The Wolf Patrol: A Tale of Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts

The scouts pushed on steadily. They did not know it, but an adventure awaited them which would settle the question of the night's lodging.

CHAPTER XXXIV

SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE

On the outskirts of the village a mill-wheel droned lazily as the boys swung at scout's stride down the road. Suddenly the drone died away, and by the time the comrades were abreast of the quaint old wooden water-mill the wheel was still, and its day's work was ended.

The hatches were raised, and the water, no longer turned to its task, was pouring at a swift race into a pool below. The race was crossed by a small wooden bridge with a single handrail, and over the rail hung a little girl, about seven or eight years old, watching the swiftly running water.

As the scouts came in sight of the child a strange thing happened. The little girl straightened herself and held the rail firmly by both hands. Then, her eyes still fixed on the racing water, she began to swing slowly from side to side. She gave a start and tried to run across the narrow bridge, but fell upon her hands and knees. Here she began to swing again from side to side, rocking farther over at every swing. The foaming, swift-running race had fascinated her, had dizzied and bewildered her, and was swiftly drawing her to itself. She was now below the single handrail, and there was nothing to prevent her toppling into the darting mill-race.

'She'll be in!' shouted Dick, and the two scouts rushed at full speed to a wicket-gate where a path ran from the little bridge to the road. Chippy was through first, and flew like a greyhound for the bridge. Dick was a little behind. The Raven sprang on to the bridge and made a snatch at the little girl's frock. His hand was darting out when she rolled over and fell, and he missed his grip by inches. The child's body was at once whirled away down the race.

Chippy flung off his haversack, and was about to leap when Dick yelled: 'No, no, Chippy! It's mere madness to jump into the race. This way! this way!'

The Wolf tore along the margin of the race, casting off haversack, jacket, and hat as he ran. At the foot of the torrent the little girl had been whirled out into the pool, and was just sinking as Dick flew up. With all the impetus of his run he shot out from the bank and clove the water with a long swift dive. His eyes were open, and he saw a dark mass slowly sinking in front of him. He made a swift stroke, and had a good handful of clothes in his right hand. With his left arm and his feet he struck out for the surface, and was up in an instant. The tail of the race set up a strong current which swept inshore, and this current caught rescuer and rescued and brought them up at a point where Dick was in reach of Chippy's patrol staff. Chippy, who had seen his comrade's idea, had followed, and was now ready to lend a hand.

'Here, Dick!' he shouted, and stretched out his strong stick. Dick seized it, and Chippy drew both inshore.

'Take her first,' gasped Dick. 'There's no bottom; the bank goes straight down.'

He seized a tuft of rushes springing at the edge of the water and supported himself, while Chippy lifted the little girl out of the water, and laid her on the bank. In a second Dick was beside him. Relieved of the weight of the child, Dick swung himself up and scrambled out nimbly.

As he shook himself, an elderly man in white dusty clothes ran across the bridge and down the bank towards them. It was the miller. The shouts of the boys had called him to the mill-door, and he had seen the plucky rescue. He ran up trembling and white-faced, too shaken for the moment to speak. The little girl was his grand-daughter, the child of his only son.

Chippy looked up sharply as he came.

'Wheer's the nearest place wi' a fire an' a woman in it?' cried the Raven.

The miller pointed to his house, a little behind the mill, and shaded by a grove of chestnut-trees.

'Ah! I didn't see it at fust,' said Chippy, and he caught up the little girl in his wiry arms, and hurried for the bridge. He crossed it with speedy foot, and Dick and the miller followed. The door of the house was open, and Chippy marched straight in and laid his burden on the hearth in front of a blazing wood-fire. The miller's wife came downstairs at that moment, and uttered a cry of alarm.

'What's come to Gracie?' she said.

'Your little gell, eh?' said the Raven. 'She tumbled into the race, an' my mate fetched her out. She's more frightened nor hurt, I shouldn't wonder. She worn't in above a minnit.'

He left the child to her grandmother's care, and went out to meet Dick and the miller. The old man was thanking Dick with a voice which still quavered, for he had received a great shook.

'Don't worry,' said Chippy cheerfully; 'she'll soon be all right. Th' old lady's lookin' arter her. Now, Dick, wheer are ye goin' to dry yerself?'

'Come into the mill,' cried the old man. 'There's a good fire in the drying-kiln.'

