GIVING MATT TUBBS A CHANCE.
"WHOOP! it's that Dolph, fellows!" cried Red, jumping to his feet, and
showing signs of being prepared to fight if necessary; though scouts are
supposed to resort to such methods only in cases of absolute necessity,
and then generally in defense of some one weaker than themselves.
"Look at him turning somersaults, would you?" shouted Landy.
"Oh! my stars, what a header! He'll break his neck, sure!" exclaimed
Toby.
The tumbling figure, with arms and legs flying every which way, landed
in a heap close beside the bunch of startled scouts, every one of whom
was now erect, and observing the dusty intruder with staring eyes.
"Wow! look at him, fellows! We've sure seen that gent before!" said Red,
as the unfortunate spy sat up, and dug his knuckles into his eyes as if
to clear them of the dust.
His nose was bleeding more or less, and he showed other signs of rough
treatment; but apparently he had not been seriously hurt by his fall.
"It's Matt Tubbs!" remarked Elmer, with a smile, as though after all he
was not so very much astonished at the phenomenon.
"Say, however did that chump get here?" demanded Toby.
"Yes, it's me, all right," remarked the object of their attention, with
rather a sickly grin, as he started to get out a handkerchief to apply
to his bleeding nose; "anyhow, it's what's left of me after that nasty
tumble."
"Are you hurt bad, Matt?" demanded Dr. Ted, scenting an opportunity to
practice his arts of healing; "because if you feel that you've broken a
leg, or your collar bone, call on me for help. Won't charge you a cent
either. Glad to cut off a limb or do any little favor. Don't be bashful,
now; just thspeak up."
"Oh! rats, I ain't hurt so bad as that! I reckon I kin get up all
right," and as he spoke Matt proceeded to prove the truth of his
assertion by scrambling to his feet, though he winced a little as he did
so.
"Where'd you ever come from?" demanded Matty. "We felt sure you'd gone
off in that car with your father and the police, headed for Cramertown.
Say, are they near here; and did they turn back?"
"Naw," grunted Matt. "I jumped out after I got to thinkin' about it.
Seemed to me after what I saw Elmer Chenowith do yesterday up at the
place of my aunt, that he'd be more apt to find that pesky Dolph Gruber
than a pack of noisy cops. So I just follered the bunch, that's all."
And strange to say, Elmer felt more pride over hearing one who had been
an enemy speak these words of praise than he would have been had his
chums gone into ecstasies over his work as a trailer. He believed he
knew what was going on in that mind of Matt. And he was not at all sorry
for it, either. It might mean great things in the near future for both
the Fairfield boys, and those of the Hickory Ridge troop.
"D'ye mean to tell us, Matt, you've been dodging after us right along,
and none of us saw you?" demanded Red.
The Fairfield bully grinned; and as his broad face was by this time
pretty well smeared with traces of blood, he presented a queer
appearance while so doing.
"All the same, that's just what I done, Red," he declared. "Sometimes I
was that clost I heard every word you fellers said. Then agin I dropped
back, when the cover got thinner. An' right here let me say I was
huggin' the ground all the time Elmer, he says such great things about
the trail, an' the ottermobile on that road. Never knowed there could be
so much diskivered by just peekin' at footprints. Gosh! 'twas great,
that's what."
"Well, where are you going?" asked Toby, between whom and the Fairfield
bully there was a long standing grudge.
"Same as you fellers, I reckon," grinned Matt.
"He means he wants to stick along with us, boys," remarked Red.
"Just like his impudence!" snarled Chatz, unable to bring himself to
believe there was an atom of good in this hulking Fairfield leader, who
had many a time started a fight when the boys of the rival towns tried
to compete on the diamond, the gridiron, or at hockey on the ice of the
Sweetwater River.
Matt heard these remarks, which were none too complimentary. He seemed
to have made up his mind not to pay any attention to them, much as they
must have set his fighting blood to coursing hotly through his veins.
His eyes were fastened on Elmer alone, as though he recognized the fact
of his leadership, and that what he said was apt to go.
Elmer made up his mind immediately. He considered that this was too good
an opportunity to be lost. Matt, the rough and ready fighter of the
neighboring town, was at the crossroads. A very little thing would turn
him one way or the other. He might be said to be groping in the dark.
And what scout worthy of the name would forget his vows, and turn a cold
shoulder upon a seeker after light?
