. "So it was a rat the dropped what was left of the adder into first time. I believe you now. I was a trifle the ditch. hasty." Johnny said excitedly, "It could have "I guess that goes for me, too." Len killed that dog if it had bitten it, Len. And laughed. "I ought never to have fired—not he never even thanked you. Gosh, some folk with the dog so near. I'm sorry about it, are mean." sir." "Well, let's hope he's not going to be mean "But the second shot probably saved her with our test," retorted Len and, clicking life, lad." Mr. Chandler slapped him on the the safety catch, jumped the ditch and back. "A moving viper at twenty-five yards followed Mr. Chandler. —somehow I don't think you'll ever do much In the test that followed, Johnny scored a better than that. If it's rats you want I'll 91 and a 90; Len a 90 and 92. give you the right to shoot the vermin any time you like. You'll find more than enough "You've got your papers for me to sign, on this farm for targets." eh? " Mr. Chandler waited for them as they "Oh, thanks a lot." Len grinned at came from the barn, where each had shot his Johnny. "They'll be more exciting than two targets. "They tell me you'll be the first Skip's cardboard rabbits." Scouts to wear the Marksman Badge in this "I'll say," said Johnny. TEEE CECSSWCEE PUZZLE 1

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13 FUN in the WATER by Brian J. Sims

It should be the aim of every Scout side. As above, race over course and to be able to swim. To be proficient see who is first. No doubt many will and to feel at home in the water is not collapse, but this will add to the fun. only a fine thing; it is also an excellent Now progress to waist-high wTater. form of exercise, bringing into use muscles Heave Away! Two teams of equal num• which under normal circumstances are bers. Get a rope, as for a normal tug-o'- little used. war, and proceed in the usual way. A Confidence is important for the suc• leader decides when a team has won. cess of a would-be swimmer. Some of the Variation: play as above, but in deeper following games can be played in shallow water, so that each one has to tread water water to assist in the gaining of this or swim backwards. confidence. With your Patrol, you can Circle Ball. Form up in a circle with have a wonderful time, but remember to one member in the centre. The water take every precaution possible for the safety of yourself and others. No fool• ing around. No pushing in or ducking; this could shatter completely any confi• dence a young learner has gained. Always have a strong swimmer at the side as a lifeguard—he should wear trunks under his coat; he must be ready for any emergency. First of all, then, some games to play in shallow water. Crab Race. Line up at the start. Each one has to support himself on his hands should be waist-high. A ball is passed and feet, with the back facing down. across the circle whilst the Scout in In this position everyone races across the centre tries to intercept it. When the pool or down the length of beach to he does this he changes with the Scout the winning line. who last threw. Shrimp Cart Race. In pairs. The one in The last two games are for those who front kneels in the water and supports can swim. Don't treat the result too himself on his hands as the chap at the seriously, but let anyone join however back lifts up and holds his legs by his slow he may be. We were all slow at one 14 time, so encourage slowcoaches by letting them take part. Dolphin Race. Divide into teams. In THE SCOUT BADGE front of each team, about ten yards away, Here is an interesting analysis of is an inflated car inner tube. On "go" the Scout Badge. The meanings of the the number ones swim to their tubes. various figures are given underneath They duck or dive under, using hands the illustration. if need be, and pass through before swimming back and touching off number twos. DUTY TO GOD Water Knots. In this game you do some revision too. Form up in teams and on "go" number one swims to the finishing line, but during the swim he must tie a reef-knot without actually stopping. He then swims back, after untying the knot, and passes the rope to number two. Get into the swim, then, Scouts!

LADDER D TURNS! PUZZLE 'BE PREPARED]

ROVER by Cyril Donson The points of the stars stand for Start on the bottom the ten Scout Laws, as follows: rung with SCOUT and 1. Honourable. 2. Loyal. 3. Helpful. 4. Friendly. 5. Courteous. 6. Kind. climb up the ladder 7. Obedient. 8. Cheerful. 9. Thrifty. until you reach the 10. Clean. top, where SCOUT be• comes ROVER. Remem• ber that at each move you may change only 5Jhzy 9Uatty> Wanted a Steut one letter of a word to make the next. Wayne University wanted a new president to re• place the retiring one. So the Wayne State alumni drew up the foUowing advertisement for insertion in newspapers: ANSWERS "Wanted, a pragmatic realist, tough, resilient, brave, determined, practical, objective, hard• 'J3A03 'J3A03 '}3UICT) 'SSUIO^ working, intelligent, flexible, responsible, humble, religious, God-fearing, altruistic, no 'egghead', 'squioQ 'squiog 'sqoog 'sqojg sociaUy active, good-natured, friendly, and a rugged 'sqojs 'sdojs 'sdijs 'sdoqs individualist with high moral character and good 'SCOUT 'sdiqs 'sinqs 'suiqg 'auoqc. judgment." «3Joqs *?J<>qs «*noqs 'JJIODS Why didn't they just specify a Scout ? 15 Win. J. Bleeks Recalls Facts About B.-P. AND THE SCOUT BADGES

Take a look at the buttonhole badge loose one knot each day, and if the King you're wearing. Now take a look at the and his army had not returned by the Scout badge incorporated in the First time all the knots were untied the bridge Class badge. If you haven't your First had to be destroyed. Class badge you will find one illus• The main design of the Scout badge, trated in Scouting for Boys or Policy, the compass arrowhead, was used before Organisation and Rules. You will notice the founding of the Scout Movement. In a slight difference in the two badges. 1897 Baden-Powell was promoted to On the First Class badge there is a small Colonel of the 5th Dragoon Guards, then knot hanging from the scroll. This was, stationed in India. During his time with in fact, included in Baden-Powell's ori• the regiment he introduced a new branch ginal design for the Scout badge, but of warfare. disappeared with the change to the badge He selected specially qualified men we know today. and trained them as scouts for recon• This knot was a reminder to the Scout naissance work in enemy territory. When to do his daily good turn. This custom the soldiers had completed B.-P.'s strenu• of tying knots as an aid to memory dates ous and exacting training course they from the time of Herodotus, one of the were entitled to wear a small arrowhead kings of ancient Greece. After crossing badge on their sleeves. a river during one of his military cam• paigns he ordered a number of soldiers to remain and guard the bridge. He left with them a rope on which were a number of knots. The soldiers had to 3jk

--.IN,'1- Boy messengers of Mafeking

During the siege of Mafeking, Lord Edward Cecil formed a corps of boy mes• sengers, a corps which was, in many The soldiers had to untie one knot each day respects, the forerunner of our Movement. 16 B.-P. and the Scout Badges Again the badge adopted was the arrow• the South African Constabulary he was head of the compass, which, like the asked to form and train in 1899. boys who wore it, helped to point out As he himself said, the uniform was the way. designed not for show but for its neat• Another interesting badge—though ness and practical use. It consisted not, this time, one which you wear every of riding breeches, a khaki tunic and a day—is the Wood Badge. This is a wide-brimmed cowboy-style hat with a badge which is presented to Scouters green feather. It is interesting to note who complete a special training course. that inside these hats were stamped the The badge itself is worn round the scarf. initials B.-P., which stood for "Boss of It is a leather bootlace and two beads, the Plains". which are replicas of those on a neck• When he was not borrowing from far lace given to Baden-Powell by Dinezula, and wide Baden-Powell was, as you would an African chief. At the very first expect of such a man, inventing. For Wood Badge course, held at Gilwell Park example, in 1920 he decided it was time in 1919, actual beads from the necklace for Scouts of all nations to come to• were presented. gether. This gathering was to take place In this way B.-P., as he built up the at Olympia and when it was suggested Scout Movement, drew on the traditions that such a great gathering needed a of the British army and of African tribes, special name B.-P. said: "We'll call it a on his own personal experiences, and Jamboree." on the books he read. He based the Scout When asked why, he just shrugged his uniform on that which he selected for shoulders and said, "Why not?"

1st BURGESS HILL SKULLAUDCeoSSBO SCOUT GROUP YELL

Sent in by Peter Arden

If—you—ask—us—who—we—be, We—will—answer—"Can't—you—see ? If—you—can't—you—darn—soon—will, We're—the—boys—of—the—1st BURGESS HILL, B-u-r-g-e-s-s H-i-l-l, Burgess—Hill". (One Scout in ordinary voice): "Can you hear me, Mother dear?" (All together, as loud as possible): BOY SCOUTS, BOY SCOUTS, 1st BURGESS HILL.

ANNUAL EVENTS TO NOTE Founder's Day Service, West- National Sea Scout Regatta. minster Abbey. Jamboree-on-the-Air, Baden- Bob-a-Job Week. Powell House. National Scout Service, _, Windsor. The GanS Show- Cub Open Day, Gilwell Park. World Friendship Year from National Scoutcar Races. October 1st, 1965, to Sep- National Canoe Scout Cruise. tember 30th, 1966. Try this form of ij^y/] SSkill \C Witn Your Patrol Set by Sydney R. Brown

The fact that the initial letters of the answers coincide with the first twenty letters of the alphabet may be of some help in answering the questions. Try them out for yourselffirst and then make a pencil-and-paper game of it with your Patrol.

1. What was the site of the World Jamboree held in 1929 to celebrate the 21st anniversary of Scouting? 2. A broad arrow-cut with a line over it on the corner of a stone building is a what? 3. What is commonly known as the "Scouts' V.C."? 4. These adventurers sail the sea and wear a royal blue scarf. 5. Do you know the American term for a Senior Scout Troop? 6. What is the free end of a flag, the part far• thest from the mast, called? 7. Which scarf bears the tartan of the Clan

Maclaren? /"////, //j

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ANSWERS

•9\o6 ubjbj, *oi •sjauios P-JOl 'Zi •spreqsdaaqs '61 •Md "9 •pira 3inuurt£[ -gt "*°°W PUB «q^PuI •awoquref jo saawai iennn aq* uiojj \,Wli» *01 •jsoj jajojdxg •£ (.. O H I») 6H *no:>S xeu*d\u\ -6 •wduiXio Sit TB*H '8 •32pBQ inODg H3MUJ03 •£ •SJ3pioq a3p«H •3jtqsaq3 'P«3qU93lJTa 'Sped 9AV0JJV 'i 18 Twenty Questions

Now, then, you ex-Cubs, what is the name of the Wild Elephant, Master of the Jungle? 25, Buckingham Palace Road, London, S.W.i, was once known as this. 10. What was the codeword invented to denote the combined Jamboree, Indaba and Moot held in England in 1957? Where is the site of the International Scout Chalet in Switzerland? 12. This man succeeded B.-P. as Chief in 1941. 13. Hero of the Jungle Book. 14. Site of the World Jamboree held in Canada in 1955. 15. Where was B.-P. acclaimed "Chief Scout of all the World"? 16. What was the name of the bungalow in which B.-P. died, in Kenya, in 1941 ? 17. The highest proficiency badge attainable by a Guide. 18. The free end of a rope is called this. 19. This is useful for overlong guy ropes. 20. Cub Packs attach ribbons to it. You will find the correct answers upside-down on the opposite page, but dont look yet!

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19 TTM1E CHAIE m MICHAEL BAYLY

f you ask me," said Pete, "the fellow's looking fellow, with side-whiskers, sports I plain bats in the belfry, missing in the jacket and a tie decorated with sequins. top storey, crackers!" "You've got a chair an' I want it." He I was inclined to agree with him. made the announcement brusquely in a chal• The man had appeared at the Scout hut lenging voice. "How much1? What d'you soon after we arrived there to sort the want for it? " jumble. Every April our Troop holds a Pete straightened himself and regarded jumble sale to raise cash for camp equip• him, frowning. "Chair1? What chair? We ment, and during the past week we had all haven't got a chair." been scouring the town in search of second• "Now, come off it." The man crossed the hand articles. Now the hut was stacked floor and prodded him in the chest with a with goods—cast-off clothing, piles of books, nicotine-stained finger. "Don't you try an' a variety of hideous china ornaments, even fool me, son. You've got a chair with a green a television set which didn't work. Pete seat an' I want it. I'm willing to pay. What and I had been given the task of putting you done with it? " the goods into some sort of order and the other He glanced round the hut, moved across fellows were still out collecting. to a pile of old coats and dresses and kicked it Suddenly the door was flung open and the over. When he turned round he was holding man strode into the room. He was a flashy- a shabby-looking wallet which appeared to The Green Chair be stuffed with dirty pound notes. He licked from a clouded sky, that Tich arrived. Tich a finger, extracted a note and waved it. is the Otters' Tenderfoot. He kicked the "I'll give you a quid. There, now! It door, and I went to open it for him. He ain't worth a quarter of that, but it staggered into the hut, and he was carrying happens I took a fancy to it. Twenty a chair with a green velvet seat. shillings, cash down. Now you hand it I shouted to Pete and he ran over to look over." at it. "Look here, sir " Pete made an ex• "Christmas!" One of the chair's legs fell asperated gesture "—no one's given us a off and rolled across the floor. " So we have chair. We haven't got a chair. You can see got a chair! WThere the dickens did you dig for yourself." this up, Tich? " The man lit a cigarette, flicked the match Tich collapsed on to a locker and mopped at the stove and strolled casually round the his forehead. "Pontin Street. I thought hut looking at the jumble. Then, without I'd never get the blessed thing here. It so much as a word, he opened the door and was one of the shops in Pontin Street. There's went. some more stuff, which Mike's bringing. "Well, what d'you make of that?" Pete Don't know why I bothered, 'cept that I stood staring after him. "A chair we couldn't just dump it in the road—not after haven't got—and he offered us a pound. they gave it me. It isn't as though it'll fetch I tell you, the chap must be missing on anything, though I reckon my dad might fix three." the leg." It was an hour later, when the light was "But the man offered us a pound." Pete beginning to fade and the first star winked walked slowly round the broken chair, look• ing at it with a puzzled expression. "If any• one gave us a couple of bob for that I'd say he needed his brains testing—and he offered us a pound!" Certainly it seemed extraordinary. The chair was broken and the velvet seat was worn and faded. It was a pity, I said, that the stranger hadn't left his address. "Anyway, you take it to your dad, Tich," said Pete. "If he can fix the leg we'll stick it in the sale. Maybe our crazy customer will turn up again." And that was all we could do about it. Ten minutes later Tich had taken it away to be mended by his father. Meantime, other Scouts arrived with sacks and bundles of jumble. It was quite dark outside before we had finished sorting it. At last Pete paused and sat down, regarding the jumble with satisfaction. "Well, I reckon that's tied it up. I say, we've got a load of rubbish, haven't we? What I want now is a hot bath. I feel " He stopped abruptly, staring towards the Tich staggered in with a green velvet chair window. The Scout's Pi kfinder Annual I said, "What's the matter?" But Pete was uneasy, and before we left he "I heard someone. There's someone out• went round the hut to make sure that all the side, snooping around." windows were fastened. He strode across the floor and pulled the Next day was Saturday and the sale was door open. But it was pitch-dark and timed to begin at half-past two. I was drizzling. If there had been anyone we could down at the hut again soon after nine, for never have seen them. Pete turned round, there was still quite a bit of work to be shrugging his shoulders, then paused, looking done. As I propped my bike against the at his feet. wall I noticed that the door was ajar. I The light from the hut poured out in a pushed it open, expecting to find some of yellow stream, illuminating the ground im• the other Scouts inside. I took one step mediately outside the doorway. across the threshold and stopped with an "Come and look at this. Now, why should exclamation. anyone come here prying? " The hut was empty, but it looked as though Showing clearly in the damp earth were the a hurricane had swept through the interior. imprints of rubber-soled shoes. The jumble which last evening we had I said, "Who d'you think you are—Perry arranged in neat piles was strewn over the Mason? There've been a dozen of our chaps floor, thrown in every direction; broken in and out of the hut this evening; any of glass and china was scattered among a litter them might have made those tracks." of books, coats, old shoes and hats; the "You're wrong, though." Pete was squat• television set lay on its face near the ting down, examining the impression. "That stove. was made by a full-sized shoe—a man's shoe "What the dickens? " I turned to find Pete —an' it's only just been made, because it's behind me, looking over my shoulder in on top of the other footmarks." horrified amazement. "What's happened?" There was no denying that the imprint was I said, "I guess there's been a break-in too large to have been left by a boy. during the night. Maybe it was some of those "And there's only the toe marks." Pete teenage toughs who " indicated the track with his forefinger. "It wasn't teenage toughs." Pete stooped "Now, when does a fellow leave only toe and picked something small and sparkling marks? " from the floor. "Someone was searching for I said, "When he's running. Skip told something, and I've a pretty good idea what it was—a chair!" "Wrong again, Geoff. When you run, your He held out his hand. Lying sparkling on toe kicks up a little spurt of earth in front. his palm was a silver sequin. This chap didn't do that. Besides, they're "That doesn't prove anything," I said. too close together. He couldn't have been "Dash it, your crazy stranger might have running." lost that off his fancy tie when he was here "What was he doing, then? You tell us." with us. Anyway, if he did come back after "Tiptoeing, that's what he was doing. Tich's old chair he didn't get it, did he? And that means snooping. I told you, I Anyway, if this lot's going to be shipshape heard him. There was a man snooping in time for the sale this afternoon we've got around, and when he saw we were still here to get cracking." he did a bunk. If you ask me, he was up to At first Pete wanted to phone the police- something." station. Whoever had been in the hut had "Maybe he was after a broken chair with opened the door with a key, for there was a green seat." I laughed. "More likely, it no sign of damage to the lock. It would was some down-and-out being curious." be impossible to prove that anything had The Green Chair

Pete kicked the chair in disgust been taken; the jumble was a lot of rubbish, the blinking leg an' then you go and tear anyway. I persuaded him that the local the cushion up. You won't get anything for police force had more important things to it now." think about, and we set to tidying the mess. Pete, flushed with embarrassment, turned Most of the Troop turned up during the and walked away. morning and by midday everything was more "It was a chance. If a fellow offers a or less back in its right place. Just as we pound there must be something. I reckon were talking about going home for dinner we'll have to use it for firewood now." Tich arrived, carrying the chair. Then Tich said suddenly, "Well, old Elliot His father had mended the leg. Though said he was going to use it for firewood, but the chair looked pretty dilapidated, it did he said we might be able to get something stand up now. Pete twisted it round and for it." punched the velvet seat. "Elliot!" Pete spun round, and there was "Well, it beats me why anyone should a new excitement in his voice. "You got it think it's worth a pound." He stood staring from Elliot's in Pontin Street, Tich? " at it, lips pursed. "You don't imagine there's "So what? He'd stuck it in his back• a wad of money hidden in the seating, do yard behind the shop. I bet he thought I you? I mean—well, you read about that sort had a cheek going to a jeweller's shop an' of thing sometimes." asking for jumble." "Trouble with you," I retorted, "is that "Elliot's the jeweller's!" Pete went down you've been watching too much TV. Still, for on his knees. He gathered the horsehair all we'll get for it, you might as well rip it stuffing and searched through the matted open and satisfy yourself that there's no pieces with renewed care. " That must tie up hidden treasure." somewhere. Tich fetches a chair from a Pete hesitated, then he pulled out his jeweller's shop and a fellow we've never sheath-knife and slit the velvet seat from seen before offers us a pound for it, then corner to corner. Avoiding my eye, he creeps back here in the middle of the night pushed his hands beneath it and pulled out and turns the place upside-down." handfuls of black horsehair; there was noth• But there was nothing! We tore that ing else. velvet seating to shreds and pulled almost "That's a bit of all right." Tich ex• every strand of stuffing apart, but all we claimed, watching him with amazement. found was a load of dust. Pete, exasperated, "My dad spends hours an' hours mending flung the last remnants of the green seat aside 23 The Scout's Pathfinder Annual and kicked the wooden frame of the chair in I said, "We'll call in a minute. We've got disgust. to make another call first." "Looking for precious stones'?" I inquired. "I'll be out later. Better come now." "You can laugh!" Pete moved resolutely She was still holding my arm, determined to the door. " There must be something. I'm that I should go with her. Pete had stopped going to call on old Elliot right now." a few paces away and was waiting impa• I ran after him and caught him up. tiently. I jerked my head. "3STo need for you to come if you don't "We can go to the shop later, Pete." want to," he said. "That's it," said the woman. "I've got Pontin Street is a turning off High Street, quite a lot of stuff." a narrow, dusty little street with small, old- She led us across the High Street, down a fashioned shops sandwiched between drab, side turning and through a dark passage into neglected houses, their doors opening straight a dingy-looking courtyard. Only one house on to the pavement. We were a hundred boasted curtains. yards from it when there came the sound of She pushed the door of this one open and hurrying footsteps behind us and someone waited for Pete to reach her, standing aside gripped my arm. A woman, smartly dressed, to let us pass. wearing strings of large pearls round her neck, Something suddenly warned me that there tugged my sleeve. was danger in the dark room across the "Here, you; wait a minute. You Scouts threshold, and I took a step backwards. At are collecting jumble, aren't you? I've a fine the same time the woman pushed Pete. He parcel of stuff at the house where I live; it's crashed into me and we both stumbled for• only a step." ward. I heard the door bang shut. The

24 The Green Chair woman was leaning against it, barring our was a dark cubby-hole half full of oddments escape, a twisted smile of triumph on her of rubbish. She jerked me towards it. face. Someone sitting in a tattered armchair Suddenly I caught a glint in Pete's eye. by the hearth turned to look at us. I ducked my head, butting at her, and she "I've got 'em. Now it's up to you, Sid." uttered a cry of surprise, falling backwards I glimpsed a sports jacket and a flashy tie, into the cupboard. At the same moment Pete which sparkled when the light caught it. acted. "Good for you, Glad." The man leaned A strip of worn carpet lay in front of the over the table, his fists clenched. "Now, hearth, and the man was standing on one end then, you kids, it's a little matter of a chair of it. Pete bent, caught the nearer end and —an old chair with a green seat. One of jerked it. As I slammed the cupboard door your lot picked it up from Elliot's backyard. the man's feet shot from under him. He You've got it, ain't you? " made a wild attempt to grasp the mantel• Pete said sullenly, "What if we have?" piece, crashed over the armchair, and fell "I want it, son. Yesterday I offered you heavily on to the floor. Before he could a pound; now I'm having it for nothing, see? " rise Pete had sprung towards me, sent the He nodded to the woman. "We'll have one table with its untidy burden of dirty crockery of them locked in the cupboard—sort of toppling over, knocking him down again, hostage. The other comes along with me then I had the door open and we were racing and hands the chair over. If you're difficult across the deserted courtyard, down the there'll be trouble for the one that's left tunnel-like passage, and back to the High behind." Street. The woman had opened a door. Beyond it As we burst into Elliot's, the jewellers,

The man's feet shot from under him, and he fell to the floor 25 The Scout's Pathfinder Annual

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Ml 6, i TTie bald-headed man seized one piece excitedly a small, bald-headed man glanced np testily used to be by the counter, and I remember this over gold pince-nez. fellow was sitting on it when the police came. "Now, then, what's the meaning of this? But I can't imagine where the connexion can If it's jumble you're after, some of you Scouts be—the chair and the missing ring—not if have been here already. I gave them " you've torn up the upholstery. Perhaps I'd Pete leaned, gasping for breath, on the better come round to this hut of yours." counter. Beneath the glass top trays of The Scout hut was locked up; everybody diamond rings and gold ornaments glittered was at dinner. When Pete opened the door and flashed. The story came out disjointedly, there was no chair to be seen. One glance but before it was half told the little man was round the room at the jumble now arranged listening attentively. on trestle-tables along one side, waiting for "A man in a sports jacket—a tie with those the customers, was sufficient to assure us sequin things? Bless my soul! I'm afraid that the chair was not there, this could mean Wilder was wrongly accused. "But it must be somewhere." The bald- Wilder was my assistant. He—er—well, he headed man peered shortsightedly round the left under a cloud. A sapphire-and-diamond hut. "I mean, this might be most impor- ring disappeared, and he accused this man tant. That ring was valued at over a hundred you've described. The man was in here at pounds." the time, you understand. I had to call the He was interrupted by a shrill and tune- police—most unpleasant—and they searched less whistle. The door was kicked open and the fellow, but not a sign of the ring did they Tich came in. He stopped at the sight of find. Let me see, it would be a fortnight us. "Sorry; didn't know you had someone ago. It was before the green chair broke. It here. I'll go." 26 The Green Chair "Wait a minute, Tich." I caught him by Suddenly he pressed the putty between his the shoulder. "The old chair—the one your thumb and finger. As it crumbled into powder dad mended—where is it? You wouldn't there were flashes of glittering blue and gold. know? " The little man was holding a magnificent ring. "You said to chop it up for firewood, so Sapphires and diamonds sparkled with deep, after you'd gone I did." brilliant fires. Pete said, interrupting him, "You haven't " So Wilder was speaking the truth! Dear burned it, Tich? " me, I'm afraid he's been greatly wronged, "I chopped it up and stuck it in the stove poor man! Our friend came into the shop ready for when you wanted it lit." and asked to see the rings. Somehow he There didn't seem much point in pulling persuaded Wilder to turn his back on him out the splintered pieces of what had once —only for a second. It was then that the been a chair with a green velvet seat, but ring disappeared. The police found nothing. as Pete took them from the stove the bald- You see, he must have embedded the ring headed man suddenly seized one piece ex• in a lump of putty and stuck it under the citedly. Judging by the shape, it had once chair before they arrived. He left it there formed the edging of the seat. Something for a week or so—just to lull any suspicions brown—almost the same colour as the stained —then he came back to the shop on some wood—was stuck to it. The bald-headed trifling excuse, intending to collect it from man prised it off with a penknife. its hiding-place. It was an extraordinary "Bless my soul, I ought to have suspected piece of ill luck for him that in the mean• it! An old trick, though I've never known time the chair had been broken and turned it actually done. It's plain enough why out of the shop. He must have discovered our mutual friend was so anxious to buy the that you had taken it for jumble. I'll have chair." to contact the police at once—and then call He was holding out his hand. Lying on on poor Wilder." the palm was what appeared to be only a dried lump of clay. And that is really the end of the story Tich said, "What is it? It looks like of the green chair. So far as we know, the putty." man with the sequin tie was never caught, "That's exactly what it is, my dear boy." but an hour later we were much too busy The jeweller blinked at us over his pince-nez. selling jumble to give him a thought. The "It's a lump of putty stuck by our friend jumble sale was a record success—even before under the seat of the chair the day he came Skip added on Mr. Elliot's donation of a into my shop." five-pound note.