'That'll do,' said the Raven, 'an' if ye'll kindly oblige wi' a blanket or suthin' to wrap him in while his things are a-dryin', that'll be all right.'

'Ay, sure, anythin' I've got ye're more than welcome to,' said the miller. 'I'll niver forget what ye've a-done this day. How I could ha' faced my son if aught had happened I don't know, an' that's truth.'

He took the scouts into the mill, and then hurried away to the house. Dick stripped off his dripping clothes, and the comrades wrung out all the wet they could before they hung them over the kiln.

'I can manage as soon as my shorts are dry,' said Dick. 'I chucked away the coat and haversack with the spare things in them, and they're dry now.'

The miller came in with a big blanket, and Dick wrapped himself in it, while Chippy ran off to collect the traps they had flung aside at the moment of the rescue. When he came back he began to laugh at sight of Dick.

'Now, Wolf,' he said, 'if yer 'ad a few feathers to stick in yer hair, ye'd look just like some big Injun sittin' outside his tent.'

'Outside his wigwam,' grinned Dick. 'Well, it's jolly comfortable inside a blanket, anyhow. You're pretty wet, Chippy.'

'Yus; the water run on to me a bit off the little gell,' said Chippy. 'I'll stand up to the kiln, and soon get dry.'

The miller had gone away again, and this time he returned with a jug of steaming tea, two cups and saucers, and a plate heaped high with food.

A drap o' meat an' hot drink will do ye good,' he said, an' ye can peck away while the clo'es do dry.'

Chippy chuckled. 'How's yer tender conscience?' he murmured to the Wolf. 'Fair enough for us to tek' this, ain't it?'

'Fair enough?' cried the astonished miller, who had caught the remark. 'Well, what a man ye must think me! I'd give a bite an' a sup to anybody; an' after what ye've done, I'd pull the house down to please ye.'

'It's aw' right,' cried the Raven hastily. 'I don't mean wot you mean. It was only a bit of a joke wi' my pardner.'

'Oh, ay, a joke – well,' said the miller; 'but ye're welcome, an' more than welcome.'

'How's the little girl coming on?' cried Dick, in order to turn the subject.

'Bravely, bravely,' cried the old man. 'She'd swallowed a tidy drap o' water, an' felt pretty queer. But she's comin' round now. How did ye come to see her?'

Dick related the story of the child's fall, and the old man declared he'd put more rails to the bridge.

''Twor' the runnin' water carried her beyond herself,' he said. 'Ay, sure, that wor' it.'

Before the boys finished their meal the threatened storm broke. There was a tremendous downpour of rain, thundering on the roof and lashing the windows.

'I'd just as lieve be agen this kiln-fire as out in that,' remarked the Raven. 'Seems to me we'll put up here to-night.'

'I dare say he'll let us turn in on his hay, or something like that,' said Dick. 'We'll ask him when he comes back.' For the miller had gone again to the house in his anxiety to see how his grandchild was getting on.

Chippy turned the shorts, which had been put in the best drying-place, and felt them.

'They'll be dry in no time now,' he said, and returned to the jug for the final cup of tea which it contained.

'At the rate we're going on,' laughed Dick, 'we could stop out a month on our ten shillings, Chippy.'

'It 'ud suit me proper,' said the Raven, cutting his bread against his thumb with his jack-knife. The miller had brought them knives from the house, but the scouts preferred to use their own.

The old man was gone a long while, and when he returned Dick had got into his shorts and dry things, and was himself again.

'Ah!' said the miller, 'now p'raps ye'll step across to the house. My missis do want to see ye an' thank ye.'

The scouts did not look very happy over this, for they both hated any fuss. But when they got into the big kitchen they found it was all right. The miller's wife was not a fussy person at all, and they were at home with the old lady in a minute. The little girl was sitting beside the fire in a big chair. She looked very pale, but was quite herself again.

''Tis a new thing to her, you see,' explained the miller's wife. 'She's my son's child, and lives over to Baildon, forty mile away. I don't know as ever she'd seen the race a-runnin' afore – leastways, from the bridge.'

'It made my head swing,' put in the child.

'Ay, it turned her head all swimmy like,' said the miller. 'Well, it's a merciful providence there wor' brave hearts at hand to save ye. Now,' he went on to the scouts, 'I can see by yer knapsacks an' sticks as ye be on a sort o' journey through the land.'

'Yes, we're on a scouting tramp,' said Dick.

