AS WE RAN, WE HEARD A YELL OF PAIN, OR FRIGHT, AND IT WAS NOT A BEAR'S VOICE AT ALL.AS WE RAN, WE HEARD A YELL OF PAIN, OR FRIGHT, AND IT WAS NOT A BEAR'S VOICE AT ALL.
"Fire!"
I don't know when I fired. I only knew that my arrow was gone and I was running for the camp like the wind, with the other Scouts chasing after me.
As we ran, we heard a yell of pain, or fright, and it was not a bear's voice at all. It was a woman's! Then we heard the voice say:
"For the love of Mike! The woods is full of Injuns and I've got an arrow in the pit of my stummick."
SCOUTING THROUGH A WILDERNESS
"FELLERS," said Skinny, panting and wetting his lips with his tongue. "We've done it this time. We've killed somebody."
"Killed nothin'!" Bill told him. "Didn't you hear her holler?"
"She's running, too," said Benny. "Killed folks don't run, especially girls."
We could hear a crashing through the bushes beyond, and knew that what Benny said was true.
"Let's sneak back and get our arrows, anyhow," said Skinny, when the noise had stopped.
So we crept back again, ready to run if any one should come, but there was nobody in sight. One arrow was lying on the ground where the girl had been standing when we took her for a bear. It was Skinny's; we could tell by the way it was painted.
It made him real chesty, after he had found out that we had not killed anybody.
"Didn't I tell you, Bill," said he, "that I'd show you whether I could hit a bear or not? It must have struck a button or something, or whoever it was would have bit the dust, and don't you forget it."
While we were standing there talking about it, a man burst through the bushes, followed by a girl, about eighteen years old, I guess.
"Are these your Injuns?" he asked, before we had time to run. Then he burst out laughing in such a way that we were not afraid to stay.
In a minute we had found out all about it. They were fern gatherers and Benny had taken them for bears. A lot of people go up on the mountain in August, picking what they call Boston ferns to sell to florists. They put them in cold storage and keep them a long time. There is a crazy little railroad at the foot of the mountain, on the east side, that carries whole train loads of those ferns to Hoosac Tunnel station, and afterward they are shipped all over the country to be put in bouquets.
Skinny's arrow had struck the girl and hurt her a little, but not much. She was scared half to death.
Mr. Norton had a fine supper ready when we reached the camp again, and we ate until we couldn't eat any longer.
"You boys ought to know what you are doing every minute you are in the woods," he told us, after he had heard about the scare. "Suppose that Gabriel had been carrying a gun, as he wanted to, instead of a bow and arrows. Just think what would have happened. Hundreds of people have been killed in exactly that way. Careless hunters have mistaken them for bear or deer or some other game. You ought to have known what you were shooting at. It was a foolish thing to do, anyway. I don't believe there can be any bears around where so many people are looking for ferns and berries. We'll see dozens of pickers on the other side of the mountain, probably. If there ever were any bears they have been frightened away long before this. But suppose that had been a bear. For a bunch of boys to attack a bear with bows andarrows isn't bravery. It is foolishness. I am ashamed of you."
We didn't feel quite so chesty when Mr. Norton had finished talking to us.
"Well, I am not going to spoil the day by scolding," he went on, after we'd had time to think it over a little. "You can see the folly of it as well as I. Let us sit here and watch the sun go down behind the west mountains. Did you ever see such glory? Then, when it grows dark, we'll build a campfire and I'll tell you about a great scout and a trip he once made through a wilderness."
It was fine sitting there, watching the sun sink into a golden sea behind the mountains, while the valley below was already in the shadow and the dark was creeping up the hillsides.
We sat there a long time without speaking, until finally the golden sea faded into a streak of gray, and up and down the valley we could see the twinkling lights of a half dozen towns and the farmhouses between.
Then Mr. Norton threw an armful of brush onthe coals, and in the light of the blaze, which made the shadows dance like ghosts of Indian braves, he began his story.
"Some of you boys went out to Illinois, last summer," said he, "and I know from what you have told me that you learned much about the great French scout, LaSalle; how he explored the Ohio River and went up and down the Mississippi, taking possession of the country in the name of the king of France. We already have had one story which grew out of those early explorations. The Lewis and Clark Expedition through the Northwest, which I told you about, can be traced back to those scouting trips of LaSalle and the others, on account of which France claimed the country.
"This story is of another scouting trip, long after LaSalle's time and before Lewis and Clark were born, probably. It took place even before the United States was born, but, in a way, it grew out of those same trips of LaSalle and Tonty, Marquette and Joliet, the French explorers of the seventeenth century."
"Was this scout a Frenchman, then?" asked Benny.
"No, he was of English parentage, one of the finest English country gentlemen who ever lived, but born in America, and one of the greatest American scouts.
"He was a friend of yours, too, Skinny," he added, laughing to himself.
"Not me," Skinny told him, shaking his head. "I think a lot more of England than I did, on account of General Baden-Powell and the Boy Scout business, but I don't know this feller."
"That is strange. It seems to me that I have heard you remark something about his being able to lick Napoleon Bonaparte with one hand tied behind his back."
