A QUESTION OF A SCOUT'S DUTY.
"HE'S right," said Elmer, energetically, as he prepared to climb the
particular tree that bore such strange fruit. "Toby's hung there so long
that all the blood's just going to his head. Come along, Lil Artha; drop
that pack and follow me up there. We can rescue him, all right, if we're
smart."
They went up among the branches like a couple of monkeys, both being
good climbers. And presently they were close to where poor Toby was
dangling, watching their movements feverishly. His face was very red,
and he did not look very comfortable as he swung there, without any hold
above or below.
Lil Artha was immediately reminded of the stirring piece which he had
himself recited in school more than once--about the captain's little boy
on board a ship in a harbor, who daringly climbed to the very top of the
mainmast and stood up on the main truck--"no hold had he above, below;
no aid could reach him there!"
In that case the captain had shouted to the boy to jump far out, so that
he might strike the water, and they would pick him up, which in the end
the little fellow did, and was saved; but the same advice would not
apply with regard to poor Toby, for he could not jump no matter how much
he wished to, and it was hard ground below and not soft water.
But Elmer sized the situation up as soon as he arrived. He saw that by
good luck the branch that held Toby up was a solid one, and would bear
considerable weight, so that it was safe to crawl out on it.
"I'll go and get within reach of him," he said, quickly. "You brace
yourself, and be ready to pull him in when he drops. And Toby, make a
grab for that branch just below when you feel yourself going,
understand?"
"Yes," groaned the other, "I guess I can make it all right, Elmer. But
say, what you goin' to do now?" as he saw the other taking out his
pocket knife, opening the largest blade, and then gripping the tool
between his teeth so that he might have the free use of both hands.
"I've got to cut you loose, you know; don't worry, Toby," replied the
other, with such assurance in his steady voice that he unconsciously
gave the dangling boy new courage. "We're going to bring you down; only
try to help yourself by getting hold of that branch, see?"
"I will, Elmer, you just bet I will!" Toby answered.
A minute later and Elmer was bending down above Toby. He had to brace
himself against a sudden shock, for he knew what the result must be,
once Toby's weight was cast loose so that the limb could spring back.
"Ready everybody?" Elmer sang out.
"Sure!" answered Lil Artha, taking a new clutch on the garments of Toby,
with one of his legs twined about the tree trunk so as to better hold
his own when the shock came.
"Ready, Elmer; let her go!" said Toby, weakly but gamely.
Fortunately that knife blade was as keen as a razor. Elmer always made
it a point to keep his knife in the best condition possible at all
times, and this was one of the occasions where he felt amply repaid for
his foresight.
One circular sweep, and the thing was done.
Toby dropped like a plummet. His hands were outstretched and, as he had
planned, he gripped the branch just below; but had it depended wholly on
Toby's ability to maintain his hold, he must have gone plunging down,
banging against the various projections until he finally brought up on
the ground, lucky if he escaped broken ribs or collar bone.
But Lil Artha was there like a young Gibraltar. He could not be moved,
since his left leg was twined around the tree trunk. So he swung Toby
inward and gave him a chance to get his breath, while Elmer was hurrying
down to assist.
Between them they managed to right Toby, who was soon panting as he
squatted in a friendly fork of the tree.
"Now let's get down to the ground," said Elmer, who did not seem to
think that he had done anything very much out of the common in rescuing
the ambitious would-be aviator.
"Oh, Elmer, just wait a minute!" exclaimed Toby, entreatingly.
"What ails you now?" demanded Lil Artha. "Can't you get your nerve back
yet? Say, we'll give you a hand down, Toby, all right. Just depend on
your fellow scouts."
"It ain't that, Lil Artha," declared Toby; "but while you're about it,
why won't you make a clean sweep of the thing, a double rescue so to
speak?"
"Well, now, did you ever hear the beat of that?" laughed the tall boy.
"He wants us to risk our precious lives cutting his old umbrella machine
loose above there, so he can just take chances again. That's nervy, all
right."
"But Lil Artha," continued the other, persuasively, laying a hand on the
sleeve of the tall scout, "don't you see that it's only held slightly?
If you could cut that rope, and break that small branch off, I believe
the whole outfit would have to fall to the ground. Elmer, ain't that
so?"
Of course Elmer was compelled to admit the fact, for the parachute was
only lightly held, after its adventurous passage through the tree tops.
So Lil Artha, grumbling somewhat, though obliging, proceeded forthwith
to climb farther aloft until he could use his knife on the cord that
seemed to be helping to retard the downward progress of the parachute.
"Now break that branch, and she's just bound to drop, Lil Artha!" cried
Toby, who was keenly alive to the fate of his beloved airship. "There
she goes, fellows! What did I tell you? Whoop! Sailed down as soft as a
thistle ball! That's the ticket. Bully boy, Lil Artha! I will never
forget this of both of you. Some day mebbe I'll have a chance to take
you up with me in my balloon!"
"Nixy, never, not me!" declared the tall boy, as he came scrambling down
from his elevated perch. "The ground's good enough for this chicken. If
I ever dropped from this height, whatever would happen to my bones, tell
me that? Now, let's see if you can climb down, Toby."
Toby proved to be all right again, now that he had regained an upright
position, and the blood ceased to gather in his head. He made a decent
job of it, dropping down the tree. Lil Artha kept close beside him, to
guard against any accident, for, as he said, he "didn't want to have his
work all for nothing, and let Toby get a broken leg after he had once
been safely rescued."
They all arrived on the ground under the tree about the same time.
