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Summer Camp Adventure - Part 1 Following our adventures, James and I became close friends, a situation that would have dire repercussions. James had a wicked sense of humour and a lust for practical jokes which he would indulge in with the least provocation. I, perhaps foolishly, was more than happy to follow his lead and, being amongst the younger members of the scout troop, we frequently incurred the wrath of our seniors. It became the norm for the latter to "punish" us by tying one, or usually both of us up when they could catch us. Not many meetings went by without one of us spending at least an hour, bound in a variety of ways for our various misdemeanors. We accepted this as a just consequence of our actions, and let's face it: neither of us disliked being bound even if we would have preferred to avoid the "tickle torture" sessions that sometimes ensued. Our activities were invariably aimed at members of the other patrols, sometimes with the assistance -and invariably with the knowledge- of our own patrol members. We would accept our "punishments" without protest and it was an unwritten rule that we would be left by our tormentors to be liberated by our colleagues after a reasonable time, usually between one and two hours. At last high summer arrived, and with it, the school vacation and prospects of our two-week summer camp. On this occasion, a central area in our woods was occupied by our leader's tent, together with cooking facilities, storage etc. and each patrol was allowed to site their own tents separately, establishing their own "territory". We had been provided with large tents suitable for six to eight people and my patrol had two of these for our six boys. We divided three and three and James and I found ourselves sharing with Stuart (13) who had been initiated into "The Games" but didn't generally hang out with us. He had a great sense of humour and this was fortunate, as he would later find himself deeply embroiled in our activities. The two tents were sited approximately twenty feet apart. Before turning in on our first night under canvas, Stuart proposed a "tie up" competition with each of us taking it in turns to be tied, with a time limit of thirty minutes each. The winner was to be the one who freed himself in the shortest time, the loser to take responsibility for keeping the tent clean and tidy for the next three days. James and I were a little surprised at this but quickly accepted the challenge, and a variety of hog ties followed, more or less adequately applied, during which Stuart surprised us with his knot tying efficiency and good humour. James was the loser, having failed so much as to loosen any of his bonds skillfully applied by Stuart, while the latter gained a comprehensive victory by freeing himself completely in the time limit. I only managed to free my self from the lashing between ankles and wrists and managed to get my feet free. My hands were still securely tied behind my back when the time expired! Our activities were now cut short by our leaders insisting that we all turned in. In the warm darkness, James began to gleefully outline some of his schemes for the coming days and I suddenly realized that this camp was going to be great fun but at the same time we were likely to spend a lot of time deprived of our liberty! Stuart listened in mute admiration to James who suddenly voiced a concern that was growing in my mind, "Look Stuart, you may catch it if you stick around us during the day. Richard and I are quite happy to accept any repercussions but it wouldn't be fair to involve you". We were both amazed when he replied, "That's OK. Thanks for your concern but some of your plans sound like fun and if I get caught with you I guess I will just have to accept the outcome!" He had been around long enough to know what sort of retribution was generally meted out to us. Over the next few days we amused ourselves by carrying out an endless succession of practical jokes on our friends, sometimes alone and sometimes aided and abetted by Stuart. The latter managed to keep a low profile and he avoided any come back, but James and I spent several hours either tied to trees or staked out in front of the "opposition's" tents. Tickle torture became almost obligatory (every boy in the troop knew what a devastating effect this had on me - James was more stoical) and we were invariably securely gagged during this operation. At other times our mouths would be left free provided we agreed to give our solemn word to keep silent until we were liberated. We invariably agreed since we were always closely guarded and were immediately gagged if we broke our promise. When our penance was deemed complete the other members of our patrol would be told where they could find us and would immediately set us free. Our leaders were aware of what was going on and checked from time to time that we were not being treated too roughly, although James and I were not unduly concerned about our treatment in the hands of our adversaries, since we knew that none of them would deliberately inflict any pain or anything with a lasting effect on us. In any case, we lost most of the sympathy we might have had after large Thistle heads mysteriously found their way into the leader's sleeping bags one day!
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