Read Ebook: The Boy Scouts of the Field Hospital by Shaler Robert

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Ebook has 647 lines and 32842 words, and 13 pages

"Oh, he's sunk, Hugh!" came a shout behind the leader of the Wolf Patrol.

Hugh knew this without being told. He had figured it all out, and understood just when the helpless figure would reach him. In imagination he was following its rapid progress with his eye; and with such precision that, sure enough, he was enabled to seize hold of the boy.

Then came a desperate struggle, for it was difficult to keep his clutch on the slippery form of the helpless lad and at the same time buffet the current of the worst place in the rapids.

Fortunately, indeed, for them both, Billy Worth was close at hand to lend his aid. Billy was a stout swimmer, and between them they managed to keep Tremaine's head out of the water as they allowed the current to carry them down.

Presently they had arrived at a stretch where the river broadened out somewhat, and here Alec Sands and the others had stretched themselves in a human chain with the leader of the Otters as the outermost link.

Once upon a time Alec Sands had been a bitter rival of Hugh, and had even done numerous mean things in order to overreach the latter; but since then Alec had learned to esteem his former enemy because of his manly nature, and nowadays they were the best of friends.

It was meet that Alec's should be the hand to obtain a grip on Hugh and begin to tow the two swimmers ashore, bearing their limp burden between them.

"Oh, is he dead, Hugh, and is our summer outing going to be broken up right in the very start?" cried Tom Sherwood, who had run down from the camp by this time and was waiting for them on the shore.

"I hope it isn't as bad as that," replied Hugh. "Carry him up on the bank, so we can get busy. He wasn't under the water long, and I expect he will soon be all to the good. I think he must have struck his head on a sunken rock, and that made him dizzy. Then he became frightened, and when a swimmer gets in a panic, it's going to be a bad lookout for him."

They laid young Tremaine down on his stomach, with his head raised a little. Hugh placed himself over him, with his knees planted against the ribs of the unconscious boy. He commenced pressing downward regularly with both hands, pumping just as one might breathe. This was to force the water and air out of the lungs, and allow them to fill again with oxygen. It took the part of natural respiration.

Meanwhile the others were all doing something to assist in the work of restoration. Alec vigorously rubbed one of Tremaine's legs to induce a warmth and get the blood circulating. Another was holding the boy's head in such a way that his tongue might not slip back.

Fortunately, the time of Tremaine's immersion had not been of long duration; and under these vigorous efforts of the energetic life-savers, he soon opened his eyes.

Shortly afterward he was able to sit up, though he still felt weak. Everyone experienced a great sensation of relief. The sudden black cloud that had fallen on the new camp had drifted away, thanks to their intimate knowledge of what was required in a case of near-drowning.

There is not a summer passes but that the precious lives of scores of boys are imperiled when in swimming; and since the scout movement took root in this country, the records show that in innumerable instances fatal results have been avoided simply through the knowledge that membership in that organization entails on all who expect to attain the rank of second or first-class scout.

Tremaine admitted that he had been very unwise to undertake that passage of the rushing rapids. He seemed humble enough, and thankful that he had such loyal and dependable comrades near at hand.

"I've always boasted about my swimming," he contritely explained to Hugh, after the scout master had gently taken him to task for his recklessness, "and I think I could have made the crossing all right only for that wave dashing me against a sunken rock. It clipped me on the side of the head, and made me feel sick. After that I guess I got scared and near frantic, for I felt that I was in danger of being drowned out there in all that foam and swirling waters. But I've had a lesson, Hugh, and I promise you after this 'I'll look before I leap.'"

"A good motto for every scout to keep in mind," remarked Alec Sands, who was hovering near, since he had taken quite a liking for the new boy. "I used to be just as quick on the trigger as you, Harold; and let me tell you it got me into no end of scrapes. I'm beginning to see things differently now; and a heap of that is due to my knowing Hugh Hardin better."

If Hugh heard these last words as he hurried away to hunt up the several parts of his clothes, they must have given him considerable satisfaction. Making a friend out of a bitter enemy was always a favorite diversion of the young scout master; and nothing he ever did gave him more deep-seated pleasure than the conversion of Alec Sands.

Tremaine was soon able to get on his feet and dress. He said his head hurt somewhat where he had struck it on the rock, and he felt a bit weak, but expected he would be all right by another day.

Hugh dressed the bruise with some soothing salve he carried in his medicine kit, and the value of which he had tested on more than one occasion in the past.

The afternoon was wearing away by now. Some of the boys had made little journeys around the neighborhood so as to get an idea of what their surroundings were like. They had been warned not to go far toward the southwest; and if they chanced to run across any foreigners not to do anything to annoy them, since they were very excitable.

Hugh had seen fit, at lunch time, to tell what little he knew concerning the upheaval at the cement works, and the chances of trouble coming about between the striking workmen and the guards imported by the company to defend their property as well as protect any new laborers who might be smuggled in to take the places left vacant by those who had gone out.

"I hope that isn't going to be the beginning of a rush of trouble for us in our new camp, Hugh," remarked Billy Worth as he came over and dropped down alongside the scout master in the shade of a tree.

"Whether it is or not, Billy, we've got a lot to be thankful for; and if all our mix-ups turn out as well, we can call ourselves a lucky bunch. Perhaps it's a good thing it happened, for every scout will be on the watch after this to curb his ambition, and not be reckless. A warning in the beginning is often the best of happenings when a lot of lively boys start out camping."

