RIGHT-ABOUT FACE!
Hugh caught his breath as he realized what all this meant for Addison
Prentice. Here was the one prominent man in all Oakvale who had
positively refused to believe there could be any good thing come out of
this scout movement that was sweeping like wild fire all over the
country. In a wonderful manner he had been placed in a position to
witness a practical demonstration of the efficiency of scout tactics and
organization.
“This certainly is a surprise to me, Mr. Prentice,” Hugh told him. “I
never dreamed it was you. Several times I found myself looking your way,
and wondering why something about you seemed so familiar; but before I
could mention it to any of my chums something would come up to put me
off.”
“I don’t wonder you didn’t know me,” laughed Mr. Prentice, “and I think
my wife would try to chase me out of the house with a broom if she saw
me entering. But, Hugh, would you mind shaking hands with me; and you,
too, Billy. In fact, I want to humbly apologize to every member of
Oakvale Troop for the mean estimation in which I’ve been holding them up
to this wonderful day, when I’ve had the scales lifted from my eyes.”
It can readily be understood how joyously first Hugh and then Billy each
gripped a hand of the quarry owner. Really, for the time being they
considered that this amazing change of front in Mr. Prentice even
dwarfed all the other surprising events of this record trip.
“The seed,” explained the gentleman, “was sown on the occasion of your
wonderful presence of mind, Hugh, in throwing that log in front of the
runaway stone car, and shunting it off the track. In doing that you
possibly saved a number of lives, and me from a feeling of guilt that I
never could have survived.”
He still held Hugh’s hand while saying this, and gave it a grip that
told how deeply his feelings were stirred.
“I said to myself, when I could get my wits to working after the feeling
of numbness over my narrow escape had passed away, that if being a scout
could teach a boy to show such wonderful presence of mind in the face of
a sudden peril, there must be something about this movement that I
should never condemn without having investigated further. And, Hugh,
ever since then I have been making quiet inquiries and getting opinions
from some of our leading men without letting them know what my object
was.”
“That was only what I asked you to do in the first place, sir,” said
Hugh.
“Yes, I know it was,” the gentleman continued, “but I am an obstinate
man, and persisted in shutting my eyes to the facts. But I was rapidly
coming to the conclusion that I was making the greatest mistake of my
life in going against such a great development of the American boy, when
I started up here this morning. Well, what I have seen done and heard
spoken of you and your brave boys since coming here has utterly
overwhelmed me with confusion and regrets.”
“I’m more than glad, sir—for Addison’s sake!” said Hugh, softly and
meaningly.
“Yes,” the other went on to remark, “there’ll be no difficulty about his
getting permission to join your troop after this. Why, if he showed any
hesitation I’d be three times more bent on making him don the khaki than
I was before in refusing to grant that favor. I can plainly see what a
great list of possibilities opens up before a scout. If Addison can, in
time, become as sensible a boy as most of your companions—I might easily
say all of them—are, I will be grateful every day of my life that
Fortune took me up here to see Mrs. Heffner at just the time the forest
was burning, and your troop came up to render first aid to the
afflicted.”
Really, there did not appear to be anything lacking, for it all seemed
to have come out just right. If Hugh himself could have had the
planning, he doubted whether he could have improved on what had
happened.
“Then you give me permission to tell Addison that he can put in his
application to join the scouts, do you, Mr. Prentice?” Hugh asked.
“You’ll hardly have the opportunity, Hugh,” he was told, “because as
soon as I get home I will issue _orders_ that he must join at the very
first meeting!”
“It will make him pretty happy, I think, sir, for he has set his heart
on being one of us.”
“And let me tell you it will make his father doubly happy when that time
comes, for I have seen and heard things I never would have believed
possible a week ago. It just goes to show how foolish men can be to
judge without knowing what they are talking about. But, Hugh, I shall
try and make amends for what injury I have unwittingly done the cause in
the past by booming it in the future. You see, it’s a case of
right-about face with me. They do say that I’m pretty sure to go to
extremes when my mind is made up.”
“The boys will all be glad to know that you’ve reformed, sir,” said
Billy, boldly, but Mr. Prentice only chuckled.
