MASTER AND MEN.
When Hugh joined the other scouts Alec took him by the sleeve and after
a cautious glance around remarked:
“We’ve been wanting to tell you something this little while back, Hugh;
but you seemed to be so wrapped up with what Dr. Richter was saying and
doing that we’ve just kept waiting and waiting.”
“What’s it all about, then, fellows?” asked the scout master
wonderingly.
“Why, that Nurse Jones must have known Mr. Campertown before, we think,
Hugh, by the strange way she acted all the time he was near by,” replied
Bud, anxious to do his part of the talking.
“I didn’t happen to notice her,” Hugh told them. “I was too busy
watching Mr. Campertown myself, and that sheriff who means to run things
here from now on. Tell me what the nurse did?”
“Oh, just seemed to try and cower back as if she didn’t want the rich
man to notice her!” Alec hastened to say. “Yes, she even fixed her eyes
on him and that pretty kid as though she could eat one of them up.”
“Or else kill Mr. Campertown with a look,” added Bud. “I don’t think it
was any love for him that made her stare so, and want to keep back out
of sight.”
Hugh shook his head.
“It doesn’t concern us that I can see whether Nurse Jones ever knew that
gentleman before or not,” he told the others.
“’Course not,” admitted Bud, with a shrug of his shoulders; “but all the
same it seems queer that they should happen to meet, and here of all
places. I was hoping he would see her, for I wanted to know how he’d
act, but he was too much taken up looking at the field hospital we
arranged here. Then again, the scowls on the faces of all these dagoes
must have given him a bad feeling, I should think.”
“Well, since it’s none of our affair, let’s forget about it then,” Hugh
told them. “Nurse Jones knows her business, and even her bright face is
enough in itself to help cheer a suffering fellow up. Now that you’re
here wait until I get the rest of the boys around, for I’ve got an idea
I want to put before you all. If you think as I do we can fix things
that way.”
This aroused the curiosity of the other two, just as Hugh had expected
would be the case. They were compelled to wait, however, until he had
beckoned to Arthur and the other two, who soon joined them.
“Hey, what’s all this deep, dark mystery mean?” demanded Billy Worth, as
he joined the circle.
“Hugh’s got something to say to us, you know,” replied Alec. “Now,
please hit it up, Mr. Scout Master! Are we going to hike back to our
jolly camp on the raging Hurricane right away? I shall be sorry, because
I’m getting head over ears interested in this Red Cross work, and hoped
we might stay around a while longer so as to pick up a few more pointers
on how to do things.”
Hugh smiled as he heard this.
“Then I guess I can count on your vote in favor of the proposal I meant
to make you all,” he told Alec.
“As what?” asked Billy, eagerly.
“I was thinking that I’d dispatch a messenger to the camp, and tell the
rest of the fellows what we’ve struck over here. They might break camp
and head this way, to put up the tents somewhere close by. Then all of
us could hang around and learn considerable in the way of taking charge
of wounded persons.”
“A good idea, Hugh!” cried Billy enthusiastically.
“Dr. Richter and Nurse Jones are mighty kind about explaining just how
things are done, and why a certain way is best,” declared Ralph. “Count
on me as favoring the idea, Hugh.”
“My answer goes without asking,” remarked Arthur, who was having the
time of his life, now that he had an opportunity to rub elbows with a
real Red Cross ambulance corps in operation, and see with his own eyes
how everything was conducted with systematic exactness.
“Of course the other fellows ought to have a share in the lesson,”
admitted Ralph Kenyon, without any hesitation.
“Move we make it unanimous, fellows?” suggested Alec.
“All right, then,” the scout master told them, looking satisfied, for he
always liked to know that he had the majority of his fellow members with
him. “We’ll call it settled, and, Ralph, I appoint you and Alec a
committee of two to run back to camp and carry the news.”
There was no frowning on the part of the chosen pair. They seemed
perfectly willing to carry out the orders of their leader. Possibly it
occurred to the boys that there would, after all, be considerable sport
in astonishing the other fellows with a graphic account of all that had
happened to them since they left camp just after breakfast that same
morning.
“Help them pack up, and the tents as well as other heavy stuff that can
be carried as we did before—on poles dragged Indian fashion with the
other ends on the ground,” Hugh called out after the pair as they were
immediately starting forth on their errand.
“All right, Hugh, we understand,” Alec shouted back as he ran. “I should
think you could look for us not more’n two hours from now. It may take
some little while to get the tents down, and things packed. So-long,
everybody. Hope there won’t be any more action until we get back again.”
In doing this Hugh believed he was favoring his comrades truly. They
could enjoy the delights of camping at almost any time, but an
opportunity to work in conjunction with the Red Cross did not come every
day, and they would show their wisdom if they took advantage of the
golden chance.