'Ah!' said the miller, and rubbed his ear.

Dick saw he did not quite understand, and he entered on a short explanation of their movements.

'Walkin' from place to place, be ye?' said the old lady. 'Then ye must stay wi' us to-night, an' I'll see ye have a good bed.'

A good bed! The scouts looked at each other in dismay. Perish the thought! They were not out to sleep in good beds.

'Haven't you a hay-loft?' asked Dick.

'Yes,' replied the miller. 'What of that?'

Again Dick explained. The miller and his wife were rather puzzled at the idea of the boys preferring the hay-loft, but they were willing that the scouts should do as they pleased; and that night the two comrades rolled themselves in their blankets, and slept snugly side by side in a nest of soft sweet hay.

The next morning they were up bright and early, intending to slip off before the people of the mill were astir; but they reckoned without the miller, who was up earlier still, and insisted that they should eat a good breakfast before they started. And when at last they struck the trail once more, they carried a huge packet of sandwiches the miller's wife had cut for them.

CHAPTER XXXV

A BROTHER SCOUT – THE TWO TRAMPS

It was mid-morning before they got the knots out of their neckties, for they followed quiet ways on which few people were to be met. Then they approached a small town entered by a steep hill. At the foot of the hill an old man was struggling to get a hand-cart loaded with cabbages up the slope. The scouts called upon him to ease up; then Chippy took the shafts, and Dick pushed at the side, and they ran the heavy hand-cart up the hill to the door of the greengrocer, whose shop the old man supplied from his little market-garden. At the top of the hill, as they rested to get their wind, a cheery-looking gentleman drove by in a dog-cart. He smiled at sight of them and their task, saluted, and called out; 'Well done, boy scouts!'

The comrades saluted him in return, and he drove off, waving his hand.

'I'll bet he's an instructor,' said Chippy.

'I shouldn't wonder,' returned Dick. 'He looked cheerful enough to be one of ours.'

They only stayed in the town long enough to despatch a post-card, of which Dick had a small stock in his haversack, to Bardon, to say all was well, then pushed on, and were soon in the open country once more.

Two miles out of the town they met a comrade. They were passing a house standing beside the road, when a boy came out at the gate. He started and stared at sight of them, then gave the secret sign in full salute; for he had observed the badge on their hats, and knew them for patrol-leaders. They returned the salute, and the stranger stepped forward and held out his left hand. They shook hands, and he produced his badge.

'I'm No. 7 Midmead Owl Patrol,' he said. 'Midmead's about half a mile farther on. You'll see the village after you turn the next corner.'

He inquired where they had come from, and the Bardon boys told him, and they chatted for some time. The Owl was very deeply interested in their journey, and wished a hundred times he could go on such a tramp. Finally he rushed back into the garden from which he had come. 'Wait a minute,' he said; but the scouts had to wait five minutes before he returned with his hat full of new potatoes.

'Look here,' he said. 'Jolly good, aren't they, for so early in the season? I've grown them in my own garden. I've got a piece of the garden, and I grow stuff, and sell it to buy all I want for scout work. I've done splendidly with new potatoes. I sowed very early, and covered the tops with straw when there were any signs of frost, and got the first potatoes in the village, and made rattling good prices. Do take a few. They'll come in handy at your next camp.'

They thanked him, and Chippy stowed the potatoes away in his haversack. Then their fellow scout, whose name was Jim Peel, accompanied them through Midmead and half a mile beyond.

At midday they halted, and built their fire, and overhauled their store of provisions. They had stayed their march beside a little brook, and in it they washed the potatoes, and then boiled them in their jackets in the billy. After the potatoes were boiled, they washed the billy, and then boiled more water, and made their tea. They were very hungry, for they had made a good long tramp during the morning, and the sandwiches which the miller's wife had given them, the new potatoes, and the tea went down very well. Then they stretched themselves at ease on the grass in the hot sun, with the idea of taking a good rest.

Dick spread out his map, and took his pencil to mark out the route of their morning's journey.

'We're all right, Chippy,' he said in a tone of deep satisfaction; 'we've broken the back of our journey. Look, we're between five and six miles from Newminster. That will be just a pleasant stroll this afternoon.'

'An' that 'ull mean three days each way,' said the Raven.

'That's it,' said Dick. 'We'll do it comfortably, Chippy, my boy.'

