Читать книгу Woodcraft: or, How a Patrol Leader Made Good - Douglas Alan Captain - Страница 4

Apparently the storm that had so lately passed over this section had played particular havoc with the farm buildings. Perhaps, with the queer, jumping movements known to cyclones, it had dipped down in this one quarter much more severely than anywhere else near by.

At any rate, it had succeeded in partly demolishing a barn, scattered several tons of fine hay – that year's crop – and upset things generally.

The first thing the scouts noticed after that one glance around at the damage done by the gale, was that a little group of persons seemed to be hovering over a certain spot.

"Somebody hurt by the storm!" Elmer called over his shoulder, for, being a good runner, he had easily taken the lead – Jasper was not so very strong, while Larry happened to be built much too stockily for a sprinter.

Then the boys received another shock. One of those bending over had straightened up, and proved to be a stout-looking boy, with a bold, resolute face.

Perhaps Jasper may have been reminded of the old saying he had heard quoted in his home many times: "Speak of an angel, and you'll feel his wings;" only no one who knew Matt Tubbs would ever dream of comparing that quarrelsome youth with a celestial visitor; in fact, their thoughts would be more apt to go out in the other direction.

Two women were wringing their hands, and crying. A man lay upon the ground, and his groans told that he was suffering considerable bodily pain.

"Don't I wish Ted Burgoyne was along!" exclaimed Elmer involuntarily, as he hurried toward the group.

The boy mentioned belonged to the Wolf Patrol. He seemed to possess a natural fancy for surgery, and had long ago been dubbed Dr. Ted by his mates. And in numerous instances had he proved that their confidence in him was not misplaced.

That was why Elmer now felt keen regret because of a lost opportunity for the young Boy Scout medicine man to show his skill at setting broken bones, or binding up other injuries almost as well as any experienced physician could have done.

Elmer himself had made it a point to know something about such things. He had in the past lived a wild life out in the great Canada wilderness, where men, and boys, too, find it necessary to depend upon themselves in great emergencies.

Although he feared he might be somewhat clumsy, and certainly lacked the natural talent Ted Burgoyne had always shown, the scout leader was only too willing to do whatever lay in his power to alleviate suffering.

In another moment he was leaning over the stricken man, whom he now recognized as a middle-aged farmer, Simon Kent by name. The women, wife and daughter of the farmer, had looked up eagerly as Matt seemed to speak of the coming of others on the scene. Then their faces grew blank again with despair. For what could a trio of mere boys do, when a doctor was needed so badly?

"Oh! Matt, find the horse if you can, and hurry to town for Dr. Cooper! He couldn't have run very far away!" the older woman was saying, doubtless referring to the horse, and not the well-known Hickory Ridge physician.

"Please wait just a minute or so, and let me take a look at Mr. Kent," said Elmer, modestly. "I happen to know a little about these things, you see, ma'am; and I've set more than one broken limb."

The women stopped wailing for a time, and watched the confident boy as he carefully examined the groaning farmer.

"How did it happen?" asked Larry of Matt Tubbs, who apparently must be some relative of the Kents, as the woman seemed to know him very well.

"Storm blew the roof off'n the barn, and he got caught. Any feller with peepers in his head ought tuh see that," replied young Tubbs, between whom and Larry there had always been bad blood.

Elmer looked up and smiled in the faces of the two frightened women. He knew they needed encouragement, and that he could not do them a greater benefit than to allay their fears.

"He has a broken arm," he said, reassuringly, "and I think a couple of his ribs are fractured, Mrs. Kent; but besides that there are only a few bruises, and they do not amount to much. Nothing very serious, understand. Mr. Kent isn't going to die. But I guess he'd better have the doctor here as soon as Matt can ride to town. I'll do what I can in the meantime, ma'am."

Matt Tubbs had been watching what he did with apparently the greatest curiosity. He was utterly ignorant himself about everything that pertained to first aid to the injured, and perhaps never before had felt so utterly insignificant as when he saw Elmer Chenowith go about the duties of a doctor with such calm assurance.

Jasper had run off in obedience to a request from the scout leader, and now returned with some cold water. When Elmer had dashed a little of this in the face of the farmer, the injured man came to his senses. His groans ceased, though they could see from the expression on his rugged face that he was suffering severely.

"It's all right, Mr. Kent," Elmer hastened to say in that convincing way of his, as the farmer looked at him inquiringly. "You've got a broken arm, and perhaps a couple of your ribs are out of the running for a while, but you'll pull through all to the good. I'm going to do what I can while Matt rides off for Dr. Cooper."

"Oh! it's you, Elmer, is it?" said the man, faintly. "But how d'ye know I ain't got my death in that wreck of my barn? I feel like I'd been through a threshing machine; on'y my left arm is numb."

