B.-P. Tells a Story On Signs The Leader, January 1976When a Scout has learned to notice "signs", he must then learn to "put this and that together", and so read a meaning from what he has seen. This is called deduction."
Here is an example which shows how the young Scout can read the meaning from "signs", when he has been trained to it.
Old Blenkinsop rushed out of his little store near the African Kaffir village.
"Hi! Stop thief!" he shouted. "He's stolen my sugar. Stop him!"
Stop whom? There was nobody in sight running away.
"Who stole it?" asked the policeman.
"I don't know, but a whole bag of sugar is missing. It was there only a few minutes ago."
A police tracker was called in --and it looked a pretty impossible job for him to single out the tracks of the thief from among dozens of other naked foot prints about the store. However, he presently started off hopefully at a jog-trot, away out into the bush. In some places he went over hard stony ground but he never checked his pace, although no footmarks could be seen.
At length the tracker suddenly stopped and cast around, having evidently lost the trail. Then a grin came on his face as he pointed with his thumb over his shoulder up the tree near which he was standing. There, concealed among the branches they saw a man with the missing bag of sugar
How had the tracker spotted him? His sharp eyes had seen some grains of sugar sparkling in the dust. The bag leaked, leaving a very slight trail of these grains. He followed that trail and when it came to an end in the bush the tracker noticed a string of ants going up a tree. They were after the sugar, and so was he, and between them they brought about the capture of the thief.
I expect that Old Blenkinsop patted the tracker on the back for his cleverness in using his eyes to see the grains of sugar and the ants, and in using his wits to see why the ants were climbing the tree.
"Do you mean a very tall soldier, riding a roan horse that was slightly lame?"
They said, "Yes, that was the man. Where did you see him?"
The boy replied, "I have not seen him, but I know where he has gone."
Thereupon they arrested him thinking that probably the man had been murdered and made away with, and that the boy had heard about it.
But eventually he explained that he had seen the tracks of the man.
He pointed out the tracks to them, and finally brought them to a place where the signs showed that the man had made a halt. Here the horse had rubbed itself against a tree, and had left some of its hairs sticking to the bark, which showed that it was a roan (speckled) horse. Its hoof marks showed that it was lame, that is, one foot was not so deeply imprinted on the ground and did not take so long a pace as the other feet. That the rider was a soldier was shown by the track of his boot, which was an army boot.
Then they asked the boy, "How could you tell that he was a tall man?" and the boy pointed to where the soldier had broken a branch from the tree, which would have been out of reach of a man of ordinary height.
Similarly, a trained Scout will see little signs and tracks. He puts them together in his mind and quickly reads a meaning from them which an untrained man would never arrive at.
From frequent practice he gets to read the meaning at a glance, just as you do a book, without the delay of spelling out each word, letter by letter.
Suddenly we crossed a track freshly made in grass, where the blades of grass were still green and damp, though pressed down -- all were bending one way, which showed the direction in which the people had been travelling. Following up the track for a bit it got on to a patch of sand, and we then saw that it was the spoor (footprints) of several women (small feet with straight edge, and short steps) walking, not running, towards the hills, about five miles away, where we believed the enemy was hiding.
Then we saw a leaf lying about ten yards off the track. There were no trees for miles, but we knew that trees having this kind of leaf grew at a village 15 miles away, in the direction from which the foot marks were coming. It seemed likely therefore that the women had come from that village, bringing the leaf with them, and had gone to the hills.
On picking up the leaf we found it was damp, and smelled of native beer. The short steps showed that the women were carrying loads. So we guessed that according to the custom they had been carrying pots of native beer on their heads, with the mouths of the pots stopped up with bunches of leaves. One of these leaves had fallen out; and since we found it ten yards off the track, it showed that at the time it fell a wind was blowing. There was no wind now, that is, at seven o'clock, but there had been some about five o'clock.
So we guessed from all these little signs that a party of women and boys had brought beer during the night from the village 15 miles away, and had taken it to the enemy in the hills, arriving there soon after six o'clock.
The men would probably start to drink the beer at once (as it goes sour in a few hours), and would, by the time we could get there, be getting sleepy and keeping a bad look-out, so we should have a favourable chance of looking at their position.
We accordingly followed the women's tracks, found the enemy, made our observations, and got away with our information without any difficulty.
And it was chiefly done on the evidence of that one leaf.
So you see the importance of noticing even a little thing like that.
The doctor was once teaching a class of medical students at a hospital how to treat people. A patient was brought in, so that the doctor might show how an injured man should be cared for. The patient in this case came in limping, and the doctor turned to one of the students and asked him:
"What is the matter with this man?"
The student replied, "I don't know sir. I haven't asked him."
The doctor said: "Well there is no need to ask him, you should see for yourself -- he has injured his right knee--he is limping on that leg. He injured it by burning it in the fire--you see how his trouser is burnt away at the knee. This is Monday morning. Yesterday was fine, Saturday was wet and muddy. The man's trousers are muddy all over. He had a fall in the mud on Saturday night."
Then he turned to the man and said: "You drew your wages on Saturday and got drunk, and in trying to get your clothes dry by the fire when you got home, you fell on the fire and burnt your knee -- isn't that so?"
"Yes, sir," replied the man.
I saw a case in the paper once where a judge at the county court used his power of "noticing little things", and "putting this and that together". He was trying a man as a debtor.
The man pleaded that he was out of work, and could get no employment.
The judge said: "Then what are you doing with that pencil behind your ear if you are not in business?"
The man had to admit that he had been helping his wife in her business, which, it turned out, was a very profitable one. The judge thereupon ordered him to pay his debt.
At the foot of the stump was a cake of hardened mud which showed the impression of a grass shoe.
What would you make out from those signs?
My solution of it was this.
A man had gone southward on a long journey along the path two days ago carrying a load and had rested at the rock while he ate walnuts.
My deductions were these.
It was a man carrying a load, because carriers when they want to rest do not sit down, but rest their load against a sloping rock and lean back. Had he had no load, he would probably have sat down on the stump, but he preferred to go 30 yards farther to where the rock was. Women no not carry loads there, so it was a man. He broke the shells of his walnuts on the tree stump with the stone, having brought them from the tree 150 yards north -- so he was travelling south. He was on a long journey, as he was wearing shoes, and not going barefooted, as he would be if only strolling near his home. Three days ago there was rain, the cake of mud had been picked up while the ground was still wet -- but it had not been since rained upon, and was now dry. The walnut rind was also dry, and confirmed the time that had elapsed.
There is no important story attached to this, but it is just an example of everyday practice which should be carried out by Scouts.
Make tracks on soft ground of different incidents- such as a cyclist meeting a boy on foot, getting off his bicycle to talk to his friend, then setting out again. Let the boys study the tracks and deduce their meaning.
Place on a tray a collection of articles which might come from a man's pockets. Ask the Scouts to deduce what kind a man he was, his interests, etc.
Or let each boy have two minutes' conversation with some stranger, and try to find out what he can about him in that time by questioning and observation.
The very simplest schemes should be given at first. They can gradually be elaborated.
For instance, have a number of footmarks and used matches by a tree, showing where a man had difficulty in lighting his pipe, etc.
For a more finished theme take a mystery like that in Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes called "The Resident Patient". Set a room to represent the patient's room where he was found hanging, with footprints of muddy boots on the carpet, cigar ends bitten or cut in the fireplace, cigar ashes, screw-driver and screws etc. Put down a strip of newspapers for "stepping stones" on which competitors shall walk (so as not to confuse existing tracks). Let each Scout (by patrol) come in separately and give him three minutes in which to investigate. Then give him half an hour to make up his solution, written or verbal.