He carefully marked the track they had followed, then closed the map, and returned it to the haversack. Their haversacks lay at their feet between them and the dying fire; their staves were beside them. The two scouts now stretched themselves comfortably in the sun, drew their hats over their eyes, and discussed their own affairs.

'I say, Chippy, we're bound to have plenty of cash to see us through now,' said Dick, 'even if we have to spend steady on for the rest of the journey.'

'Rather,' replied Chippy; 'there's a lot o' flour left, an' some tea an' sugar, an' the bakin'-powder, an' the lump o' salt; an' we've only spent eleven three-fardens so fur.'

'Yes,' chuckled Dick. 'I can see father smiling now as he gave me the two half-sovereigns. I know as well as can be what he thought. He felt sure we should be back before now, with our ten shillings for way-money all blued. And one half-sovereign is in my belt, and almost all the other is in my purse.'

On the other side of the hedge below which the scouts lay, a couple of evil faces looked at each other with evil joy in their eyes. Every word the boys were saying was falling into the ears of a pair of big, burly tramps. One was a stout, middle-aged man, the other a tall young fellow with long legs; both belonged to the worst class of that bad order.

When will this pest of lazy, loutish loafers, often brutal and dangerous, be cleared from our pleasant highways and byways? There are beautiful stretches of our country where it is not safe for women and children to stroll unattended through the quiet lanes, simply because the district lies on a tramps' route from one big town to another, and is infested by these worthless vagrants. There is nothing that dwellers in the country see with greater satisfaction than the conviction, slowly ripening in the public mind, that this tramp nuisance and danger must shortly be dealt with, and the firmer the hand the better. They are the people to shut up in compounds, where they should be made to do a few strokes of labour to earn their living, instead of terrorizing cottagers and dwellers in lonely houses for food and money. But now to our heroes and their experience with two members of this rascally order, feared and dreaded in every solitary neighbourhood.

We have said that the scouts had made their halt beside a brook. They had paused on the bridge where the brook ran under the road they were following, and had observed that a path turned from the road, passed through a narrow gateway from which the gate was missing, and went along the bank. They had gone down the path some sixty or seventy yards, and had made their halt at a point where there was a strip of grass some ten yards wide between the hedge of a field and the bank of the brook.

Half an hour before the boys arrived, a pair of tramps had turned down the same quiet side track, intending to eat the food they had begged in a hamlet near at hand. They had gone some distance beyond the spot where the scouts halted, and did not discover the presence of the latter until they were on their way back to the high-road. The younger tramp was leading the way, and when he saw the boys lying on the bank with their haversacks at their feet, he stepped back into cover, and the two rascals took counsel with each other.

'Might be the price of a pint or two on 'em,' said the elder, a villainous-looking rogue, his tiny bloodshot eyes firing at the thought of drink.

'Mebbe,' said the other; and they went back a score of yards, found a gate, climbed over it into the field, and crept stealthily up on the other side of the hedge. Crouching behind the boys, they heard Dick speak of the money he had about him, and they looked at each other with evil, greedy joy on their scoundrel faces.

The assault was made at once, and through a gap close at hand. It was the stout, heavy man who led the way. With an agility no one would have suspected in his bulky, clumsy-looking figure, he bounded nimbly through the gap, caught up the haversacks, tossed them three yards to the other side of the fire, leapt the fire himself, then stood on guard between the haversacks and their owners. He was followed by the tall young man, who posted himself in front of the scouts, and threatened them with a heavy stick which he held in his hand.

The attack was so sudden, so unexpected, that the scouts, stretched comfortably at full length, could do no more than sit up before their enemies were in position.

'Kape still!' roared the long-legged tramp. 'If e'er a one on yer tries to get up, I'll land 'im one acrost the nut!'

It was quite clear that he was in very savage earnest, and the two scouts sat still and looked upon their foes.

The younger tramp was solemnly ferocious in looks, but the bulky, elder man was grinning all over his drink-blotched face, his broken yellow teeth all on view between purple lips. He had a huge bulbous nose, far ruddier than the cherry, and it shook as he laughed harshly at the captives.

'That's the way to talk, Sam,' he wheezed; 'gie the fust un as moves a good lowk as 'll mek' 'im see stars.'

'What do you want?' demanded Dick. 'You have no right to interfere with us. We have done no harm to you.'

'Hark at 'im!' chuckled the elder villain; 'no right t' interfere, an' the young shaver's got the price o' gallons on 'im.'