"I've had some experience with these things, Mr. Kent, up in Canada. Besides, sir, we belong to the Boy Scouts movement, and one of the things taught there is what we call 'first aid to the injured.' I could set your arm all right, but since the doctor can get here soon, I'd better leave it for him. He mightn't like my meddling too much with his practice. Will you ask Matt to please find the horse, and start for town?"

"Oh! I'm agoin', all right," said that worthy, arousing himself; for he had been staring at Elmer all this while, and listening to what he said about the obligations of the scouts in time of need, as though he might be hearing something that astonished him.

He glanced back several times as he walked away to look for the horse, that was doubtless in some corner of the lot beyond the demolished barns.

"Got something to think over, I reckon," grunted Larry, who had closed up like a clam when Matt answered his civil question so roughly.

Shortly afterward they heard a shout. Then Matt dashed past, riding bareback on the horse, and using the halter to guide him along the road. He went flying toward town, and they knew he would send the doctor before a great while.

"Here, fellows, Mr. Kent ought to be carried into the house," said Elmer, turning to his chums. "We've got to make a litter to lay him on. Come over here with me, and we'll knock one together in a jiffy."

"Sure we will!" declared Larry, who had a warm heart, even though a bit inclined to quarrel at times, being quick-tempered.

There was plenty of material lying around; the storm had seen to that when it tore things loose on the Kent farm. And presently the scouts came back with some boards forming a very fair litter. Elmer had covered it with several horse blankets he discovered in the partly demolished barn.

But the farmer was getting back his strength again. He shook his head at sight of the litter, and a slight smile appeared on his face, much to the joy of his sadly frightened wife and daughter.

"I reckon I ain't so bad off as to need that, Elmer," he remarked. "Now, if so be ye boys draw around, and take care not to handle that left arm too rough, p'raps I could manage to get up. Arter that, with some help, I'll hobble to the house. Don't ye look so peaked, wife; I'm better'n ten dead men yet."

They helped him to rise, and then, leaning on Elmer, with the others following close behind, eager to assist, they made their way slowly to the farm building.

"Oh! what would we have done only for the coming of you boys?" exclaimed Mrs. Kent, after they had managed to get the wounded farmer seated fairly comfortably in a big sleepy hollow chair.

Elmer was making a sling in which the broken arm could be held, to ease the pain and the strain until Dr. Cooper's arrival.

"Does this scouting teach you boys how to do that sort of thing?" asked the grown daughter, who had been watching these actions of the boys curiously.

"It is one of the things we have to learn before we can hope to become first-class scouts," the boy replied. "You see, no one can ever tell when a scout may be called on to help bring back a person to life who has been nearly drowned, or to keep another from bleeding to death after being cut with an ax in camp; then besides, sometimes boys have to be rescued when they get a cramp while in swimming. And when a fellow knows how to go about these things, he may be able to help save a human life. We think it worth while."

"I should say it was!" exclaimed Miss Kent, enthusiastically. "After this I'm going to take more interest in boys than I have. I always thought they were as much alike as peas in a pod; and perhaps I oughtn't to say it, because he's in our family, but you see, I somehow judged all boys by my Cousin Matt."

Elmer smiled.

"Well," he said, nodding, "I hope that when you come to look into this a little closer, Miss Julia, you'll understand that it stands for big things. My father says it's the greatest movement for the uplifting of American boys that ever happened, barring none. And I'm going to send you some printed matter that will tell you just what the Boy Scouts aim to do. When you know that, I just guess you'll find reason to change your opinion of boys."

Even the injured farmer had listened to what was said with a show of interest.

"Sho! Elmer," he remarked, "I've heard a heap of this thing, and didn't take much stock in it. Thought it meant the boys was goin' to be made into soldiers, and as I'm a man of peace I couldn't stand for that. On'y yesterday the dominie was tellin' me it ain't got a blessed thing to do with military tactics. And arter the able way you handled yourself to-day, blessed if I ain't agoin' to read the stuff you send Julie. If I had a boy I'd like him to jine the scouts. And that's as far as I've got. But if it makes the lads clean, manly, and ekal to emergencies, like you seem to be, it's a boss thing."

And Elmer felt his heart glow with satisfaction, for his whole interest was by now bound up in the success of the Hickory Ridge troop of scouts; and anything that went to make them new friends appealed to him strongly.

When half an hour had gone the sound of an automobile horn was heard out on the road.

"There comes Dr. Cooper!" called Jasper, who had been on the lookout.

When the physician came bustling in he looked questioningly at the three boys. Possibly Matt may have told him the scouts were meddling with things, and his professional instincts were shocked. But when he saw what Elmer had done, and made an examination himself, he declared that the extent of Mr. Kent's injuries were just as the boy had stated.