All scouts are supposed to learn a certain amount of surgical work, and
what is known as “first aid to the injured”; but it rests with each
individual as to whether or not he cares to continue the study beyond a
certain point. If he feels a deep and abiding interest in this noble
work of assisting those in pain and suffering, he can grasp such
opportunities as come his way to acquire further education along those
particular lines.
Hugh and Arthur were just such boys, and there were several others whom
the leader fancied might be greatly benefited by contact with Dr.
Richter and the Red Cross nurses. It was in hopes of awakening the
smoldering fire within the minds of these chums that Hugh conceived the
idea of having the entire camp moved from the bank of the Hurricane to a
spot closer to the foreign settlement, where the emergency hospital was
about to be established.
When the little schoolhouse had been emptied of its benches and desks
and thoroughly cleaned and disinfected according to the directions of
Dr. Richter, a fire was lighted in the stove in order to dry the floor
more quickly.
Finally cots were obtained through the influence of the friendly
padrone, and when these had been arranged under the eye of Nurse Jones,
the place began to look somewhat like what it was intended to be—a
makeshift or emergency hospital.
Here the wounded strikers were carefully taken; and when those who
crowded around and gaped at everything that was done saw how careful the
scouts and the Red Cross people were in trying to avoid giving more pain
than could be helped, they chattered volubly among themselves, and even
gave Hugh and his chums what were meant to be friendly smiles.
It was well on toward eleven o’clock when Hugh discovered a procession
coming along the road. The main body of scouts were arriving, carrying
their luggage with them after the manner of roving Indian families;
only, some of the boys, instead of having a horse to drag the poles that
sustained the heavy stuff, were compelled to perform this task.
Hugh had already decided that after the boys had taken a look at things
it would be advisable for them to make camp at some little distance away
from the village of shacks. There were several reasons for this, which
would doubtless be sufficiently convincing to the other fellows, after
they had been on the ground a short time.
More than this, the scout master had even taken a turn around with Billy
Worth, and picked out the site for the camp, which would be sufficiently
removed from the settlement, and yet not so very far away, either, that
most of the boys could not hover around if it pleased them so to do.
There was no grumbling, at least that Hugh detected. To be sure this
alteration of their plans interfered considerably with certain things
they may have laid out to do; but then scouts learn to take what comes,
and with a cheery spirit meet conditions that may from time to time
arise.
At noon they were so far advanced in fixing up their new camp that they
had a cooked meal, to which Hugh and the others, who had worked so hard
since early morning, certainly did full justice.
They had learned that the sheriff had carried out his threat, and that
he must have convinced Mr. Campertown that it was his duty to discharge
the paid and armed men who were guarding his property, now that the
regular authorities had taken charge of matters.
Ralph Kenyon, who had been scouting around in the vicinity of the plant,
without allowing himself to be seen, came in about dinner-time with a
report that gave Hugh considerable satisfaction.
“What d’ye think, fellows,” he announced, as flushed and panting for
breath he burst upon them while they were settling down to having their
midday meal. “The whole pack have got the grand bounce—the guards, I
mean, of course. Saw them slipping out on the other side and going away
in a bunch, guns and all, like they didn’t want the strikers to know
they were outside the breastworks, for fear something might happen to
’em.”
“That begins to look as if we wouldn’t have any more cases to attend to,
eh, boys?” remarked Dr. Richter, who with Nurse Jones had accepted the
warm invitation extended by the scout master to join them in the meal.
“Yes, if only they go away, and stay away, there should be no more
trouble,” ventured Hugh. “If Mr. Campertown could only talk with the old
padrone, and see for himself how little can be bought for the wages his
men have been earning in the past, he might hold out the olive branch
toward them. But I’m afraid from his looks that he’s a pretty
strong-willed man.”
Somehow Hugh was looking out of the corner of his eye toward Nurse Jones
when he made this assertion, and he plainly saw her nod her head, as
though from some good reason of her own, which she did not choose
everyone to know, she could testify to this fact. It caused Hugh to
remember what Alec and the other scout had said about Nurse Jones being
deeply interested in the owner of the plant and his handsome little
grandchild.
After the meal was over many of the boys went over to the settlement to
watch what Dr. Richter and Nurse Jones did on their rounds. Then came
the Red Cross ambulance again to carry the rest of the wounded who could
safely be moved over the rough roads to the big hospital at Farmingdale,
where they would have every possible attention.
Hugh noticed that Nurse Arnold handed the padrone a crumpled piece of
paper. She said one of the injured men had written a note after he had
seen how splendidly they were to be cared for; and the padrone looked
very much pleased when he had read its contents.
It was about two hours after the ambulance with its second load had
departed from the camp that Ralph hurriedly sought Hugh, with the
alarming intelligence that he had seen three of the discharged guards
skulking along on the other side of the cement plant, as though they
might have come back to make trouble of some sort.