THE BOY SCOUTS WITH THE RED CROSS

BY SCOUT MASTER ROBERT SHALER

AUTHOR OF “BOY SCOUTS OF THE SIGNAL CORPS,” “BOY SCOUTS OF PIONEER CAMP,” “BOY SCOUTS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,” “BOY SCOUTS OF THE LIFE SAVING CREW,” “BOY SCOUTS ON PICKET DUTY,” “BOY SCOUTS OF THE FLYING SQUADRON,” “BOY SCOUTS AND THE PRIZE PENNANT,” “BOY SCOUTS OF THE NAVAL RESERVE,” “BOY SCOUTS IN THE SADDLE,” “BOY SCOUTS FOR CITY IMPROVEMENT,” “BOY SCOUTS IN THE GREAT FLOOD,” “BOY SCOUTS OF THE FIELD HOSPITAL,” “BOY SCOUTS AS COUNTY FAIR GUIDES,” “BOY SCOUTS AS FOREST FIRE FIGHTERS,” ETC.

NEW YORK HURST & COMPANY PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1915, BY HURST & COMPANY

CHAPTER I. WHEN THE AMBULANCE CAME.

“It’s going to be all right now, fellows!”

“Well, for one I’m glad to be relieved from these onerous duties, as sure as my name’s Billy Worth!”

“Listen to Billy talk, just as if the whole burden had been resting on his shoulders, when everybody knows Arthur Cameron and our efficient scout master, Hugh Hardin, have done about all the tough work!”

“That’s right, Alec, but it’s made me tired watching them hurrying from one patient to another. Then again, mebbe it’s partly because I’m not used to being in a field hospital anyway, and my nerves are getting shaky under the terrific strain.”

“Have it as you will, boys, but just the same every one of us is happy to see that Red Cross ambulance coming down the road from Farmingdale.”

“Let’s give them three cheers, Hugh!”

Six well-battered campaign hats, such as Boy Scouts almost invariably delight in wearing, were waved energetically in the air, and as many pairs of lusty young lungs roared out a salvo of welcome.

It was a most remarkable scene which that half-dozen wearers of the honored khaki looked upon at the time those cheers rang out. For the special benefit of those readers who may not have enjoyed reading the preceding books of this series, a little explanation may not come in amiss while the boys are awaiting the arrival of the oncoming ambulance.[1]

These boys belonged in the New England town of Oakvale, and most of them were members of the Wolf Patrol of the local troop. They had started out in the early summer for a camping trip, having also members of other patrols with them—the Hawk, the Otter, the Fox and the Owl—numbering some fourteen in all.

Pitching their tents on the bank of the roaring Hurricane, in a section of country where they had never been before, they proceeded to enjoy themselves after the fashion of scouts—every one according to his own pleasure—although at the same time a certain amount of authority was exercised by the acting scout master.

A variety of adventures fell to their lot which have been faithfully recorded in the pages of the preceding volume; they should prove interesting reading to all lads with red blood in their veins.

It developed that they had camped within a couple of miles of a large plant or cement works where a couple of hundred men, mostly foreigners, had been employed.

On account of dull times the owner of the works had thought fit to reduce the wages of his employees, and in consequence there had been a strike.

As so frequently happens in such cases where feeling runs high, the owner of the plant, upon finding that his old men would not return to work, hired guards to protect the buildings, while he imported a new lot of strike-breakers whose presence excited the foreigners and promised trouble.

The boys in camp had learned something about this, and Hugh Hardin was seen to listen many times when certain sounds came on the wind blowing from the quarter where he knew the plant was located.

Finally, one morning shortly after breakfast they had heard the sound of numerous gunshots, and much loud shouting. This told them what they had been fearing must have happened, and that a terrible battle between the strikers and the guards had come to pass.

Scouts above all things are always looking about for opportunities to make themselves useful to their fellow beings; and it now occurred to Hugh Hardin that they would never forgive themselves if they did not proceed to render “first aid to the injured” to any of the wretched foreigners who may have been shot during the riot that had taken place.

Accordingly, after consulting with his chums, the scout master selected five of whom he wished to accompany him on his errand of mercy. Of course, in picking these members of Oakvale troop, Hugh considered their availability along the line of knowledge of surgery in its first principles as well as their ability to handle a stretcher in case such should be needed.

