Tom Slade on Mystery Trail

Tom Slade #10

by Percy Keese Fitzhugh

At Temple Camp you may hear the story told of how Llewellyn, scout of the first class, and Orestes, winner of the merit badges for architecture and for music, were by their scouting skill and lore instrumental in solving a mystery and performing a great good turn. Yet if you should ask old Uncle Jeb Rushmore, beloved manager of the big scout camp, about these two scout heroes, a shrewd twinkle would appear in his eye and he would refer you to the boys, who would probably only laugh at you, for they are a bantering set at Temple Camp and would jolly the life out of Daniel Boone himself if that redoubtable woodsman were there. Listen then while I tell you of how Tom Slade, friend and brother of these two scouts, as he is of all scouts, assisted them, and of how they assisted him; and of how, out of these reciprocal good turns, there came true peace and happiness, which is the aim and end of all scouting.

108 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1921

About the author

Percy Keese Fitzhugh (1876-1950) was an American author. His first known work, The Goldenrod Story Book was published in 1906. The bulk of his work, having a Boy Scouting theme, revolves around the fictional town of Bridgeboro, New Jersey. Characters included Tom Slade, Pee-wee Harris, Roy Blakely, and Westy Martin. Fitzhugh's Scouting based books were very popular with children and adults. His characters became so real to his readers that it was not uncommon for Percy to receive fan mail addressed to the characters themselves. In the 1930's, he began writing the Hal Keen Mystery Series (10 titles) under the pseudonym Hugh Lloyd. They were followed by another mystery series - Skippy Dare - (3 titles). Neither of these series achieved the popularity of his Scout work.

Reviews

[Rex Libris]

In this volume we have Tom still working at Temple Camp. He assists another scout in earning the Eagle rank, even though the scout does not know that is what Tom is up to. All of this work ends up helping Tom and the scout rescue a young boy who was kidnapped and held for ransom on the mountain by Temple Camp.