"George Washington!" shouted Skinny. "The Father of his Country. First in——"
"Say, who's tellin' this story, anyhow?" said Bill, pulling Skinny over and sitting on him.
"Yes, George Washington, who, it seems to me, would have made the finest kind of a Boy Scoutin his younger days—a scout worthy of membership in Raven Patrol. He seems to have had all of the Scout virtues. He was trustworthy, loyal to his home and his native land; he was thrifty; he was brave; he was reverent."
"I'll bet he couldn't bandage a broken leg like we can," Benny told him.
"Maybe not, but he could find his way through the forest and he didn't go around shooting at girls, thinking that they were bears. He liked girls too well for that. I believe he liked the girls better, even, than our patrol leader does."
We set up a yell at that.
"Aw, I ain't stuck on no girls," said Skinny. "I just rescue 'em, that's all."
"It's all right," Mr. Norton told him. "A girl is the greatest thing in the world, unless it is a boy. Anyhow, George Washington was a splendid type of American boyhood and he surely liked the girls; used to write poetry about them when he was your age."
I don't know why, but somehow we seemed to think more of Washington after we had heardthat. It seemed to bring him closer to us and make him a real person, instead of a picture on the wall, praying at Valley Forge or crossing the Delaware. Most always Washington is crossing the Delaware when you see him.
"He was a big fellow in the first place, while Napoleon was small. Size of body doesn't always count. Some of the greatest men the world has produced have been small of stature. But George Washington was a big fellow. Like Lincoln, he could outwrestle, outthrow, and outjump any of his mates. They still show a spot down in Fredericksburg where he stood and threw a stone across the Rappahannock River. He didn't seem to know the meaning of fear. From his early youth he was a fine horseman, taming and riding horses that nobody else could manage."
"Did his mother call him Georgie?" asked Benny, before we could stop him.
"Perhaps she did, although I hardly can imagine it. At the age of fourteen George wanted to enter the English navy and he came pretty near doing it. If he had, perhaps he would have become a greatadmiral instead of the father of his country. Who knows?
"A midshipman's warrant was obtained for him, so the story goes, and his clothes actually had been sent aboard a man-of-war. Then, at the last minute, his mother found that she could not give up her oldest boy and she withdrew her consent. It was a great disappointment to the boy, but like the good Scout that he was he obeyed his mother and went back to school. He learned to be a surveyor.
"Boys matured earlier in those days when the country was new. When Washington was only sixteen he set out on horseback through the Blue Ridge Mountains on a surveying trip. A year afterward he was given command of the militia in a Virginia district, with the rank of major."
"I don't see what LaSalle had to do with all that," said Harry.
"He didn't have anything to do with it, but he had something to do with the scouting trip which came later. You see, France and England each had obtained a strong foothold in this country; France, along the Great Lakes and MississippiRiver; England, along the Atlantic Coast. Between the Mississippi and the coast stretched a beautiful and fertile country, the valley of the Ohio. When LaSalle made his explorations he took possession of the Mississippi in the name of the king of France. On that account France claimed to own all the land along the Mississippi and along all the rivers which flowed into the Mississippi. That took in a great part of the continent."
"I don't see how because LaSalle stood on a rock and hollered out some words," Hank told him, "that made the whole country belong to France."
"England couldn't see it. Still, the English claim was not much better. Commissioners from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia made a treaty with the Iroquois Indians in 1741. By the terms of that treaty, for something like $2,000, the Indians gave up all right and title to all the land west of the Alleghany Mountains, clear to the Mississippi River. There were all kinds of Indians living in the Ohio Valley but, according to the traditionsof the Iroquois Indians, their forefathers once upon a time had conquered it."
"It looks like six of one and half a dozen of the other," I said.
"There wasn't a white settlement in the whole territory. Some hardy fur traders from Pennsylvania had made trips into the valley and this led to the formation of the Ohio Company of Virginia, with the object of getting ahead of the French and colonizing the lands. Then the French began to get busy. France owned Canada at that time, you know. In 1749 the French Governor of Canada sent three hundred men to the banks of the Ohio River with presents for the Indians. They ordered the English traders out of the country and nailed lead plates to trees, telling everybody that the land belonged to France. The Indians liked the presents well enough, but the lead plates made them mad, when they found out their meaning. One old chief exclaimed:
"'The French claim all the land on one side of the Ohio; the English claim all the land on the other. Now, where does the Indian land lie?'
"I have gone into this explanation in order to make it clear to you why Washington was sent on his scouting trip. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia wanted to send some one whom he could trust to the French commander, to protest against the French coming into the country. At the same time, he thought the messenger would be able to find out how strong the French were, how many canoes they had, and all that. It was a perilous mission to undertake through an unknown wilderness, with winter coming on. Young Washington was only twenty-two years old, but he was selected as the one to make the dangerous trip.
"Major Washington started from Williamsburg, October 31, 1753. On the frontier he procured horses, tents, etc. Later he was joined by a famous woodsman, named Christopher Gist. They took along a white man to act as interpreter and some Indian guides. Chief White Thunder was one. Another was known as the Half King. His friendship was very important to the English.