Long Legs changed the stick swiftly from right hand to left, and stretched out the right towards Dick.

'Fork over,' he said shortly and savagely.

Dick had been surprised at the sudden appearance of the desperadoes, but that was nothing as compared with the surprise which now fell upon him. For Chippy burst out crying with all his might.

'Oh, don't 'urt me,' wailed the Raven. 'Oh, please don't. Oh, kind gen'l'men, let me go. I ain't got no money, nary copper: look 'ere'; and in his wailing earnestness he scrambled to his feet, and pulled the pockets of his shorts inside out.

The blow which had been threatened did not fall. Although Chippy had got up, it was to wail and lament, and the tramps took no notice of him except to laugh at his distress. You see, they knew where the money was, and Dick sat still.

'See,' moaned Chippy. 'I ain't got nothin' in my pockets but a knife. It's 'im wot's got the money, mister, not me;' and the Raven pointed to his comrade.

'I'll bet we know that wi'out yer tellin' us,' jeered Long Legs. 'We heerd every word ye said about that. Come on, fork over,' he added roughly to Dick.

Dick did not move; he only looked up at his brother scout. He could hardly believe his own eyes. Chippy's face was twisted into the most frightful contortions of grief, and tears as big as peas were hopping down his cheeks. The Wolf's bewilderment was complete.

'Oh! oh! mister,' cried Chippy, 'lemme go! lemme go! I ain't got a farden.'

'All right, wait a bit,' chuckled the younger tramp. 'We'll put that straight. We'll go whacks with ye. Now then, you, turn that money up, will ye?' he went on to Dick. 'There's nineteen bob an' a farden on ye, we know. We'll ha' the nineteen bob, an' yer mate shall ha' the farden.'

This struck Fiery Nose as a very good joke, and he grinned till he showed his yellow fangs right back to the grinders.

'Righto, Sam,' he laughed; 'we'll mek' a division of it.'

'Oh, oh!' moaned the Raven. 'I don't want no farden. Only lemme go. Oh! oh! B.P. Lemme go, mister, please, an' I'll thank ye ever so much.'

Dick stiffened himself from head to foot. What was that Chippy had worked in among his sobs and moans? B.P. – the motto of their order – 'Be Prepared.' Dick held himself tense as a bowstring, ready for anything.

'The one wi' the rhino ain't in no 'urry to fork over, Sam,' said the elder tramp. 'Ye'll ha' to go through 'im, while I see wot's in these 'ere bags.'

CHAPTER XXXVI

CHECKMATE

The haversacks were behind him on the bank of the brook. Sam, for his part, turned upon Dick with a ferocious oath, and a fresh demand for the money. Of the whining, puling, weeping Raven they took no notice whatever. No notice! Ah, ha, Messrs. Long Legs and Fiery Nose, you are making the mistake of a lifetime.

No sooner was their attention drawn from him than the Raven made his leap, swift and silent as a charging panther. He darted upon the stout tramp, whose back was towards him, as its owner bent over the haversacks. Chippy placed both hands against a certain portion of the tramp's person which afforded him an excellent purchase, and gave a tremendous shove. Fiery Nose stumbled forward, caught his feet in the haversacks, grabbed wildly in the air to save himself, found nothing to fill his clutch, and pitched head first over the edge of the bank into the deep, slow brook. Crash! Splash! he went into the pool, and the water leapt like a fountain under his terrific plunge. But the Raven did not stay to observe the success of his manoeuvre. Quick as a trout in a stream he was off at full speed, but he had the haversacks tucked safely in his arms.

Round whirled the younger tramp in time to see his comrade hit the water. He swung up his stick for a blow at the nimble gliding Raven, but as he sprang at the scout, Dick thrust his staff between the long legs, tripped him up, and sent him sprawling with his face in the hot, smouldering ashes. Chippy was already racing for the road, and Dick followed at top speed.

In a moment the tramp was on his feet, and dashing the wood ashes out of his eyes and hair. Then he caught up the stick which had flown from his hand and pursued the fugitives, a wild medley of execrations pouring from his lips. In the pool Fiery Nose wallowed and blew like a grampus, and howled for help.

Dick looked back and saw the long-legged tramp covering the ground at a tremendous pace. He was a big, powerful fellow, and was armed with an ugly club. The scouts were not out of the wood yet. They turned a corner and saw the gateway with no gate close before them. An idea shot into Dick's head.