A BROTHER SCOUT--THE TWO TRAMPS
It was mid-morning before they got the knots out of their neckties, for
they followed quiet ways on which few people were to be met. Then they
approached a small town entered by a steep hill. At the foot of the
hill an old man was struggling to get a hand-cart loaded with cabbages
up the slope. The scouts called upon him to ease up; then Chippy took
the shafts, and Dick pushed at the side, and they ran the heavy
hand-cart up the hill to the door of the greengrocer, whose shop the
old man supplied from his little market-garden. At the top of the
hill, as they rested to get their wind, a cheery-looking gentleman
drove by in a dog-cart. He smiled at sight of them and their task,
saluted, and called out; 'Well done, boy scouts!'
The comrades saluted him in return, and he drove off, waving his hand.
'I'll bet he's an instructor,' said Chippy.
'I shouldn't wonder,' returned Dick. 'He looked cheerful enough to be
one of ours.'
They only stayed in the town long enough to despatch a post-card, of
which Dick had a small stock in his haversack, to Bardon, to say all
was well, then pushed on, and were soon in the open country once more.
Two miles out of the town they met a comrade. They were passing a
house standing beside the road, when a boy came out at the gate. He
started and stared at sight of them, then gave the secret sign in full
salute; for he had observed the badge on their hats, and knew them for
patrol-leaders. They returned the salute, and the stranger stepped
forward and held out his left hand. They shook hands, and he produced
his badge.
'I'm No. 7 Midmead Owl Patrol,' he said. 'Midmead's about half a mile
farther on. You'll see the village after you turn the next corner.'
He inquired where they had come from, and the Bardon boys told him, and
they chatted for some time. The Owl was very deeply interested in
their journey, and wished a hundred times he could go on such a tramp.
Finally he rushed back into the garden from which he had come. 'Wait a
minute,' he said; but the scouts had to wait five minutes before he
returned with his hat full of new potatoes.
'Look here,' he said. 'Jolly good, aren't they, for so early in the
season? I've grown them in my own garden. I've got a piece of the
garden, and I grow stuff, and sell it to buy all I want for scout work.
I've done splendidly with new potatoes. I sowed very early, and
covered the tops with straw when there were any signs of frost, and got
the first potatoes in the village, and made rattling good prices. Do
take a few. They'll come in handy at your next camp.'
They thanked him, and Chippy stowed the potatoes away in his haversack.
Then their fellow scout, whose name was Jim Peel, accompanied them
through Midmead and half a mile beyond.
At midday they halted, and built their fire, and overhauled their store
of provisions. They had stayed their march beside a little brook, and
in it they washed the potatoes, and then boiled them in their jackets
in the billy. After the potatoes were boiled, they washed the billy,
and then boiled more water, and made their tea. They were very hungry,
for they had made a good long tramp during the morning, and the
sandwiches which the miller's wife had given them, the new potatoes,
and the tea went down very well. Then they stretched themselves at
ease on the grass in the hot sun, with the idea of taking a good rest.
Dick spread out his map, and took his pencil to mark out the route of
their morning's journey.
'We're all right, Chippy,' he said in a tone of deep satisfaction;
'we've broken the back of our journey. Look, we're between five and
six miles from Newminster. That will be just a pleasant stroll this
afternoon.'
'An' that 'ull mean three days each way,' said the Raven.
'That's it,' said Dick. 'We'll do it comfortably, Chippy, my boy.'
He carefully marked the track they had followed, then closed the map,
and returned it to the haversack. Their haversacks lay at their feet
between them and the dying fire; their staves were beside them. The
two scouts now stretched themselves comfortably in the sun, drew their
hats over their eyes, and discussed their own affairs.
'I say, Chippy, we're bound to have plenty of cash to see us through
now,' said Dick, 'even if we have to spend steady on for the rest of
the journey.'
'Rather,' replied Chippy; 'there's a lot o' flour left, an' some tea
an' sugar, an' the bakin'-powder, an' the lump o' salt; an' we've only
spent eleven three-fardens so fur.'
'Yes,' chuckled Dick. 'I can see father smiling now as he gave me the
two half-sovereigns. I know as well as can be what he thought. He
felt sure we should be back before now, with our ten shillings for
way-money all blued. And one half-sovereign is in my belt, and almost
all the other is in my purse.'
On the other side of the hedge below which the scouts lay, a couple of
evil faces looked at each other with evil joy in their eyes. Every
word the boys were saying was falling into the ears of a pair of big,
burly tramps. One was a stout, middle-aged man, the other a tall young
fellow with long legs; both belonged to the worst class of that bad
order.
When will this pest of lazy, loutish loafers, often brutal and
dangerous, be cleared from our pleasant highways and byways? There are
beautiful stretches of our country where it is not safe for women and
children to stroll unattended through the quiet lanes, simply because
the district lies on a tramps' route from one big town to another, and
is infested by these worthless vagrants. There is nothing that
dwellers in the country see with greater satisfaction than the
conviction, slowly ripening in the public mind, that this tramp
nuisance and danger must shortly be dealt with, and the firmer the hand
the better. They are the people to shut up in compounds, where they
should be made to do a few strokes of labour to earn their living,
instead of terrorizing cottagers and dwellers in lonely houses for food
and money. But now to our heroes and their experience with two members
of this rascally order, feared and dreaded in every solitary
neighbourhood.
