THE PRICE
Given time they managed to get a boat in somehow, poling it this way
and that and finally taking the marsh, as one might say, by flanking
tactics. With the large area of resisting canvas lying upon the
yielding morass, there was no great need for hurry. The frame was
broken, but it could not sink. And the Eagle Scout, beneath whose
weight the loosened canvas sagged, was safe. No boat could have
saved him. No swimmer could have averted that imminent tragedy. But
the eager-eyed little fellow who squatted there on that outlandish,
sustaining rug, glancing at the Eagle Scout as if he were a god, had
done it. His shirt was in shreds; a great rent in his faded trousers
exposed his whole thin little leg. He did not look like a boy scout
at all; you could not find a picture on all of your scout posters
that bears the faintest resemblance to him.
As the boat neared the canvas a tall boy with a white scarf gently
pushed a couple of scoutmasters aside and helped the bewildered
Skinny into the boat. He seemed to intimate that Skinny belonged to
him and the rest should take notice and keep their hands off. Then
he allowed them to help Holly Hollis aboard. And so they made slow
progress out of the dreadful place and nothing was left there but the
big broken frame with its soiled expanse of canvas. A very big
triumphant pennant for such a little boy!
They were all crowding at the landing place and the diving board bent
dangerously under the weight of gaping scouts. The Elks were there.
Even Chocolate Drop, the darky cook, had come down in his white cap
and apron, gazing as if he saw a ghost. And no one said a word about
the race.
"Can't I go up on the hill with you fellows?" Holly asked.
"Sure, only you'll have to come down again," said Danville. "Wait
till you get your bathing trunks off and are all washed up and
rested, then come up and make us a call. Eagle Scouts are always
welcome."
But Holly Hollis shook his head and brushed Connie Bennett aside and
interrupted Vic Norris, who seemed to have something to propose.
"No, I mean to stay," said he. "You're the ones I belong with. I
resign from the Elk Patrol."
"You can't do that, you're our Eagle Scout," said Connie.
"And where would your Eagle Scout be if it wasn't for the little chap
that gave his place to him, and just now risked his life to save
him--_for you_!" said Danville Bently. "I don't know whether they
have diamond studded crosses; all I know is that the Gold Cross isn't
good enough for him. But he'll get it all right. And if your Eagle
wants to come with us, why just remember that the eagle is a free
bird; he flies high and goes where he pleases--he belongs up on
precipices and crags, with others who jump off cliffs. Do you get
that, Connie Bennett? And you're going to lose him! Look in his
face--you can tell what he's thinking. I guess he never knew that
he's filling Alf's place in your patrol. Tell him about it, why
don't you? How about you, Holly? Do you follow the Gold Cross--or
the Elk Patrol?"
"I follow the Gold Cross," said Holly. "An Eagle is nothing but a
lot of merit badges."
"So that's that," said Danville Bently.
Yes, that was that. They played for big stakes, Connie and his
patrol, and they lost. They lost both the Gold Cross and the Eagle
Scout. They paid the penalty. You dance and you pay the fiddler.
You may have what you crave, but you pay the price. And sometimes
the price is very large. You may play high for an Eagle Scout. And
the Eagle Scout may bow before the Gold Cross awarded for the heroism
that is made divine by the spirit of sacrifice. For it is not true,
as the song says, that an Eagle is as high as you can go. You can go
higher than that if there is an elemental frenzy in your soul. The
price of the Gold Cross is very, very high. For you must forget
yourself and then they will remember you. Even if you are a ragged
little codger out of Corkscrew Alley, they will scream your praises
to the sky.
An Eagle is not as high as you can go.
THE END