CHAPTER XX
SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE
YOU may have heard of that wreck, for the papers printed a lot about itat the time.
After the first crash, there was not a sound. I don't know how long westood there, paralyzed with horror, staring at the place where the trainhad been. Then we heard a shriek of fear, or pain, we couldn't tellwhich, 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 theothers 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-aidthings."
"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 couldbreathe.
Bill got there first, but we were not far behind. When we had come closewe could see the train, lying on the stones in the river bed. The enginehad turned bottom side up and lay there on its back with its wheels inair. The passenger car was on its side and was so badly smashed that itdidn't look like a car at all.
"We've got to have help and have it quick," said Skinny, looking almostpale. "Who'll go to Hoosac Tunnel station for help? Hank, you go, andrun like Sam Hill."
Hank was off like a deer before the words were out of his mouth, runningtoward 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, butI'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 andbleeding from a cut in her head.
"She's dead," I whispered, while an awful feeling came over me. Her eyeswere closed and she didn't move, even after we had lifted the timbersaway.
We dragged her out as gently as we could and laid her on a couple of carseats which we took from the train. I sprinkled some water in her faceand pretty soon she opened her eyes.
She stared around for a second or two, trying to understand where shewas. 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. "We haven't got her out yet, butwe 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 herdress 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 seeMary's head sticking out of the wreck. She had her eyes closed, and Ithought 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, butshe seems all right except that."
It was all we could do to get her out, the timbers were so heavy and sowedged in. They had fallen across each other and made sort of a roofover her. If it hadn't been for that she would have been killed. By allpulling on the rope and cutting some with the hatchet, we finallymanaged to get her loose.
When we started to lift her out she screamed with pain. We kept onlifting. There was no other way.
"It's my foot," she moaned. "It feels as if it was all broken topieces."
Two of us made a chair with our hands and carried her carefully up onthe river bank; then hurried back to the wreck.
"There is a man groaning somewhere," said Bill. "I think it must be theconductor."
We found him lying under some wreckage and in great pain.
"Where are you hurt?" we asked, when we had lifted the wreck off fromhim.
"My leg!" he groaned. "It's broken. I'm all in."
I took out my knife and ripped his trouser leg and underclothes to abovethe spot that hurt him, a little above the knee. Then, by putting onehand above the break and the other below it, just as Mr. Norton had madeus practise doing a lot of times, and lifting very gently I could seethe broken bone move. He ground his teeth together and great drops ofsweat came out on his forehead, it hurt him so much, although I wastrying to be careful.
"It's broken, all right," I told him. "We've sent for help. The onlything to do is to lie still and wait."
We straightened him out and piled some coats and things, which we foundin 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 atReadsboro. Then there was the engineer, fireman, and brakeman, besidesmyself. We run only a small crew on this train."
The brakeman came up while he was speaking. He had been stunned at firstand 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, almostcrazy with the thought of those men at the bottom of that awful heap ofiron and steel. We pulled and lifted at the great pieces, but we mightjust as well have tried to move the mountain.
"We can't do it, boys," the brakeman said, at last. "We'll have to waitfor help. There isn't one chance in a hundred that they are alive, butthey may be. Somebody will have to run to the station and make sure thatthey 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 neededhere."
"I'll go," said Benny. "I'm the littlest one in the bunch and can bespared the easiest. What was that you said you wanted?"
"Jacks; to jack up the engine frame with. There are several in thebaggage room. I saw them there."
Benny hated to leave, when there was so much going on, but before thebrakeman had finished speaking he was climbing up on the river bank. Inanother second he had started down the track on a run.
"Now, fellers," Skinny told us, trying to keep his teeth fromchattering, he was so excited, "our Scout book says for us to keep cooland we've got to do it. While we are waiting for help the thing for usto 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 hikesticks, 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 everythingthat we needed. That was what they were put up for, only we didn't thinkwe should need them. There were shears and tweezers, carbolizedvaseline, sterilized dressings for wounds, to keep the germs out, allkinds of bandages and things like that. Say, we looked like a drugstore when we had fairly started.
Skinny cut away the shoe from Mary's foot and Bill brought cold waterfrom a nearby spring, to bathe it in. The foot was bruised and the anklesprained, 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 menunder the engine. She was sitting up on the car seat, trying to keep herfeet 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 canmove all my limbs; so I guess there are no broken bones."
Her hea
d looked worse than it was, with a gash cut in it and her hairmatted down with blood.
"I don't dare bathe the cut," I told her, "because the water may be fullof germs, and besides I haven't anything to bathe it with. The book saysto be careful about that."
"What does the book say about my washing my face?" said she, and shedidn't wait for an answer.
It didn't take long to put on a sterilized dressing and bandage her upin good shape. Then, with Skinny on one side and I on the other, shemanaged to walk to a low place on the river bank, where Mary waswaiting, and climb up.
Mrs. Richmond said so much about how we had saved her and her littlegirl, 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 alittle. "He will have to come from North Adams or Readsboro. And thatconductor 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 boyshad. They were all for saving folks from drowning.
We first found two pieces of board. There were plenty of them scatteredaround, on account of the wreck. We put one piece, which was longenough to reach from his armpit to below his foot, on the outside ofthe 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 werein place, we tied the splints on with strips from Skinny's shirt, firstputting a cushion of leaves between the boards and the leg. After thatwe tore up Bill's shirt and tied the broken leg to the good one withthree 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 notheard him.
