THE PATROL DECIDES
The Wolf Patrol were to meet Mr. Elliott the next Thursday afternoon.
If the day should be fine they were to practise tracking tests on the
heath; if wet, it was to be Kim's game in Mr. Elliott's study.
The day turned out one of pouring rain, and at three o'clock the Wolf
Patrol had gathered in Mr. Elliott's room, where a tray of small
articles, covered by a handkerchief, lay on a side-table.
'We'll begin with Kim's game,' said Mr. Elliott, 'and I'll be umpire.
On that tray I have put twenty-five small articles, all different--a
button, a pin, a stud, a ring, and so on. I shall give you each a
pencil and a card, and I shall allow every boy one minute to study the
tray. Then he will go away and write down every article that he can
remember. The card with the longest list, of course, wins.'
He was about to give out the cards and pencils, when Billy Seton spoke
up.
'Mr. Elliott,' he said, 'there's another matter that two or three of us
would like you to umpire upon before we begin this game.'
'What is it, Billy?' said the instructor.
Billy told the story of Chippy's challenge, of his capture of the
patrol, and told it fairly. 'We left him standing there,' concluded
Billy, 'and I didn't like it, and I found that some of the other
fellows didn't like it; but we had the order to march, and we had to
go; that's Scout Law No. 7. But the same law says that we can reason
about an order if we don't think it's fair, and I don't think that was
fair.'
'What does the patrol-leader say?' said Mr. Elliott, turning to Arthur
Graydon.
'I gave the order to march because it seemed to me the thing was too
silly from beginning to end,' cried Arthur. 'I'm not going to scout
about with a parcel of dirty, ragged wharf-rats. I think we should
look a lot of idiots if we did.'
'Now, Mr. Elliott,' said Billy, 'what do you say?'
'Not a word, Billy,' replied Mr. Elliott quietly. 'Not a syllable.
This is a thing for the patrol to decide for themselves.'
There was a short silence, then Billy murmured gently:
'What do you think, Mr. Elliott, that B.-P. would say if he was here?'
Mr. Elliott smiled, and shook his head. He was not to be drawn that
way.
'I'll tell you this much, Billy,' he remarked, 'that I think he would
do exactly as I am doing--leave it to the patrol. The very foundation
of the thing, you know, is to teach you to stand on your own legs.'
'Why not vote upon the question?' suggested Dick Elliott; and the idea
was received with a burst of applause.
'Yes,' said Mr. Elliott, 'that's a good plan. Hold a secret ballot, so
that every member of the patrol may feel quite free to express his real
feelings. We can soon arrange that.'
He took a sheet of plain foolscap from his writing-table, and carefully
divided it into eight equal pieces, and gave each boy a piece. From
the mantelshelf he took a tall china vase, and placed that on the
writing-table.
'Now,' said he, 'I propose that each of you shall go out in turn to the
hall table. There you will mark your papers. A circle means that the
voter is willing to meet the boys from Skinner's Hole in friendly
contest; a cross means that he is not willing. When a paper is marked
it will be folded across the middle with the mark inside, brought back,
and dropped into the vase. In that way the ballot will be perfectly
secret, and you may freely express your feelings.'
There was deep silence as the boys voted in turn according to their
patrol numbers. The party in the study kept their backs to the
writing-table, so that a voter was not even seen to drop his paper in,
and within five minutes the eight votes were in the vase which served
as ballot-box.
The boys looked on eagerly as Mr. Elliott fetched the vase after No. 8
had voted and returned to the group of his comrades.
'First of all,' said Mr. Elliott, 'I shall shake the vase well, so that
the papers may be thoroughly mixed up.'
He did so, then held the vase upside down, and the papers fell out. He
opened them one after the other. There were six circles and two
crosses. It was an immense majority in favour of Chippy's challenge.
'Six to two,' announced Mr. Elliott. 'The Wolf Patrol is willing to
meet the Ravens from Skinner's Hole.'
'Then they'll meet them without me!' burst out Arthur Graydon, his face
scarlet with rage, for he had quite expected to carry the patrol with
him. 'I shan't be patrol-leader any longer!'
He whipped off his badge and flung it on the table, and was gone before
anyone could stop him or remonstrate with him. He snatched his cap
from the stand in the hall, and was out of the house in a flash. The
Wolf Patrol had lost their leader!
'That's Arthur all over,' murmured Billy Seton. 'He's frightfully
shirty. But I didn't think he'd hook it.'
'Oh, he'll think better of it when he's cooler,' said Mr. Elliott.
'We'll get on with our game. But I'll say that I'm quite with you in
your decision.'
'Half a minute, please,' said Reggie Parr, flushing to the roots of his
hair. 'I'm going to come out into the open. The other cross was mine.
But I don't want to leave the patrol.'
'You needn't leave it, old man,' cried Billy Seton. 'We should be
jolly sorry to lose you.'
'I'll run with the rest,' jerked out Reggie. 'But I shouldn't like to
stop and keep quiet about the cross.'
'It's forgiven! It's forgotten! Come to my arms!' sang out Billy, and
pretended to embrace his comrade as a lost sheep returning to the fold.
This caused much laughter, and the Wolf Patrol, save for their lost
leader, were completely reunited, and plunged into Kim's game with
great earnestness.