"I imagine that the mountains which they went through were much like these, except that rainsand snow had made them almost impassable. The party pushed on, however, and early in December arrived at the first French outpost. The French captain gave a feast in their honor, in the course of which he drank so much wine that it made him talkative. He began to brag of what the French were going to do. He said that they were going to take possession of the entire Ohio Valley. The young American scout kept his head clear and afterward wrote down in a book all that he had heard.
"Then Washington set out again, and after four more days of weary travel they came to the French fort on the west fork of French Creek, about fifteen miles south of Lake Erie. There he delivered his message, and after a great deal of delay received a sealed reply.
"While pretending to be friendly, the French did their best to win the Indian guides away from Washington. They plied them with liquor and with presents, so much so that the young scout had a hard time in starting them toward home. He succeeded finally in getting away. They firstwent up the creek in boats as far as an Indian village, called Venango; then set out by land. Soon their pack horses became so jaded that Washington used his saddle horse for a pack horse and walked. After three days of that, he and Gist took their packs on their shoulders, their guns in their hands, and started out alone, on a short cut to the Ohio River.
"You will find the story in any history. At one time a treacherous Indian guide wheeled suddenly and shot at Washington, but did not hit him. The two men quickly overpowered the savage, and Gist was for killing him. Young Washington would not permit that, so they did the next best thing. They took his gun away and sent him home, making him think that they would follow in the morning. Instead of that, they left their campfire burning and traveled all night and all the next day, to get as far away from the spot as possible. At last they reached the Alleghany River, which they hoped to find frozen. There was open water, however, and they were forced to build a raft. All they had to work with was one hatchet,like Skinny's, I mean Gabriel's. On the way across, a cake of ice struck the raft and threw Washington into the river."
"Gee, I'll bet that it was cold," said Skinny.
"It was, but Washington clung to the raft and finally, in a half-frozen condition, drifted against an island, where the two men camped that night. In the morning they found ice cakes so wedged in that they were able to walk ashore.
"January 16, in the dead of winter, Washington succeeded in reaching Williamsburg, and delivered the French commander's letter to Governor Dinwiddie. Soon after that came the French and Indian war, which I am sure you know all about, in which France lost all her American possessions except the great tract west of the Mississippi, which Napoleon later sold to President Jefferson.
"You see, being a scout in those days wasn't all play. It brought many hardships that we know little about, but, after all, it called for the same kind of boy. Washington was brave and true, helpful, kind, and clean, and he was prepared. When the time came, his preparedness put him incommand of the American forces and afterward made him the first President of the United States."
"Washington was great stuff, all right," said Skinny, shaking his head sadly, "but everything has been discovered now, and explored, and Injuns ain't much good outside a show. There ain't anything for a feller to do any more."
ON HISTORIC GROUND
WE were one more night on the road before reaching the Connecticut River.
"This trip is going to be a great part of the fun," Mr. Norton had told us, "and the best part of it is that we can go as slowly or as fast as we please. We'll cross over the mountain to-day, stopping whenever we feel like it, and go into camp somewhere on the other side. I want to have you do some of our Scout stunts on the way."
I don't know which was the most fun, walking along the mountain road, which wound through green woods and across laughing brooks, or pitching our camp at night and, after a good supper of our own cooking, listening to Mr. Norton's stories, around the campfire.
We started bright and early in the morning,carrying only our bows and arrows and Skinny's hatchet. The other things were on the wagon. Mr. Norton drove because we boys wanted to play.
Skinny was George Washington, making his way through the wilderness. He carried the hatchet because he might have to build a raft to get across Deerfield River. Benny was bound to be Christopher Gist. Bill had a right to first choice, on account of being corporal, but Benny wanted to be Gist and Bill didn't care. He said he'd rather be White Thunder, anyhow; it sounded so nice and noisy. Hank said that he'd be the Half King, whatever that was.
"His name was Tanacharisson," said Mr. Norton. "He was a Seneca chief of great note in those days. He was called 'Half King' because he wasn't a whole king. He was under the chief of the Six Nations."
I don't know what the rest of us were, but I do know that we had a fine time, scouting through the forest and along the road. When we came to the town of Florida, on top of the mountain, Skinny told us that it was the Indian village ofVenango, where we'd find the French outposts. He wanted to surround it, but White Thunder was for pushing on because he was getting hungry, although it was still quite early in the forenoon.
So we trudged along, and down the mountain road on the other side, until we came to Deerfield River.
We found a bridge across the river and didn't have to make a raft. There wasn't water enough to float one over the rocks, anyhow, although there was more than usual on account of the big rain.
By night we had left the Florida Mountain far behind. Along in the afternoon of the next day we marched into Deerfield, which is on the Connecticut River. Say, the people came out of their houses to see us pass, with our uniforms on and Skinny in front, swinging his rope and hatchet.
"This is historic ground," Mr. Norton told us. "At the campfire to-night we'll have a story of some fights with Indians which were the real thing. They ought to make your hair stand on end. That stream over there got its name 'Bloody Brook' from one of those fights."
We camped that night on the bank of Connecticut River, and it seemed a long way from home.