“Yes, you hit the nail squarely on the head when you call it that,
Billy,” he frankly declared. “In a case like mine nothing short of a
reformation would fill the bill. You’ll never understand how much I’ve
enjoyed being here and watching the way you boys went about saving the
farm buildings. It seemed as if you knew just what to do and how to work
it. I had a lesson I’ll never forget. The boys of to-day are in a class
by themselves when compared with my time. I can see now how they owe
most of it to the teachings of the scout organization.”
As it was getting on toward noon, and boys are known to have ferocious
appetites, especially when they have been working very hard, Mrs.
Heffner busied herself in getting a luncheon. Like most of her class she
always had a great abundance of good food in the house, which was a
fortunate thing for that army of voracious lads.
Such a jolly time they had of it, everybody trying to lend a helping
hand until in the end Mrs. Heffner had to chase the lot out of the
kitchen while she completed her arrangements. But she was looking very
happy, Hugh thought; perhaps it was because a good fortune had spared
her possessions; or again there may have been still another reason which
she did not choose to share with any one.
And that was a meal not soon to be forgotten. All sorts of good things
were forthcoming, so that no scout could rise from the table and claim
that his appetite still clamored for more. Cake, pies, jams and jellies,
sandwiches, milk, coffee with rich cream, hard-boiled eggs by the score,
even several cold chickens which she had been intending to take to town
for the Woman’s Exchange table—all these and much more were placed
before the boys, until even Billy sighed and humbly confessed that he
had undone the last button of his vest, and could not eat another bite.
About two in the afternoon it was discovered that the rain had ceased.
No one regretted this fact, for it had come down so heavily that every
fire must have been long since extinguished.
“Now’s our chance to go home, boys,” announced Hugh, at which there was
a decided scurrying around, as hats were looked up, and good-byes said.
“I’m going to town with the horse and wagon Mrs. Heffner has loaned me,”
said Mr. Prentice, “and if any of you scouts want to ride, say the
word.”
There was not a single answer; apparently the boys looked forward to
such a fine time hiking it for home that they did not care to be
separated. Hugh considered this a compliment to the leaders of the
troop, for it might be thought that a few out of the dozen and more
would prefer to ride home.
“I’ve an idea we may find the other half of the troop waiting for us on
the road,” he mentioned, “and if so we’ll all go back together.”
Everybody was sorry to see them depart, even the three little Barger
youngsters who had become quite friendly with the scouts during the
short time they had known them. Jack, Don and Bud would always look back
to their association with the “babes of the woods” with a feeling of
keen pleasure.
Sure enough, there was Alec and his detachment waiting for them at the
pre-arranged rendezvous. When the two sections sighted one another there
was more or less calling back and forth, and cheering.
Apparently Alec’s crowd could not have had anything like the serious
time that came the way of Hugh and his chums. This was to be seen in the
fact that their uniforms, unlike the others, did not bear signs of hard
usage, with holes burned here and there, besides being pretty well water
soaked.
Of course both sides were wild to hear what had been accomplished by the
other detachment.
“Who’s going to take the floor first and spin the yarn?” demanded Billy
Worth, who was really anxious to know just how far Alec’s supporters had
gone in the way of fire-fighting.
Alec and Hugh exchanged looks, and smiled.
“I reckon we’ll have to toss up for it, then, seeing that each wants to
be last,” remarked the Sands boy, taking out a coin.
“That suits us,” said Billy; “and Hugh can say whether it’s heads or
tails.”
“Whichever falls upward means the last to tell the story, doesn’t it?”
asked Hugh.
“Yes, and you call out while the quarter is in the air,” Alec told him.
So he sent it whirling upward, and about the time it reached its highest
point Hugh sang out:
“Tails for me!”
The coin fell to the ground, and numerous heads were craned in the
effort to see what the result would turn out to be.
“You win, Hugh,” remarked Alec, laughingly. “Tails it is, face up. I’m
only sorry I’ve got so little to tell, because our work wasn’t so fast
and furious as you had come your way, if signs count for anything,” and
as he said this Alec pointed to numerous small holes burned in the
clothes of Hugh and some of those who had fought the flames with him.
“All the same,” Hugh told him directly, “we know mighty well it was only
the want of a chance that kept you from showing your mettle. We happened
to be lucky that way. So long as you did your part the best you knew
how, what odds does it make how much of a result followed?”
That was characteristic of Hugh. He tried to minimize his own acts,
while at the same time eager to enlarge upon anything a fellow scout had
been able to accomplish. It was this brotherly trait that had made him
the best-liked fellow in or around Oakvale. Selfishness and Hugh Hardin
had little in common, as every boy understood who knew the young scout
master.
