A CLOSE CALL IN THE RAPIDS.
It took Hugh and Billy only a dozen seconds to clear the intervening
ground to reach the scene, such was the speed with which they ran.
On reaching the bank of the river, Hugh saw that it was just as he had
feared. Out in the midst of the boiling current, where the foam leaped
and there were evidently dangerous rapids of some sort, a boy was
struggling madly. He had evidently been attempting to swim across that
dangerous place when attacked by cramps; either that or else he had been
thrown against a concealed rock and struck his head so as to become
staggered and frightened.
Billy Worth may have wondered why Hugh led him to the river _below_
where the outcries arose, instead of heading directly toward them; but
he now realized the wisdom of the move.
As usual, Hugh had grasped the situation and understood that there would
be an advantage in reaching the river bank below the scene of the
accident, rather than further up the current. It was always this way
with the scout master; and many of his successes were due to his ability
to do the right thing in the start.
As he ran, Hugh had thrown off his hat, and even unfastened his flannel
shirt, for he had a premonition that it might be necessary for him to
plunge into the river. Now he tore off his shoes, and his trousers
followed suit; all this taking but a very few seconds of time.
All of the other scouts had not been paralyzed with fright, for Ralph
Kenyon, Bud Morgan and Alec Sands were even then splashing through the
shallow water close to the shore, and evidently trying to make their way
below the spot where the boy was struggling with the current.
Hugh shouted to them even as he sprang into the water:
“Keep on going down, and make a chain out as far as you can, everybody!
Billy, you follow me!”
Billy had been just as rapid in disposing of his clothes as Hugh, so
that he was close at the other’s heels when the scout master hurried
into the stream.
It grew deeper as Hugh pushed on. Presently he was compelled to swim,
and that was where his knowledge of aquatic sports served him well. His
sturdy strokes allowed him to buffet the waves of the rapids; while his
quick eye figured the course he must take in order to keep below the
drowning boy.
Hugh realized that there was every probability that the struggles of the
tenderfoot would cease before he could reach him. That was the main
reason why he wanted to be where he might intercept the helpless form of
Tremaine when it was borne along with the current.
He shouted encouraging words when he could do so without having his
mouth filled with the foamy water. It is doubtful whether the imperiled
scout heard these cries. At least he was too far exhausted to keep up
the struggle long enough for Hugh to reach his side.
“Oh, he’s sunk, Hugh!” came a shout behind the leader of the Wolf
Patrol.
Hugh knew this without being told. He had figured it all out, and
understood just when the helpless figure would reach him. In imagination
he was following its rapid progress with his eye; and with such
precision that, sure enough, he was enabled to seize hold of the boy.
Then came a desperate struggle, for it was difficult to keep his clutch
on the slippery form of the helpless lad and at the same time buffet the
current of the worst place in the rapids.
Fortunately, indeed, for them both, Billy Worth was close at hand to
lend his aid. Billy was a stout swimmer, and between them they managed
to keep Tremaine’s head out of the water as they allowed the current to
carry them down.
Presently they had arrived at a stretch where the river broadened out
somewhat, and here Alec Sands and the others had stretched themselves in
a human chain with the leader of the Otters as the outermost link.
Once upon a time Alec Sands had been a bitter rival of Hugh, and had
even done numerous mean things in order to overreach the latter; but
since then Alec had learned to esteem his former enemy because of his
manly nature, and nowadays they were the best of friends.
It was meet that Alec’s should be the hand to obtain a grip on Hugh and
begin to tow the two swimmers ashore, bearing their limp burden between
them.
“Oh, is he dead, Hugh, and is our summer outing going to be broken up
right in the very start?” cried Tom Sherwood, who had run down from the
camp by this time and was waiting for them on the shore.
“I hope it isn’t as bad as that,” replied Hugh. “Carry him up on the
bank, so we can get busy. He wasn’t under the water long, and I expect
he will soon be all to the good. I think he must have struck his head on
a sunken rock, and that made him dizzy. Then he became frightened, and
when a swimmer gets in a panic, it’s going to be a bad lookout for him.”
They laid young Tremaine down on his stomach, with his head raised a
little. Hugh placed himself over him, with his knees planted against the
ribs of the unconscious boy. He commenced pressing downward regularly
with both hands, pumping just as one might breathe. This was to force
the water and air out of the lungs, and allow them to fill again with
oxygen. It took the part of natural respiration.
Meanwhile the others were all doing something to assist in the work of
restoration. Alec vigorously rubbed one of Tremaine’s legs to induce a
warmth and get the blood circulating. Another was holding the boy’s head
in such a way that his tongue might not slip back.
Fortunately, the time of Tremaine’s immersion had not been of long
duration; and under these vigorous efforts of the energetic life-savers,
he soon opened his eyes.
Shortly afterward he was able to sit up, though he still felt weak.