"This river was discovered by the Dutch," said Mr. Norton, after we had eaten a big supper and were lying on the river bank in the twilight of the evening, tired and happy. "The permanent settlements, however, were made by the English. The river was explored by a Hollander six years before Gabriel's English ancestors came over in theMayflower. The first English settlements, you know, were made along the Atlantic coast. Some years later a few of those settlers hiked over to the Connecticut Valley, or came up the river, and started a number of towns. One of them was Deerfield.
"It is hard for us to imagine this fertile and cultivated valley in a wild state, with a few white settlers here and there surrounded by Indians. The whites considered themselves a superior race and probably showed it by their actions. Gradually the savages, who at first had been kind, grew more sullen and dangerous. This growing hatred on the part of the Indians made it very difficult for the settlers, but there was another thing which madeit harder. In Europe, two great nations, England and France, were in almost constant warfare, and each was striving to get the better of the other in the settlement and possession of America.
"There were some early Indian wars, with which the French did not have anything to do, but they had much to do with the later wars and attacks by Indians. One of those early struggles is known as King Philip's war, named after a wily Indian chief. It occurred just one hundred years before the Revolution, where our patrol leader lost his ancestor. Even at that early day there were one hundred and twenty-five people in Deerfield. In that war the Indians attacked the town twice."
"Was that what made the brook bloody?" asked Benny.
"No. The bloody event which gave the brook its name happened during the same war but not during an attack on the town itself. September 18, 1675, I believe, was the date. A company of young men, commanded by Captain Lothrup, marched out of the town and along a road leading toward the brook. They were acting as guard and teamstersfor a number of loaded carts, which were being taken to some settler's home. It was a beautiful day and everything seemed as peaceful as it does now. All were happy and there was no thought of danger. Some had even placed their guns in the carts and were walking unarmed.
"At the brook a band of Indian warriors lay in ambush, waiting. On came the young men, laughing and whistling and chatting with one another. They stopped occasionally to gather some wild grapes, which grew along the way. Concealed in the long grass, on each side of the road, lay the painted savages, motionless and unseen. Their eyes gleamed with hatred and exultation as they watched their victims approach. Their eager hands tightly grasped their weapons. Impatient for the slaughter to begin, they awaited the signal."
"Great snakes!" whispered Bill.
"Snakes is the word. Like snakes in the grass they lay, as silent as the grave. At last the signal was given. With fierce cries they sprang upon the surprised whites, and the little brook ran red with blood. Sixty-four men in all, from the varioussettlements, were killed that day. Of seventeen young men, who went out from Deerfield that morning, not one returned.
"Too late, another company of men came to the rescue. They found nobody left to rescue. The Indians then were plundering the wagons. The savages outnumbered the rescuing party ten to one, but the little band did not hesitate. They fought desperately for five or six hours. They were unable to drive the savages away, however, and were just going to retreat, when some soldiers from Northampton, down the river, appeared and put the Indians to flight. There was sadness in Deerfield that day."
"I don't believe I want to play Indian any more," said Benny, drawing closer to the fire and looking around as if he might see some savages hiding in the grass. It made us all feel scary.
"We hardly can imagine it now," Mr. Norton went on, "after more than two hundred years. Later there were other wars and many attacks by Indians. The Deerfield people built a stockaded fort, into which all would run at the first alarm.These later attacks by the savages were a part of the fight between England and France for the possession of America. The French induced the Indians to help them drive the English out, but Englishmen do not drive worth a cent, and at last, as you know, France was obliged to give up Canada to England, in whose possession it has remained ever since.
"First came King William's war, in which Deerfield was attacked several times; then Queen Anne's war, and during that the town was captured and a great part of it burned."
"Tell us about that," I said.
"War is always a terrible thing, but in those days it seems to have been more than usually savage and cruel. Take the capture of Deerfield, for example. The French commander in Canada sent three hundred soldiers to butcher the people in this little town, in order to make himself solid with some Indians. The attack occurred a little before daybreak, and some terrible scenes were enacted. I'll show you an old door up in Memorial Hall to-morrow, which went through that fight. It wasso solid that they could not break it down. You will see where a hole was cut through it with axes and bullets.
"That massacre occurred February 29, 1704, about two hundred years ago. Then came other French and Indian conflicts, until finally England triumphed. Later the United States Nation was born, and President Jefferson bought all of the American territory that France had left.
"Everything is peaceful here now, but think how you would feel, to know that you might be surrounded by savages, fierce and bloodthirsty, creeping toward you in the darkness, without a sound, until near enough to strike, and then——"
All of a sudden there came some awful yells and whoops that made our blood run cold, and a crashing in the bushes that sounded as if all kinds of Indians were after us.
We jumped to our feet and looked, even Mr. Norton. Benny grabbed tight hold of my hand, and I could see Skinny feeling around in the grass for his hatchet.
Then it came again, nearer than before, onlyworse and over to one side. It was awful. I don't know about Mr. Norton, but the rest of us were just going to run, when the yell ended with three caws, like a crow in the Bellows Pipe at home.
"Shucks!" said Skinny, in disgust. "It's only Bill Wilson!"
We camped there on the river bank nearly a week and never had more fun in our lives, boating, fishing, swimming, doing Scout stunts and playing Scout games, and, with it all, eating our heads off, almost.