"That Tremaine had a close call, all the same, Hugh. I rather liked the way he owned up to being foolish. The fellow must have good stuff in him for all he's so flighty."

"Sheer nervousness, Billy, and it'll wear off after he's been outdoors more. He told me this was the first time he has ever camped, though he's gone swimming and fishing and all those sorts of things in the place he came from. But they hadn't cared to start a scout troop among the boys, because some of the leading people thought it was a military movement, and they didn't want their sons to grow up with the idea in their heads that some day they would have to fight, and kill other people's boys."

"How foolish they are to think that way," said Billy, indignantly, "when the Boy Scout movement is founded on just the opposite plan in this country. Their mission is to save life, not take it. They try to carry this out in dozens of different ways. Why, even we can point with pride to our record in that line. Think only this last spring when we got caught in that flood up at Lawrence what chances we found to do things for other people who were in terrible trouble. But what are you staring at, Hugh?"

"I'm wondering what that man who looks like a farmer wants here," replied the scout master. "He's left the road, and is heading for our camp as fast as he can come."

Billy Worth immediately began to take notice.

"Just what he is, Hugh," he remarked, with a trace of excitement in his voice; "and seems to me I can scent some new trouble in the air. Gee whiz! Listen to how he cracks that blacksnake whip of his, would you? And look at his face, how ugly it seems. He's whopping mad over something or other, Hugh; and there, he's asking Arthur Cameron a question, because Arthur is pointing this way. The boys have got on, for there they start to tag after him. Mebbe it's his river and our fellows had no right to go in swimming there without asking his permission; or else we're camping on his ground here. Anyhow, we'll soon know what's up, for here he starts this way!"

"He had better not try to use that nasty looking whip around here, that's all I want to say," remarked Bud Morgan, who had joined Hugh and Billy.

"Don't talk quite so loud, Bud," warned the leader of the Wolf Patrol, who saw no reason why they should add fuel to the fire that seemed to be raging in the heart of the countryman.

The farmer was a typical Yankee in looks, and in a city he would be termed a "hayseed" by the boys; but Hugh knew very well that such a man might be a well-to-do owner of much property, and respected in the community where he lived. In the country it is not always a wise thing to judge a man's standing by the appearance of his overalls and jumper.

"They tell me yeou be the feller in charge o' this outfit, mister," was the way he greeted Hugh as he arrived on the spot.

"Well," said the boy, "we have a gentleman by the name of Lieutenant Denmead who is the real scout master of the Oakvale Troop, but he was called home by the sickness of his mother, and I am serving in his place. What can I do for you, sir?"

Hugh said this with one of his winning smiles, but the old farmer evidently felt in no humor to let himself be moved by such influences.

"I'm comin' here tew enter a complaint," he started to say; "and I want it understood that we farmers ain't agoin' tew stand for any sech pranks. Where yeou came from they c'n excuse boys' keerlessness, but we call it by another name up here. It's agin the law tew trespass on a man's property where there's signs warnin' people off; an' when boys adds tew that by leavin' the bars o' a pasture daown so the cattle c'n wander away, they're takin' right big chances o' landin' in the taown lockup."

There were some contemptuous snorts heard as the boys gathered around. Apparently they did not take to the old farmer's accusation very kindly. Hugh knew them well enough to believe that there must be some mistake; for scouts are as a rule too well trained with regard to the rights of others to offend heedlessly in that manner.

"Did someone leave the bars of your pasture down, then?" he asked the farmer.

"Jest what I said, and naow I got the job o' huntin' all over creation tew find my keows and that 'ere prize Holstein bull that's wuth a thousand dollars. I'm givin' yeou fellers plain warnin' that this thing ain't tew be tolerated any more."

"Stebbins is my name, Uriah Stebbins, and I owns three farms araound this section," the other hastened to remark when Hugh paused.

"And my name is Hugh Hardin, Mr. Stebbins," continued the scout master, still looking pleasant, without appearing to smile too broadly; for he realized that the angular old farmer might be sensitive and easily believe he was being made an object of ridicule.

"All right, and I want tew say right naow that I doan't b'lieve yeou done the trick, but haow 'baout some o' the rest o' the boys?"

"I'd be very much surprised, Mr. Stebbins," Hugh assured him, "if it turned out that any of these scouts were guilty. They're taught differently in the organization to which we all belong. Scouts like fun as much as any boys, but they try to have it without being mean, or injuring others. Now, can you tell me when the bars of your pasture were let down?"

"Sence high noon," came the reply. "I know 'cause I was aout there 'raound that time, an' everything was as it ought tew be. When I kim by jest naow I seen every bar tuk daown an' the cattle air missin'."

Hugh turned to the scouts, now clustered around the spot.

"Who has been off since lunch time?" he asked quietly.

"I was for one!" came from Arthur Cameron without hesitation; and Hugh fancied he saw something in the face of the speaker that made him think Arthur could tell a story if questioned; though the expression did not savor of guilt.

"No one else?" continued the scout master, firmly.

As there was no answer it seemed settled that Arthur must be the only scout who had left the vicinity of the camp since the hour when they sat around having their midday meal.

"Do you know anything about this matter, Arthur?" asked Hugh; while the farmer fixed his small, piercing eyes on the eager, flushed face of the scout as though he would bore him through, and read in advance what he was expecting to reply.

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