So they had hastened across country and arrived on the scene to find that their worst fears were realized. Several badly wounded men had already been helped back to the settlement where these foreigners lived in shacks and even tents. Others, to an unknown number, were said to be lying on the ground where they had fallen at the time they tried to rush the guards, who shot them down by a murderous fire.

Besides Hugh Hardin and his stout, good-natured chum, Billy Worth, there were present Arthur Cameron, said to be the best hand at surgery in the troop, Alec Sands, Bud Morgan and Ralph Kenyon.

They had managed with the aid of a rude stretcher made from a mattress tick obtained from the padrone of the foreign settlement to carry the last of the badly wounded strikers to the temporary field hospital which had been started under a tree. There were a couple of women patients as well, for in that rush toward the gates of the stockade surrounding the cement works, the women had urged on their husbands, just as the Amazons outvied all others during the Revolution in Paris long ago.

Here the six boys had labored, and tried to do all they could to relieve the suffering of those wretched victims of the riot, some of whom were injured so badly that Hugh and Arthur feared for their lives.

Wisely foreseeing that they had a greater task cut out for them than it would appear lay within the province of Boy Scouts, with their limited knowledge of surgery, Hugh from the beginning had determined to seek assistance.

It happened that just then the Red Cross movement in the State was receiving an impetus, and those deeply interested in the advance of the cause of mercy were holding some sort of a convention in the city of Farmingdale, not a great many miles away from the pitiful little field hospital which Hugh and his mates had organized under such discouraging conditions.

Hugh understood that at this convention there was to be shown one of the very newest motor ambulances, together with its regular traveling doctor and two nurses of the Red Cross.

It was feared that those in charge of the works might delay sending off an account of the battle, and hence help would be slow in coming. Accordingly, Hugh Hardin, with his accustomed zeal, had conceived the idea of telegraphing direct to the Red Cross at Farmingdale. He had explained in brief language what a terrible condition of affairs prevailed, and begged that they dispatch their new motor ambulance forthwith, in order to save the lives of several whose cases were beyond the limited capabilities of the scouts.

As the boys, though never slackening their arduous duties, had been watching eagerly for much more than an hour after this urgent message had been dispatched, it can easily be understood why they should hail the appearance of that oncoming ambulance with hearty cheers.

“There, you can see the surgeon all in white sitting beside the chauffeur!” exclaimed Alec Sands, as they gathered in a cluster and anxiously awaited the coming of those who would relieve them from the weight of care pressing so heavily on their young shoulders.

“Yes, and I c’n also see two nurses, also in snowy garments, peeping out back of the surgeon,” added Billy Worth.

The foreigners were wildly excited. Of course most of them had never before set eyes on a Red Cross ambulance, and they hardly knew whether they should allow the strangers to take their wounded away, or to resist them. They rushed this way and that, all the while talking at a furious rate, until as Ralph Kenyon, who had always been a lover of the woods, declared it reminded him of a crow caucus, where a thousand birds cawed and scolded and clamored.

The ambulance drew up close to where the six scouts stood, as though the one at the wheel recognized them as being in authority; or it may be the surgeon saw the significant signs of a field hospital in the figures scattered on dirty blankets under the shade of that wide-spreading oak.

“Which one of you sent that message, boys?” asked the surgeon, a young energetic man, who looked as though he knew his business; and as the other five scouts immediately turned their eyes toward Hugh, he understood, so he went on to say: “From another source news came in that many were seriously injured, and a few killed outright. Is that a fact?”

“So far as we have been able to find out, sir, there were no actual fatalities,” Hugh told him, “though several are badly hurt, having been shot in the back!”

“What’s that you say—shot in the back?” demanded the surgeon quickly. “That is a significant admission which may have considerable bearing on the finding of a coroner’s jury in case death results. But show me what you have been doing in this emergency, my boys.”

“We had hardly any facilities worth mentioning, you understand, sir,” remarked Arthur Cameron, “and a number of the patients had to be carried from the place where they were hurt to this amateur field hospital. We made a stretcher, you see, for that purpose.”

“And well done at that. I’ll be bound it answered the purpose as well as the up-to-date one connected with the ambulance!” cried the astonished Red Cross surgeon.

He went from one patient to another and examined the work of the scouts. Loud was his praise for the cleverness shown by Arthur Cameron. While doubtless in many things it was far from the finished product of a graduated surgeon, at the same time there was much about it to cause the surgeon to commend the boys.

“I want to tell you, my boy,” he said directly to the blushing Arthur, when Hugh informed him that most of the work had been done by that modest member of the scout troop, “you’ll make the mistake of your life if you fail to continue along this road, for you have it in you to accomplish wonders. Take my advice, and think very seriously before you commit the blunder of putting a square man in a round hole.”

Of course, that was very pleasant talk for Arthur, and his chums seemed to take quite as much delight in hearing him praised as though they themselves came within the scope of the surgeon’s flattery.

They watched how deftly he worked when examining the wounds that had been already treated, turning most of the ordinary cases over to the two nurses. Hugh learned, as he chatted with the other, that the young surgeon’s name was Doctor Richter, and the attendants of the ambulance were Nurse Arnold and Nurse Jones.

The former was a middle-aged woman who had doubtless had much experience in her line; but Nurse Jones, Hugh found, was rather young and with rosy cheeks, as well as bright eyes. As a rule the scout master paid very little attention to the looks of girls, but somehow, in this case, he found himself more or less interested in the two women whose sleeves bore the magic insignia of the Red Cross.

When presently they came to one of the poor fellows who had received so serious a wound, the boys waited with more or less concern while the surgeon made his examination. Hugh could see that he looked grave, and this fact convinced him of the seriousness of the case. It also told the scout master that he had acted wisely in wiring to the Red Cross to send help, so as to relieve the inexperienced scouts from further responsibility.

“He is in a bad way,” remarked Dr. Richter, as he bent back toward Hugh. “It would be little short of downright murder to carry him back over those rough roads, even in our splendid ambulance. I’m afraid we’ll have to make an emergency hospital out of it here if, as you say, there are several more cases like this. Those who can stand the trip may be taken away, with one of the nurses in charge; the other I will keep by me for the present.”

So they went from one to another, and Dr. Richter was pleased to continue saying how delighted he felt over the fact that boys could make themselves so useful in case of need like that which had arisen.

“It does you great credit in the first place, let me tell you, Mr. Scout Master,” he said, “that you and your chums decided to hurry over here on the run to lend a helping hand. I never fully understood what the Boy Scout movement stood for up to now; but after seeing what you have done, from this time on it is going to have my unqualified approval. Wherever I can, I shall tell just how I was converted to standing up for such a noble purpose in life.”

“There’s another cloud of dust up the road yonder, Hugh,” said Alec at this interesting juncture. “We’re all wondering whether a second ambulance corps could have been sent out from some other town to render aid. If it happens that way they might as well turn around and go back home; for first come first served, you know, and we’ve turned everything over to the Red Cross.”

“I can see a couple of big touring cars,” ventured Billy Worth, “and say, they seem to be full of men at that. If they’re all doctors and nurses we’ll be fairly swamped with workers.”

“That man in the leading car seems to have some sort of a silver badge pinned on his breast,” remarked Alec. “I tell you what it means, boys; p’raps he’s the big officer of the county, the sheriff; and that’s a posse he’s sworn in to accompany him here to keep the peace!”

“Alec, you’ve hit it square on the head that time,” added Ralph Kenyon, excitedly. “That’s just what those men are—a sheriff’s posse!”

CHAPTER II. AN EMERGENCY HOSPITAL.

“Listen!” said Bud Morgan, “I just heard the padrone here, who is in charge of these foreigners, say that man with the gray mustache is Mr. Campertown, who owns the cement works. They’re not feeling very kindly toward him, and perhaps it’s as well that he comes here protected by a sheriff’s armed posse.”

“But what d’ye think they mean to do?” asked Billy Worth.

“Take charge of the situation,” replied Hugh, promptly. “It may be the governor has been appealed to by some one, and has given the sheriff authority to order the guards out of the barricade. He may even be meaning to arrest them on some charge or other.”