So he turned toward Matt a face that was filled with encouragement; and
even before the leader of the Wolf Patrol had spoken a single word Matt
realized that his case was as good as won.
"Would you mind telling us, Matt," said Elmer, pleasantly, "just why you
want to go along with us now?"
"Sure not," came the ready answer. "I said, didn't I, that when I saw
what blundering fools them jay cops were, I believed there was a heap
more chance of Elmer trackin' Dolph Gruber? Well, that's one reason why
I want to go along; 'cause I reckon you're just goin' to get that
critter, while the police are waitin' for him to show up in Cramertown,
where he never meant to go at all."
"But, Matt, there is another reason?" persisted Elmer.
"There be," replied the bully, with one of his grins.
"Tell us what it is," asked Mark.
"Well, you fellers know we're startin' a troop over in Fairfield, don't
you?" Matt replied. "I've heard a lot 'bout what this here Elmer
Chenowith knowed concernin' woodcraft an' such things. When I seen him
take holt of my uncle yest'day, and fix him up just like a reg'lar
doctor might, when I didn't know the fust blamed thing to do, says I to
myself, says I, 'It's time you was findin' out all 'bout what this here
scout business means; 'cause thar's a heap more connected with it than
fightin'.' An' I want to be along to see what else Elmer kin show us,
when the trail she grows dim. There seems to be somethin' in here," and
he clapped a hand on his breast, "that just _wants_ to larn 'bout these
things. Never felt just this way afore, give you my word I ain't. Kin I
go, Elmer?"
The scout leader gave a quick glance at his chums. Several nodded,
hardly knowing themselves why they did it, save that somehow they had
been affected by what the bully of Fairfield had just said.
"I don't think a single scout will raise any objection to your keeping
along with us, Matt," Elmer said, seriously. "Only for the time being
you must promise to be bound by the same rules that the rest are."
"Promise anything, Elmer, so's you let me go 'long," declared the other.
"Now what d'ye want of me?"
"Only that you agree to obey orders," Elmer said.
"Whose orders?" demanded Matt, quickly.
"I happen to represent our scout-master, Mr. Garrabrant," answered the
leader of the Wolf Patrol; "and in his absence the members of the troop
look to me to command."
Matt grinned some more, and nodded cheerfully.
"Sure I'll do whatever _you_ say while I'm along, Elmer," he declared.
"And when we ketch up with that coward Dolph, I hope you set me on him.
I'm just boiling over for a fight; and he'll get his medicine or else my
name is Mud."
"That's just it, Matt," remarked Elmer. "We hope not to have to fight at
all, if we can manage to get the child away from her stepfather. But one
thing I will promise you, Matt--if there should be any need of
strong-arm action, I'll call on you to do your share. You'll be on the
firing line."
"All right, Elmer; and now forget I'm along, and just go on like you
would if I hadn't come tumbling down that pesky slope like a bag of
oats. Wow! my elbows must be skinned to beat the band."
And Elmer knew full well that after that his every movement would be
watched by Matt with the utmost eagerness. A new world was opening up to
this rough boy of Fairfield; through the open door he was beginning to
catch enticing glimpses of things he had never dreamed existed on this
earth. And Elmer could not find it in his heart to close that door that
was ajar.
So they started again.
Whenever there came a brief halt, as the trailer found a temporary hitch
in his work, Matt Tubbs invariably pressed to the front, and had eyes
and ears only for the one whom he had begun to take as his pattern. And
knowing his utter ignorance along the line of reading signs, Elmer took
especial pains to explain just why he did this thing or that.
It was an object lesson that was apt to prove invaluable to every fellow
who clustered around "the boy who knew." Besides the information they
thus picked up, the fascination of the thing appealed strongly to their
inquiring minds; and as a consequence, every fellow would make it a
point to study the gentle arts of woodcraft more and more, as
opportunities for doing so arose.
They had gone possibly another mile when Elmer came to a halt, and
raised his hand in a way that told his companions he wanted them to
stop.
"No noise, please, now, fellows," he said, in a low tone; and the manner
of his saying this struck most of the scouts as highly significant.
"Thay, are we near him now?" asked Ted, in a hoarse whisper--he had been
keeping close to Matt all the while, from time to time suggesting
something in the way of relief from the aches and pains the Fairfield
boy was suffering, even to the extent of promising to bind up his
skinned elbows at the first chance.
"I believe we are," replied the leader, in the same cautious voice; "in
fact, he may right now be within a hundred yards of where we are
standing!"