“Well,” began Alec, “it isn’t going to take me long to cover the ground
of our activities. We got to the squab and chicken farm, and found Old
Zeke pretty nearly out of his seven senses, because he expected he was
going to be caught by the fire, and lose his whole plant, which you know
would about kill the poor chap, for he’s got every cent he owns in the
wide world invested there.”
“And I’ve heard,” interrupted Billy Worth, “that it’s the apple of Zeke
Ballinger’s eye, that squab plant. He ships a box of plucked baby
blue-rock pigeons to a big hotel in the city every week, and gets
cracking good prices for them.”
“Yes,” added Ralph Kenyon; “I’ve been up at his place, and he nearly
gave me the squab fever, too. I could see good money in the game; but it
takes a lot of time to look after things; and what with school duties,
as well as scout matters, I couldn’t see my way clear to make the start.
But go on, Alec, please.”
“You can be sure,” continued the narrator of the story, “he was pleased
when we broke in on him. I never saw a man so happy. I guess Old Zeke
has heard a heap about what the scouts of Oakvale have done in times
gone by, for he just up and said he knew now his place wasn’t going to
be burned to flinders.”
Somehow every fellow looked proud when Alec said that. It seemed to them
worth while to have worked so hard in the past, if by so doing a
reputation for accomplishing things had been earned among the people of
their native town and the surrounding country.
“We started in to get ready for business,” continued Alec; “such as
locating the water supply, gathering all sorts of buckets, pans, and
anything that could be used for carrying the stuff when the sparks came
sailing over, and threatening to set fire to the roofs of the chicken
and pigeon houses.
“First we began to soak the roofs as well as we could, and all the while
the fire was getting nearer. As luck would have it, there was an open
space between the woods and the buildings. Old Zeke didn’t have any
straw stack, or hay worth mentioning, to start going, which I counted in
our favor.
“Then finally we saw the flames begin to pick up over to windward. The
fire had been carried through the thick woods. It was eating up all the
dry stuff on the ground, and some dead trees were beginning to look like
great big burning torches or candles.
“So we worked harder than ever, with Zeke keeping on our trail, doing
great stunts carrying water and helping out. Every bucket thrown gave us
more hope that we’d be able to keep things safe and sound; but pretty
soon we saw that here and there the roofs were beginning to smoke.
“We’d made sure to have what ladders there were about the place handy.
So keeping a bright lookout, whenever a little flame was discovered on
the roof of a building some of the boys hustled there with a ladder, and
one went up to throw a bucket of water over it.
“That was about what our work amounted to, all the way through. None of
the buildings were burned down, though we did have a few scares, and
several times it took the liveliest jumping anybody ever saw to manage
all the little fires that sprang up.
“And in the end the fire had swept past, the heat gradually grew less
and less, so that we knew we had saved the place for the old squab
raiser and chicken farmer.”
“Is that all, Alec?” asked Hugh.
“Not quite,” replied Alec, with a bright smile, as he glanced toward
Dale, “we did have just one little adventure worth mentioning.”
“Stow that, can’t you, Alec?” hastily remarked Dale, who seemed to
suddenly flush up, as though more or less confused; for he was known to
be an exceptionally modest fellow, who neither went about “blowing his
own horn,” nor liked to have any of his chums do the same for him; “it
wasn’t worth mentioning in the same breath with the splendid things I’m
sure Hugh and the rest have been doing.”
“We’re the ones to judge of that, old fellow,” said Don; “so please
let’s hear what it was, Alec, will you?”
Dale immediately fell back, for they were at the time walking along the
road in the direction of distant Oakvale, forming quite a lively bunch
as they clustered around Hugh and the leader of the Otter Patrol.
“Why, it was like this,” the latter proceeded to explain; “there was one
tall building with a steep roof that had a pitch of fully forty-five
degrees. I think it was the main pigeon plant; but then that doesn’t
matter.
“Right in the midst of the fiercest of the fight to save the frame
buildings, when the red sparks were falling thick and furious, one of
the boys shouted out that the roof of that particular building was
afire.
“Now, I had been afraid of that right along, you see. It was so much
higher than any of the others, and that sloping roof made it doubly hard
to get around. As soon as I hurried to the spot I saw that the chances
were we’d have a tough job getting that little blaze under control, and
it even looked as if the crisis of the whole business had come around.