I can't remember every little thing that we did there, and the boys say that it will be all right to skip that part in writing this history. There didn't anything much happen, anyhow, although Mrs. Wade was sure some of us would get drowned and even Ma told us that she would not feel real easy in her mind until we were at home again.
"We'll go a little earlier than we intended," said Mr. Norton, when it was getting near the time for going back. "I want to see some more of that beautiful Deerfield valley, before the river leavesthe mountains. Perhaps we might do a little exploring on our own account."
We came in sight of Florida Mountain on our homeward trip, not far from Hoosac Tunnel. The longest part was behind us, but the hardest part, the climb over the mountain, was ahead.
Wild? Say, if you want to see a wild country, follow Deerfield River as it fights its way down from Vermont, until finally it breaks through the mountains and runs off to join the Connecticut. When you get in among those mountains you will think that you are Christopher Columbus discovering America.
"The Rockies are higher," said Skinny, when we had stopped to rest and look around a little. "I read it in a book. Besides, Mr. Norton told us about Lewis and Clark climbing over them. But these are some mountains all right; believe me."
That was what we all thought. They were all tumbled and jumbled together in a topsy-turvy way, with the river winding around in every direction, trying to get through, and the railroad following the river.
Mr. Norton pointed it out to us and stood there with his hat in his hand, looking. His eyes were shining, and red was coming into his cheeks, as if he was seeing something which we boys couldn't see at all. And maybe he was, for I have noticed that grown folks sometimes can't see and hear the things which we boys see and hear; at any rate, not in the same way.
"What does it make you think of?" he asked each of us.
Benny's answer was the best of all.
"There was once a baseball nine made up of real giants," said he. "They were so big that their heads reached clear up into the sky. One day when they were practising they lost the ball and so they picked up these 'ere mountains and began to throw them to each other, playing catch. Every once in a while some guy would muff the ball, I mean the mountain. Then he would let it lie where it had fallen and pick up another. That is why they are all tumbled together every which way."
"That's so," I said. "You can see where thedirt jarred off when they fell, leaving the bare rocks sticking out in a lot of places."
"It's alive, boys," said Bill, who had been feeling of Benny's head and looking anxious. "It feels like a nut, but it ain't cracked."
"Benny has given us a good description and something to think about," said Mr. Norton. "I don't believe that I should like to live here all the time, but I should enjoy staying a week and drinking in all this beauty. Talk about music! Hear the mountain breeze in the treetops. What does it remind you of, Gabriel?"
"It sounds to me exactly like beefsteak frying," Skinny told him, "and it makes me hungry. Let's have some eats."
"All right," said Mr. Norton, laughing to himself. "Now that you mention it, I believe that I can detect a faint resemblance. We can't give you beefsteak, but there is some bacon left and that ought to make much the same kind of noise. Whose turn is it to cook?"
"It's mine," Hank told him.
"Well, get busy, and for fear that we mightdisturb you, we'll go off somewhere and sit in the shade."
We were all as hungry as wolves when Hank at last called us to dinner and it tasted fine, although my piece was burnt a little.
"I don't know how you boys feel about it," said Mr. Norton, after the dishes had been washed and put away, "but I should like to camp here for a couple of days. We'll do just as you say, however. Perhaps you have had enough."
We all had been thinking the same thing and told him so.
"All right. We'll find a good place for our tents and go into camp. It will give us a chance to wash out some clothes in the river and to explore this delightful wilderness."
We had all kinds of fun practising our Scout stunts, exploring, playing Indian, and things like that. One of the prettiest places that we found was a ravine, where two cascades, twins, tumbled over rocky ledges; then came together and raced down the mountain. I don't mean that they were as pretty as Peck's Falls, above our cave. Theydon't make any finer places than that, only, of course, Niagara Falls are bigger. But they were worth looking at, just the same.
I am going to put down just how to get there, in case somebody should want to see them. You probably wouldn't walk over the mountain, as we did, because it takes so much time, but would go through Hoosac Tunnel. After you have gone through from the North Adams side and the train stops to take off the electric engine and put a steam one on, get off and walk back to the mouth of the tunnel. Then, when you have come to the mountain, climb up a sort of path, following the brook, and after a little you will come to the twin cascades. We thought of camping there at first, but couldn't find any good place for our tents.
Except for the train passing and the engineer leaning out of the cab window, we seemed out of the world, although we were not more than ten miles from home, in a straight line. The train was like company, and when we were around near we always watched it out of sight.
That is a queer little railroad which comes downfrom Wilmington and Readsboro, Vermont, as far as Hoosac Tunnel station. Mr. Norton told us all about it. It is what they call a narrow gauge railroad. That means that the rails are closer together than on most railroads, and on that account regular cars cannot run on it. Its rails are three and a half feet apart, while on a regular railroad they are four feet, eight and one-half inches apart. It runs along one bank of Deerfield River, a few feet above the water. The river is mostly stones in summer, with water in between.
The day after we camped there Skinny, Bill, Benny, Hank, and I sat on a big stone, opposite our camp, waiting to see the train go by. The other boys had gone with Mr. Norton part way up the mountain, looking for berries for our supper.