SPOT the KNOT. .by Pi P. 1 4 9

These tell you how many H CRACKERS squares to move and in what direction, starting U\RK AMD from the centre of Hazle- DtRTY CAVE tuood Harbour.

THE FILTH Clues CAVE OFAU-

™t KlHfl S PA1-ACE. ». 8) • 0 PoirTT 2 5W5M NVITSTUYU HIU. - «Hf 2 THRONE DARKER AND 3. Where . . . that P.L. ? DIRTIER CME 4. TFhy-fore or should it be why-four? CBGST O 1 >' 5. Three little full stops, one little full stop X 2. KtLA'S 6. STIX—scrub a con• CORN sonant, double the letter you first saw. 7. It could be "ANYONE ". Answer on page 107

SUMMER CAMP MEMORIES

" Would you two bridge-building enthusiasts like to look at MY summer camp pictures?'''' The Man With God in His Heart

Sydney R. Brown

the latter being a symbol of peace and purity and the flower he loved best of all. A Boy Scout hat rested on his coffin all the way from Palestine to Sweden as a sign of his great interest in the Movement. A vast procession, including many kings and princes, followed his coffin to the grave, and the four banners prominently displayed were those of Sweden, the Boy Scout Movement, the Red Cross and the United Nations—and to what more worthy causes could a man devote his

Count Bernadotte in Red Indian dress life? Folke was a member of the Swedish Royal Family, a nephew of the King, but "Chief Ema-do-yena" the Blackfeet he was not brought up in a regal manner. Red Indians of Montana called him, and As a child he was one of five children a very appropriate name it was, for it living in a small house in Stockholm, meant "He who is loved by all." where he had a very quiet and strict up• Count Folke Bernadotte, appointed bringing. Chief Scout of Sweden just before the Peaceful Soldier Second World War, was one of the first As a young man he was given a commis• of the United Nations' men to meet his sion in the Royal Lifeguard Dragoons, death while working for international the smartest cavalry regiment in Sweden, co-operation. which had as its motto "Serve Only World Citizen Honour", a good one for young Berna• He was a "World Citizen" in every dotte. He did not take very kindly to sense of the word, and when he met soldiering, as he was too peace-loving, but a martyr's death in the Holy Land life in the Army was made more agreeable thousands of peace-loving men and for him by his passion for horses. women all around the globe mourned his It was when he was a lieutenant in the passing. Royal Horse Guards that he made his first Folke was a prominent member of the attempt at life-saving; he tried to save International Red Cross, and at his fun• his horse from a watery grave when it eral in Stockholm three emblems were fell through the ice. placed upon his coffin: his Red Cross Eventually he became known as "the cap, his stick, and a white carnation, best Regimental Quartermaster in the 29 The Scout's Pathfinder Annual country" and was commended for his velvet wedding dress and Queen Sophia devotion to duty. of Sweden's wedding veil clipped by a He was fast becoming a superb orga• crown of mountain crystal. niser and a fine diplomat. He could mix His wife proved to be a wonderful part• with people of other nations with great ner in Folke's international humanitarian ease, because he had learned to speak work. She returned with him to Sweden, English, German and French fluently. A quickly learned the language, and became holiday in England as a boy of nine had his chief adviser. helped him with his English at an early The great turning point in Folke's life age. came in 1933, ivhen he became interested Millionaire Wedding in Scouting. At last he had found the In the United States he met a wonderful organisation with which his high ideals American girl, Estelle Romaine Manville, were in perfect attune. dark and slender daughter of a millionaire, Scouting became his whole life. In whom he married. The wedding in New 1935 he became Chief of Staff of the York was a wonderful affair, the social Swedish Boy Scouts and in 1936 a mem• event of the year, and an American ber of the HQ staff of the big international reporter remarked to Folke, "You're a World Rover Moot held in Ingaro, near pretty fast worker." Stockholm. "You've got to be a fast worker to In 1937 he led the Swedish contingent get the best girl in the United States," to the World Scout Jamboree in Holland, was Count Bernadotte's reply. where he was thrilled to meet the Chief Folke looked resplendent in his light- Scout of All the World, Lord Baden- blue uniform of the Royal Lifeguard Powell. He struck up a close friendship Dragoons, and his bride wore a white with Lady B.-P., and they visited one another several times in their respective homes. In the following years he passed all his Wood Badge tests, attended an inter• national Rover Scout Moot in Scotland and wrote his first book, The Scout and Scouting. Advice to Scouts His constant advice to all the Scouts he met, and he visited every one of the thirty-two Swedish Scout centres between the Arctic Circle and the southern tip of Scandinavia, was "Do what you like, but do it with God in your heart." It was through Bernadotte that Scout• ing started up again in Germany after the Second World War, after having been banned by Hitler and his Nazi regime since 1933. Two dozen young men were Count Bernadotte's wedding invited from Germany to spend a month 30 The Man With God in His Heart in Sweden training to be Scout leaders. from Poles for saving seven thousand of Later, more leaders were trained in Great their compatriots from a similar fate. Britain and Denmark, and the Movement One of the most thrilling of his achieve• was given a strong foundation in Ger• ments was the rescue of British, Ameri• many, upon which it has since built. can, French, Belgian, Czech, Polish and In 1946 Folke Bernadotte ran a camp Dutch women from the Ravensbriick for 8,000 Scouts from all over Europe concentration camp, where they were and in the following year attended the all in danger of being exterminated great Peace Jamboree at Moissons, near in gas chambers if they were too sick Paris. Here he was elected to the Inter• to work or if their weight fell below national Committee of the World Scout 85 lbs. Union, and as Lord Rowallan, the then Twenty-five white Swedish buses, man• Chief Scout of the British Common• ned by doctors and nurses, among them wealth, said afterwards, "His personality Folke's sister, Countess Maria, evacuated dominated the whole conference." all the "skin-and-bone" prisoners to a Wartime Go-Between neutral country. During the war Bernadotte worked to Bernadotte was even an instrument in alleviate distress by exchanging sick bringing the most terrible war the world and wounded prisoners-of-war between has ever known to an end. England and Germany. It was no easy At a meeting with Himmler, the task trying to negotiate between enemies dreaded Gestapo chief, the German leader who did not trust one another and Folke acknowledged that his country was de• was probably the only person in the world feated and asked Bernadotte to forward a at that time who was free to visit both message to the Western powers saying London and Berlin. He was heavily bombed in both cities more than once and had many narrow escapes. Journeys in mil wartime were far from being a picnic, but 11 I ! he never spared himself where humani• III tarian ideals were involved. Belonging to the Swedish Red Cross, he managed to do much good work helping old people, chil• CONFERENCE KTERDMIOME dren, the sick and the wounded of many IE LA nations. Courageous Mottoes The three mottoes he lived by were, "Nothing venture, nothing win," "Try anything once," and "Nothing is im• possible." He visited all the capital cities of Europe and undertook many fine projects designed to save human life. He received grateful thanks from Jews for saving ten thousand of their number from liquida• The Count (centre) at the 11th International Red tion in Nazi concentration camps, and Cross Conference The Scout's Pathfinder Annual

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Men with Sten guns fired at the car as it was driven into Jerusalem

Germany was willing to capitulate to At noon on September 17th, 1948, his them. white peace plane flew down the River This Bernadotte promised to do if in Jordan towards Jerusalem. A radio mes• return Himmler would arrange for the sage from an underground Jewish radio 400,000 German troops in Norway to station near Haifa warned him not to capitulate as well, and so within a few land, but he would not be deterred. days came the complete and uncondi• As he drove into Jerusalem a bullet hit tional surrender of Germany. the running-board and entered the left Bernadotte's labours in the Red Cross wheel of the grey car with the Red cause continued unceasingly until he died Cross emblem. On his way back the in 1948, and in the last years of his life car was stopped and men with Sten he visited nearly every country in Europe guns fired six shots at him and his in his endeavours to help orphans and companions. He died before reaching refugees. hospital Early in 1948 a telegram from the His body lay in state for a while in United Nations asked him to act as medi• the magnificent temple of the Young ator in Palestine, where the Jews and Men's Christian Association in Jerusalem, Arabs were engaged in a bitter quarrel. and the Boy Scout hat of the Belgian He knew he was undertaking a dangerous Consul was placed upon his coffin, with mission, but did not hesitate. He wrote the Swedish and Red Cross flags draping his last will and testament, made arrange• the catafalque. ments for his funeral, and then set off As a memorial to Count Folke Berna• for the Holy Land. dotte, their beloved leader, the Scouts He succeeded in persuading the Jews of Sweden started a fund to support the and Arabs to agree to a cease-fire, but he re• charities for which he had worked. In ceived letters threatening his life if he car• all, the Sveriges Scoutforbund and the ried on as mediator for the United Nations. other Boy Scout and Girl Guide Associa• His white U.N. plane " Whirlwind" was tions in Sweden, supported by the Swed• pursued over the Mediterranean by an un• ish Red Cross and other organisations, identified fighter aircraft and plots to raised six million kroner for memorials assassinate him were exposed. Two plain• that Count Folke Bernadotte, the great clothes guards were posted to guard him Scout, would have prized as "monu• everywhere he went. ments more durable than brass". -

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Footprints in the sand—Scouts of the 1st Chalfont St. Peter Troop get instruction in tracking from their P.L. "Charge!" SCOUTING AT CHALFONT HEIGHTS HEADQUARTERS CAMP SITE IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

INSTRUCTION IN KNOTTING

"You start like this ...... then go on like this" Photos: Barry Hamnumd

5 —* v 1 > c m Martin Spalding of Bournemouth receives his Queen's Scout certificate from the Chief Scoutatthe Hampshire County Rally at Southampton I Here he passes through the camp gateway built by the 41st Oxford at the County Rally in the grounds of Blenheim Palace IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE CHIEF SCOUT The Chief Scout, Sir Charles Maclean, travels thousands of miles each year, making friendly personal contact with Scouts at home and abroad, furthering the interests of the Movement and cementing the bonds uniting the worldwide family of Scouts

The Chief Scout puts his foot in it on a tour of the Channel Isles —but only so that the Guernsey

Queen's Scouts look on as the Chief Scout inspects the Freedom of the City scroll and casket presented to the first Chief Scout, Lord Baden- Powell, by the City of Cardiff Photo: Jim Laurence Sydney R. Brown Discovers Interesting and Unexpected Points About THE ARROWHEAD AND SCOUT BADGES ROUND THE WORLD

badge of a Scout because a Scout's job is to show the way. The three points on the badge have come to represent the three parts of the Scout Promise, and the two five- pointed stars are a reminder of the ten Scout Laws. The arrowhead must be one of the best The two most unusual badges worn by known of badges in the world today, as Scouts are those belonging to the Inter• it is worn by millions of boys and their national Boy Scouts' Association of the adult leaders and supporters. Each country that has adopted Scout• ing, in all five continents, has also taken the original fleur-de-lys badge B which B.-P. chose as Scouting's emblem and altered it for their own purpose, some superimposing their national em• blem and some simply changing its shape cz to make it a distinctive badge for their own country. Even in Britain the details and pro• portions of the Scout arrowhead badge Panama Canal Zone and to the United have changed over the years from B.-P.'s Nations' Scout Association. The latter original design, which you can see as incorporates a drawing of the world as an illustration in the earliest editions seen from the North Pole, similar to of Scouting for Boys. the one which appears on the United B.-P. first introduced the fleur-de- Nations' flag. lys for Scouts when he was a colonel Among the countries which accepted in the 5th Dragoon Guards, and it was the shape of the Scouts' badge as we officially authorised as long ago as know it in Britain, but have superim• 1898. posed their own emblems, are Brazil, In the 1908 edition of Scouting for which added a small shield with the Boys he described it as "an arrowhead motto Sempre Alerta, and Chile, the first which shows the North on a map or on foreign country to adopt Scouting. They the compass," and he chose it as the superimposed a strange-looking eagle and c The Scouts Pathfinder Annual a shield bearing a single star. Their motto adorned fleur-de-lys used by the Scouts is Siempre Listo (Be Prepared). of Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, China (Taiwan) also keeps our badge's Canada and the Sudan, while South shape, but adds an imposing design based Africa's "Pathfinder" Scouts show a leap• on the sun. Costa Rica contents itself ing springbok, their well-known national with adding the initials "C.R." The emblem. Dominican Republic fills the central por• European countries are especially rich tion with the sign of the Christian re• in the number of Scout badges they pos• ligion. Iran fills all the panels with sess, as they have more than one Boy oriental designs. Japan adds the sun, Scouts' association in each country. Usu• its national emblem; and the United ally Scouts of each religion, Roman States of America superimposes the bald- Catholic, Protestant, etc., have their own headed eagle with outspread wings, which badges. also appears on American embassies In France there are no fewer than four throughout the world—there's a specially separate Scout badges. One, showing a large one in London. My vote for the two most unusual

! SB

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national Scout badges would go to Sal• vador, with its three small fleur-de- lys on a cross, which stabs the motto crossbow and arrow, is worn by members Siempre Listo with a pointed end, and of "Les Eclaireurs de France." Another Iran's three leaves, which remind me with a thick cross with bud-like ter• of the Prince of Wales's feathers. minals and sporting the motto Sois Pret, Interesting objects which appear on belongs to "Les Eclaireurs Unionistes national Scout badges include the typi• de France." cal revolutionary's hat in the badge The badges of "Les Scouts de France" of Argentina; Mount Ararat, on which and "Les Eclaireurs Israelites de France" Noah's Ark found a last resting-place, are as different again. in the Armenians' badge; and the two Belgium has three badges, one for each animals with crossed tails in the Bur• of the "Federation des Scout Catholi- mese emblem. ques", the " Vlaams Verbond der Katho- Scouts of Ceylon are content to super• lieke Scouts", and the "Association impose their country's name on the un• Royale des Boy Scouts de Belgique." The Arrowhead ancient six-pointed star of David backs the badge of the Israel Boy Scouts' and Girl Scouts' Federation. Another country which has a single badge for a combined National Boy Scout and Girl Guide Movement is India, with a trefoil within the fleur-de-lys—just the opposite to the badge issued by our own B.-P. Scout Guild, a red fleur-de-lys backed by a larger white trefoil. PAR^ Kuwait's simplified fleur-de-lys serves as a backing to a picture of a dhow, an Arab sailing-ship, while the badge worn Germany's three badges are very dis• by the " Pfadfinderkorps St. Georg" of tinctive, two of them being in diamond- Liechtenstein reminds me of a spaceship shaped forms and two incorporating a with elegant wings. cross. The only Scout badge which bears the Italy's two badges are also quite dis• figure of a man is that of Panama, which tinctive. Their mottoes vary, one being shows a likeness of Vasco Nunez de B stole Parati and the other Sil Pre- Balbao, who discovered Panama in 1519. parato. "He scouted not only Panama but the Camping Design entire world, including the enormous One of Luxembourg's two national Pacific Ocean," says Senor Rolando Gon- badges has no sign of a fleur-de-lys xalex Echemendia, the National Execu• on it; instead the emphasis is on a tive Commissioner of the Association de pictorial design based on camping. One Scouts de Panama, " and we immortalised of the Netherlands' two badges, that our patron by inscribing his name on our of "de Verkenners van de Katholieke national money. The Panama Scouts Jeugdbeweging," is very similar to the honour and admire so noble a gentleman, French Roman Catholic Scouts' badge. who has shown to the world the true Portugal's two Scout Associations can spirit of Scouting." be distinguished by their badges, one of which bears the motto Sempre Pronto and the other Alerta—both Portuguese versions of Be Prepared. National Scout badges bearing pictures of animals and birds include those of Ecuador and Guatemala in the New World, Finland and Greece in Europe, and Indonesia and Thailand in Asia. A cedar, the tree of Lebanon, appears in the Lebanese badge. Crescent moons appear in the badges of Turkey and Pakistan, which are pre• dominantly Moslem countries, and the 33 Different from when This'll like/ We shan't be ab7l ^3 you camped here before, last eh, Stanton ? It's to be be our to qoa nywhere w/tn- an atomic rea&earch into X/. so make it the lorries and workmen. Station - very hush-hush. best ever.

Pity it's going Colonel Grice says it's an atomic research place. Colonel

As if atom ic ,V research was more important than a ...\ Patrol camp/ People H have queer notions

Next morning use the twenty Wow we'll put Tim ana) I'll lay a minutes to peel the the wood between trail across the moor. spuds for dinner, us and them,Tim. You and Bill give us B/l twenty minutes, Harry, then follow. •

3 ft \\\m K /

Hi • • him • mm How dare yo pry on me in fir? Clear off' "on* I lll*.-\ i IK hi iL, H'Hii t • ((I I he up to. K I! . hi s John ? v, , 1 I i v,

lot 1

0«

SI •vl I Sorry, but we There was someth 'n3 didn't even know yo alive in his basket. I u heard it moving. Was were here he trapping something. do you think ? jam > •

A Forgetting the trail in the excitement of the encounter, John and Tim were overhauled by Harry and Bill.

There's over woo a huge nest It's a buzzard. at the top of Can you hear K£L this tree. 7 ry Lgl™^1^ fe^BW Bam extinct.

They're jolly rare. What a ihri/l to see one. After watching the buzzard until it flew out of sight , the Scouts practised tracking. Earlv next morning they set off for a pre-breakfast hike.

You won't want It's because I do any breakfast, Tim, want breakfast that What on earth is Stuffing yourself with I'm eating. I'll never that man doing ? Look, chocolate. last out till we over there — Tie's get back. dancing about like a dervish. mobb

dervish

Gosh, look at a/I, those birds darting and wheeling about above him.

v There he goes. I'm certain it's 1 man Tim and I \f The place must surprised yesterday bemuse already, Thinking of judging by the trying to climb security guards. over, John 7

GUARD,ACD DOGS

I vote we get back to camp. Somewhere a voice is calling, and I think its mm calling breakfast 37 Something's wrong with the buzzards.

from m bread what buzzards them I prefer WXbreakfast to buzzads J£ /// ;\ any day.

Let's run to the wood and see what's alarming them. I'll bet that wild man with the basket is ' They're somewhere around. too far away to See properly. _ I'l l get my |\bmcculars^>^: >.v. mm

Somebody climbing k&SffQMt I, leave alone

So that's collector

the wi/d man / man lost his hold.

•

t rs s_i, -

Ska \ 1 5 *» n

111 Look - there's a pigeon in the basket >

He's falling Look out - he's lost his hold

You came \ a purler broke your fall

I »

to kill another of m pigeons i I wanted 1 tear the nest to pieces. I hope They're birds of prey killers /

Poor bird. It I've damaged my didn't have a chance leg, I think Where's hello, what's this ? Tim off to now ? thing fixed to its leg. 73?

We'll help you to Co lone Gfice's house

L-S

39 w I found this on the pigeon the buzzard irtiKilled,Colonel . Irs a metal cylinder, and happened It's got a film inside it.

He fell from a tree, Colonel Grice . He was trying to destroy the buzzard's eggs "because his pigeons were being killed. By George, microfilm Showing the plan of the We'd about research station ' K)o change our name breakfast wonder he was mad to the Buzzard when the buzzards After him - Patrol - it was earned destroyed his carrier don't let him the buzzard P'geons get away j

SKiS^X - -

_ reckon doesn

a ,etter A*?Sfwin uiicf airecxodirik^&^rtfr pt the atomi -c researc thankh s Station for what the Scouts had done?

