The Banner Boy Scouts on a Tour

The Story

Paul Morrison and the Banner Boy Scouts are preparing for a long tour into the country north of Stanhope, with Rattlesnake Mountain as the region they mean to explore. The opening movement of the book is all anticipation: the troop meets, plans the hike, counts supplies, and debates where to camp and what they may find. Paul leads with the calm authority the others trust, while the boys crowd around him with their usual mix of excitement, slang, and noise. Their first real problem is not the trail itself but the trouble that follows them from home. Ted Slavin and his set are already fixed as enemies, and the scouts know that if there is mischief to be made, Ted will likely be involved. That suspicion proves justified almost at once when the boys must guard their church meeting place and their camp equipment against sabotage before the expedition even begins.

The tour starts under a cloud of watchfulness. Paul learns that the enemy may try to spoil the departure by attacking the tents and supplies, so he and Jack spend the night on guard. The book quickly shows the scouts as boys who are trying to behave like trained workers, not just campers: they keep watch, plan for emergencies, and talk constantly about being prepared. Yet the outside world is not orderly. One of the recurring mysteries of the story is the trail of theft and interference that begins before the hike and continues after it. A tin box taken from Joe Clausin’s father still hangs over the boys’ minds, and Paul begins to suspect that the same man involved in that theft may turn up in the mountain country. The scouts’ travels therefore have two purposes at once: the outward adventure of camping and the inward search for truth.

Once they are off, the book settles into a long road journey broken by episodes of threat and discovery. The scouts travel with their gear, meet a circus caravan on the way, and make themselves useful by providing water at a spring. That scene matters because it shows the boys at their best: instead of teasing or obstructing the travelers, they help them, and the circus people are surprised to receive kindness from a troop of boys. The journey also gives Paul chances to read the land. He notices tracks, tire marks, and signs in the woods that others overlook. At times he and Jack piece together facts from a road mark or a footprint in the mud, while the rest of the troop reacts with a mixture of admiration and impatience. These small discoveries gradually deepen into a larger sense that the mountain country contains more than scenery.

The camp itself becomes the center of a series of tests. Ted Slavin and his followers hover nearby, and the scouts must remain on guard against an attack. At one point Paul and Jack identify Ted spying from the rocks, which confirms that the enemy has found them. The boys also face direct danger from fire. In one of the strongest episodes, a lamp is knocked over in the church gymnasium area and a blaze begins. The scouts react quickly, smothering the flames with a blanket and saving the building from what could have been a disastrous fire. This is more than a dramatic incident: it proves that the lessons of scouting really have taken hold. They do not panic, and they know how to act under pressure.

The book then broadens into a pattern of search and response. The scouts explore, fish, cook, and study the signs of wild life around the lake and mountain. Paul shows the others how to read animal tracks and how to notice the habits of birds and small creatures. Meanwhile, Joe Clausin is troubled, and Paul quietly tries to draw from him what he knows about the stolen tin box and the stranger connected with it. Joe is torn between loyalty, fear, and memory. Paul presses him gently, trying to discover whether the man they saw on the road is the same one who robbed Joe’s father. The mystery remains unresolved, but the emotional strain is clear: Joe knows more than he wants to say, and Paul understands that the truth matters to him.

The atmosphere darkens when weather and geography begin to dominate the plot. A violent storm sweeps over the mountain and tears apart the camp. The scouts and Mr. Gordon, who has now joined them, cut down tents, gather what they can, and flee in search of shelter. The storm is described as fearsome and exhausting, and the boys have to struggle through wind, flying branches, and falling trees. This is one of the book’s major turning points, because the adventure leaves the realm of ordinary camping and becomes a survival problem. The group is forced up into rockier ground, where caves and hidden places offer the only possible refuge. The storm does not merely inconvenience them; it changes the whole shape of the story.

In the confusion, Paul is captured by two rough men in a cave, and the action turns from weather danger to human danger. He tries to explain that he came by accident and that he only wanted to find another opening, but the men think he may bring others. They try to bind him, and he shouts to warn the rest of the troop. Jack and the others hear him and rush to the rescue, creating enough noise and confusion to drive the men off. Later, the scouts continue exploring the mountain and find more signs of the same hidden criminal world, including the repeated mysterious tin box and the presence of men who seem to be hiding from daylight and from the authorities. By the end, the scouts are not simply campers on a tour; they have become investigators moving through a dangerous landscape.

The conclusion brings the separate threads together. The boys discover more about the men hiding on the mountain, and Paul’s observations keep pulling the mystery toward the earlier theft. The storm, the cave, the suspicious strangers, and the clues about the tin box all connect into the sense that Rattlesnake Mountain is harboring wrongdoing beneath its rocks. The final movement is less about a single solved crime than about the scouts’ ability to endure, observe, and act when danger appears. The group comes through the ordeal as a tighter unit, with Mr. Gordon restored to his place as guiding adult and Paul still at the center of the troop’s practical judgment. The book ends with the scouts having survived a tour that proves harder, stranger, and more lawless than they expected, but also more instructive.