Pretty soon the train came in sight from toward Readsboro, fifteen miles north, and it was swinging along at good speed, for it was downhill.
We cheered and waved our hats as it went by. I noticed a girl, who was sitting at one of the windows in the passenger car, give a look of surprise when she saw us; then she leaned far out andwaved her handkerchief. It wasn't anybody that I knew, but when Skinny saw her he jumped to his feet and let out a yell. And what he said was:
"Mary!"
It surprised us some. You may not believe it, but the girl was Mary Richmond, the one Skinny walked down the mountain with, that time he lassoed the bear, when he was doing his hike to Savoy and back. She had been up to Readsboro with her mother, visiting.
"Come on," said he, starting on a run. "She'll have to change cars at Hoosac Tunnel station."
"Aw, what's the use?" said Bill. "We don't know her."
At that instant, while we stood there watching, we saw the engine give a sudden lurch and then go bumping over the ties. In another moment it struck a rock or something and, with an awful crash, the whole train went off the embankment into the river below.
SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE
YOU may have heard of that wreck, for the papers printed a lot about it at the time.
After the first crash, there was not a sound. I don't know how long we stood there, paralyzed with horror, staring at the place where the train had been. Then we heard a shriek of fear, or pain, we couldn't tell which, and it was a girl's voice.
That shriek brought us to our senses.
"Scouts to the rescue!"
Skinny shouted at the top of his voice, hoping that Mr. Norton and the others would hear, and we started on a run.
Before we had gone halfway Skinny turned to Benny.
"Run back to the camp," said he. "Get the bandages and other first-aid things."
"And bring my rope and hatchet," he called, over his shoulder.
The awful stillness after that first shriek sent us on faster than ever, while something seemed to clutch at our throats so that we hardly could breathe.
Bill got there first, but we were not far behind. When we had come close we could see the train, lying on the stones in the river bed. The engine had turned bottom side up and lay there on its back with its wheels in air. The passenger car was on its side and was so badly smashed that it didn't look like a car at all.
"We've got to have help and have it quick," said Skinny, looking almost pale. "Who'll go to Hoosac Tunnel station for help? Hank, you go, and run like Sam Hill."
Hank was off like a deer before the words were out of his mouth, running toward the station, nearly two miles away.
"Mary!" called Skinny. "Mary! Where are you?"
"Here," we heard a faint voice say. And,climbing down, we found her, wedged in between some timbers so that she could not move.
"Are you hurt?" we asked, as we commenced to pry her loose.
"A little," she told us, beginning to cry. "I don't know how much, but I'm all right for now. Find mamma. I don't know where she is."
After a little search we found her, nearly covered with timbers and bleeding from a cut in her head.
"She's dead," I whispered, while an awful feeling came over me. Her eyes were closed and she didn't move, even after we had lifted the timbers away.
We dragged her out as gently as we could and laid her on a couple of car seats which we took from the train. I sprinkled some water in her face and pretty soon she opened her eyes.
She stared around for a second or two, trying to understand where she was. Then she saw Skinny and seemed to remember.
"Mary!" said she. "Have you seen Mary? Oh, save my little girl!"
"Mary's all right," Skinny told her. "Wehaven't got her out yet, but we know just where she is. She sent us to find you."
"Thank God!" she whispered, and then she fainted again.
We left her there, lying among the stones on the river bottom, with her dress floating in the water.
"I wish Mr. Norton was here," groaned Skinny. "I don't know what to do. Here comes Benny with the things."
There wasn't any time to talk. We hurried back to where we could see Mary's head sticking out of the wreck. She had her eyes closed, and I thought she had fainted, but she heard us come up and opened them.
"We've got your mother out," Skinny said. "Now we'll get you out."
Her eyes asked the question which her lips couldn't seem to do.
"Yes, she's alive," we told her. "She's got an ugly cut on her head, but she seems all right except that."
It was all we could do to get her out, the timbers were so heavy and so wedged in. They had fallenacross each other and made sort of a roof over her. If it hadn't been for that she would have been killed. By all pulling on the rope and cutting some with the hatchet, we finally managed to get her loose.
When we started to lift her out she screamed with pain. We kept on lifting. There was no other way.
"It's my foot," she moaned. "It feels as if it was all broken to pieces."
Two of us made a chair with our hands and carried her carefully up on the river bank; then hurried back to the wreck.
"There is a man groaning somewhere," said Bill. "I think it must be the conductor."
We found him lying under some wreckage and in great pain.
"Where are you hurt?" we asked, when we had lifted the wreck off from him.
"My leg!" he groaned. "It's broken. I'm all in."
I took out my knife and ripped his trouser leg and underclothes to above the spot that hurt him,a little above the knee. Then, by putting one hand above the break and the other below it, just as Mr. Norton had made us practise doing a lot of times, and lifting very gently I could see the broken bone move. He ground his teeth together and great drops of sweat came out on his forehead, it hurt him so much, although I was trying to be careful.
"It's broken, all right," I told him. "We've sent for help. The only thing to do is to lie still and wait."
