THE KNOCKOUT BLOW
It is said that constant dripping wears away a stone. At first the boys
held their own good-humoredly against Mr. Wilde’s banter. He seemed to
be only poking fun at them and they took his talk in the spirit in which
it was meant. He seemed to think they were a pretty nice sort of boys,
but he did not take scouting very seriously.
Now Westy was a sensitive boy and these continual allusions to the
childish character of boy scouting got on his nerves. Then suddenly came
the big shock, and this proved a knockout blow for poor Westy.
It developed in the course of conversation that Mr. Madison C. Wilde was
engaged in a most thrilling kind of business. In the most casual sort of
way he informed these boys that he was connected with the movies. Not
only that, but his business connected itself with nothing less than the
interesting work of photographing wild animals in their natural haunts
for representation upon the screen. He was none other than the
adventurous field manager of educational films, at which these very boys
had many times gazed with rapt interest.
Nor was this all. Mr. Wilde (heartless creature that he was) casually
brought forth from the depths of a pocket a mammoth wallet containing
such a sum of money as is only known in the movies and, affectionately
unfolding a certain paper, exhibited it to the spellbound gaze of his
three young traveling acquaintances. This document was nothing less than
a permit from the Commissioner of National Parks at Washington
authorizing Mr. Wilde to visit the remotest sections of the great park,
to stalk wild life on a truly grand scale, on a scale unknown to Boy
Scouts who track rabbits and chipmunks in Boy Scout camps!
But here was the knockout blow for poor Westy. Mr. Wilde explained that
waiting for him at the hotel near the Gardiner entrance of the park was
a _real scout_ whose services as guide and stalker had been arranged for
with some difficulty. This romantic and happy creature was an Indian boy
known in the Far West as _Shining Sun_. He was not, as Mr. Wilde
explained, a back-yard scout. He was the genuine article. And he was
going to lead Mr. Wilde and his associates into the dim, unpeopled
wilderness.
And while Shining Sun, the Indian boy, was engaged in this delightfully
adventurous task, Westy Martin and his two companions would be riding
around on the main traveled roads on a sightseeing auto!
Was it any wonder that Westy was disgusted? Was it any wonder that in
face of these startling revelations he began to see himself as just a
nice sort of boy from Bridgeboro, New Jersey? A back-yard scout?
Truly, indeed, there were two Yellowstone Parks! Truly, indeed, thought
poor Westy, there were two kinds of scouts.
And he, alas, was the other kind.