“A big spark had dropped in just the worst place it could go, and there
must have been some dry leaves and trash in that cavity, for a blaze
sprang up right away. It was going right merrily when I got there.
“As soon as the ladder was slapped against the side of the tall building
Dale went up it like a monkey. The boys pushed another ladder up so that
he could lay it on the roof. Then they handed him a bucket of water.
“I wish you could have seen him hunch along that ridge of the roof,
Hugh. It was as fine a thing as any city fireman ever did, I’m dead
sure. And all the while Dale had to carry that heavy pail of water
along, trying not to spill a drop if he could help it.
“Well, we held our breath while we watched him, and not a fellow called
out any instructions, for we believed that Dale knew best what he was up
against.
“By that time the fire was springing up as if it surely meant to cop
everything in sight. But Dale he just kept hunching along, and hunching
along till he had come to where he thought he could get the bulge on the
busy flames. Then we saw him hold his bucket up as if aiming, and after
that it was good-night to Mr. Fire.
“And that was as near an adventure as anything we ran across, Hugh,”
concluded Alec; “so please start in to tell us what came your way over
to the Heffner farm.”
Knowing how eager the others were to hear, Hugh wasted no time in
beating around the bush. He proceeded to tell what a stiff fight he and
his backers had put up in the endeavor to save the property of the
widow, and what splendid success their efforts met with. In vivid
language he described how the hungry flames had tried to devour the
stacks and outbuildings of the woman farmer, and the sturdy efforts put
forth to baffle their intentions. It could be noticed that through the
whole story Hugh seldom referred to himself; if he chanced to have had a
part in the happening he invariably spoke of it as “we did this.” Then
in the midst of his story came the appearance of Peter, the bound boy,
with his thrilling tale concerning the little charges whom he had had to
temporarily abandon while he went in search of assistance. After that
there followed the finding of the youngsters, the triumphant return to
the farm-house, the coming of Mr. Barger, and finally, most astonishing
of all, the discovery that the black-faced man they had supposed was the
hired help should prove to be Addison Prentice’s father.
As all the scouts knew about the decided opposition shown by the
quarry-owner toward their organization, when they learned of his
wonderful conversion a series of hearty cheers made the slumbering
echoes in the woods awaken.
“That ought to make it unanimous for the scouts in and around Oakvale,”
asserted Alec, boisterously. “I can’t seem to remember another person of
consequence willing to say a single word against the troop. We’ll have
every patrol filled to the limit before a month rolls by. Things are
flourishing like a green bay tree for the scouts. I certainly envy the
great time you fellows have had; but we did our duty just the same, and
if the fire had come closer we’d have fought just as hard as you did, to
save the squab farm.”
“Nobody doubts it for a single minute, Alec!” declared Hugh.
“The old man was grateful to us, too,” added Buck Winter, “for he hauled
out every bit of grub he had around the house, and even offered to dress
some chickens for us, but we wouldn’t hear of it.”
“I guess we about cleaned him out of eatables that time,” chuckled Dale
Evans.
“And maybe we weren’t glad a certain fellow we know was with the other
crowd,” remarked Dick Bellamy, with a meaning look toward Billy, who
only grinned.
They managed to reach home before dark, and such a disreputable lot of
scouts had never before entered the corporate limits of Oakvale. But
when the good people learned of what great help they had been to Mrs.
Heffner and others up in the stricken country, they felt that they could
readily forgive their dilapidated appearance.
It afterward turned out that Mr. Barger and the widow married, and the
three little babes in the woods seem to be just as fond of their new
mother as anyone would wish to see. Peter, of course, now has his home
with them, and the last time Hugh met the boy he hardly knew him, there
was such a great change in his looks, for he had grown much more manly.
In good time he will undoubtedly become a scout, as nearly all sensible
lads do; and those who understood how faithful Peter could be to a
trust, feel certain he will always be a credit to the organization.
Other adventures are bound to happen in the history of Oakvale Troop
worthy of being written up, and at some future time it may be our
pleasing duty to once more follow the fortunes of Hugh Hardin and his
chums in new fields of scout activities. Until such time we will say
good-by to the reader.
THE END.
Transcriber’s Notes
--Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public
domain in the country of publication.
--Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and
dialect unchanged.
--In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the
HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.)