We straightened him out and piled some coats and things, which we found in the wreck, around his leg, to make him as comfortable as we could.
"How many are there?" I asked.
"I only had two passengers, a woman and a little girl. They got on at Readsboro. Then there was the engineer, fireman, and brakeman, besides myself. We run only a small crew on this train."
The brakeman came up while he was speaking. He had been stunned at first and when he came to had managed to crawl out.
"Have you seen Jim or George?" he asked.
The conductor shook his head.
"Do you boys know anything about the engineer and fireman?"
We hadn't thought of them before. We had been too busy.
"Then they are under the engine," said he.
He ran through the river to the head of the train, we after him, almost crazy with the thought of those men at the bottom of that awful heap of iron and steel. We pulled and lifted at the great pieces, but we might just as well have tried to move the mountain.
"We can't do it, boys," the brakeman said, at last. "We'll have to wait for help. There isn't one chance in a hundred that they are alive, but they may be. Somebody will have to run to the station and make sure that they bring some jacks. I am 'most done up and don't feel equal to it. Which one of you will go? Only one, now; the others will be needed here."
"I'll go," said Benny. "I'm the littlest one in the bunch and can be spared the easiest. What was that you said you wanted?"
"Jacks; to jack up the engine frame with. Thereare several in the baggage room. I saw them there."
Benny hated to leave, when there was so much going on, but before the brakeman had finished speaking he was climbing up on the river bank. In another second he had started down the track on a run.
"Now, fellers," Skinny told us, trying to keep his teeth from chattering, he was so excited, "our Scout book says for us to keep cool and we've got to do it. While we are waiting for help the thing for us to do is to be Scouts and to get busy with our bandages."
"And make some stretchers," added Bill. "We can't use our coats and hike sticks, like the book says, because we didn't bring 'em."
"That's easy. We can use car seats."
The "first-aid kits," which Benny had brought from camp, had everything that we needed. That was what they were put up for, only we didn't think we should need them. There were shears and tweezers, carbolized vaseline, sterilized dressings for wounds, to keep the germs out, all kinds of bandagesand things like that. Say, we looked like a drug store when we had fairly started.
Skinny cut away the shoe from Mary's foot and Bill brought cold water from a nearby spring, to bathe it in. The foot was bruised and the ankle sprained, but no bones were broken. Soon they had her feeling better.
I went to help Mrs. Richmond, but all the time I was thinking of the men under the engine. She was sitting up on the car seat, trying to keep her feet out of the water.
"Are you hurt anywhere else, except your head?" I asked.
"No," she said. "I have had a bad shock and my head is cut, but I can move all my limbs; so I guess there are no broken bones."
Her head looked worse than it was, with a gash cut in it and her hair matted down with blood.
"I don't dare bathe the cut," I told her, "because the water may be full of germs, and besides I haven't anything to bathe it with. The book says to be careful about that."
"What does the book say about my washing myface?" said she, and she didn't wait for an answer.
It didn't take long to put on a sterilized dressing and bandage her up in good shape. Then, with Skinny on one side and I on the other, she managed to walk to a low place on the river bank, where Mary was waiting, and climb up.
Mrs. Richmond said so much about how we had saved her and her little girl, it made us feel foolish.
"That ain't anything," Skinny told her. "That's what Scouts are for."
"It may be a long time before a doctor gets here," I said, after a little. "He will have to come from North Adams or Readsboro. And that conductor is getting worse every minute. If you will help me, Skinny, I'll try to put splints on his leg."
You see, I had practised with the splints more than some of the boys had. They were all for saving folks from drowning.
We first found two pieces of board. There were plenty of them scattered around, on account of the wreck. We put one piece, which was long enoughto reach from his armpit to below his foot, on the outside of the leg. The other we put on the inside. It didn't have to be so long, but reached well below the knee. Then, making sure the broken bones were in place, we tied the splints on with strips from Skinny's shirt, first putting a cushion of leaves between the boards and the leg. After that we tore up Bill's shirt and tied the broken leg to the good one with three or four strips of that.
"Do you suppose that we can get him up on the river bank?" asked Skinny, when we had him all fixed.
"We must," a quiet voice answered.
Turning, we saw Mr. Norton, who had come up so still that we had not heard him.
"Oh, Mr. Norton!" cried Skinny. "We are so glad you have come. It is an awful wreck and nobody to do anything at first but us, and we didn't know what to do. I think the engineer and fireman were killed. The brakeman is over there, trying to get them out."
"You seem to have done remarkably well for boys who didn't know what to do. I want twopoles from the woods, Gabriel. Quick! William, you go with him. John will help me here."
Skinny grabbed his hatchet, and before we had time to miss them the boys were back again with two long poles. While they were away Mr. Norton and I pulled two car seats out of the wreck and were ready to make a stretcher. By laying the seats end to end on the poles and tying them fast with Skinny's rope, we had a good one and not bad to ride on, because of the springs.
Then Mr. Norton and the brakeman, with us boys helping all we could, lifted the conductor very carefully and laid him on the stretcher. To lift it by the ends of the poles and carry it up to the river bank was the easiest part of all.
