“That sounds interesting, anyway, Billy,” remarked Hugh.
“I tell you,” asserted Billy, with sudden vigor in his voice, “that sneaky fakir has got some unnatural influence over that boy, so as to make him do whatever he wants. I don’t know much about it, but Hugh I honestly believe he’s hypnotized Cale!”
Hugh Hardin elevated his eyebrows at hearing Billy say this.
“I don’t take very much stock in anything of that sort, Billy,” he went on to remark, “though of course I know that one strong mind can gain more or less control over a weaker one, so as to make the other obey his will. But hypnotism is going further than that.”
“Well,” returned Billy, “you just wander around that way with me as if we wanted to look the freaks over, or listen to the patter of the fakirs who’re selling patent medicine and such things to the crowd, as well as telling them funny stories to keep them in good humor.”
“I’ll take you up on that in a minute,” said the scout master, “when Alec Sands comes along, for I see him heading this way right now. I can leave the camp in his charge, you know, while we walk around for a change.”
“But Hugh, be careful not to stare at that man too hard,” urged Billy. “Gee! but he has got the most piercing black eyes you ever saw in your life. They seem to go right through you, and cause a shiver as if somebody had doused a bucket of ice-water all over you.”
Hugh laughed at the vivid description given, and then said:
“If there is such a thing as being hypnotized, Billy, you’re in a fair way to find yourself obeying the superior will of that owner of the piercing black eyes, and keeping poor Cale company. How did you happen to run across the boy?”
“Oh! I couldn’t help noticing how he seemed to be under the thumb of that man,” Billy explained. “You see, he’s useful to the fakir as a stool pigeon. When sales get slack it’s the business of the boy to hold up a dollar bill, and ask for a bottle of the wonderful remedy, and say it cured his grandmother of every ailment under the sun. Then he goes away, and gets rid of the bottle, to bob up again later on, watching for his cue to break in again with a purchase.”
“That’s the game, is it, as old as the hills; and yet I suppose the rubes never catch on to it,” remarked Hugh. “I’m surprised at the management of this Fair allowing such frauds to exhibit here, and sell their stuff.”
“Oh! they’re mad about it already, but you see they went and made contracts so they have to stick it out; but the like will never happen at Oakvale again, I’m telling you.”
“But tell me about the boy Cale,” urged Hugh.
“Why, I guess he was attracted by my khaki suit, for we got to chatting over on one side of the moving crowd. He told me his name was Cale, but nothing more than that. He acted so queer that I began to take notice, because, you see, I like to study human nature.”
“Yes, we all know that, Billy; but go on, please.”
“He would look in the direction of that man on the soap box every minute or so while I was explaining some of the things scouts enjoy, for he had asked me to tell him about that. Every time he would give a start, and draw a long breath. I saw something ailed him, and after a while I asked him plainly what made him go around to fairs and harvest homes with a fakir like that? He turned as white as anything, and looked at me as if it was on the tip of his tongue to say that he’d gone and hitched up with the man, and couldn’t break away. Then it happened, Hugh.”
“You mean he felt the influence of those black eyes, and suddenly left you without an explanation?” demanded the scout master.
“All he muttered as he moved away was something that sounded to me like this: ‘Wisht I could tell you, but I just can’t; he won’t let me; I have to do what he wants me to. If you could only break——’ and that was all I caught, for he had gone.”
Hugh rubbed his chin reflectively.
“There may be more about this than appears on the surface,” he told Billy, much to the gratification of that worthy. “Perhaps it may pay us to take an interest in this Cale. There are lots of ways in which other fellows can be helped, and if he’s held tight in the clutches of a bad man, the sooner we get some people interested in him the better.”
“Bully for you, Hugh; I’m tickled to have you say that. But here’s Alec, so now suppose you browse around a little with me while he stands guard at the camp.”
The leader of the Otters was only too pleased to be given this temporary responsibility, and so the others sauntered off.
They did not head directly toward the amusement zone, for that might excite the suspicion of the fakir, did he happen to see them making for his stand. By degrees, however, the two scouts approached the spot, apparently interested in the pratter of the spell-binders in front of the several tents containing freaks and curiosities.