The two big touring cars stopped close by, and the man who seemed to be in authority strode up to the spot where the scouts, as well as Dr. Richter, stood. He gave a glance toward the emergency hospital under the oak, and his look was grave as he addressed the surgeon.

“Where do you come from, Doctor?” he asked, noticing, of course, the fact that the ambulance was marked with that significant Red Cross that told its story better than mere words could have done.

“From Farmingdale,” replied the Red Cross surgeon, “where a convention was in progress when we received a wire sent by these fine boys here, begging us to come and relieve them from the duty of taking care of the many who were injured in the riot that resembled a massacre.”

The gruff-looking sheriff raised his bushy eyebrows and surveyed Hugh and his comrades with sudden interest.

“You don’t mean to tell me these kids were handling such cases when you came on the scene?” he demanded, with an incredulous stare.

“Certainly—and nobly,” the other assured him. “Not only have they taken the first necessary steps to stop the loss of life blood, but they have made that very good stretcher, and carried several of the badly injured from the front of the plant over here under the shade of this tree. The lads are deserving of the greatest praise.”

“I am certainly surprised, and pleased as well,” said the sheriff, nodding in the direction of the boys. “Were there any fatalities, doctor?”

“I understand none up to the present,” replied the surgeon. “We have, however, several cases so serious that I would not like to predict a favorable outcome, though everything possible will be done to pull them through. They were shot in the back!”

It seemed to Hugh that when Dr. Richter made this last startling remark he looked straight at the man with the white mustache, who, still sitting in one of the automobiles, had been listening earnestly.

“What’s that you say, Doctor; shot in the back? That’s bad!” was what the sheriff exclaimed. Hugh, watching Mr. Campertown, saw that he had turned pale and moved uneasily.

Just then Hugh noticed there was a handsome little chap of about three years of age close beside the rich owner of the plant; he imagined that it might possibly be a grandchild, for Mr. Campertown seemed to be a man of at least fifty. How it happened that he had brought the child with him on such an errand fraught with danger Hugh could not guess; but it happened that just then the sheriff took it upon himself to explain this part of the mystery.

“This is Mr. Campertown, the owner of the plant,” he told Dr. Richter. “He was on the road when his car broke down, and as we came along and he heard about what had happened up here he asked us to bring him with us. We mean to stop this foolish business before more blood is shed, if we have to bundle out every one of those hired guards, and take charge of the safety of the plant ourselves. The majesty of the law must be upheld, no matter who suffers.”

With that he reëntered his car, and both vehicles moved off toward the works, leaving the strikers talking excitedly among themselves. Evidently many of the most turbulent among them were for trying to wreak summary vengeance on the man whom they held responsible for the shooting. It took considerable fervid oratory on the part of the discrete padrone to convince them that such a step would be a most foolish one, since it must alienate public sympathy, and result in landing some of them in jail.

Dr. Richter paid no more attention to what might happen over at the plant. It mattered nothing to him if those armed guards were thrust out, and told to depart. He was concerned only with the taking care of the wounded strikers, and of the women who had also been in the crowd when that murderous fire was turned upon them after they had been warned to disperse, and had not moved fast enough to please the armed bullies who, from their defenses, had opened upon them with such disastrous results.

“If we must open an emergency hospital here,” remarked Dr. Richter to Hugh and Arthur, who stuck close to his side, “we ought to find out if there is any sort of suitable building in this collection of shacks and small houses.”

“I was going to mention the fact, Doctor,” suggested Hugh, “that I saw a frame building which I think must be used for a school. It seemed to me that it could be made to serve the purpose, if cleaned out in a hurry. Shall I sound the padrone about it?”

“If you will, Hugh,” replied the other, with a smile, which showed what faith he had in the ability of the young scout master to accomplish things, founded on what he had already seen done.

It was quickly arranged with the old padrone, who set a number of women to work cleaning out the little schoolhouse. When this had been accomplished they could remove the most dangerously wounded to its shelter, and then even though a storm should come on they would not be exposed to the weather.

Meanwhile Dr. Richter was making preparations for removing several of the other injured strikers to the hospital at Farmingdale, where they could receive the proper treatment free of all expense.