And well done, the Falcons '

. Jhe Director adds that despite the attack on the buzzards egqs they have managed to Well done, hatch out a pair of young ones the buzzards'

40 MAKING A SPOOR COLLECTION by ALAN P. MAJOR

EXAMPLES OF SPOOR (NOT TO SCALE)

tt Rabbit spoor House Sparrow Dog Deer FIG. A When out walking in the countryside tracks, and the more of them you dis• you quite commonly come upon the cover the wider will be your knowledge of " cks of birds and animals, either im• the countryside, so that walks can be• printed in the soft earth or made on fallen come really exciting and interesting as snow. Naturalists call these tracks you follow the various tracks. "spoor". Around the edges of ponds or Remember that with birds the best re• along river banks are aIco <*ood places to sults can be obtained in fresh, soft earth find these tracks, left behind when the or mud. Do not choose a place where creatures visit the water to drink. If you there are dozens of different tracks have a bird-table in your garden, or throw already imprinted, as you will find out scraps, you will also find tracks of that when the bird has flown away it is the birds that fly down to feed. difficult to decide which tracks, amongst A lot can be learned by identifying those already there, the bird has made. If these tracks, and you may be surprised there are no unspoiled places, smooth out how many different wild animals and the earth or mud yourself with a flat birds there are living near your home, piece of wood, so that the imprinted even in towns and cities. Of course, the tracks of the first bird to alight on it will best way to learn what birds and animals be fresh and clear. make these tracks is to find, or make, a Another way to collect these tracks, suitable hiding-place nearby and then to as well as draw them, is to make perma• sit and wait quietly for the creatures to nent plaster casts of them. This is quite arrive. This is easy at home, as you can easy and made in a similar way to the watch from your room for the arrival of method used by the police to take casts different garden birds. of criminals' footprints at the scene When you see one clearly making tracks of crimes. All you need is some strips in the earth or snow, go to it and draw the shape, with a pencil, in a plain-sheet Spoor drawing-book. When you reach home this Card or metal can be finished with Indian ink, writing strip as "wall" the name, date, and where seen alongside it. In this way it is possible to build up a collection of different kinds of FIG. B The Scout's Pathfinder Annual of cardboard or metal and some plaster- twisting the two ends together, and push of-paris. the twisted end into the plaster at the Upon finding a good track of a bird back, which is uppermost, before it has or animal, ensure that it is clean and set too hard. Then allow the plaster to that the impression is not filled with set hard. It is a good idea, too, if you are pieces of dirt, stones, grass, leaves, making a cast of a very large print, to etc., which will spoil the casting. Next, embed a piece of stick into the plaster make a "wall" around the track impres• before it has set. This will reinforce the sion, by carefully bending a strip of card• cast and make it much stronger. board or metal all round it, to prevent the Once the plaster is hard, dig it up plaster-of-paris from spilling over and with a lot of earth around it, trying running away. This can be any depth you not to break the latter. On reaching home like, according to how big and solid a cast you require, but a piece of card or metal an inch wide is ample. The deeper ••Wall" filled with plaster the "wall" the more plaster you will use of Paris Edge painted to to fill it. Alternatively, you can build contrast with spoor on up a "wall" of mud or earth around the white plaster impression for the same purpose, but the Complete casting card method is more certain to keep the plaster from running, and by bending the Label FIG. D

lift off the strip of card or metal and then very carefully wash away the earth to reveal the raised cast of the bird Hook to hang- or animal track. Only wash away the casting earth when the plaster is really dry and hard, and remember that a cast made up• FIG. C on wet mud will require longer to set hard than one made on dry earth. If the cast is not completely round or whatever shape card or metal you can make the casting you require, or smooth on the surface, square, round, oblong, or whatever shape it can be filed or sandpapered carefully you want the finished casting to be. to remedy this. The outer edges of the Another method for an oblong "wall", cast can be painted, or the spoor itself for very small tracks of mice, shrews, outlined in black paint or ink, to make wrens, bluetits, is a matchbox tray with it stand out better. Then attach a small the bottom removed. label, giving the name of creature, place Next mix the plaster-of-paris and water and date the cast was made, and you have together in a jug, until it is like thick an interesting, original exhibit for a cream, then quickly pour this into the Nature collection. track impression until level with the Not all animals move about during the top of the "wall" around it. So that you day, of course; several, such as foxes, can hang up these casts upon a wall, make badgers and hedgehogs, being nocturnal a hook or loop with a piece of wire by and hunting during the evening and night. 42 Making a Spoor Collection The way to obtain their tracks, though, feet, which sink into the earth, but is to discover where the fox or badger others, like mice, shrews, rats, dormice is living and where the "den" and "sett" and voles, are very light, barely touching is situated. When you have discovered the surface, and their prints must be this you can smooth the earth not too carefully searched for. close to the entrance to the "sett" or You will discover for yourself, too, "den" and so should be able to get a set whether the bird of which you have found of good tracks easily. Around the en• the tracks is a hopping bird or a walking trance itself, with the frequent comings bird. Birds, such as sparrows, which hop and goings of the animals, the numerous have their tracks in pairs, whereas birds tracks are usually blurred and confused. like rooks and pheasants, which walk, Some animals are very heavy on their place one foot in front of the other. M. BILTON SUGGESTS SOME USEFUL NOVELTIES TO MAKE When a fairly thick volume is removed from a bookshelf for reference, this usually means that the remaining books either collapse or lean at an angle, which is most unsighdy. The space left also allows dust to settle between the volumes. This difficulty is easily overcome by using an expanding "dummy" book. This consists of a coil spring placed between the covers of an old book. The interior of the old volume is, of course, first removed and strips of cloth are glued between the covers at the top and bottom Cloth to prevent the spring from falling out! Spring ?or the Bookworm

A Cheap Shower-Bath In hot weather there is nothing so delightfully refreshing as a shower-bath; but very few people

••"iKi are lucky enough to possess a properly fitted one. It is, however, quite easy to make one for yourself. Follow these instructions. Obtain about a yard of rubber tubing, and put one end over the cold-water tap in the bath. Into the other end fit the rose of a watering-can; then turn on the water, and you will enjoy a cool shower- bath. COLD COMFORT CAMP by D. E. Barden

and there was such a warm spell on Sunday that the snow all thawed away and it was the warmest day we'd had for weeks. It would have been the best weekend for camp• ing, after all, if we'd only known! inter camp," said Ken. By the next weekend the warm spell was, w "What about it?" I replied. "Any• of course, gone and forgotten, but it wasn't one who thinks of camping in this weather is snowing. It looked as if it was going to a nut-case." start at any minute, but it was NOT snowing. But as Ken himself so often remarks, you That was the important thing. can't keep a good Scout down, so he came In the meantime, the six stalwart members back at me with, "Bight, then! Do we camp of the Troop had had an extra seven days first and have our brains tested after, or the in which to build up their enthusiasm—or other way round? " to get cold feet, which at that time of the Well, what could I do? Especially when I year and in that weather was not particu• found he had managed to work up five other larly difficult. When it came to Saturday stalwarts to look with rosy eyeballs at the morning, there were only three to undertake prospect of winter camp. the adventure. Half an hour of cycling about After all, they said, there was always the town trying to round up the other three summer camp in the summer holidays, so why was remarkably unsuccessful, so the three not winter camp in the Christmas holidays? pioneers went without them. I compromised. One weekend only, no The only place reasonably near the town longer. So one weekend it was. where we could get permission to camp was The adventure was arranged for the fol• on the top of a bare, open hill. And I think lowing weekend, and Dame Nature decided the owner only agreed to our using that to make it all more seasonable by giving us a because he thought we'd come and look at it white ground-blanket for the occasion. Un• and then go home! fortunately, she got a bit over-enthusiastic, In the town it was chilly but possible. too, and the snow was so deep that the whole The north-east wind didn't start on the idea had to be postponed for the time being. pioneers properly until they were nearly Then Dame Nature changed her mind again, at the top of the hill, and by that time 44 Cold Comfort Camp there was no turning back. For one thing, what could they say to the three chaps who had refused to come and share the delights of winter camping? You've got to be able to tell everyone what fun it was, haven't you? So we went gamely on and set to work with a will fixing up the tents and preparing the kitchen. For one thing, the only way to keep warm was by working hard, and, for another, until the tents were up there was no shelter from the wind. There are winds and winds; and this one was the spiteful kind. It simply didn't want us on its favourite chilly hill and didn't hesitate to let us know it. So we quickly gathered wood from the copse on the next hill and got a camp fire going. That and a hearty dinner of hot stewed steak and curried beans helped to warm things up a bit. It was a funny thing about that tin of (It stewed steak, though! Nobody remembered Hot stewed steak and curried beans warmed us up

bringing one, and Peter, who was camp cook for the weekend, had been observed prior to preparing for camp out shopping for his mother loaded with tins of dog meat! As the 1 label to the tin, strangely enough, couldn't 1 be found, the whole performance was highly suspect. But it was jolly good slosh, and, as Ken said, there was no doubt Peter's mother had some pretty healthy-looking dogs, so why worry? At camp-fire later, the pioneers were joined by one or two of the other members of the Troop "just to see how you're getting on!" Obviously, they only came because they hoped the three couldn't take it and would bo coming home to bed like them• selves. But it's amazing how stubborn a chap can be when he thinks someone's hoping to see him give in, isn't it? The night was the worst part. True, we all crowded into one tent for warmth— lucky we weren't very big Scouts—but the The only way to keep warm was to work hard wind seemed to get in everywhere and it was 45 The Scouts Pathfinder Annual even more determined and spiteful than it seemed to die away. When Ken suggested had been during the day. We put on all that maybe we ought to go home early before the clothes we had, day clothes and night it got dark we all felt quite seriously that clothes, raincoats, sleeping-bags, blankets, he might be right. After all, our loving the lot. We took turns holding our hands mothers had been very brave in allowing over the hurricane lamp for warmth. We tried to do P.T. exercises, but with three Scouts in a two-Scout tent there wasn't much room for arms full stretch, although the knees full bend wouldn't have been too bad except that we collided and knocked each other over. At long last, the dawn began to creep into the cracks where only the wind had come before. It didn't come up like thunder, as it's supposed to do in the East; it came up more as though it was half-frozen and didn't ft want to get out of bed. The three pioneers were glad to see it, though. Off we went to the woods, racing IlifW each other down one hill and up the other to get our cramped, cold bodies back to life. There was soon another camp fire blazing mm away by the tents and a plentiful supply of hot cocoa and kippers, all a bit mixed up together, because the billy with the cocoa in it had upset into the kipper pan. But who cares about a little thing like that in camp—especially this camp? We cleared breakfast, then went for a They ran to get cramped, cold bodies back to life cross-country. None of us were really keen cross-countryers, but we'd all got worn us to come out like this as it was, and it track-suits, so we thought it was a good really was only fair to get back early and idea. On the way back, we gathered more let the folk at home see that all was well. wood, ready to set about the task of preparing Besides, we said, as an afterthought, there dinner. was all the camp gear to put away first. No stewed steak this time. Beans, of So into the truck went all the equipment, course. What is camp without beans? Eggs folded tents on top, and off we went, swinging and bacon; two kippers left over from break• gaily down the hill singing at the tops of our fast time, cooked without cocoa this time; voices: fried bread and bangers. A terrific dinner! "We love to go a-ca-hamping Never in the world of winter camps has there Out in the frost and sleet; been such a dinner! Those three who didn't Our toes are froze; turn up were going to be green with envy Oh, how it blows; when they heard about it. And we can't feel our feet." Strangely, after the meal had been eaten "How did you enjoy camp? " was the ques• and the utensils washed, interest in the camp tion on Monday morning. 46 Cold Comfort Camp

"Coo, smashing! You were daft not to "Fancy cooping yourselves up indoors!" come." "When're you going again?" "We had the superest dinner any camp's "Haven't decided, but it's your turn next ever had everl" time—so don't miss it."

m The pioneers boasted of the joys of winter camp CYCLE TIPS You will often find that when the inner Scouts whose cycles are fittedwit h rub• tube of your cycle splits it will continue ber pedals will find that after a few months to do so even though a large patch is placed of constant wear the rubber will become over it. The way to remedy this is to nick worn and probably drop off. This hint, each end of the split with scissors in the therefore, should prove of use: Procure a form of a letter T before repairing. The length of old motor-cycle or car inner slit cannot spread any farther and a sound tubing, and cut off a piece the length of job is made of the repair. your pedal rubbers. Slip the tubing over After a cycle tyre has gone for a long the pedals, where it will serve the dual time without punctures, you will probably purpose of preventing further wear and find the valve very difficult to remove. the old rubbers from falling off. Force is not much use, for generally the valve tubing is left behind. To prevent this, hold two or three lighted matches under the valve for some seconds, when the metal will expand and the valve should come out quite easily. If you have neglected your cycle and rust appears on the bright parts, here is a good way of removing it. Obtain some bath brick and grind a little in the lid of a tin. Then add enough lubricating oil to make it into a fairly thick paste. Rub this on the rusted parts and in a very short time the disfiguring coat will have disappeared. by WM. J. BLEEKS

After many dark months of war the news arrived that the Allies had landed in Normandy. The Scouts immediately set about making plans to help them when they arrived in Holland. Jan saw that in order that the Allied advance should not be hindered the bridge over the river at Nymegen must not be destroyed. He joined the local canoe club and spent

When Baden-Powell was visiting the people of Ashanti the chief welcomed him by putting forward his left hand, saying, "In my country the bravest of the brave shake with the left hand." It was fitting that this should become the symbol of our Movement, because when during the Second World War many Scouts were faced with terror and ex• treme hardship they acted with great many hours lying on his back in a canoe. bravery. Courageous deeds were enacted, He studied the massive steel structure not only at home by British Scouts but and the complicated German fortifica• by Scouts of many nationalities all over tions. He also watched the enemy plant the world. many charges of explosives in order to In 1940, when the Germans occupied blow up the bridge should they be forced Holland, eighteen-year-old Jan Van Hoaf to retreat. was a member of the Dutch underground On September 17th hundreds of Allied and helped to forge papers and carry parachutists dropped quietly into the messages. During the occupation, Scout• woods around Nymegen, and the whole ing was forbidden, but carried on in area became a battleground. For days secret, even producing its own news• the massive bridge was swept by shells paper, Fighting Youth. In 1941 Jan be• and gunfire. It seemed impossible that came a Rover. He was enrolled in a anyone could get near it, let alone reach wood, and throughout the ceremony the a position to render harmless the ex• thump of jackboots could be heard as plosives. the Germans drilled near by. Then one night Jan astounded his 48 Middlesex Air Scouts feel on top of the world on the York aircraft, which has behind it twenty years of active service with R.A.F. Transport Command and ten years as one of the Dan-Air fleet

Air Scouts give a wash-and-brush-up to the big York transport plane that is now a bunkhouse at the Scout Air Training Base at Lasham, Hampshire AIR SCOUTING THRILLS

Photos:Photon: JimJin Laurence One of the 14th Chingford Senior Air Scouts prepares to demonstrate the special ascending parachute at an Up he goes—the ascending parachute in mid-air Air Scout display SEA SCOUTING

Guernsey Sea Scouts make a raft

In the Solent at the Isle of Wight Sea Scout Regatta

One (shoeshine) for the road Sea Scouts of the 3rd Hillingdon, winners of the silver cup for gig pulling at the National Sea Scout Regatta at Kingston-on-Th ames Photos: Norman A. Rome Bravest Oj the Brave family by calmly announcing, "Thank God, the bridge is saved." How he achieved his impossible task we shall never know. The day after he had carried out his magnificent act of courage he was killed by a German shell. Jan Van Hoaf is one of the greatest of the Scout Move• v ment's heroes. m 4 Throughout all Europe thousands of 1«' vw\i v Scouts upheld their Law and Promise and carried on their activities in secret when the Movement was declared illegal by J the Gestapo. When Czechoslovakia was overrun in 1939 this oath was renewed in

Mr -: ing from the defacing of posters to blow• ing up ammunition trains. One of the patrol's members was captured, cruelly tortured and finally beaten to death. The brave Scout died uttering the words of a Polish poem: "I implore the still living not to lose hope." In Northern Europe the resistance of the stout-hearted people of Norway be• came a legend, and again the Boy Scouts played no small part. The most astonish• I ing thing was the way in which extremely young boys faced their man-size tasks. secret by Scouts in all parts of that Even the Cubs were active members of country: "On my honour I will do my the underground! duty to my country. I shall love my One of the heroes of Norway was a brother Scouts, whom I shall never be• fifteen-year-old Scout, Eric Knoll, who, tray, and I am ready to make the sacri• because of his knowledge of map-reading, fice of my life." made nearly a hundred trips across the The same bravery was shown by the Swedish border, smuggling agents and people of Poland, a country which has prisoners out of Norway. His gallant work suffered more than any other country was the means of saving scores of lives in Europe. Some of the Scouts formed and freeing valuable men. The Germans the famous "Beeches" patrol, so called eventually captured him, but, unable because they made many expeditions and to force any information from him, they missions into the beech forest. They sent him to a concentration camp, where harassed the enemy in many ways, rang- he died. D 4' The Scout's Pathfinder Annual France is the place most people usually to an even greater degree the resolution associate with the Resistance, and it which was shown by all Scouts. If it had been estimated that in some parts was difficult to keep the flame of Scout• of that country seventy-five per cent ing alive in the midst of the terror of the underground workers had, at one and danger of battle it was even more time or other, been connected with the difficult in the midst of the degradation Scout Movement. But it was not only in of captivity. Yet there was hardly a the Resistance that the Movement played prisoner-of-war or concentration camp an important part. which did not have a Rover Crew of some One day a young French Scout, Noel, kind. One of the most famous was that rescued four people from an air-raid known as the Clan de L'Etape. Before fire, helped soldiers in other rescue work, becoming a member a candidate had to and roUnded off a busy day by helping pass certain tests. He had to bathe in the police direct traffic. a pond of water in mid-winter when the With two friends, two lorries and a temperature was well below freezing- motor-cycle, a Rover, Jean Pierre Com- point. He had to He for three nights boudon, set himself the task of collect• along the edges of wooden planks, with ing food for air-raid victims of Issy, a suburb of Paris. He went out into the surrounding country and in spite of being held up by a burst tyre, a fire in one of the lorries and an air raid he returned with thirty tons of food.

a soft mattress lying a few feet away. In this way they built up a spirit which 1 was never broken. The members of this famous Rover Crew kept a log-book, and This helped twenty-five thousand people this remarkable record is now kept in survive until the arrival of the Ameri• the Training Centre at Gilwell. It is a record of the supreme courage of some cans. There is another kind of heroism, less of those who could truly be called glamorous and spectacular but requiring "bravest of the brave." 50 rTAKE A TIP.... • D • •

OCCASIONS WHEN YOU MUST TO REMOVE A GcET ALL YOUR. PATROL NOT HAVE A kNI FE .. . TO FOLD THEIR SCARVES \ I / STUBBORN PEG: THIS WAY... " / ^(D CHURCH PARADES POINT AS LOMG: AS YOUR FIRST INGER. i ROUGH& TUMBLE GAMES. PRESS I>OWN OM TENT PEG TV. LOOkS NEAT AND TIDY.

IF YOU BEND THE LUGTS OF YOUR BILLY-CAN HANDLE SLIGHTLY OUTWARDS, THE /

To HELP YOU MAKE YOURSELF COMFORTABLE IN HANDLE WILL STAY UP WITH- CAMP AWD TO KEEP THINGS IN -OUT THE USE OF ANY GADGETS SOME SORT OF ORDER.,BE SURE — NO BURNT F/NGEJes/ TO MAKE GOOD CAMP GADGETS

in captivity ate insects and worms continually for an I BY hour, then was so full up it slept for an hour, when • / it woke up and continued feeding. It is able to run very fast and can bury itself within twelve seconds to escape from an enemy. It measures three inches in length; the tail is about another CREATURES three inches long. The Pigmy Shrew is the smallest British mammal, being about 1\ inches in length, with a tail about • the same length. It has a large appetite for so small THE an animal and must eat continually. If kept in a cage or box for only a few minutes without food it will die. It may also die of fright. If a box is placed SHREW over one, plunging it suddenly into darkness it will lie down and die at once. The chief enemies of the Shrew are the Viper, the Stoat, the Weasel, and birds-of-prey such as The Common Shrew, a red-brown, tiny, mouse• the Hawk and the Owl. The Shrew does not like creature with a snout-like nose, has such a large hibernate and can often be seen during winter in appetite that it cannot live for longer than two to ditches and woodland glades, searching amongst three hours without food, such as insects, worms heaps of old fallen leaves and under small branches, and snails. Thus it is active night and day. One kept twigs, etc., for hidden insects. i

Vht CAMP -By LEIGHTON DDI HOUGHTON

his is what I call a camp site." Nigel, "You would have to slip." Nigel re• Tsquatting beside the newly made hearth garded his soaked and dripping figure with• weaving a lattice of green branches for the out sympathy. "And those happen to grease-pit cover, glanced round with a satis• be the only two billies we possess. You'd fied expression. "What price civilization better wade after them before they dis• now? Not a sound for miles except the wood- appear." pigeons " "Flipping mud!" Denny shook himself, He was interrupted by a piercing scream, his shorts sticking uncomfortably about his followed immediately by a resounding splash. thighs. "Lucky for me it wasn't any deeper "So much for your unbroken calm!" I —might have been drowned. I'd just picked stood up, turning towards the river. "Guess a way through the reeds when—whoosh! you reckoned without Denny. Something Took my breath away." tells me he's fallen in." "The billies," said Nigel again. "For We ran together through the trees to the Pete's sake, go and get them." river bank. Denny was sitting in the water, "You're a heck of a comfort, you are," submerged to his waist, and the two billies said Denny, with a look of disgust. "Chuck which he had been sent to fill were bobbing us that stick lying under the tree and I'll slowly downstream, caught by the current. be able to hook them." We each seized a hand and heaved him back It was not until he had waded out and on to dry land. regained the billies and was back in camp 52 The Camp That Disappeared changing into dry clothes that the full sig• robbing his preserves, he had directed us to nificance of his accident was apparent. the glade where we had made our camp. Nigel had made the fireplace, removing a It was fine, wild country hereabouts, with turf and surrounding the hearth with stones, the river cascading in angry flurries over while I was collecting a supply of firewood. a rock-strewn bed, the murmurous song of I had prepared a miniature pyramid of small, pigeons in the pine-trees, and sometimes dry twigs round the remnants of an old bird's the plaintive cry of the grouse on the nest. moors behind us—gobaclc, gobacJc, gobaclc. "All set!" I called out, without turning. Cycling along the dusty, rutted road which "Heave over the matches, whoever's got skirted the moors we had seen two heavily them." antlered stags silhouetted against the sky. Nigel, engaged in peeling potatoes, yelled, In fact, Denny hadn't done us such a bad "Denny, Chris wants the matches!" turn. Denny's head appeared between the tent We were arguing so fiercely about our in• flaps. ability to light our fire that none of us heard "Cor, I've only just remembered. I had the approaching footsteps until a stranger them in my shorts pocket. I guess they've came suddenly into view, his nailed boots had it." crunching on the pine-needles. He nodded He came slowly towards me, holding a to us and stopped by the hearth. sodden book of matches from which the label " The laird mentioned you were down here, had peeled; water still dripped from it. One an' I thought I'd look by an' ken you were glance told us that the matches were beyond all right. It's groom an' gardener an' what• hope. ever you please that I am at the big hoose." "They're useless." I tipped them into my Nigel burst out immediately with an hand. "You won't get a flame out of these account of our predicament. in a month of Sundays!" "Aye, now." The man nodded, his lips "You might dry them by the fire " pursed. "You could borrow from the big "When we've got a fire," Nigel cut in. hoose, but I'd no' do that this evening, for "But we haven't got a fire and I don't see they've a dinner party an' would no' like how we can get one, you dope. Of all the being disturbed. If I were a smoking man things to happen! If there was a bit of sun I'd loan you a box, but I'm not. But didn't we might manage with my watch glass, but the laird tell ye that there's another Scoot there isn't any sun. All that's left is rubbing camping a mile down the river? Aye, but sticks together and somehow I can't see us it's so. He'll be able to help you, I haven't making that work. As though you haven't a doubt." caused enough trouble already!" Nigel turned to me. It was, indeed, Denny's fault that we had "You two go and see if you can find this failed to reach our intended camp site, which lone Scout. I'll stay in camp and go on pre• lay some ten miles to the north. His front paring the tea—in hope. Make it snappy, tyre, patched already, had split, and as because I'm half starving." it was late afternoon there had been no Denny and I followed the river. For over choice but to camp on the spot. Nigel had half a mile the trees hugged the bank and spotted the big house lying back from the we had to fight our way through tangled road. An elderly gentleman dressed in tweeds undergrowth and scrub, the river foaming which smelt of peat and heather had told us and seething over its rocky bed at our side. we might pitch on his land "if you'll noo Just as we broke from the woods Denny, who be gaffing the salmon on the quiet". Having was ahead, gave a cry and fell forward on been assured that we had no intention of his face. The Scout's Pathfinder Annual