Although the races were going on, and crowds had gathered to witness the horses run, there was so large a throng present at the opening of the Fair that clusters of people were to be met at every turn. Such an outpouring had never before been known on the first day, thanks to the sagacious advertising of the affair.
“Now you can see the fakir, Hugh, if you just look over to the left,” remarked Billy, after a bit.
At the time they were apparently interested in another fraud who was amusing his audience with side-splitting stories, and reaping a harvest of quarters in return for a fountain pen that may have been worth as much as a dime.
Billy himself kept from facing that way, and he also warned the other not to appear to look too hard.
“See him, don’t you, Hugh?” he asked. “What do you think of the animal?”
“Oh! he’s a slick article, I’ve no doubt, with a glib tongue, and a way of convincing people they must have the stuff he has to dispose of. I can hear him talking, and as you say he’s no ordinary fakir. At this distance I don’t feel any effect of those magnetic black eyes you talked so much about. Where’s the boy?”
“Look a little further to the right and you’ll see Cale,” pursued Billy, who had himself discovered these things with a hasty survey. “He’s leaning against that post, and kicking his toe into the earth while waiting for his cue to push in and buy another bottle of the magic compound that cures all ills.”
“Yes, I see him now, and he certainly does look pretty dejected,” said Hugh. “There’s a sort of slinking air about him too, as if he might be ashamed of what he’s compelled to do, but can’t help himself.”
“That’s what I was saying, Hugh,” declared Billy, eagerly. “He’s sort of weak by nature, and has made some terrible mistake in the past that cuts him to the heart. He might be all right if only we could get him away from that slick fakir who’s using him as his tool.”
“Well, we’ll think it over, Billy,” said the scout master.
“You mean nothing could be done right away, Hugh?”
“There’s no need to hurry,” he was told. “They mean to stay here until the Fair closes Saturday night, because their best harvest will come later on, when people from further out in the country get here. By to-morrow we may have settled on some sort of plan how to offer the poor fellow a helping hand.”
Billy, who always wanted to rush things, gave a big sigh.
“Of course, it’s all right if you say so, Hugh,” he remarked, resignedly, “and I’m willing to wait until to-morrow, or even Friday, to act; but I hope it isn’t put off any longer than that, for something might happen to make him clear out. One of the poor deluded sillies who bought a bottle of medicine might take too much and die; and then the authorities would arrest him for it.”
At the solicitation of Billy, the scout master walked off by himself, presently joining the group around the glib-tongued bogus “doctor,” and listening to what he was saying. He even saw the stool pigeon push through the gathering to demand a bottle of the wonderful cure-all that had so lengthened the days of his respected grandfather that they were unwilling to keep house without its magical presence.
Hugh studied the boy when he had the chance. He realized that Billy had about hit the mark when he described him as one who appeared to have a rather weak nature, easily controlled by a stronger will. Cale’s manner was anything but pleasing; still Hugh did not believe the boy was really vicious or depraved.
“Yes, he ought to be helped to break his associations with that clever scamp,” was what the scout master was deciding in his mind as he watched the ancient game of confidence being played upon the curious throng, with a subsequent purchase by several who had been hesitating, and only waiting for someone else to break the ice, so they could hand up their dollar without being too prominent.
He even managed to follow the boy as he hurried off, and saw how he circled around, dodging through the crowds and finally bringing up at a tent into which he ducked. When he came out immediately afterwards he no longer carried the paper wrapped bottle of medicine. Hugh did not need to see the sign “Old Doctor Merritt” fastened to the dingy canvas to understand that this was the temporary sleeping quarters of the fakir, and also of his helper, who deposited all his pretended purchases back in stock.
Hugh went back to the scouts’ camp, thinking what a shame it was that, for the sake of the small amount of money paid over by these mountebanks and fakirs, the management of the County Fair had sold them the privilege of fleecing the confiding visitors who came from distances, under the belief that Oakvale would protect her guests against all such cheating games as these.
“It’ll never happen again, if the scouts can put our people wise to such a debasing side show sort of business,” Hugh told the others, when they were talking things over at the camp during a temporary lull in the rush of visitors.