The People

Paul Morrison is the center of the story. He wants the troop to succeed, but he also wants to understand what lies behind the thefts, spying, and fear around the mountain. What stands in his way is not one enemy but several: Ted Slavin’s group, the storm, the hidden men in the cave, and the reluctance of others to speak plainly. By the end he is even more clearly the scout who sees patterns first and acts before panic can spread.

Jack Stormways is Paul’s closest companion and frequent sounding board. He wants the hike to go well and the camp to stay safe, but he often needs Paul to help him interpret what is happening. He grows from excited uncertainty into steadier confidence, especially when the troop must respond to danger quickly.

Joe Clausin carries the emotional burden of the stolen tin box. He wants his father’s loss put right, but he is caught between what he knows and what he can say. Paul’s questioning shows that Joe has seen something important, and by the later chapters he is still troubled by it. His role is to embody shame, loyalty, and guarded knowledge.

William Carberry brings humor and energy to the troop, but he is not merely comic relief. He wants to keep the scouts lively and obedient, and he proves he can act in an emergency as well as joke about one. His practical joke nature remains, but the book shows that beneath it he has learned discipline.

Ted Slavin is the chief human source of mischief and pressure. He wants to interfere, dominate, and unsettle the scouts, and he appears again and again as the face of local hostility. The story does not let him become a full mystery villain; rather, he represents the kind of petty, recurring bad faith the scouts must be ready for.

Mr. Gordon arrives as the adult who steadies the whole group. He wants the boys safe, organized, and tested honestly by what the wilderness offers. When he comes, the burden on Paul eases, and the troop gains a guide who understands both campcraft and discipline.

In Its Own Voice

The book’s scouts live by a rule they keep repeating to one another, especially when the hike is finally underway:

“Be Prepared!”

That motto becomes a practical habit rather than a slogan, especially when the camp faces sudden danger:

“Boys, we ought to be mighty thankful it came out so well,” replied Paul, soberly.

The story also gives the troop’s humor in the middle of hardship, as when the boys react to the circus caravan and the day’s work of providing water:

“Once we put out a fire; and now we can quench a big thirst!”

What It's Really About

Under the surface adventure, the book is interested in discipline: how boys learn to act together before they are tested by weather, strangers, and fear. Scouting is presented not as decoration but as training in attention and self-command. The boys are constantly being asked to notice signs, manage equipment, keep watch, and resist panic. When they succeed, the book treats that success as moral as well as practical. Saving the building from fire, helping the circus caravan, and standing guard over camp all show the same principle in different forms: readiness is a habit that protects other people, not just oneself.

The book is also about reading the world closely. Paul’s ability to interpret tire marks, animal tracks, road bends, and body language is not just detective flair. It is the very skill the scouts are meant to develop. Nature is not romantic background here; it is a field of evidence. The woods, the mud, the rocks, and even the behavior of birds all hold information. The story rewards observation and makes a serious claim that a boy can learn to see more than most people see.

At the same time, the book is about trust and half-spoken truth. Joe Clausin knows something about the tin box, but he cannot bring himself to say it all at once. Ted Slavin and his crowd are openly hostile, yet the more serious menace may come from men who hide instead of boasting. The plot keeps linking visible trouble with concealed motive. Paul’s task is therefore not only to solve mysteries but to help other people move from fear and silence toward clarity.

There is also a quiet admiration for adult guidance that does not crush boy initiative. Mr. Gordon matters because he arrives when he is needed, but the story does not make the boys helpless in his absence. Paul carries responsibility early, and the others learn by doing. The book values leadership as something shared, tested, and earned.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy early scouting fiction, wilderness camping stories, and straightforward boy-adventure plots will find a lot of the book’s texture familiar and enjoyable. It moves with energy, especially when it shifts from camp talk to pursuit, storm, and rescue. The pleasures are in the practical details: setting watches, identifying tracks, building fires, making do in rough country, and noticing what others miss. If you like stories where competence matters, this one has that in abundance.

What stays with you most is probably the book’s sense of motion through danger. It is not a polished psychological novel; it is a serial adventure with clear virtues and clear villains. But it does give the scouts a real landscape to test themselves against, and the storm sequence especially gives the story weight. The mountain is not just a setting for camping; it is a place where hidden things are uncovered.

There are difficulties for modern readers. The language is rooted in its time, with slangy boy talk and period assumptions about character, obedience, and masculinity. Some of the humor and dialect speech may feel dated, and the pace is leisurely in places, especially when the boys are traveling or discussing plans. Still, the book’s core interest—young people learning to observe, cooperate, and stay calm under pressure—comes through clearly. What lingers is not only the action, but the sense of a troop discovering that care, alertness, and loyalty can matter as much as courage.