Everyone experienced a great sensation of relief. The sudden black cloud
that had fallen on the new camp had drifted away, thanks to their
intimate knowledge of what was required in a case of near-drowning.
There is not a summer passes but that the precious lives of scores of
boys are imperiled when in swimming; and since the scout movement took
root in this country, the records show that in innumerable instances
fatal results have been avoided simply through the knowledge that
membership in that organization entails on all who expect to attain the
rank of second or first-class scout.
Tremaine admitted that he had been very unwise to undertake that passage
of the rushing rapids. He seemed humble enough, and thankful that he had
such loyal and dependable comrades near at hand.
“I’ve always boasted about my swimming,” he contritely explained to
Hugh, after the scout master had gently taken him to task for his
recklessness, “and I think I could have made the crossing all right only
for that wave dashing me against a sunken rock. It clipped me on the
side of the head, and made me feel sick. After that I guess I got scared
and near frantic, for I felt that I was in danger of being drowned out
there in all that foam and swirling waters. But I’ve had a lesson, Hugh,
and I promise you after this ‘I’ll look before I leap.’”
“A good motto for every scout to keep in mind,” remarked Alec Sands, who
was hovering near, since he had taken quite a liking for the new boy. “I
used to be just as quick on the trigger as you, Harold; and let me tell
you it got me into no end of scrapes. I’m beginning to see things
differently now; and a heap of that is due to my knowing Hugh Hardin
better.”
If Hugh heard these last words as he hurried away to hunt up the several
parts of his clothes, they must have given him considerable
satisfaction. Making a friend out of a bitter enemy was always a
favorite diversion of the young scout master; and nothing he ever did
gave him more deep-seated pleasure than the conversion of Alec Sands.
Tremaine was soon able to get on his feet and dress. He said his head
hurt somewhat where he had struck it on the rock, and he felt a bit
weak, but expected he would be all right by another day.
Hugh dressed the bruise with some soothing salve he carried in his
medicine kit, and the value of which he had tested on more than one
occasion in the past.
The afternoon was wearing away by now. Some of the boys had made little
journeys around the neighborhood so as to get an idea of what their
surroundings were like. They had been warned not to go far toward the
southwest; and if they chanced to run across any foreigners not to do
anything to annoy them, since they were very excitable.
Hugh had seen fit, at lunch time, to tell what little he knew concerning
the upheaval at the cement works, and the chances of trouble coming
about between the striking workmen and the guards imported by the
company to defend their property as well as protect any new laborers who
might be smuggled in to take the places left vacant by those who had
gone out.
“I hope that isn’t going to be the beginning of a rush of trouble for us
in our new camp, Hugh,” remarked Billy Worth as he came over and dropped
down alongside the scout master in the shade of a tree.
“Whether it is or not, Billy, we’ve got a lot to be thankful for; and if
all our mix-ups turn out as well, we can call ourselves a lucky bunch.
Perhaps it’s a good thing it happened, for every scout will be on the
watch after this to curb his ambition, and not be reckless. A warning in
the beginning is often the best of happenings when a lot of lively boys
start out camping.”
“That Tremaine had a close call, all the same, Hugh. I rather liked the
way he owned up to being foolish. The fellow must have good stuff in him
for all he’s so flighty.”
“Sheer nervousness, Billy, and it’ll wear off after he’s been outdoors
more. He told me this was the first time he has ever camped, though he’s
gone swimming and fishing and all those sorts of things in the place he
came from. But they hadn’t cared to start a scout troop among the boys,
because some of the leading people thought it was a military movement,
and they didn’t want their sons to grow up with the idea in their heads
that some day they would have to fight, and kill other people’s boys.”
“How foolish they are to think that way,” said Billy, indignantly, “when
the Boy Scout movement is founded on just the opposite plan in this
country. Their mission is to save life, not take it. They try to carry
this out in dozens of different ways. Why, even we can point with pride
to our record in that line. Think only this last spring when we got
caught in that flood up at Lawrence what chances we found to do things
for other people who were in terrible trouble. But what are you staring
at, Hugh?”
“I’m wondering what that man who looks like a farmer wants here,”
replied the scout master. “He’s left the road, and is heading for our
camp as fast as he can come.”
Billy Worth immediately began to take notice.
“Just what he is, Hugh,” he remarked, with a trace of excitement in his
voice; “and seems to me I can scent some new trouble in the air. Gee
whiz! Listen to how he cracks that blacksnake whip of his, would you?
And look at his face, how ugly it seems. He’s whopping mad over
something or other, Hugh; and there, he’s asking Arthur Cameron a
question, because Arthur is pointing this way. The boys have got on, for
there they start to tag after him. Mebbe it’s his river and our fellows
had no right to go in swimming there without asking his permission; or
else we’re camping on his ground here. Anyhow, we’ll soon know what’s
up, for here he starts this way!”