“We’ve been able to do a few things that count in the long run,” said Alec. “If future fairs can be conducted without so much of this rowdy sort of selling concessions to fake shows and fakirs with claptrap humbugs to stick the gullible public with, it would be a feather in our caps, I’m telling you, boys.”
Here then was one thing they could concentrate their efforts on that gave promise of paying for the investment of capital and labor. The idea pleased the boys the more it was discussed; and Hugh asked those who were present to push it wherever they had a chance. This was to be in their homes or on the street, until the management of the Fair must feel it their duty to make a statement to the effect that this was the very last occasion when any of these objectionable elements would be admitted to the grounds, or even allowed outside.
Hugh, Arthur and Lige Corbley chanced to be standing there in front of the camp talking with another batch of curious visitors, who wanted to be shown everything connected with scout life under canvas, when there was a sudden loud outcry.
“A runaway!” shouted Lige, as he pushed his way out of the circle of people, for he was a fellow quick to act.
They were just in time to see a vehicle coming dashing along, drawn by a very much excited pair of horses that must have taken fright at some unusually noisy motorcar. Even as the boys looked one of the two men in the rig sprang out, taking his chances. The other was vainly endeavoring to saw the two frantic animals into subjection by pulling at the lines.
He might have succeeded in this, but unfortunately one of the reins broke. Lige was on hand, however, and, clutching hold of the bits close to the mouth of the near horse, he managed to detain the struggling pair until others could come to his assistance.
It was quite exciting while it lasted, and Hugh felt glad that Big Lige had been the one to stop the runaway. The latter shrugged his shoulders when Hugh tried to compliment him, and said it “didn’t amount to a row of beans, in fact was almost too easy!”
“There’s a crowd coming this way, and as sure as you live they’re carrying the man who made that fool jump out of the vehicle!” exclaimed Dale Evans, who had arrived at the camp just in time to see this thrilling runaway.
“Unless I’m mistaken, Arthur,” said Hugh, turning on the other with a smile, “there comes your first patient!”
“Looks as if he might be hurt pretty bad, too,” said Billy Worth, as the crowd pressed forward, and approached the twin tents of the scouts.
“First thing we have to do is to keep them back as well as we can,” declared Hugh. “Whip that rope around the stakes, boys, and then stand guard over the opening you leave.”
The scout master had prepared for just such an emergency as this. He knew that in case of a serious accident, if the patient were brought to the camp, a morbid curiosity to see what was going on was apt to bring an enormous mob surging around the tents.
That is one of the most serious difficulties to be encountered whenever there happens to be an accident in the public streets of a city; and so fiercely do men, women and boys struggle to see what is going on that they often have to be entreated to fall back in order that the patient may get air.
“Bring him right in this tent,” said Hugh to the men who were carrying the man, who was groaning with pain; and then turning to the pressing crowd the scout master continued: “Please don’t push so hard. The tent is open, and some of you can see what is going on. Keep back, and give us a chance to do something.”
That appeal awoke the spirit of fair play. Immediately one man called out:
“Yes, give the boys a chance to show what they can do! Everybody keep back, and stop that rough house business. Here, help me hold ’em, Crowther; give the scouts a show for their money. Get back, do you hear; what d’ye want to push like that for?”
He used energetic measures for enforcing his demands; and as he happened to be a big brawny man those who had been squeezing forward so as to gain a view of the proceedings ceased their efforts.
Hugh was satisfied. He saw they had gained friends among the watchers, and that the danger of the tent being almost torn from its moorings by the press of the rude crowd was a thing of the past.
Accordingly he turned and joined Arthur, who was already bending over the groaning man with professional eagerness.
“How bad is it, do you think, Arthur?” asked Hugh.
“I’m not sure, but he seems to have a broken arm, and one of his ankles has been sprained, for it’s swelling fast,” replied Arthur, who had apparently made a surprisingly quick examination.
“A pretty bad combination,” remarked Hugh. “Here, Dale, you and Billy get that shoe off in a hurry, but don’t be any rougher than you can help.”
In the meantime Hugh started to assist Arthur. The man had been laid on the cot with which the hospital tent was supplied. They lifted his head and shoulders a little.
“Try and stand it the best you can, sir,” said Hugh, endeavoring to give the suffering man confidence. “We want to draw your coat off, and then cut the sleeve of your shirt so we can get at the injured arm.”
Now had it been a bearded doctor who said this the man might have bolstered up his courage, and stopped giving utterance to his anguish; but when he saw that the speaker was only a boy he shut his eyes and groaned again.
The coat came off, and then Arthur deftly cut the sleeve of the man’s shirt. He had no sooner rolled this up out of the way before they saw that the fracture was a pretty serious one, coming above the wrist, and apparently being of a compound nature.
Arthur did not hesitate. He seemed to have the instincts of a true surgeon in his nature, for grasping the injured arm he made a few deft movements with his strong nimble fingers, and then taking the splints which Hugh had picked up from the little chest in which they kept their medical supplies he began binding these to the arm with swift, certain strokes.
Those in the crowd who were able to watch the operation were astonished by the business-like way in which Arthur and Hugh went about it all.
Meanwhile the other boys had removed shoe and sock and rolled up the leg of the man’s trousers. His ankle was swollen, and beginning to turn a dark blue.
“Get the tin basin and pour cold water over the ankle to keep the swelling down all you can, Dale,” said the scout master, giving one glance that way.
Dale was already doing this, for he knew that with a sprain the application of ice or cold water is the first remedy to be considered. At the best such an injury is a serious thing, and often takes months to fully heal. Many persons have declared they would prefer to have a clean break of a bone than a bad sprain.
“D’ye mean to tell me them boys know anything about fixin’ up a broken bone?” one man was heard to say, with an expression of scorn in his voice. “Why, I’d think it was a man’s work, an’ a skillful surgeon’s at that, to set a bone. In my mind it’s an outrage to let boys meddle with serious things like that.”
“Hold on, neighbor,” said the big man who had stood there as a bulwark, keeping the jostling, thoughtless, curious crowd back by main force, “where have you been the last year or so? I reckon all the Rip Van Winkles ain’t done away with yet. Wake up, and get ’quainted with what’s goin’ on these days. Kids ain’t just the same as when you and me was young; they’re shamin’ a whole lot of us old codgers by the way they do a heap of things.”
“That’s all right,” asserted the other, doggedly, “but when it comes to meddlin’ with broken bones I say it’s a surgeon’s job, and no boy should be allowed to put his finger in the pie. Why, like as not he’ll make that arm crooked for life. What can these here scouts know about surgery, tell me?”
“A whole lot, as you’ll learn if you take the scales off your eyes and look into what they’ve already done. These very scouts here have saved some of their comrades from drowning. They likewise took care of those strikers that were shot down last summer when they had that fight with the guards over at the cement works; yes, and the Red Cross surgeon wrote our paper here that they did their work like veterans. If I ever have the bad luck to get thrown out of a buggy and have my leg broke I’ll be tickled to death if some of these scouts happen along and take hold of me.”
These words were greeted with a cheer by the crowd, for many local people were now present, and surely they ought to know what Hugh and his comrades of Oakvale Troop were capable of accomplishing.
The skeptic may not have been wholly convinced that the boys were capable of doing the things that as a rule needed the skilled hand of a surgeon; but at least he had the good sense to keep still. That vociferous cheer may have told him that those around had faith in the scouts.
He continued to watch every move that was made, and no doubt the confident manner in which all the boys went about their several tasks began to have its effect on his disbelief. They certainly were showing all the signs of knowing what they were about, and that stood for a good deal.
The man had stopped groaning now. He even brightened up, for after the bones had been brought together in their proper places, the pain was not quite so intense. Then again the way in which Arthur and Hugh were binding up his arm, after fixing the splints in place, may have had something to do with the return of his grit.
“What’s the extent of the damage, boys?” he asked, weakly.
“A broken arm, and a sprained ankle, sir,” said Hugh, cheerily; “but you’re in great luck not to have a broken neck in the bargain. We’ll have you fixed up so you can be moved. I guess you don’t live in Oakvale, sir, for you’re a stranger to me?”
“I live some ten miles off toward Somerville; but after that accident I’d hate to ride behind horses again while crippled like this,” said the man.
“No need, sir,” Hugh told him. “If you say the word we’ll send for the ambulance and you can go to the hospital; or if you prefer we can get a car to take you home.”
“I guess I’d better go to the hospital,” the wounded man said. “My wife, she died last spring, and I’ve only got an old man and his wife working on the farm.”
“All right,” returned the scout master. “Dale, will you call up the hospital and tell them to come and get a patient with a broken arm and a sprained ankle? Billy, wrap some soft linen around that sprain now, and soak it with the liniment. Then get another bandage around it, and we’ll loan him a cane. It so happens that he can use the arm he needs to support him when he limps.”
Dale hurried away, and quickly got the town hospital on the wire. When he came back presently he nodded to Hugh. “They’re on the way by now, I reckon,” he announced.
The man had put his uninjured arm through a sleeve of his coat, and the garment was then fastened so that it might not fall off.
“Well, I want to say that you boys have done a right good job tinkering with me,” he said, as they helped him sit up on the cot, and Dale procured the heavy cane that was lying handy. “After this I’m going to take more interest in the scout doings than I’ve done in the past. If being a scout can make boys think, and act like this, there must be a heap of good about the business.”
“You can just depend on it there is, Mr. Benson,” said the big guard, who seemed to know the injured man. “I’ve looked into the game, and let me tell you it’s going to pay a thousand per cent. for every effort put into it by the long-headed gentlemen who have the movement in charge. Ten and twenty years from now there’s going to be a heap better class of men around than you meet to-day; and all on account of these scouts.”
A few minutes later and there was heard the sound of a gong, and up came the Red Cross ambulance. The injured man was easily helped into the vehicle, while Arthur and Hugh explained to the young surgeon just what steps they had taken to relieve suffering, and render first aid to the injured.
“You couldn’t have done better,” said the medical man, patting Arthur on the shoulder, for he knew both lads well, and also understood the design of one of them to some day become a surgeon. “I’ll let you know later what I think of the way you fixed up his arm.”
The ambulance went off presently, with the man waving his one well arm back at the crowd, and particularly toward the boys who had performed their part so well in the tragic happening of the afternoon.
Slowly the crowd dispersed, and the scouts could find time to put things to rights again. Arthur was looking as pleased as though he were “a child with a new toy,” Billy remarked to Hugh, under his breath.
The big man lingered. He was plainly greatly interested in the boys, and asked a great many questions.
“That man you helped,” he told Hugh, “was a Silas Benson, who lives over toward Somerville. He’s one of the richest men in those parts, though folks call him close. But since his wife died I reckon there’s a change coming over Silas; and somehow I kind of think what’s happened to him to-day may set him to figuring that he might as well get busy living for somebody besides himself. You’re going to hear from him again, boy, mark my words.”
And they did, later on, when the rich farmer had recovered from his injuries. He wanted them to accept a reward, but was shown that scouts are not allowed to receive pay for their services; and in the end Mr. Benson was easily influenced to do something for the needs of the orphan asylum of Oakvale, which was overcrowded, and required a new wing built.
Some time after the excitement had subsided Walter Osborne, who had been busy in another part of the Fair grounds, came to the camp, and Hugh could see by the look on his face he had something on his mind that was giving him more or less concern.
“It’s the queerest thing how it gives me the slip!” Walter was muttering when he came up to where the scout master was standing, watching the crowd drift past, and often waving his hand at some boy, or group of high school girls.
“What ails you, Walter; have you lost anything?” asked Hugh, laying a hand on the arm of the leader of the Hawk Patrol, of whom he was very fond.
“I must be getting along in my dotage, Hugh, when I can’t remember where I met a fellow, even when his face seems so familiar to me,” the other went on to say, with a frown on his usually placid brow.
“Oh, that isn’t such a queer thing,” Hugh assured him. “I’ve had it happen to me more than once. It always bothers me, and I get no peace till I’ve figured it out. I’ve even lain awake a night going over the alphabet from A to Z, and then failing to get it. In the morning the name would come to my mind just as easy as falling off a log.”
“Well, that may be the way with me,” said Walter. “I stood and watched that boy move around, and half a dozen times it seemed as though it must be on the tip of my tongue to say his name, yet I slipped connections. A little thing like that makes me mad. I tell you I’ll find out just who he is, if in the end I have to go up and ask him.”
“Perhaps, if you pointed him out to me, I might help you,” suggested Hugh, knowing how set in his way Walter could be.
“I could do that all right, Hugh,” replied the other scout. “Come to think of it he’s acting as if he mightn’t be engaged in the nicest kind of business going.”
“How about that?” demanded Hugh.
“Why,” came the reply, “from what I saw it struck me he must be connected with one of those fakirs who are trying to skin the simple country people of their dollars.”
Hugh arched his eyebrows, remembering what Billy had told him.
“Do you remember whether the man he was working with was a fake doctor who has a medicine he calls the Wonderful New Life Remedy at a dollar a bottle, worth ten to any one? Is he a man with a black pointed beard, and eyes that glitter like you’ve seen a badger’s or a snake’s do?”
Walter uttered an exclamation of wonderment.
“Why, I declare, Hugh, you’ve hit the right fakir to a dot,” he told the scout master. “Perhaps you’ve even noticed that boy?”
“Yes, I have,” Hugh remarked. “Billy called my attention to him.”
“Say, did Billy seem to think he’d met him somewhere, too?”
“No, but he did say he believed the boy was under some sort of queer spell, for he acted as if he’d like to break away from that fake doctor, but didn’t dare try it.”
“You don’t say, Hugh?” remarked Walter. “I didn’t seem to notice anything like that. But I’d give a heap just to remember where it was I ever met that boy before. I can’t seem to place him.”
“Billy said he called himself Cale,” observed Hugh; but Walter, after thinking it over for a brief period of time, shook his head in the negative.
“That doesn’t seem to help me any, Hugh,” he admitted.
“You don’t ever remember of knowing any one named Cale or Caleb, then?”
“Why, there was a Cale Warner I used to go with long ago, but then he had red hair and blue eyes, while this boy is as dark as a gypsy. Don’t seem able to scare up another Cale. Perhaps I never knew his name at all. Perhaps I only happened to meet him somewhere. But where was it, that’s the question?”
“I wish I could help you, Walter, because I know how it galls you to keep reaching out and almost getting it, and then feeling that you’re left. But it’ll come to you all of a sudden, see if it doesn’t. You’ll find yourself saying his name, or remembering where you met him.”
“I was wondering if it could have been that time we earned these bronze medals we’re wearing right now?” suggested Walter.
“You mean when we had the chance to help the wounded strikers,” said Hugh. “Well, it may have been, but I’m sure I never set eyes on that boy before to-day.”
“Do you know what this game makes me think of, Hugh?”
“Prisoners’ base, with the fellow you thought to grab slipping right out of your hands?” suggested the other.
“I was thinking of something else,” resumed Walter; “you know when you’re in the marsh at a certain time of year, and the night’s dark, often you’ll discover a queer light that dances just ahead of you. When you stretch out your hand and think to take hold, it disappears, only to bob up again somewhere else.”
“Yes, I know what you mean, Walter,” admitted Hugh. “They call it a Will-o’-the-wisp, or a jack-o’-lantern, and tell us it’s caused by some kind of phosphoric condition of the atmosphere. Standing on the deck of a moving steamboat and looking down into the water I’ve seen streaks like that shoot away as fish fled from the boat.”
“Well, that’s just the way this name keeps on eluding me,” Walter confessed.
Something came up then to call for Hugh’s attention, and the subject was dropped; but when Walter walked away later on, heading once more toward the amusement reservation, where the fakirs also held forth, his face looked unusually serious, as though he could not get that puzzle out of his mind.
The boys were called on to attend several more cases of necessity during the balance of that first afternoon. Fortunately none of these proved to be of a serious nature, however.
One elderly woman fainted, and was speedily brought to her senses with the help of a sprinkling of cold water, and some ammonia held under her nostrils. A boy had his finger cut by handling something he had no business to touch, and they brought him, crying, to the emergency tent, where Arthur soon stopped the bleeding, and did the finger up in such a neat way that even the kid was soon smiling through his tears.
The aëroplane exhibition had passed off successfully, and as usual it gave considerable satisfaction, because everybody was showing great interest in the modern methods of harnessing the air currents to the use of mankind.
It was now getting on toward closing time, which had been placed at sharp six o’clock every evening. County fairs as a rule do not pretend to keep open nights, as they are mostly outdoor shows, and the means for illuminating the exhibits would be found sadly lacking.
By degrees the scouts were gathering in their camps, and making preparations looking to going home to a good hot supper. Most of the boys were furiously hungry, for it had been a long afternoon, and they had certainly covered a good deal of territory in carrying out their plan of campaign.
“Of course we meet here again to-morrow afternoon, as soon as we can get a bite of lunch at home?” remarked Spike Welling, brushing his leggings free from dust, for Spike had been one of the most industrious guides on the grounds ever since arriving.
“That’s understood without any further orders,” Hugh told him. “The programme we laid out for to-day will carry over to-morrow as well. I want to say to you now that every fellow has done himself and the troop proud by his work to-day. I’m sure the people of Oakvale appreciate what we’ve tried to do for the success of the County Fair.”
“Here comes President Truesdale, Hugh,” interrupted Alec Sands.
“And I bet you he’s heading this way to give us the glad hand, too,” added Billy, immediately beginning to swell out his ample chest as though in anticipation of the bouquets that would soon be passing around.
The head man of the Association, as he drew near, was pleased to see the scouts line up like magic, and give him the proper salute. Evidently he had been hearing pretty favorable reports of their doings, because there was a smile on his face as he surveyed that double khaki-clad line of bright eager faces.
“Thank you, boys,” the President said, warmly, as he acknowledged this salute in his honor by a wave of his hand. “I couldn’t leave the grounds this evening until I had come over here to your camp to tell you how well satisfied we all are with the great help you have given the management in carrying out their arduous duties. I’ve heard great reports of you in a dozen different ways. If this Fair is a success beyond any previous exhibition, part of the credit will justly fall to the Oakvale Troop of Boy Scouts.”
“Hurrah!” cried Billy Worth, and three lusty cheers were given with a will.
Hugh never knew what impelled him to say what he did. Perhaps the matter was on his mind, and somehow he just felt that the opportunity was too good to be entirely lost. He was afterward rather surprised at his own audacity; but then the President happened to be a congenial gentleman who felt warmly toward the wearers of the khaki, so Hugh decided to “strike while the iron is hot.”
“We are very much obliged to you for saying what you have, sir,” Hugh spoke up. “It makes us feel proud to know that what little we’ve done pleases you. If you will excuse me for being so bold, I’d like to say that there’s only one thing wrong with the whole Fair, as we see it.”
“What might that be, my boy?” asked the gentleman, raising his eyebrows as if rather taken aback at hearing Hugh speak so fearlessly.
“It’s about those fakirs, and some of the side-show humbugs, sir,” continued the scout master, while his chums held their breath in mingled admiration. “They are a disgrace to Oakvale. They are here to deceive the public, and take as much money away as they can, using all sorts of deception. We’ve been told that next year it’s going to be different, and we all hope that’s a fact.”
The gentleman stood there and eyed Hugh under his heavy brows. They could not exactly tell whether he might feel angry at being spoken to so boldly, or only amused. Hugh himself was beginning to suspect that he may have done an unwise thing, and offended the President. His fears, however, proved groundless, for presently the other spoke again.
“I agree with every word you have said, Hugh. It was a great mistake to bind ourselves by contract to allow these disgraces this year. All of my colleagues realize it now, and take my word for it, nothing like it will ever happen again. We know it is necessary to have some way of amusing the majority of people who attend these fairs; but we’ll find a way to do that without allowing them to be fleeced by a gang of legalized robbers.”
“Hurrah!” called Billy again, just as though he had been made cheer captain for the whole troop. Nearly a score of lusty young voices rang out once, twice, three times in unison.
Some of the retiring people hurrying toward the gates, at hearing the vociferous cheers, glanced that way, and seeing the scouts, smiled; for in nearly every quarter Hugh and his comrades had won golden opinions on account of their universal desire to be of assistance, with their unfailing courtesy toward strangers, as well as to those whom they knew.
So the President of the Association went away with a last happy nod toward the khaki boys. Having laced both tents securely so that their goods might be reasonably safe, Hugh led his troop out of the grounds in regular marching order, with the flag and the bugler in front, and the others following two abreast.
As they were separating, Walter managed to whisper to the scout master:
“I’m going to knock my head to-night and see if I can’t just remember where it was I met that boy; tell you how I got on when I see you to-morrow afternoon.”
The second day of the County Fair promised to show even a greater attendance than the opening one had done. Of course, the really fine weather had considerable to do with the success of the undertaking, for it would be hard to imagine a more complete failure than such an exhibition always proves when an unfortunate rainy spell comes along just after it had started.
Once again did the scouts appear in full numbers, eager to undertake another afternoon’s work. At home and abroad, as well as in the school-room, they had been hearing nothing but encouraging words, and were thus primed for excelling their previous record.
Walter Osborne saw the scout master looking at him with a quizzical smile on his face, as soon as he arrived at the camp. He shook his head rather dolefully in the negative.
“That name gets on my nerves, for a fact, Hugh!” the Hawk leader confessed.
“Then, after all, you didn’t dream the answer last night, or have it pop into your head the first thing this morning?” asked Hugh.
“Same old story,” said Walter. “I’d open my mouth to say where I had met that boy, and then get no further. I mean to keep an eye on him part of the afternoon. Perhaps I may glimpse some little way he has about him that will freshen up this silly old memory of mine. A fine scout I’m turning out to be when I can’t remember a little thing like that.”
“Oh! don’t bother your head too much about it,” Hugh advised him; “that is, I hope you won’t let it interfere with your duties.”
“I can promise you that, Hugh. My folks had word from Uncle Reuben and Aunt Ruth this morning. They hope to land in Oakvale on that six-twenty train this evening, so I expect to go right down from here and meet them in time for supper.”
“I’m glad they’ll be here for the last two days of the Fair,” remarked Hugh, “for it certainly will be worth seeing.”
He soon had his various detachments at work. Some were sent to the station to meet the next train; others wandered about the grounds, and into the various buildings where all manner of exhibits of great interest to the farmer and the housewife were being admired by thousands of visitors.
“I wonder whether we’ll have any serious cases to-day?” remarked Arthur Cameron, as he joined Hugh, and looking around expectantly as he spoke at the passing throng.
“It’s to be hoped not,” the other replied. “I wouldn’t seem so anxious if I were you, Arthur. If they come we’ll try our best to take care of them; but all the same we shouldn’t allow ourselves to wish for anything like that.”
“Oh! I didn’t mean it that way, Hugh,” exclaimed Arthur, turning red with confusion; “though a fellow begins to have a professional curiosity concerning the character of his next job. That was so easy what we had yesterday, you know.”
“Was it?” remarked Hugh. “Well, all the people who spoke to me about it seemed to think the other way. Several said they admired the nerve you showed; and one old lady even went so far as to tell me—now don’t get proud, Arthur—that you were a born surgeon.”
Arthur drew in a long breath. That praise did him more good than anything he had ever heard; for he meant to be a surgeon; and nothing must be allowed to stand in the way of his following whither inclination and destiny beckoned.
Again there were scores of visitors attracted by the trim camp, and the sight of the manly looking boys in scout uniforms. They stopped to ask questions, and were shown the complete camping arrangements, all of which interested them. Hugh could not but notice that a look of doubt and skepticism crossed many of the faces of these strangers when they heard that the second tent was to be used as an emergency hospital, and that the boys stood ready to perform any needed surgical operation as covered by the rules of “first aid to the injured.”