"You're not hurt, are you?" I ran to his rubbed two sticks together like an aborigine? side, but he was up before I reached him. You say you don't use matches." "Caught my foot in an old rabbit burrow." "No, boy, I'm fully civilized." He grinned, He paused abruptly, staring at a clump of and, putting a hand into his shirt pocket, bushes. "I say, look what's under that tossed a brass petrol lighter into my lap. bush." "There's my fire-maker—much more handy He went on all-fours and dragged into view than a box of matches. You're welcome a bag made of stout, stitched paper, the kind to borrow it, provided I get it back before used to hold fertilizers and cattle food. As bedtime. I'm planning to make an early start he pulled it forward a handful of white pow• in the morning." der sprinkled over the grass. We stayed on a while, chatting about our "Funny place to leave it, isn't it? I mean, respective Troops; then, promising to return well, there isn't a house or a cottage for a the lighter within an hour, we set off back couple of miles. What is it, d'you think? " to our own camp. I licked a finger, touched some of the Nigel had the tea ready, except of course spilled powder and put it on my tongue, but for the cooking of it, and it was only a at the first taste I spat it out. It had a bitter, moment's work to light my fire. By this time acid-like flavour and it burned. I went to the we were all so hungry that we agreed the river and, cupping my hands, washed out my return of the lighter could wait until our mouth with water. appetites were satisfied. "It's not sugar, if that's what you're The light was beginning to fade when I thinking," I said, grimacing. "Better leave started back for the lone Scout's camp, Denny it alone. It tastes like a weed-killer." and Nigel staying behind to wash up and But Denny had already pushed it back unpack the sleeping-bags. Among the trees beneath the leaves and was pointing ahead the owls were calling and little bats flitted where the ground, rough grassland now, rose and dived in the shadows. in a gentle slope. As I came into the open my foot kicked "Wood smoke! That'll be where he's camp• something and I glanced down. It was a ing." dead weasel lying in the patch of white Beyond the rise, in a shallow depression powder which Denny had spilled from the beside the river, there was pitched a one- bag. As I picked it up I looked towards the man hike tent, and a few yards away, bacon bushes. The sack was no longer there. and egg sizzled appetizingly over a small fire. The weasel was stiff and cold, its mouth A Scout, his back towards us, was squatting gaping, showing needle-like teeth, the thin, on the turf, writing in a note-book. He red tongue protruding. I wondered vaguely turned as we shouted, waving his hand. what had caused its death, for its body "Where have you two sprung from? " He appeared unmarked. I flung it into the un• was older than either of us and wore a First dergrowth and went on up the slope, feeling Class badge. "I thought I had the place to in my pocket for the lighter. myself." But when I reached the crest I stopped, We introduced ourselves and explained staring in astonishment. The lone Scout and what had brought us in search of him his camp had completely disappeared. Faintly "Matches? " He clicked his tongue. "Never on the turf I could make out the place where use 'em myself. I'm on a lone hike, doing a his tent had been pitched—or was it only spot of work for my Bushman's Thong—one my imagination? There was no sign of his night stands, you know." fireplace. I searched the place pretty thor• "Well, how did you light your fire?" I oughly, but I did not find so much as a asked him. "You're not going to tell us you charred stick. I stood, gazing round me, The Camp That Disappeared puzzled and mystified. I was sure this was I felt suddenly angry and exasperated. "It the place where he had "been camping. Why, was you who told us!" then, had he packed up and vanished with• "Hoch noo; it's dreaming you are! I told out making any attempt to regain his petrol you no such thing. There's been no Scouts lighter? but yourselves." A footstep sounded behind me and I spun He swung round on his heel and went round. The man who had visited us at our quickly into the trees. camp was standing on the edge of the woods, I ran all the way back to camp, bursting watching me. There was something suspi• breathlessly on to the glade where our tent cious and wary about his attitude. was pitched. Nigel was arranging the sleep• I said, "I wanted the Scout who was camp• ing-bags in the tent and Denny was adjusting ing here. Tou haven't seen him? " a guy-rope. "Scout? What Scout?" He spoke in a "What's up with you?" Denny regarded surly voice, making no move. " There's three Scouts a couple of miles upstream " "I'm one of them. There was another Scout here this afternoon. We borrowed his lighter. It was you who told me he was camping here." "There's been no Scout hereabout," he said brusquely. "But you told us yourself—and we talked to him." "There's none but you three. There's been none camping down these parts."

"What's up with you?" demanded Denny, as I burst into the glade 55 The Scout's Pathfinder Annual me curiously. "You look mad about some• If I see any of ye around here again I'll have thing." ye sent packing. It needs only a word from "Denny." I collapsed on to the grass, me an' the laird'll tell you to quit." panting. "That Scout, Denny. Well, he's I caught Denny's sleeve and pulled him gone—he's not there now. And that man towards the trees, to which Nigel had already who told us about him swears he never was retreated. there." "There's no sense in arguing," I said "So what? " Denny stretched lazily. "May• briefly. be he decided to move off somewhere else." As we reached the woods Denny stopped, "But I've got his lighter. What worries me is that the man who looked in on us and told us about him now says he never sent us there. There's not a sign of the camp. I couldn't even find where he'd made his fire. There's something wrong, Denny. I've got a hunch that Scout is in trouble!" "What's all the hoo-ha?" Mgel peered out of the tent. After a short discussion it was agreed that we should visit the camp site together. When we reached it it was as deserted as I had found it previously, except that now the man was squatting on the outskirts of the trees. He rose, frowning, as he saw us. "What is it you're after noo?" His atti• tude was hostile. "Did you no' understand the laird does no' allow folks trampling over the grassland? It's in the woods you had permission to camp. My advice to ye is to stay there. If I find you hereabouts again I'll have to be telling him you ought not to be staying on his land at all. I'm warning ye." Denny said, "We came to see the Scout that was here. We borrowed his lighter and promised to return it." " Ach, noo, is this a joke you're playing? " The man came angrily towards us. "Have I no' told ye there was no Scout here—no Scout at all? The laird does not allow stran• gers except in the woods. And that's where you'd best be keeping to." "But you told us yourself," insisted Denny. "Besides, we sat here and talked to him, and he lent us his lighter." The man suddenly clenched his fist and came forward threateningly. "I'll no' listen to ye! Will you be away? 56 The Camp That Disappeared

gesturing angrily. "The man's lying! What's tent-peg. "That's not one of ours. I'd say behind it, that's what I want to know? That it's time to do a spot of investigating. First Scout told us he was camping here till to• thing, though, is to make that fellow think morrow, and now he's vanished." He swung we've retired from the scene." round to face Nigel. "I suppose you don't We made our way noisily through the think we both dreamed it up, do you? " undergrowth for a couple of hundred yards, "Of course you haven't. While you were then, led by Nigel, doubled back, moving talking I picked this up." Nigel held out now in silence, picking each step for fear his hand. Lying in his palm was a metal of treading on a cracking branch, dodging into the deep shadows beneath the larger trees. Once a bird broke with a great cack• ling from a nearby bush, and we all stood i frozen, straining our ears, for fear it should have betrayed our presence. As we crossed 11 a glade an owl floated within a few yards ft '\ of us, huge and ghost-like, on silent wings. When at last we reached the wood's edge we were above the depression where the i Scout had had his camp and the night- ( shadowed sky shrouded the open fields in Mi twilight. "Think with the mind of the hunted." m Nigel paused, glancing round him. "That Scout didn't just pack up and leave of his own accord. He'd have come after his lighter first. Okay, then—somebody forced him to move. Where would he be taken to—to make sure he didn't come back or contact us?" "You're giving me the creeps." Denny shivered. "Why would anybody want to move him?" 1/ TO*™ "Search me! You two wait here. I'll be 11 oo back in a minute, but if I give you the owl call come to me. Don't let our friend see you, though; he's around somewhere, you can be sure of that." 5% He went down on all-fours and crawled : into the open. For a moment we saw him 7A m • 4 moving through the rough grass, then the dusk swallowed him. For several minutes U« Hi'/ JflS there was nothing except the quiet, weird noises of the woods: the fall of a dead bough, the startled cry of a bird. At/*' Suddenly we heard the owl call. "He's somewhere ahead." I pulled Denny /// on to the ground. " Keep low and no talking." We found Nigel crouching beneath a loose- Nigel was crouching beneath a stone wall stone wall. We huddled beside him and he 57 The Scoutfs Pathfinder Annual spoke in a hoarse whisper. He was excited. I dropped the bar into place after him and "I reckon I've found it. There's a kind of crouched at the back of the building. There barn in the field over this wall." was the noise of approaching footsteps and I said quickly, "I'll go and see." three men came out of the darkness. They I slithered over the wall and found my• passed within a couple of yards of me, ig• self in a ploughed field. I could see the noring the barn. I recognised one of them as black mass of the barn against the farther the man we had already met. He was carry• skyline. It was a small building roughly made ing a stitched paper bag exactly similar to of creosoted boards, the walls unbroken by the one which Denny had found beneath the windows. bush. All at once I remembered the dead I ran, doubled up, round the edge of the weasel lying in the patch of white powxler. field. The barn had a stout door closed by Whatever was in that sack was deadly poison. a hinged beam. I lifted it free of its slot, They went on towards the river bank. let it fall back and heaved the weighty door Presently I opened the barn door, and the open. two of us, moving with extreme stealth, crept "Anyone here?" to where Nigel and Denny were waiting. Something stirred in the darkness. I hesi• We had hardly begun our hurried, whis• tated, straining my eyes into the blackness. pered explanations when the darkness below There was an abrupt movement; something us was lit by orange flames. A man's voice hurled towards me, crashing into my chest, shouted something and there was a violent and I was rolling over on the stony ground splashing. Nigel jerked his head towards the outside with someone on top of me. river and, following him, we crept on our "For Pete's sake!" I grabbed a leg, stomachs to the top of the slope which shel• struggled out of a throttling grip and pushed tered the hollow where the Scout had camped. him away from me. "I'm one of the Scouts There were flares burning on the river who borrowed your lighter. What's the big bank, their dancing flames blown this way idea? We came to find you." and that by the night breeze, black, oily "You tell me the big idea, buddy." He smoke trailing into the sky, the water was standing over me now, breathing heavily. flecked with patches of light. The man whom "I thought I was stuck there for the night. we had encountered had waded into the I gave up yelling an hour ago; it was pretty centre of the river upstream, his legs encased obvious there wasn't anyone to hear." in thigh-length gum-boots, and he was throw• "Yep, but who put you there—and ing handfuls of the white powder on to the why?" surface, so that a wide band of creamy water "You tell me," he said again. "I was lapped from bank to bank. sitting by the fire, supping cocoa, when— But it was his two companions who caught whiz-bang!—there was a sack over my head. our attention. They were fifty yards down• I was carried up here and pitched into this stream, both waist-deep in the river, thresh• place. Not so much as a word spoken or a ing and beating the water with bushy by-your-leave. I tell you, I was mad—but branches, shouting and yelling as they waded there wasn't anyone to be mad with; they slowly towards us, fighting against the cur• barred the door and did a bunk." rent. I was telling him how all signs of his camp "What on earth's the idea?" Denny's lips had been cleared away when suddenly I were pressed to my ear. "Are they all clean caught the low mutter of voices. batty?" "Someone coming. You nip back in the It was then that the first fish leapt— barn in case they take a look; I'll let you out a huge, silvery body somersaulting through as soon as they've gone." the air where the powder had whitened the The Camp That Disappeared water. The man had thrown away the sack, where a dozen huge fish lay in silvery splen• and now he rushed forward, holding a landing dour on the grass, illuminated by the dying net, to catch the salmon before it touched flares. The men had lit cigarettes and were the water again. Hardly was it in the net resting after their exertions, talking softly. than another leapt, and another, their great It was then that Denny moved, and in bodies glittering in the light of the flares, doing so snapped a dry twig. In the stillness mouths gaping and tails threshing. of the night it burst out sharply. The Lone Scout seized my arm. One of the men sprang up, staring towards "Poaching, that's what they're up to. the place where we lay. None of us moved, They've poisoned the water so that the sal• flattening ourselves into the ground, hardly mon can't pass through and those two are daring to breathe. driving the fish upstream." The man said, "I heard summat." He "And if there's any evidence to show came heavily up the slope directly towards us. what's happened when tomorrow comes," We all sprang up together and turned and said Nigel hoarsely, "I've a pretty good idea fled, heading for the trees. who'll get the blame. You fellows stick here. The man was taken by surprise. I heard his I'm going to the laird's house." cry of fury and the heavy thud of his waders But the poaching was all over before Nigel behind me, but already we were lengthening had returned. The men waded on to the bank, the distance which separated us. Suddenly I heard Denny shout. I glanced back and saw him stumble and fall. The man came quickly on. I spun round, raced back, and as the man kicked savagely at Denny's ribs, missing him by inches, I lowered my head and butted at his stomach. He gave a

mm.

As the man kicked savagely at Denny I lowered my head and butted him 59 The Scout's Pathfinder Annual dry gasp, clutching at my shirt, and then into his palm. "Poison a belt of water with we were rolling down the slope to where his this and—hoch, mon!—there's not a fish two companions were waiting. that could pass it. I ken it's a fine way to But as they sprang at me a brilliant beam poach the salmon, a great deal quicker than of light stabbed the darkness. Voices shouted working with a gaff." from above, and there were people running Later we found the lone Scout's camping towards us. One of the three men sprang equipment hidden in a nearby ditch. The backwards, tripped and fell into the river, laird treated us all to a fine supper at the raising a great shower of spray. A second big house and assured us that any time we tried to gather up the salmon, flinging them had a mind to camp on his estate we would into the landing net, only to find himself be welcome. a surrounded by the laird and his companions. "Aye, noo, and if there's any of ye partial The third—the one who had visited our camp to a bit o' salmon-fishing, the river's all —made a wild dash up the slope, where he was yours. What's more, I'll lend ye a fine rod vigorously tackled by the lone Scout and and show ye the reet way to cast a fly." brought down. "Sodium chloride." The laird picked up the bag and tipped some of the white powder °o°°FISH>0° AUSTRALIAN SCOUTS Most Scouts in Australia live on the east coast in the states of New South Wales and Victoria. Periodically they hold a Jamboree, which, in Australia, is called a Corroboree. Places where they hold these Corroborees include Chatswood, Melbourne and Sydney. At these gatherings they may display models of all kinds and sizes as well as put on a display to show how well they have mastered hut-buildings and fire drill. In aid of Troop funds they sometimes hold a "Salmagundo" and dance. Scouts in uniform take charge of the supper arrangements. The Scouts on the west coast are mainly in Perth and Fremantle and do excellent charitable work in conjunc• tion with the church, which is mainly Presbyterian in denomination. —M.B.

Six fish whose names will ANSWERS rhyme with the objects drawn •aiE>js :sjE9—9 :>|JBqs :}IJV—S :P°D :p°d—V -'3|°S :IM°9 here. Can you name them? —£ M'3 :I33MM—Z Unojj. :}no3$—I ARE FH % SAYS CHARLES NORMAL

Many Scouts like fishing, and are and provide me with a delicious meal into usually happier when they camp close to the bargain, are the kind of nuisances the water—there is so much more to do. I like. The chap who gives you grim de• The average Scout who is an angler needs tails of the hopeless mess they will make to be told very little about normal fishing of your tackle has probably caught one methods, but there is one branch of the eel in his life and had no idea how to sport he always seems to forget—eel- handle it. True, eels will tangle your fishing. Catching roach or perch is a satis• tackle if you let them, but you would fying and restful pastime; stalking the do the same if you were an eel in a wary chub is wonderful practice in ang• similar predicament. The answer is not ling without being seen or heard; but for to let them. Now, about their sporting excitement and thrills, and a good meal qualities. Just try catching them in there is a lot to be said for fishing for eels. the ways I shall describe and see what Eels Galore you think. To call them foul feeders is You will find eels in pretty well any pure slander. They are much fussier about water that contains fish. They thrive what they eat than trout, who at times in ponds and lakes and are equally at will feed on almost any kind of rubbish. home in rivers and canals. In tidal How to Catch 'Em waters, and in the fens and drains around The secret of catching eels is the same our coasts, they abound. We never realise as the secret of catching any other spe• how many of them there are simply be• cies. It is simply offering the right bait cause we rarely bother to fish for them. in the right way in the right place. This The chap who knows all the answers is just about as useful as saying that will tell you they are a nuisance, that they painting a picture is just a matter of tangle your tackle into a hopeless mess, putting the right colours in the right that they give no sport, and that they places. So let us go into details. are foul feeders. Well, so far as being A very useful method, which these days a nuisance is concerned, fish of any• seems to have been completely forgotten, thing up to six pounds or so that will is bobbing. This is not really angling, almost certainly take my bait at any time because it needs no hook or, for that of the day, give me an excitin g tussle, matter, any other tackle specially made 61 The Scout's Pathfinder Annual for fishing. But in river estuaries, in will soon disengage, and if you allow them harbours and creeks, and in fenland will be off through the grass and back into drains, it gives terrific bags. To catch the river like streaks of greased lightning. eels in this way you need a darning If you try to hold them they will wriggle needle, some worsted thread, a length through your fingers just as easily as of strong twine, and a long straight through the grass. The best plan is to stick—a fishing-rod will do. The bait have a bucket handy and let the eels is worms. Thread the needle with worsted drop into this. Of course, some will drop and then thread the worms from head to off into the water and on to the bank, tail. As this is rather a grisly business but as you will be pulling them out two I would not advise asking your sister or three at a time this should not bother to do it for you, even if she is handier you. It all adds to the excitement. with a needle than you. Roll up the Bobbing, although in the right places threaded worms into a bundle a few inches it gives good catches, is not really ang• in diameter and attach this to the twine. ling. An even more exciting way to At the water's edge tie the other end catch eels is to use a roving bait. A- of the twine to your stick or rod and part from your usual tackle, all you need lower the worms to the bottom. If you for this is a yard or so of nylon or Terylene arrange things so that the twine is about monofilament with a breaking strain of two feet shorter than the rod, you will about six pounds and a few eyed eel- find this tackle easy to handle. hooks. Size four is about the best. Eels are Bold Attaching the hook may give you a little Now settle down, holding the rod in your hands so that you can just feel the JAM FOR EEL-HOOKS weight of the bait. Nothing will happen To running line unless you have been lucky enough to drop your bait right under the nose of a customer. But eels have a wonderful sense of smell and very soon every eel in Cut short the neighbourhood will be making its way towards you. The first one that sees Push end of line through your ball of worms will jump at it and eye of hook, wrap loosely several times round shank. worcy it like a terrier shaking a rat. Push short end through Others will join in. You will feel first a loose turns and then pull both ends at once so that vibration and then you will realise turns nestle snugly to• gether. Cut off end indi• that the bundle of bait is being cated. dragged over the bottom. Now all you have to do is lift the rod and gently swing the bundle ashore. At first the eels are too busy trying to get a good difficulty at first. Monofilament is tricky mouthful of worm to notice what is hap• stuff to knot and unless you use the pening, and by the time they realise that proper jam you will lose both hooks and something is wrong their teeth have be• eels. The arrangement shown in the figure come entangled in the worsted. Once is not really a knot at all, but although they are out of the water, though, they it does not look very secure it will 62 Eels Are Fun never slip if it is properly made and water till he is exhausted. If you had pulled tight. hooked an ordinary fish of the same size, For this exercise the bait is a dead all you would have to do now would be minnow or any other small fish or piece to slip a landing-net beneath him and of fish. A slice of herring is very good, lift him out. But if you try this with because the eels can smell it a great an eel it really will make your tackle, way off. Whatever bait you use, though, landing-net as well, into the sort of it must be fresh or the eels will not bird's-nest you have heard about. Your want to know about it. If you are using best weapon is a sheet of newspaper, on a fresh-killed fish as bait, pierce its swim- which eels do not seem to be able to bladder with a needle so that it will move fast—possibly because their bodies rest on the bottom and push the point can get no grip on the smooth surface. of the hook through just behind its Swing him out on to this, grab him behind head so that the tail lies along the hook the neck with one hand, cut the mono• shank. If you are fishing in still water filament close to the hook, and pop him you will need no lead on the line, but into your bag before he has time to rea• in moving water squeeze on close to the lise what is happening. The hooks can be hook just enough split shot to make the taken out later. For the present, just bait sink to the bottom. put on a fresh hook, bait it and catch Floatless Fishing another eel. With a little practice, you will be able to dispense with the news• You do not require a float, which would paper and drop the eel tail-first into your be more hindrance than help. Just swing bag. If you try this before you have got out the baited hook, let it sink to the bot• used to handling them, though, the eel tom, hold the line between your finger• is just as likely to finish up in your tips, and wait for a few minutes. If there pocket or down your neck. is no bite, pull the bait an inch or two towards you and again wait for a few minutes. Carry on in this way till you have the bait right at your feet, then lift it out and start again. Fishing like this you are not waiting for the eels to come to you. You search every square inch of the water for them, and if there are any at all you will find them. A bite is indicated by a gentle tug or series V of tugs, followed by a firm steady pull as the fish moves off with the bait. Strike when it has gone about a yard, then be prepared for fireworks! The eel knows I every trick in the book. He is tremend• -

ously strong for his size and can swim • very fast for short distances. Just keep a steady strain on him, try to keep him away from snags and weeds, and, above all, do not try to get him out of the COUNTRYSIDE CREATURES DJhz tPxfsUiViel The Grey Squirrel does not hibernate through the winter, although it is sometimes thought that it Y. does. It builds its nest, called a "drey", amongst the topmost branches of a tree and therein spends cold periods during the winter asleep. As soon as the sun comes out on a fine day it wakes up and visits its store of food. The Grey Squirrel is an American animal. A few were brought to Britain and intro• duced as pets; others were kept in the London Zoo until they became so numerous that they were either set free or escaped into the surrounding countryside. Since then the Grey Squirrel has spread all over Britain and can even be seen in some of the London parks and gardens. It feeds on nuts, such as hazel and beechmast, pine-cones, young birds and eggs, fruit, some kinds of toadstools, in• sects, grain and roots. Foresters dislike it because it damages hundreds of young trees by feeding on the tender shoots. The Grey Squirrel opens a hazel-nut by sitting on its hind legs, holding the nut in its forepaws and gnawing away at one side of the nut with its razor-sharp teeth until the juicy kernel in• side the shell is reached. It often runs down tree- The true British squirrel, the shy Red Squirrel, trunks to search amongst vegetation near by. It will is becoming rarer and is now mostly seen in the scamper quickly across roads, but it also crosses densely wooded areas of Wales and Scotland. It is distances of several feet by leaping from tree to tree. sometimes killed by the fierce Grey Squirrel, which invades its territory.