By that time, Hank and Benny had come back with two or three men from Hoosac Tunnel station, and they went to work with jacks to get the engineer and fireman out.
"A special train is coming from Readsboro," Hank told us. "It's bringing some doctors and the wrecker."
"Do you feel able to continue your journey, Mrs.Richmond?" Mr. Norton asked. "We could manage to carry the little girl as far as the station and there is a train due from North Adams in about an hour. Or would you rather wait for the special and go back?"
"I think we'd better go back to Readsboro," she said. "We have friends there and I don't feel much like walking."
We didn't have long to wait, for the train soon came puffing down the valley. Two doctors jumped off before it had time to stop and hurried over to where we were standing. They were surprised some, when they saw the people all bandaged up.
"Who did this?" asked one of them, standing over the conductor. "I thought there were no surgeons here. Did you succeed in getting somebody from North Adams?"
"These boys," Mr. Norton told him. "They are Boy Scouts and have been in training some time for this very job."
The doctor gave a little whistle.
"Good thing for him," he said, "that they werearound. I couldn't have done it much better, myself."
We felt proud when he said that, and I could tell by the way Mr. Norton smiled at us that he was feeling pretty good over it.
All the same, the doctor bandaged him over again, to make sure that everything was all right. When he had finished, the hurt ones were put on board the train and made as comfortable as possible. We heard some cheering over by the wreck and hurried back to find out what had happened.
"They are alive," a man explained. "We've jacked her up a little, and the engineer just spoke to us. He says that the fireman is alive, too."
It made us feel better to know that they were alive, and the men worked like sixty to get them out. By that time the wrecking crew had the big crane ready. After that it was easy. It didn't take long to swing the heavy frame clear of the ground and to one side.
The two men were found somewhere in the mass, badly hurt but alive, which was more than we could understand.
They were lifted out as carefully as possible and carried to the car.
"Good-by, boys!" called Mary out of the window.
"Good-by! God bless you, dear children!" said Mrs. Richmond.
"Good-by,—good-by," yelled the brakeman.
The doctors were too busy to say good-by to anybody. We watched the train steam up through the valley; then Mr. Norton took each one of us by the hand, and he squeezed hard.
We heard afterward that both men got well, although many weeks passed before they were able to work again.
We started for home, bright and early the next morning, taking all day for the climb over the mountain and camping that night among the foothills on the west side. It was only six or seven miles from there home, and we were so tough and hard that it didn't seem far.
"We can do it in two hours, easy," said Skinny.
We were beginning to be in a hurry to see our folks and the cave, after being away so long.
"Let's get home in time for breakfast," I said. "What do you say?"
"And go without eatin' until we get there? Not much!"
"We can have an early breakfast," Mr. Norton told us, "and start as soon as we can see; say, about four o'clock. We ought to be able to make it by seven, easily, and I feel sure that we shall be able to eat again, after our walk. I'd like to get home early, myself. It is time that I was going back to work after my vacation."
That is what we did, and we surprised everybody. They had not been expecting us before afternoon.
After that we didn't see anything of Mr. Norton for several days. Then he asked us to meet him at a campfire on Bob's Hill, Saturday evening.
"I have spoken to your parents," he told us, "and they have arranged for a picnic in Plunkett's woods, Saturday afternoon. We will eat supper together on the grass, at the edge of the woods, and afterward have a campfire at the old stone. I think that we owe it to your people to make a sort ofofficial report of what we did on our trip; that will be a good time to do it."
That was some picnic, all right, and it was great fun, sitting there, talking and eating; then playing Indian in the woods, surrounding the palefaces, and all that. But, best of all, was the campfire, after the sun had gone down and the moon lighted up the hills and made old Greylock loom up big and shadowy. Of course, we had told our folks all about everything but they wanted to hear more, and we had to tell it all over again.
Finally Pa spoke up. "We have heard a great deal from the Scouts," he said, "and we have enjoyed it all. Now, we'd like to hear from the Scoutmaster, how the boys behaved. But first I want to tell him how grateful we all feel for what he is doing for these youngsters."
"I am enjoying it as much as they are," said Mr. Norton, looking fine as he stood there, with the moonlight on his face. "In fact, I think that I am getting more out of it than they are. I asked you fathers and mothers to meet me here to-night because I wanted to tell you how proud I am ofthese Bob's Hill boys, the Boy Scouts of Raven Patrol. I understand that in their cave at Peck's Falls they have a motto hanging, which says that 'The Boys of Bob's Hill are going to make good.' They have made good, Mr. Smith, every one of them."
He hesitated a moment; then went on:
"I have made official application for Honor Medals for the part they took in saving human life at that unfortunate train wreck, and I hope the National Court of Honor will award them. But I, myself, have wanted to do something personally to show the boys how much I have enjoyed their companionship and what I think of their conduct—all of them, not only those who happened to be on hand at the time of the wreck. So I have had this banner made to hang under the other one, in the cave, or wherever their place of meeting may be."
He pulled out a fine silk banner from his pocket, as he spoke, and shook it out until it hung full length in the moonlight, and, looking, we saw in one corner a black raven and "Patrol 1, Troop 3Mass."; then, in large, gold letters, the Scout motto: