The Boy Scout Fire Fighters
Irving Crump
Copyright 1917
Barse and Company
CONTENTS
CHAPTERS
I. The Motorcycle Fire Brigade
II. The Firemen's Tournament
III. Boy Scouts to the Rescue
IV. When the Circus Came to Town
V. A Scout is Resourceful
VI. Helping to Make the Movies
VII. Ethan Allen Comes To Life Again
VIII. The Prize Contest
IX. Working to Win
X. The Boy from Arizona
XI. The Courage of a Coward
XII. The Scout Life Guards' Beach Patrol
XIII. The Day of the Big Race
XIV. When the Unexpected Happened
XV. A Narrow Escape
XVI. Quarry Troop's Christmas
CHAPTER I
THE MOTORCYCLE FIRE BRIGADE
"By Jiminy, that was some fire for an old hay barn, wasn't it, fellows?"
exclaimed Jiminy Gordon, as he entered the meeting room at headquarters.
His eyes were flashing excitement and he was thoroughly out of breath
from running up the long Otter Creek Hill. "I stayed until the last
spark was out," he said, as he dropped into a chair beside Bruce
Clifford, leader of the Owl Patrol of Quarry Troop No. 1.
"Some fire, is perfectly correct," said Bruce bitterly, "though it
needn't have been anything more than an ordinary blaze. I tell you the
Woodbridge Fire Department needs a little pep, fellows." This last was
addressed to the four other occupants of the room, Bud Weir, Romper Ryan,
Babe Wilson and Nipper Knapp.
"Right," said Romper.
"The way they went about it was a farce," said Bud.
"Yes, they all had to have their red flannel shirts on," remarked Babe,
the fat boy, sarcastically.
"Say, did you see 'em scrapping over who should carry the fire trumpet?"
laughed Romper.
"Sure, and about six men were giving orders," put in Jiminy, who had
caught the spirit of the remarks.
"And no one obeyed any of 'em," supplemented Babe, sarcastic as usual.
"But the finest exhibition of firemanship was when one of the nozzlemen
let go of the only hose they got on the fire while he hunted through his
pockets for a paper of tobacco or something else just as important," said
Bruce. "Of course the other nozzleman couldn't hold onto the hose alone
and it twisted out of his hands. The thing acted like a big black snake,
fellows, and hit Chief Blaney a whack in the chest that knocked him
sprawling. Then it proceeded to wet down the whole fire department
before some one captured it. It was a scream. Didn't any of you see
it?"
"I reached there in time to see Tom Hogan try to stop it and get a
ducking for his trouble," laughed Nipper Knapp.
"Oh, it is a shame," continued Bruce; "I know it isn't exactly proper to
criticise, but then if they'd had a little system about it old Eli
Osborne's barn would still be standing. Now it's a heap of cinders. I
tell you any ordinary troop of Boy Scouts has more snap than the
Woodbridge Fire Department. I believe-- By Jove, fellows. I've an idea!
Let's organize a fire department of our own. A motorcycle fire
department. I was reading in a magazine only the other day how they
started one over in England somewhere. How about it?"
"Bully--how's it done?" demanded Bud Weir, leader of the Blue Heron Patrol.
"Corking idea; let's get busy," exclaimed Jiminy Gordon.
"Great! Give us the details," shouted Romper.
Bruce wrinkled his brow in deep thought for several moments, then his
face lighted up with a smile.
"Look here, fellows," he said enthusiastically, "three of us have
motorcycles we got for Christmas, and Romper here and Ray Martin of the
Flying Eagles have the machines they built themselves. Then there's 'Old
Nanc,' the automobile we built last Winter. She's good enough to carry
hose and hatchets and a couple of fellows besides. We've the equipment.
What do you say? I'm dead sure my dad will let us borrow some fire
extinguishers from the mill, and he has any amount of hose and other
things to fit up a first-class brigade. We'll get our equipment together
and then drill like the dickens. How about it?"
"And we'll keep it a secret. Won't tell a soul until we get a chance to
spring a surprise on the whole town, eh, fellows?" suggested Bud.
"Let's spring it at the tournament and convention next month. The
Champlain Valley Firemen's Association meets here this year, you know.
Perhaps we can get first prize in the tournament, added Romper Ryan.
"Whoo-o-o-pe! Great! Let's get busy," shouted Nipper Knapp.
"Right-o," said Bruce. "But first of all let's tell our plan to
Assistant Scoutmaster Ford."
To be thoroughly familiar with Quarry Troop No. 1 you must know that it
was composed of three patrols in Woodbridge, Vt., and that its members
had created a reputation for themselves through their ability as
mechanics and electricians. Woodbridge has long been noted for its
electrically operated marble quarries and its many machine shops and
textile mills, and the boys of the town, as a result of their
surroundings, were by nature of a mechanical turn. Added to this, the
Woodbridge Academy was one of the first institutions of the country to
adopt a manual training course as part of its curriculum, and all the
lads received an early drilling at the lathes and forges.
Bruce Clifford, always the most self-reliant lad in town, first suggested
that he and his fellows establish "a troop of Engineers," and of course
his proposal was received with enthusiasm by the Academy boys. Bruce
took the plan to his father, Samuel Clifford, and to his father's friend,
Hamilton Townsend, a well-known consulting engineer in Woodbridge. Mr.
Townsend was delighted with the idea, and quickly consented to become the
Scoutmaster, while Mr. Clifford, to foster the interest of the lads along
mechanical lines, offered them the abandoned machine shop on the top of
Otter Creek Hill for their headquarters.
This was a real find for Bruce and his friends, for the old place had
never been dismantled.
Mr. Clifford was a builder of electrical stone cutting and polishing
machines and for a long time he had maintained his business in the little
two-story structure. But four years previous he had erected a fine new
concrete building just across the way, and abandoned the machine shop,
intending to tear down the building and sell the old equipment for junk.
This made ideal headquarters for a troop that desired to specialize in
engineering. On the first floor were the old hand-forges, bellows,
lathes, work benches, planing machines, and various other appliances.
They were all out of date, to be sure, and some slightly rusty, but still
quite usable after they had been cleaned up.
On the second floor of the building were two rooms, one of which was used
for meetings, while the other was converted into a wire room for the loop
telegraph line that the lads had built through the town. This loop was
connected with an instrument in the bedrooms of every member of the troop
and the boys could be routed out of bed at midnight, if need be, by some
one calling on any of the keys. A wireless system had also been erected
on the roof of the building by the wireless enthusiasts of the troop and
the helix, spark-gap and various coils and keys were also set up in the
wire room.
Headquarters immediately became popular with every member of the troop
and always some one was to be found pottering about in the machine shop,
building something that he was particularly interested in. Two of the
boys, during the long Winter evenings, had made more or less serviceable
motorcycles for themselves, and a half dozen of the young engineers had
even essayed the construction of an automobile from old parts they were
able to get for "a song" at various junk shops; indeed, some serviceable
material was found in scrap heaps about town.
How well they succeeded, a wheezing two-cylinder motor car attested.
This turn-out was dubbed "Old Nanc" by the troop, and though it went far
better down grade than it did on the level, the boys managed to get a
great deal of fun out of it. And it was not a bad looking machine either
when it finally received several generous coats of red paint and enamel.
Luckily, Austin Ford, the engineer in charge of the hydro-electric plant
of the Woodbridge Quarry Company, became interested in the "Scout
Engineers," and through him the officials of the quarry company were
persuaded to allow the lads to use as much electric current as they
required without cost. The youngsters quickly built a transmission line
to the electric station, which was located a few miles north of the town
on a branch of Otter Creek.
Mr. Ford's interest in the lads increased to admiration when he saw the
business-like way in which they went about building the line, and he even
offered them some practical engineering advice when they found themselves
up against knotty problems. This led to a more intimate relation with
the young Cornell graduate, and in the end the boys suggested that he
become the Assistant Scoutmaster. This office rather pleased him, for in
reality Austin Ford was little more than a big boy in the matter of
pleasure.
He quickly became a master of scout lore and at every opportunity he was
afield with the lads or else in the shop at headquarters working out new
engineering "stunts" (as he characterized them) for the Scouts to
undertake. The boys never failed to talk over each new undertaking with
him, as, for instance, the troop's latest scheme, the organization of a
motorcycle fire department.
Indeed, on the very evening of the day Eli Osborn's barn was reduced to
ashes, Bruce, Bud, Romper and several others visited Mr. Ford and
outlined their plans. Of course the Assistant Scoutmaster approved of
such a very laudable Idea, but he did admonish the boys against
criticising the present fire fighting force of Wood bridge, stating that
though the men had their peculiarities the lads should remember that they
were volunteers, doing their work without receiving a cent of pay because
they recognized their duty to others.
As to the equipment of the brigade, he left that all up to the boys,
telling them, however, that whenever they had any difficulty they would
find him ready to help them. He also suggested that they visit the
hydro-electric plant and take a few tools and some old sand buckets which
they could paint over and use as bucket brigade equipment.