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••••Albert, did I hurt you?" 54 Scoutmg' Has Many Faces

COMMONWEALTH P.L.'s AWARD-WINNING SCOUT QUEEN'S SCOUT CHANGES. TRAINING CAMP. A unique camp FILM. When you see the 16 mm. Last year the Committee of the documentary Scout film "Accent is to take place this year at Gilwell on Adventure", made by Scout Council approved an additional re• Park, the training centre on the Headquarters, remember it was quirement to the qualifications for edge of Epping Forest, Essex. It is awarded a gold medal for the best the Queen's Scout Badge. The new film of its class at the Second Scout a Training Camp for Common• Film Festival, Venice. In addition, rule means that to become a wealth Patrol Leaders. The Chief it gained the "Golden Gondola Queen's Scout a First Class Scout Scout writes: "I want it to be Bow" as premier film out of the over the age of 15 years must on nineteen entries in the Festival. clear at the outset that what is pro• The film was mainly the work of and after January 1st, 1965, have posed is not a sort of Common• Ted Wood and Jack Olden of carried out a service to the com• wealth Jamboree but an entirely Scout Headquarters Publicity De• munity. The service should be partment, who travelled 6,000 new venture, which will bring to• miles and spent many weekends approved by his Group Scout• gether Patrol Leaders from every over a period of two years filming master and can be done within the part of the Commonwealth. There the many exciting scenes. "Accent Scout Movement as, say, a Senior on Adventu re'' sets to out show the will be a preference for those of 14 tough and adventurous activities Scout instructor or by working and 15." The Chief Scout has of Senior and Rover Scouts in the with handicapped Scouts. Alter• asked for the help of Scout Coun• U.K. Included in the film are glid• natively, it can be done outside the ing, potholing, foreign expedition, tries and Districts in offering hospi• rock-climbing, sailing, canoeing, Movement as a Sunday School tality to the Patrol Leaders from pioneering and horse-riding. Addi• Teacher, in the hospital service or the Commonwealth after the Gil- tional sequences showing ski-ing with any emergency service. The and mountain-climbing under snow well camp so that they will have an conditions were shot by Derek minimum qualifying duration is 24 opportunity of seeing as much as Mackenzie, an Edinburgh Scouter, working hours, either as regular possible of the United Kingdom in the Cairngorms, and scenes service spread over six months or taken during a pony trek in Iceland before returning to their own were contributed by Robert Tate, on a short-term project. It has country. an ex-member of the Epsom Col• always been a condition of the lege Scout Group. "Accent on Queen's Scout Badge that the Adventure" was shot with no re• hearsing and no professional actors. Scout gaining it places his training HOW TO MAKE The film, which runs for 40 in Scoutcraft at the disposal of the minutes, has background music community, but this is the first and a spoken commentary. Copies A CAMP have been purchased by the British time that prospective Queen's Council for showing in seventeen Scouts have had to carry out speci• HOT-WATER countries. fied acts of service. MACHINE

THE FUNNEL AND SPOUT EARTH AND CLAY UNSCREW FOR TRANSPORT COVERING mm BP >• M REINFORCED WITH TURVES ft /

CHIMNEY MADE OUT OF OLD TINS . v . STAND THE HEATER ON BRICKS OR GRIDIRON OVER FIRE 65 I ;

IN LEOPARD COUNTRY ^« Account of Scouting in Malawi by Sydney \Q. Brown

When Sir Charles Maclean, the Chief ing in the long grass, and as the Chief Scout of the Commonwealth, visited from over the water was carried past Nyasaland, in East Africa, before it them they ran out to join in the pro• became the independent republic of cession. Malawi, one of the most interesting The boys then formed up on the bwalo places he inspected, from a Scout point and the Chief Scout opened the Zomba of view, was the National Scout Head• rally, the local Cubs giving the Grand quarters at Zomba, in the southern part Howl in both Nyanja and English. of the long and narrow country. The two highlights of the afternoon He flew there after seeing many other were a demonstration of lighting fires parts of the "Leopard Country", such without matches and the presentation as Lilongwe, Dedza, Mzuzu, Mzimba and of a fine wall-plaque and a walking- Nkata Bay, and being impressed by the stick in honour of the occasion to the wonderful view from the air of "The Chief Scout. Land of the Lake", as Malawi is also Thanking the boys later, Sir Charles called. Maclean said, "I am thrilled with the At Zomba the National Headquarters stick and beautiful wall-plaque. It will is built half-way up a mountain, 3,250 give the many thousands of boys who will feet above sea-level, and above it, also see them a tremendous thrill to know dug out of the mountain, is a camp- they were given to the Chief Scout by training site. Scouts of Nyasaland." The Chief was met at the camp-fire Dick Belcher, the man who conducted circle and carried to the main "bwalo" the camp-fire at which the presentation in a "machila" made by one of the local was made, was then living at the National Scouters. The Scouts and Cubs were hid• Scout Headquarters. He is an English- 66 In Leopard Country man who went to Nyasaland in 1950 to Here is their version of the Cub Law, act as Organising Commissioner for the Promise and Grand Howl: whole country. He first joined the MAPANGANO GHA KABU Scout Movement at Abbey Wood, near Nkupangana kucita makora: London, in 1924, and was one of the first (a) Kutebetera Ciuta na Queen. (b) Kusunga Malango gha Kabu. members of his Troop to gain the First (c) Na kovwira muntu yose dazi na dazi. Class and King's Scout badges. The first MALANGO GHA KABU complete Scout Group was registered at Wa Kaby wakupulikira Wolf mulala Imperial Headquarters in 1946, and by Wa Kabu wakurondezga makhumbilo ghake cara 1950 there were 314 Scouts in the country KUCEMEREZGA KAW KABU (GRAND HOWL) —not a very great number. Thanks A—Ke—La, Ti—ci—tenge, Mako—la largely to the efforts of Nyasaland's Orga• (Sixer No. 1) DYB—DYB—DYB—DYB (citani- — ) nising Commissioner this number grew to (Kabu bose) e!—Tici—DOB—DOB—DOB—DOB. over 4,000 by 1962 and to 5,000 by 1964, (Ticitenge—— ) when he resigned. The ideals of Scouting are hard to "This number could be 50,000," said "get over" to the native boy. Dick Belcher recently, "if only we could "Many of the Europeans here said that find sufficient leaders." it would never do to expect a native Warrants are only issued to Scouters to keep the ten Scout Laws," wrote Dick who have been to a training course, and Belcher some time ago, "but they were as the standard of education is very low wrong. Every boy in this world of ours few proficiency badges are earned. is honest and trustworthy at heart if In one way the Scouts have to be more only we can give him the chance to prove proficient than the boys in England— it while he's young." or France or Germany, for that matter In 1961 there were but one Queen's —because they have to learn two langu• Scout and twelve First Class Scouts in ages : English and their native tongue. the whole of the country, but the most Here is the CiTumbuka version of the important thing about Scouting is the Scout Promise and Law for Malawi. Can influence the Law and Promise has on you decipher it? the Africans who come into contact with the Scout Movement. KUPANGANA KWA SCOUT Na mtima wane kupangana kucita makora Camping means far less to a native (a) Kutevetera Ciuta na calo cane boy than it does to an English one— (b) Kovwira vantu vose pa nyengo yose (c) Kupulikira dango la Scout. the open-air life is nothing novel to him! MALANGO YA SCOUT 1. Wa Scout ncindi yake nkugomezgeka. When Malawi Scouts have travelled to 2. Wa Scout ngwa magomezgeko. an international Jamboree they have'worn 3. Wa Scout kaeitiro kake nkakwenerera na kovwira yose. a black scarf with a gold edge, with a 4. Wa Scout ndi mbali wa vose na munyane wa wa Golden Leopard as their emblem on the Scout yose, nango ngwa fuko linji panji pimngo wunji. point of the scarf and on their shirt 5. Wa Scout ngwa ulemu ku vose. pocket. The leopard is shown rampant, 6. Wa Scout ndi mbali wa vyakuveta. 7. Wa Scout wakupulikira kwambura kunyuntuta on a rock, with the sun's rays as a back• marango ya vose avo vali na mazaza pa iyo. 8. Wa Scout ngwa cimwemwe mu maunonono yose. ground. 9. Wa Scout kuti ndi mufcayisi cara. The Malawi Scouts' leopardskin wog- 10. Wa Scout ndi murunji mu mayanoyano, mu mazgu na mu ncito. gles look very distinctive. The leopard is The Scout's Pathfinder Annual

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v a common animal in Malawi, as you must "I've levelled a walking-stick at them have guessed by now, but it is no hero. before now, and they do not take fright When talking to Malawi Wolf Cubs you in the least. Go along with a gun and hear "Shere Khan" sometimes described they flee at once." as "a kind of leopard", because, of Other creatures the Belchers have had course, there are no tigers in Africa. to deal with at National Scout Head• When Scouts play the game we know as quarters have been an 11 ft. 6 in. python, "British Bulldog" they refer to it as which "had teeth in its tail", a dan• " Leopard of Malawi". gerous black mamba, which Dick kept Lions and other wild animals roam the at bay in his children's bedroom one Malawi Scouts' camp-sites, and baboons night, and soldier ants, which descended ("bandarlog" to the Cubs) visit the gar• on the headquarters from three direc• den at the National Headquarters to steal tions at once and ate up all the lizards, the fruit. The "bandarlog" set two of mice, cockroaches and bats, leaving only the largest members of their tribe on their skeletons behind in the house in look-out duty. Dick Belcher called the morning! them "the best Scouts in Africa". They When going to camp, the Malawi know a man with a walking-stick is Scouts carry everything on their heads— not dangerous, but if you appear rucksacks are conspicuous by their ab• with a gun they warn their fellows at sence. The main camp-site of the Malawi once. "Lake-shore Local Association" is near In Leopard Country the place where David Livingstone first the opposite sex, even if they are Girl sighted Lake Nyasa, so a few years Guides. ago, on the centenary of the sighting, "On one occasion," said Dick Belcher, the Scouts erected a memorial to Living• speaking to a gathering of the Royal stone, including one stone supplied by Eltham district branch of the B.-P. each of the Scout Groups in the coun• Scout Guild when in England on leave, try. "the Malawi Girl Guides were going to When Dick Belcher, to the general join the Scouts at camp and I suggested regret, resigned as Organising Commis• that the boys should collect wood for sioner in 1964 he was succeeded by Mr. them; they had already collected some Clifton Mjumera. for themselves." Not long ago a party of twenty-one "Oh, no, Bwana!" they chorused. Scouts climbed to the top of Africa's "All right, then," Dick replied; "if highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, in Kenya, you won't collect for them I will give taking four days to complete the climb. them your wood." Towards the end of the long trek up• They were quite happy about that. wards they had to ration their food and "Oh, yes," they agreed; "that would wash with snow. A sixteen-year-old be very good. And we can go and collect Scout from Malawi was the first to reach some more for ourselves." the top. So there's more than one way, as Dick Women and girls do all the work and Belcher well knew, of getting around carrying in Malawi. It is a custom their differences in tradition. But, then, that has existed there for centuries, he should know how the native boys so it is very hard for a Scoutmaster think, having worked with them for to encourage boys to help members of nearly fifteen years.

"Mum, Skipper congratulated me on my consideration and thoughtfulness'''' 69 lyn Thomas and Eoy Bannister skirted "Quoth the sage," said Eoy. G the cabbage field at the back of Dol- Glyn grinned. "I know these mountains." wyddelan, climbed a low stone wall and were The first part of the walk was easy—just out on the lower slopes of Moel Siabod. low rocks amidst clumps of bright-green Glyn and Eoy were determined that today bracken. There was no discernible path, but they would qualify for the Pathfinder's Glyn knew that soon they would strike the Badge. They had already done some work on track made by the Forestry Commission the history of the district and were now to which would lead them to the dark belt of do the cross-country walk, keeping a log and trees that they could see in the distance. making a map of the surrounding country• Eoy pulled a notebook from his pocket. side. It was a bright May morning and all the "I'd better start on the map," he said. rocks, wet from yesterday's rain, gleamed "Okay," agreed Glyn. "You do the map almost silver in the sunshine. and I'll do the flora and fauna." Eoy said: "This is real swishish." "The what—er?" Glyn said, "Yes, but look at those clouds "Flora and fauna—you know." over the Glyders. It will change this after• "Ah, the birds and the bees," said Eoy, noon." with a grin. The Pathfinders " The plants and the animals, you ignorant the great boulders, scrabbling across drifts clot." of scree, but always climbing upwards. Eoy Then Glyn spotted something golden in the did his best to keep up with the nimble Glyn, distance and dived after it. but often Glyn had to wait for him. "Ah, trollius!" he exclaimed, making a "Got blooming suckers on your boots, you note. have," he grumbled, as he came puffing up "Looks like a buttercup to me," said Eoy. a rather nasty patch. "Buttercup! Did you ever see a buttercup Glyn laughed. "I'll make a mountaineer this size? I tell you it's a trollius—globe- of you yet," he promised. flower to you." "Not me," said Eoy. "I like my ground "I'll take your word for it, boy," said nice and flat, something you can get wheels Eoy. on." He flung himself on the ground, groan• "It's pretty rare. I'll take just one flower, ing loudly. just to prove we did find it," and Glyn "I suggest," said Glyn, "that we partake placed the flower-head carefully in his pocket- of a modicum of refreshment." book. "If that means 'we eat' I am in complete They left the rocky ground and squelched agreement, Professor," agreed Eoy. across a bog. Glyn, to his delight, found a They tucked themselves behind a group of rare bog violet. The going was heavy, and rocks that faced the sun and ate some of the both were glad when they reached firm food they had in the rucksacks. Eoy then ground, climbed a wall and were out on the continued sketching his map and Glyn made rough track which led to the forest. Now notes of the flowers and birds he had seen. they could swing along in unison, hearing the When at last Glyn shut his notebook he saw clang of their studded climbing boots on the that Eoy was leaning back with his eyes shut. stony road. "Hey, wake up, sleeping beauty," he said, It must have been half a mile before the and punched Boy gently on the nose. track ended at a gate in the wire fence which "Don't be so blooming energetic," sighed surrounded the plantings of the Forestry Eoy, but he scrambled to his feet quickly. Commission. Instantly they were in another "Whew! Look at that!" said Glyn, point• world. All sounds were muted as they trod ing to the west. on the soft carpet of pine-needles. The boys Eoy, following his pointing finger, saw that walked in silence, each feeling the deep aloof• the sky in the west was covered with lowering ness of the still wood. When at last they black clouds that had already blotted out the came out of the wood and into the sunshine, mountain tops. they heaved a sigh of relief. "Well, carry me home in a little basket!" "What a spooky place!" said Eoy. exclaimed Eoy. "How did that happen?" "Most oppressive," agreed Glyn. "I told you it was too brilliant this morn• "That's what I said," laughed Eoy. Glyn's ing," said Glyn. "Anyway, you can never habit of using long words was the joke of trust the mountains." the Troop. They usually said in unison, "Is it coming this way?" "Yes, Professor! Indubitably, Professor!" "Bound to be," said Glyn cheerfully. The path through the woods must have "Come on. Let's get goin'." climbed almost imperceptibly, for the boys Picking up the rucksacks, they started off found that they were now quite high and on again. They were now making a traverse the mountain proper. From now on it would across the shoulder of the mountain, so that, be real climbing. With Glyn, who was the although the going was pretty rough, it was most experienced climber, leading, they began not steep and they moved fairly quickly. But to make their way upwards, twisting round however quickly they moved Glyn realised The Scout's Pathfinder Annual

There below them they could see a plane, one twisted wing sticking up in the air that the storm clouds were quicker. Soon he "A plane." felt the first cold touches of the mist. "A plane up here? Don't be daft, boy!" "Doomy job, this," said Roy, as he stopped "Quiet!" urged Glyn. and looked downwards towards the valley, They stood still, listening quietly. Then which was now completely blotted out. it came again—the sound of an aeroplane " Keep going," replied Glyn tersely. "We've engine—an engine that was spluttering and got to get off the mountain." coughing. "Sez you," answered Boy, moving onwards. " Holy smoke!" said Roy. " That's a plane They were going more slowly now, for the all right." swirling mist was beginning to blanket the "A plane in trouble," said Glyn quietly. rocks in front of them, so that it was more Even as he spoke the engine roared again, difficult to pick their way. then suddenly stopped. Glyn said: "Keep behind me, Roy. Don't Glyn and Roy looked at each other appre• want to lose you over a precipice." hensively, but before they had time to speak "No. I'm not carrying my parachute." there came a roar, a shriek of rending metal, Moving carefully, they continued onward. a great crash, and then a terrible, sudden Roy, not feeling too happy, began to silence. whistle. Then suddenly Glyn said, "Listen!" "Good grief, he's crashed!" whispered "What was it?" Roy, but Glyn was already moving. 72 The Pathfinders "Come on!" lie shouted. "He's up here," "Let's get a bit more over to the right," and he began climbing swiftly upwards. suggested Glyn, moving as he Spoke. Eoy followed, making a great effort to They began climbing again, straining their keep up with his skilful companion. After eyes to see through the mist. Eoy was pant• climbing for about ten minutes Glyn stopped. ing with the effort to keep up with Glyn " Curse this mist," he muttered. " Can you when he heard Glyn's voice calling. see anything? " "Eoy," he called, "I've found it! Come Eoy, peering into the swirling mist, said, quickly." "Not a thing." Eoy took a deep breath and began to climb "He must be somewhere up here. That upwards again. When he reached Glyn he crash wasn't far away." could not, for the moment, see the plane, "Let's shout," suggested Eoy. then Glyn said: "Look—just down there." "Ahoy there!" shouted Glyn, cupping his There, slightly below them, they could see hands over his mouth. "Ahoy!" the great shape of an aeroplane, one twisted "Where are you?" shouted Eoy. wing sticking up in the air and a wheel neatly Then they stood silently listening, but perched on a rock point. only an echo of their own voices came "He was lucky," said Glyn soberly, and back. began to climb downwards. "Do you see what

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73 The Scout's Pathfinder Annual

He swung himself up on to Eoy's back and then on to what was once a wing of the plane, and moved cautiously along it. "This is pretty ropy. Stay there till I call you," he said to Eoy. Halfway through, he stuck Tearing with his hands, he made a hole in the broken body of the plane. Another groan urged him on. At last he made a hole and happened? He hit that great drift of scree began to climb carefully through it. Then he and slithered down on it. If he'd gone smack saw the pilot lying in a twisted heap. Leaning into the rocks that plane would have been forward, he touched the man, saying, "Hello, in tuppenny pieces." there! Are you hurt?" There was no res• "Looks pretty nasty to me as it is." ponse. Glyn pulled his body back through They reached the scree and clattered across the hole and called down to Eoy: "The pilot's it to the plane, Glyn shouting as he went. in here. I think he's crocked." At first they could see no sign of life. Eoy said grimly, "We'd better get him " The pilot must be somewhere," said Glyn. out then, and quickly. Can you smell what "Perhaps he baled out." I smell?" Glyn was about to agree when they both Glyn sniffed and then, in a tone of horror: heard a slight sound. It was a groan and was "Petrol!" coming from somewhere inside the wreck. "Yes," said Eoy. "Give us a hand up. "There's someone there," exclaimed Glyn. We've got to get him out—fast." "How in blazes are we going to get him They never quite knew how they moved out?" Eoy looked up at the twisted metal the pilot. It was a slow and difficult business. rearing above him. They tore furiously at broken metal to "I don't know," said Glyn, "but we must. enlarge the hole, somehow managed to get Come on—help me." the pilot half-way through, and then stuck. 74 The Pathfinders

Roy panted. "We'll never do it." Glyn glanced at him. He knew what he "We've got to," said Glyn grimly. Then was thinking. It wasn't going to be pleasant he added: "You get down below. I'll push to be left for hours on this cold, deserted and you try to break his fall." mountain-side. But he knew that he could "We'll hurt the poor blighter," protested probably find his way down to the valley, Roy. while Roy could not . . . not in this swirling "He's out cold," said Glyn, "and this lot mist. is liable to go up at any minute, so go on— He said gently, "I'll be as quick as I can. get cracking." It's the only way, Roy." Somehow the pilot was eased to the ground, "How long?" asked Roy. Roy taking his weight in an effort to avoid "Several hours. I've got to get to Capel injuring him. As Glyn jumped he shouted: Curig, then ring up the Pen-y-Pas Hotel. "Come on, pull. Let's get away from this They'll organise a rescue party from there." lot." With an effort Roy said: "Okay, Pro• With their hands under his shoulders they fessor. Be on your way." pulled the pilot across the scree and on to Glyn pulled a jersey from his rucksack. a space between the rocks where the moss "Wrap him up in this," he instructed, "and grew in a deep-green cushion. Then they let you'd better take all the food we've got left. him gently down and stood panting, looking You're going to need it." down at him. "Thanks," said Roy. "I'll be okay. You "Wonder who he is? " said Glyn. go cannily and don't try dropping over any "Has he had it? " asked Roy. cliffs." Glyn knelt and felt the man's wrist. The "I won't," promised Glyn, "and I'll be as pulse beat strongly under his fingers. "No," quick as I can." He tucked his scarf down he said. "He's just unconscious. He may be into his anorak, and, with a wave, was gone, badly hurt. It's hard to tell." almost immediately swallowed up by the "Do you remember any of your first-aid mist. Roy heard the scattering of stones, the stuff?" asked Roy. clang of a bootnail for a few seconds, and "Yes, a bit," said Glyn. Then he added, then silence came. "But there's only one thing we can do for For a second he stood looking after Glyn, him." and for the first time in his life felt fear. "What's that?" He could not have told what he feared, but "Get him off this mountain and into hos• he was certain that he would much rather pital." have been clambering downwards to the vil• "But we can't . . ." lage than be left alone up here in this wet, Glyn cut him short. "No. We can't move swirling mist with a man who, if not already him. He needs a stretcher. One of us must dead, was probably dying. He turned back go and get help." to the pilot and looked down at him. He lay "Oh," said Roy. with his head on one side. A thin trickle of They looked at each other. There was a blood ran down his forehead. One of his arms moment's silence, and then Roy said: " Can't looked queerly twisted. He looked quite we . . . ? " and then stopped. young, and Roy felt a sudden rush of pity "No. Someone must stay here with for him. him." "I must do something," he thought. Then "Oh!" said Roy again and looked down at he caught sight of Glyn's rucksack and hur• the unconscious man. Then he said, with an riedly tipped out the contents. There, as he effort, "Well, you'd better get going, hadn't had hoped, was a small tin, marked with a you? " scratched cross. 75 The Scout's Pathfinder Annual

"Trust the old Professor," he said to him• get up. "I must get that brief case," he self, with a grin, as he saw the tin contained muttered . . . "carrying . . . some important lint, bandages, some sticking plaster and . . . papers." scissors. He knelt by the injured man and " Hey, take it easy! You can't move. You'd gently began to wipe the blood from his face. never get in the plane. It's all smashed up." As he worked, the pilot groaned slightly, "Must. . . get. . . that. . . brief . . . case," moved, and then opened his eyes. insisted the pilot weakly, speaking with a Eoy said: "Hallo! How are you feeling?" great effort. The pilot looked at him blankly and then "Look!" said Eoy. "The rescue team will closed his eyes again. get 'em when it gets here." Eoy made a pad of the lint, and with the "Petrol!" said the pilot. "Go... up... any sticking plaster fixed it to the cut which time. Must get . . . brief-case." ran across the pilot's forehead. He looked at Eoy looked from the smashed plane to the the twisted arm, but decided to leave it alone pilot, and then back at the plane. The petrol as he had nothing with which to make a fumes, held down by the mist, were stronger splint. Then, taking off his own jersey, he than ever, and he knew that any small thing, tucked both it and Glyn's around the pilot, like a spark from a nailed boot, would ignite twisting the sleeve under his head to lift it them. The pilot murmured again: "Papers from the damp moss. This done, he sat down . . . must get. . . them." and prepared to wait. "Okay!" said Eoy. "I'll get them. Where The wet mist, twisting and swirling, seemed are they?" almost to have a life of its own, and the deep "In . . . brief-case . . . down by . . . my intense silence began to press down upon seat." Eoy. He sprang up and began to walk about, "Eightio!" said Eoy, as he began to take stamping his feet and banging his hands in off his climbing boots. an endeavour to keep warm. "Very . . . important. . . papers," said the A faint sound made him turn. The pilot's pilot, slowly, and then closed his eyes again. eyes were open. Eoy limped across the rocks and scree to• " Hallo!" Eoy said, as he knelt down. wards the plane and then stood looking at The pilot groaned slightly and turned his it. He was going to have some difficulty in head to look at the plane. getting up and into the body. He put a "Yes," said Eoy, "you crashed. I guess tentative hand up to the twisted wing. It your plane has had it, but you'll be all right." moved, slightly. It was then that he realised The pilot made an effort to speak. the real danger of this job. One piece of " Get help," he said in a low, strained voice. wreckage crashing on to the rocks could " It's on the way. My pal has gone down to cause a spark, and then . . . alert a rescue team. Don't you worry. We'll He walked slowly round the plane, care• get you down soon." fully treading over the ever-slipping scree. The pilot gave a faint smile. "Cold," he There was only one way to get inside and that muttered. was the way Glyn had made. Somehow he "Yes, I know, but I can't do a thing about must get up on to that wing. An unrecog• it. Daren't light a fire. The place is soaked nisable piece of wreckage had been flung in petrol." among some rocks. If he> could get that over "Petrol!" exclaimed the pilot, and then: he could perhaps stand on it. The wreckage "The papers! Where . . . are . . . the . . . appeared jammed between the rocks, but papers?" after a little pushing he was able to move it. "What papers? " asked Eoy. He began to drag it gently across the scree, The pilot made a great effort and tried to immediately starting a great rush of stones The Pathfinders

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He pulled himself through it, and was inside the cockpit of the plane. The petrol fumes were strong inside, and he began to cough, his eyes smarting. He looked around for the brief-case. He could not see it. He began to cough again and almost panicked. . . . "Where is that darned case? I've got to get out of here—get out quickly," he mut• tered, as he hunted in the gloom of the twisted cockpit. "It isn't here. I can't find it. This lot will go up. Oh, where is it . . . ffe rare to get away from the flames and heat where is it? " Suddenly he saw it, covered by some downwards. He stopped instantly, turned to debris. He reached out and lifted it, causing run, and then stopped again. He had to get something to fall with a loud clatter; but now into the plane and get those papers. he had found the case he felt better, less The fall of stones ceased and the silence frightened, though his head was swimming came again. With a great effort he got his from the petrol fumes. He moved back to• arms under the piece of wreckage and with wards the hole in the fuselage, coughing and infinite caution began to move over the scree. almost blinded. His eyes streaming, he It was impossible to move without disturbing clambered through the hole and was out on a few stones, but he found that if he put each the wing. As his feet touched the wing he foot down very carefully he could avoid felt it give way and then crash sideways. starting an avalanche. Even as it crashed he jumped . . . jumped Gasping with the effort, he somehow wide and clear as he heard, rather than saw, reached the plane and lowered the piece of the great rush of flame as the whole plane wreckage carefully to the ground. He wiped went up in a great whoosh. his forehead and hands and, without giving He was running now, falling, running again, himself time to think, stepped on the piece regardless of his cut feet, his blinded eyes, of wreckage, reached up and pulled himself running to get away from the roar of the on to the plane's wing. He held his breath as flames and the pursuing heat. it tilted a little under his weight, but it held He found himself lying, gasping, his face and he moved cautiously towards the hole on a cushion of damp moss. He heard the that Glyn had torn in the broken fuselage. pilot shouting feebly, but for the moment 77 The Scout's Pathfinder Annual he could not move. The danger over, his "Eoy!" and then as he saw the still burning limbs were shaking and his hands were plane, "Holy smoke! She went up! How trembling. After a minute or so he pulled did that happen? " himself together and sat up. The plane was Eoy told of the search for the papers and one great sheet of flame from end to end. the fall of the damaged wing. The heat of it fanned his face. He heard "'Struth!" exclaimed Glyn. the pilot call weakly to him again, and he "Nearly had fried Scout," said Eoy. scrambled to his feet. "How's he been?" asked Glyn, looking "It's all right," he called, holding up the across at Paul Cameron. brief-case. "I've got it." "Not so bad," said Eoy. "You did a good "Thank heaven!" murmured the pilot. "I job getting that lot up here." was afraid you'd . . . gone up . . . with that "You didn't do so badly yourself, laddie," lot." said Glyn, clapping him on the back, and They both lay and silently watched the they both laughed. consuming flames. They watched the efficient rescue team go Then the pilot, who was feeling stronger, into action and then followed the stretcher told Eoy that his name was Paul Cameron down the mountain. Both were tired and and that he had been flying an experi• Eoy was limping with cut feet, but both felt mental plane to Valley, in Anglesey. an immense satisfaction at a job well done. "When she began to croak I tried to make Several days later they cycled over to for the valley down there, but couldn't do Bangor Hospital to see Paul Cameron. He it. When I saw those rocks coming up at me was, he assured them, "doing fine" and I thought I'd bought it." insisted that he owed his life to them. Eoy explained about Glyn and the Path• Roy and Glyn looked at each other in finder's badge they were working for. embarrassment as he thanked them. "Ought to get a medal, not a badge." "Those papers you rescued," he said to "We'll settle for one Pathfinder's badge." Roy. "There are a couple of V.I.P.s who The first strength of the fire was over now. want to see you about those. They were very The heat was dying away and the mist important, you know." appeared to be lifting a little. "Aw!" said Glyn, seeing Roy's red face. "Good!" said Roy. "They'll get up here "It was just luck we happened to be on Moel in no time now ... I hope," he added under Siabod at the right time." his breath, for the pilot was lying back, his "My good luck, certainly," said Cameron. eyes closed, his face pinched and grey. Then he added, "What about that badge of Eoy had no idea how long he kept watch yours ... the Pathfinder's? Did you get it? " over Paul Cameron. He only knew that the Roy and Glyn laughed. time seemed interminable. The injured man "I think we'll get it, though Skipper opened his eyes once or twice and gave a didn't think overmuch of Eoy's map." slight smile, but seemed too weak to speak. "Your blooming flora and fauna weren't Eoy was standing staring into the thinning exactly received with joy," retorted Roy, and mist when he heard the first sounds of the they both laughed again. rescuers, a man's voice, the clang of a boot. "Surely," said Cameron, "I could come Instantly he shouted out, "Ahoy, there! under the heading of fauna. I should count Glyn, Glyn, I'm up here!" as a most unusual find." He heard a man's voice say, "There they "Let's put it up to Skipper and see if he'll are," and knew that the rescue team had buy," said Roy. arrived. They did ... and he did ... so up went two Glyn came up at a run. "Eoy," he called, Pathfinder badges. mm© wmmm wmmm by SYDNEY R. BROWN

Every day we read in our newspapers Group attached to Richmond Baptist and magazines of the doings of famous Church, in Liverpool, his local place of people and tend to think of them as worship. persons apart, quite different from our- "They dressed me up as a soldier and selves. This is not really the case. wrapped me in a big sheepskin coat," When people like Stirling Moss, Jack he said, "and in this warlike apparel I Hawkins and Ted Ray, and even Minis- was instructed to sing 'Pack up your ters of the Crown and Members of Parlia- troubles in your old kitbag' at one of ment, were young they were very much the Scout concerts." like ourselves, with very little idea of His performance could not have been what the future had in store for them, too bad, for the next day he had the However, it is "from little acorns that pleasure of seeing his name in print large oak trees grow," as B.-P. reminded for the first time, in the Liverpool us once in talking about the Scout Echo. It was his very first "Press Movement, and it is the same with in- notice". dividuals. Many a Scout or Cub has the Quite a number of other people well seed within him which may one day make known in the entertainment world first him grow into a person of some impor- found out that they had their particular tance in the world. , kind of talent when they were members Not so long ago Ted Ray was telling of the Scout Movement, me that it was in his capacity as a Wilfred Pickles, who spent ten years Wolf Cub that he made his first public as a Scout in the 19th Hendon Troop, appearance as an entertainer. He spent London, told me, with his usual modesty, five years as a Cub and Scout in the "I was not a very good Scout, as the 79 The Scout's Pathfinder Annual only proficiency badge I ever got after When I told Brian Rix, the star come• my Second Class was the Entertainer's." dian of so many stage farces, who was He has gone on since those days to a Scout in Hornsea, Yorkshire, many show his powers as an actor and enter• years ago, that I was thinking of including tainer in radio and television. him among the famous men who have Richard Attenborough was another been in Scouting his answer was typical. Scout whose gaining of the Entertainer "Mention of me," he said, "could only badge forecast the interest he was to bring the Scout Movement dishonour! I take in his future life's work. Both have the very highest regard for Scout• he and his brother David spent a number ing, but I am sorry to say that I was of years as Wolf Cubs and Scouts in not a very good Scout. True, I was the 9th Leicester Group, and both be• a Troop Leader, perhaps the only one came King's Scouts, Richard being ap• who could never tie a reef-knot, but pointed Troop Leader. I think the position was assigned to Another Richard, Richard Hearne, me because I was head boy at my prep better known on television as "Mr. school. I did win a prize for catching Pastry," was a member of the 13th North the most fish during a limited time, London Troop. He thoroughly enjoyed but^ I hasten to add that I paid rather being a Scout and performed some fine too much attention to the Scouts' motto good turns. He is still doing these! 'Be Prepared' and took the precaution Once he was successful in rescuing a of setting out night fines!" boy in danger of falling over a cliff,

His answer to a request for a photo• and on another occasion he managed to graph of himself in Scout uniform was stop a runaway horse. As for his experi• also very typical. ence in passing tests for proficiency "Sorry I have not a photograph in badges, let him speak for himself. uniform," he said, "but I assure you "My try for the Cook badge was dis• that I have the knees for it." astrous," he said, "and the same thing Other well-known actors and enter• happened when I tried for the Plumbing tainers who have been members of the (Handyman) badge." Movement include Jack Hawkins, who But it all gave him wonderful experi• after holding high rank in the Army ence for future television scripts! starred in such films as "The Cruel Sea", 80 Photos: Lawrence D. Curtis Lamb for dinner Another use for knots

CAMP 'Won't it ever boil V* S &,¥ f * COOKS

Patrol camp cooks at Frylands Wood Photos: Norman A. Jloice Photo: Lawrence 1), Curtis Photo: Norman A, Howe "Where is it?' Uphill all the way CAMP CAMEOS

Hot-water supply Inspection—Peewit Patrol, 6th Wallington Photos: Norman A. Rome Boy Scouts Whi Became Famous "The Bridge on the River Kwai", "Ben Hur", and many others. He spent eight years as a Cub and Scout in the 159th North London Group. Bernard Bresslaw, whose residence in North London is called "The Nutcase," was a member of the 11th Stepney (Cooper's School) Group. Ronald Shiner, the film actor, was a Scout for five years in the 10th St. Pancras. Harold Smart, the famous organist, was a Wolf Cub at St. Mary's, Kenton. James Mason was with the 11th Huddersfield, and more miles in training and in competi• Billy Cotton the 1st Westminster. Ed- tions than anyone else in the world, mundo Ros, the band leader who specia• and has represented Britain in scores lises in Latin-American rhythms, joined of countries, spent two years in the the Scouts when he was grown up, Cubs at Coulsdon, Surrey, and then be• in London, "because when I was of came a member of the Air Scouts at Cub or Scout age the Movement had not Coulsdon South. He still thinks very extended to my home-town of Caracas, highly of the Scout Movement and does Venezuela." all he can to support it. Moving to the world of sport, we Christopher Chataway, another repre• find that Stirling Moss, so often the sentative of Great Britain at the Olym• fastest driver in the world, was once pic Games, who held the world 5,000- Patrol Leader of the Dove Patrol, spend• metres record for a while, rose from ing five years as a Scout at Holyport and the rank of Wolf Cub to Patrol Leader while in the 3rd Swanage Group. He is the Member of Parliament for North in Lewisham. Telling me of his five years as a Cub and Scout, he said, "The most painful experience of an otherwise de• lightful association with the Scout Move• ment was at camp one year when the indescribably horrible tea was found to be due to the fact that I had left half a

85 pound of lard inside the kettle." Other prominent M.P.s who have worn Scout uniform include the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Harold Wilson, P.C., O.B.E., Clewer, Berkshire. He has no photo• Wing Commander Eric Bullus, Mr. J. graphs of himself in Scout uniform, McCann, Sir Malcolm Stoddart-Scott, "which is rather a pity," he says, "as it and Mr. Leslie Spriggs. Mr. Harry Hynd, would have come in handy for various M.P., who followed up achieving King's books that I have to or will write." Scout status in the 53rd Perthshire Group Gordon Pirie, who has probably run by putting in seven years' service as a

F The Scout's Pathfinder Annual Wood Badge Scouter, still plays a promi• Class badge and went on to gain twelve nent part in Scouting. He acts as chair• proficiency badges, including Ambulance man of that all-important section of the and Pathfinder, in order to become a B.-P. Scout Guild known as the "House King's Scout. of Commons branch." "I have still the most vivid memories Other members of the House of Com• of my first reading of Scouting for Boys mons branch of the B.-P. Scout Guild, all over fifty years ago," Lord Kilmuir former Scouts, include Col. Arthur Young, said. "It invested the ordinary duties the Head of the City of London Police, and the Earl of Bucldnghamshire. Lord Hill, formerly Dr. Charles Hill, once known as the "Radio Doctor" and at present Chairman of the Independent Television Authority, was also a Scout at one time, serving for seven years in the 51st South London Group, where he 9 gained his King's Scout badge. Moving to the Upper Chamber of the m Houses of Parliament, we find some very important former Scouts.

•//// ' and decencies of the daily round with an aura of novelty and romance. In 7 / / / addition, the Seven Hills of Edinburgh / took on a new look as places of Scouting / / expeditions. I can still remember the / words (although my family are doubtful 7, whether I recall the tunes) of every V song that was sung round the camp- V, / 7 / fires. The Movement provided not only / y/, / / indelible influences but happy memories V 'A which I shall always treasure." He also still treasures a photograph David Maxwell Fyfe, who was created of himself astride a wall on the seashore, Viscount Kilmuir in 1954, when he be• taken when a mixed Patrol of Scouts came Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, were doing coastguard duty in Fife in was a very keen Scout in Scotland many the First World War, in 1916. years ago. He went to his first Scout Another very keen member of the camp one year after the Scout Move• Movement in the House of Lords is ment was formed, and two years later, Viscount Amory. Other famous people I in 1911, transferred to the 9th Edin• should mention as former Scouts are burgh (George Watson's College) Troop, Richard Dimbleby of B.B.C. fame, two in which he went through all ranks years a Scout at Strawberry Hill; Sir Ian from Scout to Assistant Scoutmaster. Frazer, a Scout from 1907 to 1911 at He passed all his tests for the First Woking, Surrey; the Bishop of St. Albans, Boy Scouts Who Became Famous who earned the Silver Wolf in 1958; Templer, G.C.B., G.C.M.B., a Scout and Lord Kenyon, the Chief Commissioner a Scouter since 1908, the first year of for Wales since 1948; Brian Johnstone, Scouting. He joined the Royal Irish a Scout at Eton College; Bob Monkhouse; Fusiliers in 1916, became Director of George Melachrino, who was with the Military Intelligence at the War Office 45th Paddington Scout Group; Cary in 1946, High Commissioner in the Fed• Grant, a Scout in the 1st Bristol; Jack eration of Malaya, and Chief of the Im• Parnell, in the Brighton, Hove and perial General Staff from 1955 to 1958. Sussex Grammar School Troop; James When they first joined the Boy Scout McKechnie, in the 1st Glasgow. Movement these celebrities took the same Last, but by no means least, come tests as you have done, failed some and three Marshals—Field Marshal Sir Fran• did well at others. You may well pro• cis Festing, G.C.B., K.B.E., who served gress as far as they have done. two years as a Scout when a boy and Constant practice and study, year after two and a half years as a Commissioner year, is the real secret of success. I be• in the Suez Canal Zone before he became lieve it was Thomas Edison, the famous Chief of the Imperial General Staff and inventor, who said that what makes a A.D.C. General to the Queen; Air Chief genius is "ten per cent inspiration and Marshal Sir Arthur Sanders, G.C.B., a ninety per cent perspiration." Scout for nearly three years in High• Who knows—perhaps in twenty or bury, who was later Commander-in- thirty years' time you may find yourself Chief of the Middle East Air Force mentioned in an article like this about and Commandant of the Imperial Defence famous men who were Scouts! College; and Field Marshal Sir Gerald YELL of fka_

Chickeracker, Chickeracker, Chow Chow Chow, C Boomeracker, Boomeracker, Bow Wow Wow. Chickeracker, Boomeracker, Zis, Boom, Bah, 1st Llanishen, Rah, Rah, Rah!

TRAINING SCOUTMASTERS The 100,000th Scouter in this coun• try recently completed the Prelimi• nary Training Course at the Adult Leaders' Training Centre at Gilwell Park, Essex. This is the first step to the Wood Badge awarded to training Scoutmasters. The Director of the Training Centre is John Thurman. During a single year, 218 Scouters ; To think Pd be having the usual old roast beef from 63 countries attended Gilwell and two veg at home!" courses. 83 TREE PUZZLE by Barbara Bradley

Solve these clues, and the answer to each one will give you the name of a tree.

1. Is this tree dead already ? 2. The senior tree in the wood. 3. This tree asks a question. 4. A girl's name? Nuts! 5. A cool drink. 6. Cricket-bat tree. 7. A seaside tree. 8. An animal, a box, your head. 9. To waste away in sorrow. 10. Sounds like an island in the Mediterranean. 11. A musical instrument and a ray. 12. A smart tree.

Answers on page 107 OURS IS A QUEER LANGUAGE, OURS IS by A. M. Gollis We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes; But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes. Then one fowl is a goose, but two are called geese, Yet the plural of mouse should never be me esc; You may find a lone mouse or a whole nest of mice, But the plural of house is houses, not luce. If the plural of man is always called men, 9 Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen ? If I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet, And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet ? If one is a tooth, and a whole set are teeth.

Why should not the plural of booth be called beeth ? Then one may be that, and three would be those, Yet hat in the plural would never be hose; And the plural of cat is cats, and not cose. We speak of a brother, and also of brethren, But though we say mother, we never say methren. Then the masculine pronouns are he, his, and him, But imagine the feminine, she, shis, and shim. So English, I fancy, you all will agree, Is the funniest language you ever did see. 84 J. Heath Gives Some Interesting Facts About THE PEAT FIRE In these days of central heating, con- vectors and smokeless fuels, it is in• teresting to go to a place where none of i these things are known or cared about. In the Eastern Isles the fireplace is 3 D i still the centre of family life. On the isles of Lewis and Harris I think it JL always will be; but the fuel used is not even coal. I J! it When anyone buys a house or croft out • there, they become the owners of their u n own peat bed. Unlike us, they have to cut their own fuel, and the moor where ih they get it could be miles away. i After cutting, the householders leave it to dry, generally in stacks. There it stays until they can get transport

to take it to their homes. There it is I'M, re-stacked, dried outside, stored, and then used during the long winter months of high winds and rain. It is quite free, coming under an island law about peat rights. It is seldom or LADDER PUZZLE never stolen, and it is greatly prized by the islanders. A | by The peat is a brown, turfy substance, ===== Cyril Donson which dries hard and gives off a fragrant aroma when burning. Actually it is de• Starting with SCOUT cayed vegetable matter. It is found in ===== at the foot of the lad- boggy places, often where sphagnum der, complete the moss and sedges are found. puzzle until you arrive - - at KNOTS at the top of Some old places still enjoy the "right S the ladder. At each of turbary", as permission to cut peat step change only one free is called, but few exercise it nowa• ~~ letter of the previous days. Perhaps many do not even know of word, and so on up the it. If they did, they might gather some ladder. in the summer and use it during autumn and winter, enjoying the distinctive and ANSWERS pleasant scent of their owTn peat fire. 'S!ON>l 'SMOU>| 'SMOUS 4 I do. I'm just burning some now, 'SMO|S sjo|s 'sjnis 'sjn|s 'sjnd$ 'undg brought from Nont Sarah's, high up on 'jjods 'jnodg 'lDODS the Pennine Chain, in Yorkshire. 85 THEO, LYNCH TELLS YOU ABOUT THE CREATOR OF KIM

When the Founder, the first Lord Baden-Powell, had the brilliant idea of starting Wolf Cubs he used much of the lore of Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Boohs, which he greatly admired. B.-P. often referred to "Kim", the hero of another of Kipling's books, telling Scouts and Cubs that they too should try to follow his example of being "little Rudyard Kipling friend of all the world." You will have Later he went to school, where he was very happy. You can read some of his adventures in Stalky and Co and of his friendship there with two other boys. When he left school he went back to India and became a reporter on the Civil and Military Gazette in Lahore. Later he transferred to another newspaper, the Allahabad Pioneer. While in India he began writing, and sent home Plain Tales From the Hills and his first book of poems, Departmental Kim's game Ditties, both based on his life and activi• played Kim's Game, which helps develop ties in that country. powers of observation and memory. He returned to England when he was Rudyard Kipling had an interesting twenty-four, and five years later wrote life. He was born in Bombay, India, and the first of the two Jungle Boohs. Al• though he came to England when only though he wrote much other work he is six years old he had already acquired best remembered by young people as the what was to become a lifelong interest author of these. in the country of his birth. For a time he lived in America. During In England he was left in the care of the Boer War he went to South Africa as a woman who ill-treated him so badly that a newspaper correspondent. While there he became half blind and almost a ner• he became a friend of the great Cecil vous wreck. It was lucky for him that Rhodes and worked with him for the his mother arrived from India for a development of Africa; but India was holiday and immediately took him away, always his first and greatest love. 86 Creator of Kim

His book Kim gives a most colourful and delightful insight into the life in India at that time. The illustrations for the book were drawn by his father. Kipling married an American woman, and after much travel he finally returned to these shores and settled in Rotting- dean, near Brighton, where his uncle, • Sir Edward Burne-Jones, lived. Later he I went to live at Burwash, also in Sussex, I I in a house called "Bateman's". This is now owned by the National Trust. Hun• dreds of people visit it each year to see where the great man lived and worked. i Gunga

His books include Just So Stories, Puck of Pook's Hill, Captains Courageous, and many poems and ballads such as "Gunga Din", "Mandalay", "The Thou• sandth Man", and "If". II He became so famous in his lifetime iS that he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, which is the highest honour that can be conferred on a writer. He died in 1936, but his books are still read and their influence is still felt, not least by those who are or have been Cubs or Scouts. "Bateman's" THE FERRI PIZZIE A man with two dogs, three rabbits and a basket of lettuces had to cross a river. The boat would only hold one of each of these groups at a time. If he took the dogs the rabbits would eat his lettuces. If he took the lettuces the dogs would eat the rabbits. What did he do? What would 8 you do? The sensible thing to do is noted on page 107. : WORD WISDOM One picture worth a thousand words ? You give me a thousand words and I can have the Lord's Prayer, the Twenty-third Psalm, the Hippocratic oath, a sonnet by Shakespeare, the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and I'd have enough left over for just about all of the Boy Scout oath— and I wouldn't trade you for any picture on earth. —Reader's Digest 87 henever the 2nd Britsea Scouts talk of "This monster will come inexorably to• Wthat summer camp there are gales of wards you if you don't put the light out and laughter, and several members of the Plover go to sleep," Skip said, grinning, as he poked Patrol get very red in the face. The rest of the his head through the open flap. "Early start Troop are sure they will never live it down. tomorrow. I only hope you don't have bad It really began on the third evening in dreams after that particular piece of night• camp. The Scouts were in their sleeping- mare literature." bags, there was ten minutes to go before lights Fortunately, nobody dreamed at all. The out, and Dodge of the Plovers decided to next day was so hot that Skip abandoned his practise reading aloud to the other Scouts intended programme and decided to prac• in his tent. He shone a large torch on his tise life-saving in the river. book and began. He had a deep, thrilling Hawks were left to cook and fetch bread voice, into which he put much feeling; he and milk from the farm; they were promised intended to take up drama after leaving a turn in the afternoon. The Troop raced school. The story was the kind it is wiser happily down to the sandy beach, hardly not to read just before going to sleep. able to believe their fortune in having a day "Jet faced the Creature," he read. "It so hot. came towards him, unbelievably evil, a As Dodge dived into the deep pool under• frothing mass of bubbling, yeasty mould that neath the willow, Dave, also of Plovers, gave covered and digested everything in its path. a cry of dismay. Jet stood in front of it, firing useless bullets "I think a fish has bitten me," he an- into its heaving body. His legs were para• lounced, and scrambled out of the river. lysed with fear. His heart raced as he Skip came over to examine the injury. watched the progress of the monster, coming "That's not a fish-bite," he said, laughing. inexorably towards him." "It looks like you trod on glass. It's not "Camp's quiet," Dodge said. "I thought Hawks were on duty." "That's odd," Dave answered. "Let's go and see if they're in the store tent." The store tent was deserted. The cooking fire blazed brightly, and a smell of baking potatoes came from the stone oven. Every• thing was in order, yet not a soul was left in charge. Dave looked at Dodge. Then he looked at the ground near the store tent, and gave a gasp. "Look!" he muttered. Dodge looked, and took two steps back• wards. "I don't believe it," he said quakily. The two Scouts stared. In front of the tent was a foot-high mass of bubbling, evil- looking froth. Grey-coloured, seething, it heaved and shuddered and bubbled and boiled, creeping along the grass towards them. Panic momentarily swept over the two. " The—the—Creature!" muttered Dodge. His face turned grey. Dave tried to swallow, but too bad, but you'd better go back to camp couldn't. and disinfect it and put some plaster on. "Better—run!" he croaked out at last. Dodge can go with you. He's a properly The returning swimmers were astounded to qualified first-aid assistant." see Dave and Dodge flying towards them as Jerry, of Lapwings, dived into the river, if chased by Bed Indian scalp-hunters. and came up with half a milk-bottle in his "What on earth's wrong? " Skip demanded. hand. "Hawks have vanished," Dodge said when "Good lad!" Skip said approvingly. "It's a good job the water is so clear. Everyone examine the ground before they walk in." Dodge and Dave walked back to the camp, Dave limping slightly, as the cut was under• neath his foot. "Try hopping," Dodge suggested, lending a shoulder for Dave to lean on, and they made slow and ungainly progress across the high embankment that separated the flood plain from the fields beyond. "It's too hot to go back to the river," Dodge said, gasping, as they reached the field in which the tents were placed in neat rows. "Skip won't mind if you rest that foot. I'll read to you." " Thanks," Dave said, grinning. Dodge liked nothing better than a captive audience. "What on earth's wrong?- Ship demanded 89 The Scoufs Pathfinder Annual

11,

Here's a piece of your monster 5? he became coherent. "And there's a—a for the sake of something to do, as dinner Thing in camp." was well under control and the farm only a "Nonsense!" Skip said briskly. "You've short way away. been reading too many stories of outer space, The bread was excellent. At teatime Geoff Dodge. Let's go and look at this Thing." offered Dodge a piece, saying, "Here's a piece The Troop followed him, Dave and Dodge of your monster." with them, gaining courage from numbers. Ever since, mention of summer camp or Skip reached the store tent and stared. homebaked bread has sent the Troop into "What the ?" hysterics and Dodge and Dave into scarlet "It's from Mars," Dodge said shakily. "It's and shamefaced retreat, while in Skip's house, like a sort of giant amoeba. . . ." His voice when he passes bread to visitors, he often tailed off. mystifies them by saying, "Try a piece from Skip was laughing. The four cooks were outer space." coming across the field, bringing the milk. "Oh!" wailed Geoff, when he saw what THE CAMP-FIRE BLANKET was standing beside the tent. "My bread! It's risen too much and all boiled over!" If you have not got a special camp-fire blanket When the laughter had subsided Skip here is the way to fold one helped to salvage the dough and clean the of your other blankets so bucket. When the tins of bread were baking that it makes a good cere• on metal sheets over the fire Geoff explained monial dress. Place the the situation. whole of the blanket length• wise behind you so that the The farmer's wife had not had time to go centres of the two sides to town, as, owing to an electricity power come in front of you. Now failure, milking had had to be done by hand. the top end of the blanket is As a result, she was about to make her own carried over your shoulders bread, and the boys suggested that they could and the other ends tucked under the front of the blan• help by baking theirs. Armed with flour, ket and held in place with yeast and a recipe, they set off to try their a pin. The picture makes luck. Half-way through, as the dough was this clear. slow to rise, they all decided to go for milk, COUNTRYSIDE CREATURES

The laziest British animal is probably the Dor• hedge during the daytime. The dormouse grows mouse. It sleeps for almost six months of the year. to five or six inches in length, half of which in• During the summer it eats as much as possible cludes the length of its very furry tail. It is light so that it has a stock of fat in its body, and it brown in colour, with whitish-yellow under-parts. collects grain and nuts in its nest. In October it It has big ears, long white whiskers, and large curls up and goes to sleep, living on its fat. Some• black eyes. It feeds on nuts, especially hazel-nuts, times a warm winter or early spring day may wake it hawthorn and whitethorn berries, insects, birds' up, when it eats a few nuts or some grain and goes eggs, fruit, apples, etc. It makes a very good pet, back to sleep again, finally waking up in April or as it is quickly tamed and does not bite, but it early May. Even then it only comes out at night and sleeps during the day and only wakes up at night, sleeps in its nest of twigs, moss and grass in a thicki&when its owner is in bed!

DID YOU KNOW? That a grasshopper can spring more than two hundred times its own length? That to make a pound of honey the bees must visit between 100,000 and 200,000 flowers? That mice can sometimes be drawn from their holes by whistling? That a snail would take fourteen days and five hours to travel a mile? That a frog cannot breathe v/ith its mouth open ? OAe. mote. The Mole is so poor-sighted that without food for only a short time, weasels and sometimes badgers it cannot see properly in daylight, the Mole will die of hunger. It has kill the Mole, but rarely eat it. and so could be called "blind". a highly developed sense of smell The Mole does much good: it rids This is not likely to worry it, as and can track its food with this. the farmer's land of many insects it spends most of its life tun• It also has wonderful hearing. Its and other pests, and the old mole- nelling in the earth for food— ears are set deep amongst its fur, runs help to drain the water from earthworms, beetle-grubs, and and it is said to be able to hear the soil. In a small way, the Mole similar. Like the Shrew, if kept worms crawling through the also brings rich earth to the sur• ground. The Mole's body is face, so improving the land for covered with dark-grey velvety fur. plants. Its pink, broad, shovel-shaped fore• feet, with long nails, are set side• ways, the palms pointed outwards, and have powerful muscles for dig• ging. It cannot walk with its fore• feet if it comes to the surface, and pushes itself along with its hind legs. The thrown-up molehills, or "tumps" as they are sometimes s 2 called, are the Mole's way of get• ting rid of the earth it excavates as it travels in search of food. Be• cause many of these occur on lawns, golf-courses, grass tennis-courts, etc., man has become one of the n Mole's chief enemies. Dogs, foxes, Why not use nails?" 91 M. Bilton Shows You How to Make AN INDOOR TELEPHONE

You will need two 4f-volt dry batteries The four terminals can be made by put• similar to the kind used in electric door• ting fairly long screws through the side bells. If possible, get ones of a good of the box, about half-way up, so that make. Then you will be sure of the best wires can be made fast to them both on possible results. the inside and on the outside. If you inquire at your area Telephone You will see that both the receivers Manager's office, for the address of which have three leads coming out of the mouth• look in the telephone directory, the piece. For this simplified system, only authorities may be able to let you have two are required. two receivers—one for each instrument First you must remove the mouthpiece. —which have been condemned for post- Free the spring inside by pushing the office use but which are in quite good point of a drawing-pin through the tiny order. Failing this, if you get in touch hole (X in the diagram), then the mouth• with one of the private telephone com• piece will come away easily when you panies—most of them have offices in turn it to the left. London and in the larger cities in the provinces—making a similar request, they may be able to help you. Now obtain a wooden box of a con• venient size. Then with ordinary insu• lated bell wire connect the parts of your instrument as shown in the diagram. Fix the wire to the bottom of the box with small staples. Fix the battery securely to the side of the box with wire or a strip of leather. How to Make an IndoorZTelephone short piece of wire, making sure that it does not touch any part of "MR2", and

to "R". You do not need the white lead, Don't forget to say "Over and Out" so you can unwind it from the other two, at the end of your conversation, when disconnect it from terminal "M", and one Scout should disconnect one of the take it right away. To complete the leads from his battery. If this is not circuit, all you have to do now is to done the batteries will run down in a connect terminals "M" and "R" with a few hours.

FACTS ABOUT SCOUTING SOLUTIONS

During World War II a newsletter for Scouts 3 serving in the armed forces was published. It began in 1940. The Air Scout branch of the Movement is a » » vigorous and lively part of it, but when it was EJ [C first suggested, in 1927, it was rejected. Of | QiO I B.-P. resigned from the Army in 1910, though it was not until 1938, after 62 years' service, that he was gazetted out. In 1947 Viscount Mountbatten of Burma became Commodore of Sea Scouts. Another Commodore of Sea Scouts was the late Duke of Kent, father THE FARMER'S FIELD THE WELL and the WALL of the present Duke. (page 112) (page 112) 93 Scout News from Near and Far By courtesy of the Information Bulletin, The Boy Scouts Association

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MOSQUE FOR GILWELL. Plans Zealand, New Guinea, New Heb• Movement in Africa. Robin Gold, are in hand to build a small mosque rides, Tonga, Western Samoa, and Scout Headquarters International for Scouts and Scouters of the the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. To Commissioner, says " 'A Scout is Moslem faith who camp at Gilwell mark the occasion, the Fijian Post a friend to all and a brother to Park, the International Training Office issued 3d. and I/- com• every other Scout.' Here is how Centre in Epping Forest. Funds memorative stamps. The I/-stamp we can show friendship and for the building will come from showed three Scouts, representing brotherhood in a really practical Moslem Scouts all over the world. the three major races—Fijian, In• form". The idea was first suggested to dian and European—with the Fijian INTERNATIONAL VISIT. Last John Thurman, Camp Chief at Gil- wearing the traditional sulu. year thousands of British Scouts well Park, when he was attending visited Egypt, Finland, Germany, a conference in the Far East. He Libya, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, hopes it will prove to all who visit *2 Spain, and the U.S.A. Scouts of the Gilwell that when we say "No I Ith St. Marylebone went to Japan. matter to what creed the other They raised £2,000 and visited v may belong" we do mean it. Japanese Scouts, also seeing some• FREE HOLIDAY ABROAD. Forty / v. thing of the Olympic Games. They '/. Scouts between the ages of 13 and /. stayed at the World Youth Camp /. 'si 15 enjoyed a twelve-days' summer FRIENDS*^ in Tokyo, set up for members of camping holiday, all expenses paid. youth organisations attending the The camp was in the tiny country Olympics. of Liechtenstein, tucked away SCOUT AWARD FOR FIRE HERO. between Switzerland and Austria. Twelve-year-old Patrol Leader The Scouts were winners of a WORLD FRIENDSHIP. Scouts Nigel Harper-Tarr of the 1st Tur- written Scout quiz competition, and Scouters all over the world weston Scout Group, Northamp• sponsored by Crosse and Blackwell now have the opportunity to give tonshire, has been awarded the Ltd., the famous food firm. one small coin—pennies, dimes, Gilt Cross by the Chief Scout, Sir STAMPS FOR FIJI. The Scout centimes, pfennigs, pesetas, or Charles Maclean, in recognition of Movement started in Fiji in 1914, cents—to the "World Scouting his gallantry in attempting to and today has nearly 7,000 mem• Friendship Fund". The Fund, insti• rescue a friend trapped in a blazing bers. To celebrate the 50th anni• tuted by the Boy Scouts World barn. Nigel was playing in a barn versary a special Jamborette was Conference, will be used to spread with two friends, Derek and Ber• held last year, near Suva. About Scouting to more boys of the nard Page, whose father owned the 1,000 Scouts attended, including world. At first the money will be barn. The barn contained about some 200 from Australia, New devoted to helping the Scout 100 tons of baled straw and the 94 Scout News from Near and Far

with their many different tongues instructors, Richard Cadwallader, 1/ i helped the House fulfil its main were swept into the sea. The rest function as a living memorial to rushed back to the spot, but found Baden-Powell, Founder of the the two men had been carried / world-wide Scout Movement. about 40 yards out to sea. Paul 7 PROMPT ACTION. Thirteen- Newey volunteered to swim out year-old Andrew Pink of the 1st with a lifeline in a rescue attempt, West Mailing Troop, Kent, hit the but he kept being swept back. headlines in his local paper when Heavy seas eventually forced the he brought a school bus to a halt party to give up when it became before it crashed into a low rail• dangerous for them to remain on boys had made a "den" in the way bridge. Another few hundred the rocks. Mr. Edwin Turner, an centre of the stack by removing yards and the top deck of the bus Outward Bound Course Instructor, some of the bales. The "den", would have been smashed against says of the tragedy, "It was im• about 10 feet square, was ap• the bridge and most of the 15 pas• possible to do more in such con• proached through a tunnel at the sengers, as well as the driver, ditions, as the waves swept us all top of the stack and then down a would have been injured. The re• over the rocks, and I felt it was rope. Usually the boys relied on lief bus was taller than usual and an electric torch for light, but on s the driver didn't know the route. this occasion they took a candle Only Andrew realised that there and matches, which set fire to the was insufficient room for the bus straw. They tried unsuccessfully to to pass and warned the driver in put out the fire, then made their time. Andrew is a go-ahead mem• way out of what was soon to be a ber of his Patrol, the Panthers. He • i blazing inferno, Derek, the youn• has several proficiency badges to gest, first, followed by Nigel. his credit. Observation is obvi• Bernard stayed in the barn, trying ously another of his strong points. to beat out the flames. Nigel i 7"7 GALLANTRY AWARD. Sixteen- raised the alarm, then dashed back year-old Senior Scout Patrol Leader into the barn and crawled along the risking the other boys' lives to Paul Newey of the 1st Gossoms tunnel to the "den", where Ber• keep them there. Under the diffi• End, Berkhamstead, Scout Group nard was now trapped. He tried cult and frightening conditions, was awarded the Gilt Cross by the to drag his friend up to the tunnel Paul Newey showed great courage Chief Scout, Sir Charles Maclean, but failed. He raced outside and and presence of mind." in recognition of his gallantry in was going to re-enter the barn, but YEAR'S FREE SWIMS. For res• attempting to rescue two people his father, who had arrived, held cuing an unconscious ten-year-old from drowning. Paul was on an him back as he could see the posi• girl from drowning in Knightstone Outward Bound course in Devon. tion was hopeless. Nigel was al• Swimming Baths, Weston-super- Returning from an incident with ready badly burned about the Mare, Patrol Leader Roy Warner other members of the course across head and hands. was presented with a year's pass by the rocks at Cradlerock, near the Baths Committee. Mr. F. Col- B.-P. HOUSE VISITORS. Since Berry Head, a Senior Scout, Barry burn, the Baths Manager, said that Baden-Powell House—Scouting's Rowbottom, and one of the course social and residential centre in the girl fell into the deep end, Kensington, London—opened in bumped her chin and knocked her• 1961 nearly 40,000 Scouts from 73 self out. She went straight to the countries have made use of the bottom. Of Roy's action, Mr. Col- facilities. In two months 18 dif• burn said, "This lad spotted her ferent nationalities visited the and without waiting to call anyone House. Some came from as far else went in and got her out. It away as Australia, Brazil, Iceland was a remarkable bit of quick and India; others from nearer thinking and action on his part." home—Germany, France and all AWARD FOR "LAKONIA" SUR• parts of the U.K. All these visitors VIVOR. Seventeen-year-old Senior 95 The Scout's Pathfinder Annual

Scout Julian Miller of the 2nd Hove Preliminary Training Course. He cult or impossible on the islands, (Brighton and Hove Grammar then returned home, a distance of but it seems to me it is wonderful School) Scout Group was awarded 800 miles each trip. Later, hear• that there are Cubs, Scouts, Senior the Gilt Cross by the Chief Scout, ing there was to be a Wood Badge Scouts and Rovers on many of these Sir Charles Maclean, in recognition Course near Lusaka, he again tra• lonely islands. They are an impor• of his gallantry during the rescue of velled 800 miles by various means tant link in the chain of brother• survivors from the Lakonia disaster. of transport, including an 80-mile hood which encircles the earth. RECORDED REQUESTS. Scouts walk, to attend the course, all at One Scout in the Ellice Islands said of the 2nd Chaulden (Bourne his own expense. to me, "Scouting is something Methodist) Group in Hemel Hemp• THE TRAVELLING COMMIS• which you carry in your heart." stead New Town, Herts, record SIONER. Mr. George F. Mitchell, KINDNESS REPAID. Scouts of the various requests made by residents the Travelling Commissioner, last 20th Bedfordshire (St. Mary's, of the Abbeyfield Lodge Old year visited the Gilbert and Ellice Goldington) Scout Group were People's Home. Some of the re• Islands. He wrote: "The Scouts on quick to rally round their friends, quests made to the Group are for these coral islands are all expert Mr. and Mrs. T. Farmer, when they music, church bells pealing, and swimmers and canoeists. Their were released from hospital after messages from relatives. The islands are small—some of them recovering from a serious car acci• Scouts do all their recording "on only about 200 yards wide—and dent. The Scouts remembered location" and then play them over distances between islands are often how much the Farmers had helped to the old folk. very great. There are 33 islands in with raising funds for the Group's TALL SHIPS RACE. Of the 36 an area of 2 million square miles new headquarters, so they set to young men who faced selection for of sea. The Scouts are keen and and helped out. Mrs. Farmer says, the final crew of 23 for the 52-ton smart. Some of them wear their "They came to me out of the blue Bermudan yawl Tawau, six were traditional lava-lava as part of and did everything—household Scouts. Tawau was Britain's entry their uniform. In a society where chores, shopping, window and in the Tall Ships Race last year, most tasks are shared, it is not brass-cleaning—the lot. They even the fifth arranged by the Sail easy to find good turns to do. On made an egg custard one day!" Training Association. The race two islands, at least, the Scouts The Group also looked after the was from Plymouth to Bermuda, dig the graves and bury the dead family dog, hurt in the crash. with a stop at Lisbon. Tawau was —an unusual good turn. At Tara• BLINDNESS NO HANDICAP. Bob lent to the Sail Training Associa• wa, the capital, the Scouts and Byers overcame the disability of tion by her owner, Viscount Boyd. Guides went carol-singing for the total blindness to gain a wide In command was Captain James past two Christmases and bought variety of skills and knowledge. Myatt, R.A., who has considerable two radios for the hospital with the These won him the top award of ocean-racing experience and is no money that they collected. The the Boy Scout Movement—the stranger to the Tall Ships Race, ship I travelled on was collecting Queen's Scout Badge. He is the having led Scout crews in previous copra, and sometimes we arrived first blind Scout in Australia to win years. at an island in the middle of the the Queen's Scout Badge, and one night. The Scouters of Tamana of the very few in the world. In ROVER MOOT YEAR. 1965 was were there to meet me in uniform five years, since joining the Scouts, designated a "Rover Moot Year", at 3 a.m. Many of the activities he has gained Bushman and Public during which Rover Moots took Scouts do in other places are diffi- Service badges for forestry, mete• place as follows: Pacific Moot in orology, ambulance work and sig• New Zealand, South Asia Moot at nalling. He also wears a Musician's Kandy, Ceylon, Africa Moot in 3D badge; he is a keen pianist. Nigeria, European Moot at Lake —i 1 QUEEN'S SCOUT TOP APPREN• Vanaru, Sweden, Micromcot at an TICE. Eighteen-year-old Queen's Kandersteg, Switzerland. Scout Peter Edwards of Sutton, KEEN N. RHODESIAN. AScouter us Surrey, won the Institute of Engi• travelled from Sichili, in Eastern -ll Hi neers' Tipping Medal as Best Barotseland, to Mongu, 400 miles Apprentice for 1964. Peter was away, on two separate occasions completing his third year of to attend a Cub and then a Scout ii in 06 "4 *"

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Photo: Jim Laurence Senior Air Scouts of the 8th Basingstoke Troop pitch camp for the night in Sweden during a rhoto: norman. A. Bom Scandinavian tour First Class journey HIKING, TOURING, CLIMBING

Another kind of climbing—in an obstacle race at Rock-climbing at Tunbridge Wells during an Essex S.E. Essex Local Association's Open Day County Senior Scout course Photo: A'eil J). Dav Photo: Aetl D. Dam

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mm Photo: Lawrence D. Curtis Nature study

Photo: Norman A. Itou INDOORS, Pond life OUTDOORS, AND ON THE AIR

Photo: Lawrence JO. Curtis Model-makers Photo: Norman A. Howe Hams—at the 6th Wellington Scouts' Jamboree-on- the-Air station Scout News from Near and Far

training in all aspects of manufac• their stay. In fact, many will be and uniforms. Terms of reference turing marine and general radio supplied with pocket-money to for the investigating team are "To communication equipment, includ• help them enjoy their holidays to study ail aspects of the future of ing workshop practice, production the full. The "hotel"—a detached Scouting and to make recommen• techniques and works administr• house called "Golden Acre" at dations, after consultation with the ation. In addition to his academic Westgate-on-Sea, Kent—has been Movement, to the Chief Scout as to achievements, he has reached the established to enable under-privi• the development of the Movement, Silver Standard of the Duke of leged families to holiday by the both in the immediate future and Edinburgh's Award Scheme and has sea, perhaps for the first time. The for the 1970s." The members of entered for the Gold Standard. project has been organised by the the Advance Party are all under 45 SAND BOX SAMARITANS. Scouts Coombe Holidays Trust Fund, a (average age 37). This ceiling was in Quebec, Canada, have collected charity, founded by members of the chosen by the Chief Scout as an age wooden boxes, originally used for W.V.S., Lloyds, Lewisham Scouts when Scouters "have some ex• packing butter, and turned them and the Jersey Rotary Club. Patron perience and some years in Scout• into useful motorists' aids. The of the Trust Fund is the Chief ing ahead." At their first meeting boxes are filled with sand and Scout, Sir Charles Maclean. The the Advance Party was divided into sold to drivers, who keep them idea originated in 1957, when Don eight working sub-committees in the trunk of the car so that Coombe, as Assistant District each consisting of six Scouters. the additional weight will improve Commissioner in Lewisham, was Each sub-committee will be look• traction on snow and ice-bound asked by Lady Zuckerman to escort ing into a different aspect of the roads. a group of under-privileged boys Scout Movement—Wolf Cubs; Boy 5TH ESSEX INTERNATIONAL Scouts; Senior Scouts; Rover JAMBOREE. Scouts from some Scouts; Organisation and Finance; thirty different countries attended Scoutmasters; Relations with other the Jamboree at Belchamps, Essex, i Organisations; Publicity. Later the last year, which was again a great •r. Chief Scout will be asking for success. The Chief Scout was ideas and comments from the there, and a thoroughly good time whole Scout Movement, right was had by all. down to the youngest Scout. SKI-ING WITHOUT TEARS. A PROBLEM OF LANGUAGE. Scouts, lady Cubmasters and Girl !5y ' The Interpreter Badge brought a Guide Captains enjoy the Easter headache to Northampton's Local Ski Course for Beginners in Swit• from the Midlands to an "all- Association Badge Secretary. Most zerland. The fortnight's course is found" holiday in Jersey. The Scouts choose French, German, held at the International Scout scheme has gradually developed Italian or Spanish for the test, but Chalet, Kandersteg. The length of and children who have benefited brothers Daniel and Arthur Reid, the course is an extension on pre• from it include victims of cruelty both members of the 34th North• vious years; before, it was restric• and children of disabled parents. ampton Group, chose Icelandic! ted to seven days. Parties stay in "Golden Acre" is a separate pro• They spent three months in Iceland the centrally heated Scout Chalet ject organised by the Fund to en• visiting their grandmother. While and can hire skis and sticks locally. able entire families, parents and there they got down to learning Essential personal equipment that children, to holiday together. the language; they also spent some must be taken includes goggles, SCOUTING'S FUTURE. Ateamof time with Icelandic Scouts. The snow-boots, sun-glasses and sun• twenty-four Scoutmasters and problem was to find an examiner burn cream. Total cost to the Commissioners are planning the who speaks the language well under-21's is less than £28; for future of the Scout Movement in enough to test the brothers in con• everyone else it is £32. this country. Under the leadership versation and translation. HOLIDAY HOTEL Lewisham of the Chief Scout, the Advance BROWNSEA ISLAND. Brownsea Scouts have helped to establish a Party are taking a close look at the Island, in Poole Harbour, Dorset, holiday "hotel" with a difference Scout Movement. Special atten• was the site of Baden-Powell's first —different because residents will tion is given to Scout principles, Scoutcamp. This was backin 1907. not have to face a bill at the end of methods of training, age ranges, Now, after many years as a 97 G The Scout's Pathfinder Annual forbidden island, it is open to the New Forest, and the Parish Coun• public, and part of the shore has cil approved a request that the been reserved for use as a camp• footpath on to which the hut site for Scouts and Guides. Don't abutted be called Baden-Powell miss paying a visit to the island if Way, subject to the Rural District you are anywhere near it. Admis• Council's approval. The Rural sion costs 1/6 (2/6 for grown-ups). District Council gave their permis• The castle on the island is not open sion and the footpath is now to the public, but there is plenty officially in the local records as to see elsewhere, and Scouts will Baden-Powell Way. have a special interest in it as the COW-PUNCHING SCOUTS. Island where Scouting began. Leaving their Headquarters to go BOB-A-JOB WEEK. In previous on a night stunt, Scouts from the years every member of the Scout 1st Kettering Troop, Northants, Movement in this country has con• walked right into a herd of cows. tributed 2/- to Headquarters funds For the next fifteen minutes the from their Bob-a-Job earnings. Scoutsturned cowboys, herdingthe With the introduction last year of cattle back into Kettering market. a 5/- capitation fee to Scout Head• The cows had a short tour of the quarters it was decided that all town, the Scouts had first-hand NATIONAL SCOUTCAR RACES. future Bob-a-Job earnings should experience of "cow-punching", Since the event started in 1939 as be devoted to local Scouting. The the "Soapbox Derby", an un• chance to opt out of the fund- official competition has grown up raising scheme was given to the among the teams for originality in Movement's 571,000 members, but naming their Scoutcars. Some of hardly any have done so. Scout the unusual names seen are "A Headquarters will continue run• Man-Eating Prune", entered by the ning Bob-a-Job Week on a national 20th Purley, Surrey, "Nulli Secon- basis for the benefit of Group and dus Mk I", entered by the 2nd Local Association funds. Deptford, and "Ikanoppit", en• CANADA'S FIRST AIR SCOUT tered by the 4th Lytham St. Annes. SQUADRON. Sponsored by the and one motorist was left wonder• WORLD SCOUTS SAY Montreal Regional Scout Council ing how his car was damaged, all "THANKS". At a special cere• and authorised as an experimental because some unknown local mony held at Scout Headquarters Group by the Scouters' National youths had let the herd free. in 1964, Major General D. C. Spry, Council, Canada's first Air Scout FRIENDS OF THE HOUSE. The the Director of the World Scout Squadron now flies gliders at the "Friends of Baden-Powell House" Bureau in Ottawa, presented a Dominion Aviation Airfield, one scheme aims to give a stake in the plaque to Mr. Leslie Mitchell of mile south of St. Jerome, Quebec. House to the many people who Wareham, Dorset. The plaque They use a Schweitzer 222 glider, have asked how they can continue was a "thank-you" from the which is towed into the air by a to help now that the endowment world's 9j million Scouts to the tri-pacer Piper plane. Before the fund has reached its target. The originator of Jamboree-on-the- Air Scouts are allowed into the air, annual subscription has been kept Air, the annual short-wave radio they must take an extensive ground to a 10/- minimum so that Scout Scouts get-together. The ebony course, covering navigation, air• Troops and Wolf Cub Packs will plaque bears the purple-and-white manship, meteorology, Depart• be able to take part. Many new World Scout badge with the names ment of Transport regulations, and Scout Groups have started since of all five continents. The inscrip• theory of flight. the original House Founder scheme tion reads: Presented by the Boy BADEN-POWELL WAY. Test- closed, and the new scheme will Scouts World Committee to Leslie R. wood Boy Scouts, Hampshire, offer them a chance to be associ• Mitchell In appreciation of his con• erected a headquarters at the end ated with Scouting's very practical tribution to World Brotherhood as the of Cheam Way, Testwood, in the memorial to the Founder. originator of the Jamboree-on-the-Air.

98 & N 4 V 33^ MM : I

Hi* A TEST OF 1 INITIATIVE by J. Stranger

racking," said Ian Campbell of Eagle bet he's walked along the wall, and we'll TPatrol, "is a mug's game. Let's drop find his trail further along," Nick said. out." "It's still a mug's game," Ian answered. "What1?" exclaimed Nick Anderson, of "Who ever heard of tracking being any use Hawks, who was the only other member of the in everyday life? " Troop to have got so far. "We're miles ahead "It might not be useful every day, but of the others. Why give up now? Besides, it comes in handy in the right place," you never know when it might come in Nick said, prospecting carefully on both useful." sides of the wall. "Policemen need to be " Useful for what? " Ian demanded. able to follow a trail, and hunters, and He was an impatient, red-headed boy who soldiers." liked to get quick results and hated anything "I'm not going to be a policeman or a that took long and patient plodding. Now soldier, and I don't expect I'll ever hunt," he sat beside Nick, who was small and blond Ian said morosely. "I'm going to be an and agile, and stared down at the wide tarn accountant." that ghttered like sheet-metal in the middle "Oh, come on! Eight now you're being an of the moors. idiot," Nick answered impatiently. He and Frequent rain had made the ground very Ian had been friends for several years, but damp, and up to now the footsteps of the he often found the older boy exasperating. trackmaker, Brian Burnett, of Owls, had "I want some points for Hawks. If you drop been plain and easy to see. Far behind them, out you'll be letting your Patrol down." on the hill, Nick could see the scattered "I don't care," Ian said. "I'm sick of members of the Troop following the trail. playing games on the hills. I'd rather be "They've got our footsteps to help," he at the Youth Club. You get a bit of fun said. there." "Well, we haven't got anything here," Ian "Okay, you go off to Youth Club," Nick said in disgust. answered irritably. "I've found the trail "Brian must have changed his tactics. I again, and I'm following it." 99 A Test of Initiative Ian watched his friend lope off along a The inspector was too busy with his own small path that led towards the woods higher thoughts to ask about that. "A little boy up. He hesitated, and then turned away. has been lost on the moors," he said. "He Presently he was running lightly along the is about five. He wandered up here instead bridle-path back to the town. He skirted a of going straight home from school, and no wood, climbed a stone wall, and found him• one has seen him since. He's wearing a brown self looking over the barren stretch of moor blazer and cap and grey shorts. You haven't on the edge of the town. He stared. Several seen him, have you?" policemen were walking slowly and carefully Ian shook his head. "We haven't seen towards him, searching the ground. another soul this afternoon," he said truth• A burly inspector, standing near the ruins fully. of a small cottage, called out to him. "You were tracking, eh—with other "Here—Scout!" Scouts?" the inspector asked suddenly. Ian walked over, his heart thumping sud• Ian nodded. denly as he wondered guiltily if he had done "Think you could round your friends up something wrong. and bring them here? " the inspector asked. "Have you been out on the moors?" the "You never know, they might be able to help, policeman asked. and we haven't as many men on the job as "Yes, sir. We were tracking." Ian hoped I'd like. It might turn mighty cold tonight he would not have to explain why he had left —not the weather for a little kid to be out the rest of the Troop. in who's not even warmly dressed. His house is only a few yards from the school gates. He told his friend he was going to look for an eagle. I ask you, eagles—on 0.1 these moors!" : Ian's heart did a sudden leap. "What's his name?" he asked. "Barry—Barry Nuttall. Know him?" Ian nodded. "His brother's in my Patrol —Eog Nuttall. Barry was looking for an ---- eagle. I expect he meant—you see, we're Eagle Patrol, and Rog always calls himself 3L: the Eagle, as he's the Patrol Leader. I i expect Barry knew we were going tracking and he wanted to come too, so he just tried to find lis all."

• "That gives us something to go on," said a big sergeant, who had come up. "Run off and round up your Troop, there's ,1

Ian found himself looking at a frightened wild pony

Ian nodded, and turned round again. He up on the far side of the quarry. It's steeper was beginning to feel like Dick Whittington. on that side, and there's water at the bottom." This time he kept his eyes on the ground. "Why the quarry?" Ian asked a few He walked to one side of the path, looking minutes later, as he climbed over the rocky carefully for any place that was crossed by crags that separated them from the part of footprints. If Barry had come up here, the the moors where the quarry lay, wide open child had had some idea of the route, and it to the sky. was possible that he had known his way and "Remember who was trailmaker?" found the trail by himself. "Brian." Ian found himself looking for signs that "That's right," Nick answered. "He was had not bothered him before: crushed grass at Rog's house last night and told Barry he in a hollow, giving the impression that a body was going to make the trail up round the had crouched there. He bent down and quarry. He hoped Barry would tell Rog and looked more closely. Then behind him some• mislead him. He's just told Skip." thing rustled suspiciously. He turned his "Did Barry teU Rog? " Ian asked. head as a strange voice sobbed in his ear. "No. He kept it secret. I think he wanted He found himself looking into the eyes of a to surprise us all and get to the head of the wild pony that was as frightened as he. trail first." The pony turned and crashed blindly away. "Oh, gosh!" Ian said miserably. Ian looked up and saw his friend scramb• "Eyes on the ground from now on," Nick ling down the hillside towards him. told him. "Look, we can't hunt everywhere. "I met Skip. Have you found anything?" I'll take this side of the path, and you take Ian shook his head. the other." "I think I have. That's why Skip sent me Ian began to wish he had been more in• to find you. There's a small footmark in the terested in tracking. He looked down at the bog just beyond the Hollow." ground, but it held no message for untrained "The quarry's over there," Ian said. eyes. He frowned at a coarse hair caught on "I know. We know the way, so Skip said a bramble. Nick glanced across. we'd better go up there quickly. He's sent Dai "Fox," he said briefly. "I saw its tracks a Williams back for the police, and he's gone few feet back. Thought it was a dog." 101 The Scout's Pathfinder Annual

v • • • • 1/ ) 11 Ill I 11 >4 11'

Nick crawled to the edge and called out "Barry I

Suddenly Ian let out a whoop. Nick ran The quarry top was bare of everything but across to him. There, plainly in the mud, was a sheep, which ran away bleating. the mark of a small child's shoe. "The ground's wet enough round here," "He's been this way," Nick said. Ian said, looking down at the grass. "But They climbed on, following the track. Most this won't show footprints." of it was stony, but here and there mud "It will show other things, though," Mck showed the print of the shoes, now the left said. "Look!" He pointed to a place a few one and now the right. yards away from where they stood. The grass "Do you know," Ian said after a moment, at the quarry's edge was torn and muddy, "the little imp's been trying not to leave and two skid marks, made by sliding heels, his own trail. He was probably afraid some• showed plainly on the ground. body would spot it. He wanted to surprise Nick crawled to the edge and looked down. Rog." "Barry!" he called. "Cooeee!" "He often practises stalking and tracking," A faint sound answered him. Mck said glumly. "I've seen him. He thinks "Was that an echo or an answer?" Ian Rog is marvellous. After all, Rog's fifteen asked. and Barry's only five. Rog must seem almost He received an immediate reply, for a voice grown up and Barry's longing to be a Scout." drifted up to them. "I'm here. I've fallen Ian bent down again and peered at the down. I can't come back." ground. "His prints are quite plain here," The Scouts peered down. The quarry had he said. " Look, he wouldn't climb down into been used for marble for centuries and then the quarry, would he? It's sheer rock, and abandoned as transport costs made the stone though there is a path it'd be awfully slippery too expensive an item to be used regularly. after all that rain." The slippery walls were gashed and cracked, "He certainly headed that way. Come on. and a rough path led down to the water, far Let's go and see. If he isn't there we below. might find him. If he is there, he's in "Can't see you," Ian called. danger." "I'm here." The child's voice was frigh• The two Scouts pushed on up the hill. The tened and impatient. Nick, trying to look sky was overcast, threatening heavy rain down, almost slipped, and Ian gripped him. again, and wind surged among the trees. " Hi!" he said. " That won't do. I'm going 102 A Test of Initiative to try the path," he went on. "Can't leave for some time, and Barry might fall long the kid there alone." before then." "That would be daft," Nick answered. "Neither of us dare go down," Ian said. He moved sideways, taking care not to "The path is only a goat-track, and it's as slip. A moment later he said excitedly, "We smooth as glass. Barry was lucky to fall like were on an overhang. Come here." that, and not on to rock." Ian followed him, and together they Nick shuddered, his mind suddenly filled crouched down. The rock on which they had with a vision of the child's body hurtling been standing had sheltered them from a full down the sheer walls to the water. view, but now they could see Barry, who was "Keep still, Barry, won't you?" Nick caught on a tiny ledge, a small bush keeping begged. him from falling further into the quarry. "I'm frightened," the child said, his voice Ian looked at Nick and knew that the same a whimper. thought had crossed both minds. "We're going to help you, and policemen "The roots are coming out of the cliff," are coming too," Nick answered. "Just keep he whispered. as still as you can." Nick nodded. "We've got to try some• "Please come and help me," Barry cried, thing," he said. "The police can't get here panic entering his voice. Ian lay flat on the quarry edge and looked down. "You're a Scout now, Barry, just like Bog," he said. "Scouts obey orders, and you must obey too. Understand?" The thought caught the child's interest. "Yes," he said. "You must keep quite still, just like a real Scout who mustn't be seen by anyone." Ian's voice was insistent. He thought he could \ 0 hear creaking from the branches of the bush. "I'll keep still," Barry promised. "Now," Ian said, suddenly inspired to leadership, "we need a rope. What have we - got? " "Two belts, two neckers, the cords of our :< anoraks, a small piece of nylon rope, my dog's lead." Ian frowned. "If you attach the dog's lead to my belt, and thread your belt through the lead, do you think you can hold me?" "I'll have to go," Nick said. "You're

/ nearly a stone heavier than I am." "I've got a longer reach too," Ian said. "Hm, perhaps it would be safer." \ i "We won't need the anorak cords. The dog's lead is a long chain, and it's very strong. Sable needs some holding." Ian nodded absently. He had unthreaded his anorak cord and was using it to anchor They could see Barry caught on a ledge his shorts. He fastened the dog's lead firmly The Scout's Pathfinder Annual to the metal ring on Nick's belt, and was thankful to see that it had a police-dog fastening that was safer than the normal dog-lead clip. He moved back the catch, making sure the lead was firm. He threaded his own belt through, and was thankful to find that the lead, belt, and the length of his own arm gave him several feet to play with the improvised rope. Mck took both neckers and the nylon rope v I and stuffed them into his pocket. Then, • feeling like a spider on a thread, he began to m edge his way down the path. i I. "I can't!" he gasped. He moved quickly back to Ian. "It's so slippery that my shoes won't grip." <<

"Try it barefoot," Ian answered grimly it as a faint moan came from the child below. Ian watched as the policeman went over the side He grabbed at one shoe and sock as Mck took off the other. The bush gave another there was only one thing possible. He warning creak. leaned back against the marble walls and To Nick's relief, his feet did not slip knotted the two neckers together. Praying on the stone, although it felt unpleasantly that Ian could hold him, he bent forward, cold and wet beneath him. Once he was below anchoring them round Barry's body. He tied the edge of the overhang, he found he felt him securely, and threaded the length of more like a fly on a wall, and he stared nylon rope through them. Barry was held as in horror at the tiny ledge and the flimsy if by a pair of child's reins. He moved to• bush, which gave only token protection to wards Nick, wriggling cautiously. the child. The bush came right out of the ground, Barry saw him coming and turned his head. and fell. The child screamed as his body The bush protested again, and Ian, from slid towards the edge of the tiny parapet above, saw the roots shudder and slip a on which he lay. few more inches out of the sparse soil cover• Above them, Ian flung himself face down ing. on the cliff, and wrapped the belt tightly "Keep quite still, Barry," he called. round both wrists, digging his toes into "You're still a Scout." the ground. Sweat drenched his face. His Nick reached the ledge, and leaned back wrists were being dragged from his sockets. against the cliff. His knees were shaking, He dared not look down. and the belts and dog-lead holding him felt Nick stood terrified, afraid that the strain ridiculously inadequate. The drop in front would cause his flimsy protection to fail. of him looked unbelievably deep. He could feel the child's body rolling out• "I can't come back," Barry said. "I'm wards, pulling him with it. He reached out frightened." a hand and grabbed Barry's arm. His foot Ian held the improvised rope grimly. Nick slipped, and for a moment both of them was balanced on the narrowest part of the hung out, balanced over space. ledge, and had barely sufficient anchorage. Then he recovered, and his strong arms Nick closed his eyes and took a deep breath. pulled the child back on to the ledge, where He thought of his Scout Promise. He declared he lay sobbing uncontrollably. Nick leaned, A Test of Initiative feeling like candyfloss, as the police lowered a man over the side, firmly anchored by a strong nylon rope. Within a few minutes Barry lay sobbing beside him, and Nick was helped up, and sat, shaking, to recover himself, beside them. Later that evening, after a meal and well- deserved praise from both Skip and the police, Nick and Ian called on Rog to find out how Barry had fared. They found the little boy sitting up in bed, telling Rog how he had tracked him to the quarry, and how he had slipped. "What did he track? " Nick asked, puzzled, after they had left. "Probably a sheep," Ian answered. "I saw several fresh tracks up there." "Still think tracking's no use?" Nick asked slyly. Ian grinned. "I've changed my mind," he answered. "In future I'll learn everything we're taught. You never know what's going to come in useful in everyday life." He patted his Scout belt, thankful it was a new one, and that Nick's was too. Nick nodded his agreement. What a good job he had put so much time into practising his knots!