Toby's first thought seemed to be in connection with his beloved
parachute, and, of course, he started for the spot where the broken
umbrella-like apparatus lay, upside down; as Lil Artha declared, "for
all the world like a duck that, being shot in the air, had fallen on its
back."
Hardly had the unfortunate Toby taken half a dozen steps away than Lil
Artha suddenly burst out into shrieks of laughter that caused the other
to whirl around in his tracks and look at him in astonishment.
"What ails you, now, I'd just like to know, Lil Artha?" he demanded.
"You sure act like you'd gone bug-house. Say, Elmer, is he crazy, or can
it be the reaction set in after his daring feat in grabbing me?"
"Turn around!" yelled Lil Artha. "Let Elmer see the air hole he made.
Oh, my! Oh, me! but don't you feel cold? Ain't you afraid of a draught,
Toby?"
Toby apparently suddenly began to understand, and as his hand went back
of him a grin broke over his face.
"Oh, murder!" he ejaculated, "he cut out the whole seat, and these are
my newest trousers, too! Won't I get it, though, when mom sees what's
happened? And I don't dare tell her how it was done, because she
wouldn't let me keep on studying about aeroplanes and such. Whatever am
I going to do now!"
"I'd advise you to get an awning before you show yourself in town,"
jeered Lil Artha. "If any of the scouts see you, Toby, they'll sure
think you're flying a flag of truce. But don't you blame Elmer for your
troubles, hear? He did the only thing there was open to him. And if he
hadn't happened to have that sharp knife along, you might be hanging up
there yet and for some time to come; get that?"
"Sure, and I'm making no kick," replied Toby, with a grimace. "Reckon I
pulled out of a bad scrape lucky enough. Wow! Thought at one time my
goose was cooked! But it's all right now, it's all right, boys!"
"Yes," sang Lil Artha, "everything is lovely, and the goose hangs high,
or he did up to the time his chums happened along and yanked him down.
But it was a good thing for you, Toby, Elmer here happened to be sent
over to Mr. Bailey's house, and concluded to take the short cut through
the woods."
"Well," remarked Toby, philosophically, and boy fashion, "I always heard
it was better to be born lucky than rich, and now I believe it."
"Come along, Lil Artha," said Elmer; "we've got business on hand, you
remember, and can't waste any more time here. But I hope Toby won't
think of trying to drop down from the top of Echo Cliff again."
"Not if he knows it," returned the other, whose face was scratched in
several places from contact with twigs during his crash into the tree.
"Next time I try out any of my inventions I'll make sure to pick a place
where there ain't any plagued trees. Perhaps I might try a jump from the
old church tower some fine day. That would make the people of sleepy old
Hickory Ridge stare some, hey?"
"I sure think it would," returned Lil Artha, as he stepped off after
Elmer; "and your folks in particular. I see you're in for a heap of
trouble, Toby, with these fool notions of yours. It'll be a good thing
if you get cured before you're killed."
"That's a fact," called out Toby, with one of his grins; "because it
wouldn't be much use after that same thing happened, hey?"
Elmer was chuckling as he walked along.
"Never will forget how Toby looked as he kicked, and pawed, and tried to
get hold of something," he remarked to his companion.
"Same here, Elmer," replied the other, shaking with merriment.
"But all the same it was a ticklish thing for Toby, and what you might
call a close shave," declared Elmer, thoughtfully.
"Whew, I wouldn't like to take the chances of a thirty-foot drop like
that, if the branch broke or his trousers tore!" Lil Artha remarked.
"And after all Toby ought to be thankful that they were new goods and
not rotten stuff."
"Think of his nerve in jumping off that high cliff," said Elmer, shaking
his head, as though the idea appalled him. "That fellow is getting too
daring. I wouldn't be much surprised if he did try to drop down from the
church tower some fine day if this thing isn't nipped in the bud."
"Then perhaps we ought to tell, Elmer?" suggested Lil Artha.
"You mean, let his folks know about the narrow call he had here to-day?"
"Yep. Seems to me it's kind of our duty to inform his dad. Another time,
perhaps, Toby won't be just so lucky. And Elmer, if he got smashed or
had his legs broken, you and me would feel like we was guilty, ain't
that so?"
"I'll think it over, Lil Artha," replied the other. "I hate to tell on a
chum, but this is something out of the ordinary. It may mean Toby's
life, for all we can tell. And on the whole I think his folks ought to
know."
"He won't blab on himself, that's dead sure," remarked the tall scout.
"Sounded like he didn't mean to, for a fact," Elmer continued.
"Tell you what, I'd have given a heap to have been around just then,
Elmer."
"You mean when he took the jump? It must have been a bit thrilling for a
fellow to deliberately drop off such a high place. But Toby's got the
nerve, only sometimes it seems to me he's reckless. And that's a bad
thing in anyone who wants to sail around through the air regions."
They went on exchanging opinions, and in due time arrived at the Bailey
house, where Elmer delivered his charge to the owner of the big woods.
On the way back they neither saw nor heard anything of Toby, though they
could easily imagine him hard at work trying to get his broken parachute
in shape, so that it might be transported back to town, and fixed up for
another exploit.
It would not be in boy nature to keep such a remarkable story secret,
and before night it had likely traveled from one end of Hickory Ridge to
the other in about a dozen different shapes. Some even had it that Toby
had flown a mile before being caught in a tree, while others had him a
wreck, with all the doctors in town trying to patch him up. But Elmer
went straight to Mr. Jones, and gave him the true version, so that he
might not be alarmed at anything he heard.