Tom Slade at Bear Mountain

Tom Slade at Bear Mountain

Tom Slade at Bear Mountain, by Percy Keese Fitzhugh, follows the narrator, an author from Bridgeboro, New Jersey, who visits his Aunt Martha in Kingston, New York, and takes a scenic route through the Bear Mountain Interstate Park reservation. During this journey he meets Long Buck Sanderson, an ancient, towering woodsman living in a remote corner of the reservation called Rattlesnake Gulch. Buck tells the narrator a tale from decades past: he and his trapping partner, Mink Havers, had earned three thousand dollars from selling furs in New York City. Fearing that a corrupt game warden named Barney Wythe and his associates would seize the money, Mink went to hide it while Buck distracted the men at their cabin. Mink was found unconscious near an old elm tree with a wound on his head, and afterward suffered from amnesia, unable to remember where he had hidden the money. He eventually wandered away and was never seen again. Buck spent his remaining years believing the game wardens had stolen the money and robbed Mink of his senses. Buck also worries about his orphaned granddaughter June, who lives with him in the wilderness. When the narrator returns to Bridgeboro and tells this story to Tom Slade and Tom's friend Brent Gaylong, Tom immediately suspects that the game warden was honest and that the money is still hidden somewhere in Rattlesnake Gulch. Tom's suspicion is confirmed when he investigates and learns that Barney Wythe was a respected, upright man. Shortly afterward, a newspaper article from St. Louis describes a patient in a Missouri asylum for the criminally insane, known as Treasure Jack, who suffered from amnesia following a head injury and spoke vaguely of money hidden in a bait-box. He had recently undergone an operation that showed promise of restoring his memory, but then escaped the institution. Tom concludes this man is Mink Havers, possibly on his way back to Rattlesnake Gulch. Tom and Brent obtain permission to camp in Buck's abandoned cabin, which stands near an old well on the ruined foundation of a former neighbor named Conner. They begin searching for the hidden money while also watching for Mink's possible return. Brent descends into the well to search its walls and becomes trapped when a rattlesnake pins him down in the darkness. Through a combination of determination and desperate instinct, Brent inadvertently drowns the snake by pressing its head under the shallow water at the well's bottom. Tom, delayed by a detour, a troubling encounter with a mysterious stranger camping near their hidden automobile, and an attack by a wildcat in a tree, arrives to rescue the unconscious Brent. The mysterious stranger who had slept under Tom's car later presents himself at the cabin as a man named Lawton, claiming to work in forestry and tree conservation, scouting the area for trees needing cement filling near a dam being constructed on Brundige Mountain. He makes himself agreeable and stays with the campers on several occasions. However, when Tom and Brent visit the dam workers and find that no one there has heard of Lawton, their suspicions are aroused. They return to the Gulch to discover Lawton descending from the old elm near Conner's well carrying what proves to be the hidden bait-box containing the long-lost money. Brent, searching the ground after Lawton flees, recovers a letter revealing that Lawton is actually Doctor Slicksby Somers, the very young physician who had been caring for Mink Havers in Missouri before supposedly departing for Europe. In financial trouble and facing potential criminal charges for forgery and fraud, Somers had extracted enough information from his amnesiac patient to locate the treasure and come to steal it himself. Tom confronts him, wrests the box away, and sends him off empty-handed. The money safely recovered, Tom and Brent continue camping in the Gulch. During this period they befriend a runaway Scout named Arnold Henshaw, called Spiffy, a red-headed, freckled boy of fourteen who has fallen out with his camp over rule-breaking and a refusal to follow standard requirements for merit badges. Tom sends Spiffy back to camp with an encouraging challenge to earn his badges properly. Spiffy struggles but stays on. When a fire breaks out in the dry valley of Rattlesnake Gulch one evening, Tom climbs a hill and sends a smoke signal using four columns of smoke, a pattern he associates with the call for help. Spiffy, paddling alone on the lake after dark in violation of rules, spots the signal, immediately comprehends its meaning, and races back to rouse his camp. Despite skepticism from his campmates, enough Scouts follow him to the Gulch to fight the fire and save the cabin and surrounding area. The effort vindicates Spiffy, who finishes the summer earning his pathfinder and stalking badges. Weeks later, Scouts from the lake camps escort a frail, white-haired old man to the cabin: Mink Havers, returned at last to Rattlesnake Gulch by instinct and imperfectly restored memory. Tom and Brent give him his recovered fortune, though persuading him that half belongs to June Sanderson requires calling in the narrator. Arrangements are made for Mink to live at the Pinewoods Home for the elderly, founded by Tom's patron John Temple, where his share of the money supports his care. June Sanderson's fifteen hundred dollars is secured for her. The narrator visits the Kingston orphanage, retrieves June, and takes her to live with his Aunt Martha in Kingston, bringing the adventure to a warm domestic conclusion on Christmas Eve.

By Percy Keese Fitzhugh · First published 1915 · Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Adventure, Scout Fiction · 36 chapters · 46,459 words

First lines

I have often reflected that if it had not been for my long promised visit to my aunt up in Kingston, New York, these very extraordinary events which I purpose to narrate would never have occurred. To be sure, the silent stranger, as we called him, would still have pursued his grim course in the tragic business. But I would have been none the wiser for that. And Tom Slade would not have had the thrilling experience (dear to his adventurous heart) of participating in it.

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Tom Slade at Bear Mountain is listed on Textopian as a novel by Percy Keese Fitzhugh, dated 1915 CE.

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Genres

Tags

juvenile fiction · adventure · Boy Scouts · outdoor survival · camping · mountain setting · friendship · courage · loyalty · mystery · American literature · early 20th century

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