We have said that the scouts had made their halt beside a brook. They
had paused on the bridge where the brook ran under the road they were
following, and had observed that a path turned from the road, passed
through a narrow gateway from which the gate was missing, and went
along the bank. They had gone down the path some sixty or seventy
yards, and had made their halt at a point where there was a strip of
grass some ten yards wide between the hedge of a field and the bank of
the brook.
Half an hour before the boys arrived, a pair of tramps had turned down
the same quiet side track, intending to eat the food they had begged in
a hamlet near at hand. They had gone some distance beyond the spot
where the scouts halted, and did not discover the presence of the
latter until they were on their way back to the high-road. The younger
tramp was leading the way, and when he saw the boys lying on the bank
with their haversacks at their feet, he stepped back into cover, and
the two rascals took counsel with each other.
'Might be the price of a pint or two on 'em,' said the elder, a
villainous-looking rogue, his tiny bloodshot eyes firing at the thought
of drink.
'Mebbe,' said the other; and they went back a score of yards, found a
gate, climbed over it into the field, and crept stealthily up on the
other side of the hedge. Crouching behind the boys, they heard Dick
speak of the money he had about him, and they looked at each other with
evil, greedy joy on their scoundrel faces.
The assault was made at once, and through a gap close at hand. It was
the stout, heavy man who led the way. With an agility no one would
have suspected in his bulky, clumsy-looking figure, he bounded nimbly
through the gap, caught up the haversacks, tossed them three yards to
the other side of the fire, leapt the fire himself, then stood on guard
between the haversacks and their owners. He was followed by the tall
young man, who posted himself in front of the scouts, and threatened
them with a heavy stick which he held in his hand.
The attack was so sudden, so unexpected, that the scouts, stretched
comfortably at full length, could do no more than sit up before their
enemies were in position.
'Kape still!' roared the long-legged tramp. 'If e'er a one on yer
tries to get up, I'll land 'im one acrost the nut!'
It was quite clear that he was in very savage earnest, and the two
scouts sat still and looked upon their foes.
The younger tramp was solemnly ferocious in looks, but the bulky, elder
man was grinning all over his drink-blotched face, his broken yellow
teeth all on view between purple lips. He had a huge bulbous nose, far
ruddier than the cherry, and it shook as he laughed harshly at the
captives.
'That's the way to talk, Sam,' he wheezed; 'gie the fust un as moves a
good lowk as 'll mek' 'im see stars.'
'What do you want?' demanded Dick. 'You have no right to interfere
with us. We have done no harm to you.'
'Hark at 'im!' chuckled the elder villain; 'no right t' interfere, an'
the young shaver's got the price o' gallons on 'im.'
Long Legs changed the stick swiftly from right hand to left, and
stretched out the right towards Dick.
'Fork over,' he said shortly and savagely.
Dick had been surprised at the sudden appearance of the desperadoes,
but that was nothing as compared with the surprise which now fell upon
him. For Chippy burst out crying with all his might.
'Oh, don't 'urt me,' wailed the Raven. 'Oh, please don't. Oh, kind
gen'l'men, let me go. I ain't got no money, nary copper: look 'ere';
and in his wailing earnestness he scrambled to his feet, and pulled the
pockets of his shorts inside out.
The blow which had been threatened did not fall. Although Chippy had
got up, it was to wail and lament, and the tramps took no notice of him
except to laugh at his distress. You see, they knew where the money
was, and Dick sat still.
'See,' moaned Chippy. 'I ain't got nothin' in my pockets but a knife.
It's 'im wot's got the money, mister, not me;' and the Raven pointed to
his comrade.
'I'll bet we know that wi'out yer tellin' us,' jeered Long Legs. 'We
heerd every word ye said about that. Come on, fork over,' he added
roughly to Dick.
Dick did not move; he only looked up at his brother scout. He could
hardly believe his own eyes. Chippy's face was twisted into the most
frightful contortions of grief, and tears as big as peas were hopping
down his cheeks. The Wolf's bewilderment was complete.
'Oh! oh! mister,' cried Chippy, 'lemme go! lemme go! I ain't got a
farden.'
'All right, wait a bit,' chuckled the younger tramp. 'We'll put that
straight. We'll go whacks with ye. Now then, you, turn that money up,
will ye?' he went on to Dick. 'There's nineteen bob an' a farden on
ye, we know. We'll ha' the nineteen bob, an' yer mate shall ha' the
farden.'
This struck Fiery Nose as a very good joke, and he grinned till he
showed his yellow fangs right back to the grinders.
'Righto, Sam,' he laughed; 'we'll mek' a division of it.'
'Oh, oh!' moaned the Raven. 'I don't want no farden. Only lemme go.
Oh! oh! _B.P._ Lemme go, mister, please, an' I'll thank ye ever so
much.'
Dick stiffened himself from head to foot. What was that Chippy had
worked in among his sobs and moans? B.P.--the motto of their
order--'Be Prepared.' Dick held himself tense as a bowstring, ready
for anything.
'The one wi' the rhino ain't in no 'urry to fork over, Sam,' said the
elder tramp. 'Ye'll ha' to go through 'im, while I see wot's in these
'ere bags.'