"Oh, Mr. Norton!" cried Skinny. "We are so glad you have come. It is anawful wreck and nobody to do anything at first but us, and we didn'tknow what to do. I think the engineer and fireman were killed. Thebrakeman is over there, trying to get them out."
"You seem to have done remarkably well for boys who didn't know what todo. I want two poles from the woods, Gabriel. Quick! William, you gowith him. John will help me here."
Skinny grabbed his hatchet, and before we had time to miss them the boyswere back again with two long poles. While they were away Mr. Norton andI pulled two car seats out of the wreck and were ready to make astretcher. By laying the seats end to end on the poles and tying themfast 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. Tolift it by the ends of the poles and carry it up to the river bank wasthe easiest part of all.
By that time, Hank and Benny had come back with two or three men fromHoosac Tunnel station, and they went to work with jacks to get theengineer and fireman out.
"A special train is coming from Readsboro," Hank told us. "It's bringingsome doctors and the wrecker."
"Do you feel able to continue your journey, Mrs. Richmond?" Mr. Nortonasked. "We could manage to carry the little girl as far as the stationand there is a train due from North Adams in about an hour. Or would yourather wait for the special and go back?"
"I think we'd better go back to Readsboro," she said. "We have friendsthere and I don't feel much like walking."
We didn't have long to wait, for the train soon came puffing down thevalley. Two doctors jumped off before it had time to stop and hurriedover to where we were standing. They were surprised some, when they sawthe people all bandaged up.
"Who did this?" asked one of them, standing over the conductor. "Ithought there were no surgeons here. Did you succeed in getting somebodyfrom North Adams?"
"These boys," Mr. Norton told him. "They are Boy Scouts and have been intraining some time for this very job."
The doctor gave a little whistle.
"Good thing for him," he said, "that they were around. I couldn't havedone it much better, myself."
We felt proud when he said that, and I could tell by the way Mr. Nortonsmiled at us that he was feeling pretty good over it.
All the same, the doctor bandaged him over again, to make sure thateverything was all right. When he had finished, the hurt ones were puton board the train and made as comfortable as possible. We heard somecheering over by the wreck and hurried back to find out what hadhappened.
"They are alive," a man explained. "We've jacked her up a little, andthe 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 workedlike sixty to get them out. By that time the wrecking crew had the bigcrane ready. After that it was easy. It didn't take long to swing theheavy 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 thetrain steam up through the valley; then Mr. Norton took each one of usby the hand, and he squeezed hard.
We heard afterward that both men got well, although many weeks passedbefore they were able to work again.
We started for home, bright and early the next morning, taking all dayfor the climb over the mountain and camping that night among thefoothills on the west side. It was only six or seven miles from therehome, 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, afterbeing 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 soonas we can see; say, about four o'clock. We ought to be able to make itby 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 Iwas going back to work after my vacation."
That is what we did, and we surprised everybody. They had not beenexpecting us before afternoon.
After that we didn't see anything of Mr. Norton for several days. Thenhe 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 fora picnic in Plunkett's woods, Saturday afternoon. We will eat suppertogether on the grass, at the edge of the woods, and afterward have acampfire at the old stone. I think that we owe it to your people to makea sort of official report of what we did on our trip; that will be agood 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 thepalefaces, and all that. But, best of all, was the campfire, after thesun had gone down and the moon lighted up the hills and made oldGreylock loom up big and shadowy. Of course, we had told our folks allabout everything but they wanted to hear more, and we had to tell it allover again.
Finally Pa spoke up. "We have heard a great deal from the Scouts," hesaid, "and we have enjoyed it all. Now, we'd like to hear from theScoutmaster, how the boys behaved. But first I want to tell him howgrateful 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 ashe stood there, with the moonlight on his face. "In fact, I think that Iam getting more out of it than they are. I asked you fathers and mothersto 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 un
derstand thatin 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 theytook in saving human life at that unfortunate train wreck, and I hopethe National Court of Honor will award them. But I, myself, have wantedto do something personally to show the boys how much I have enjoyedtheir companionship and what I think of their conduct--all of them, notonly those who happened to be on hand at the time of the wreck. So Ihave had this banner made to hang under the other one, in the cave, orwherever their place of meeting may be."
He pulled out a fine silk banner from his pocket, as he spoke, and shookit out until it hung full length in the moonlight, and, looking, we sawin one corner a black raven and "Patrol 1, Troop 3 Mass."; then, inlarge, gold letters, the Scout motto:
"BE PREPARED."
How we did cheer! And our folks cheered louder than anybody.
"Guess what!" said Benny, after all was still again. "When we grow up,we are going to try and be like Mr. Norton, our Scoutmaster."
"Bet your life we are!" shouted Skinny, springing to his feet and wavingthe banner.
Then he stopped and stood there, looking at us, with his arms folded.
"I have spoken," said he. "Let be what is."
THE END
EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY
BOY SCOUT EDITION
SIMILAR TO THIS VOLUME
THE Boy Scouts of America in making up this Library, selected only suchbooks as had been proven by a nation-wide canvass to be most universallyin demand among the boys themselves. Originally published in moreexpensive editions only, they are now, under the direction of theScout's National Council, re-issued at a lower price so that all boysmay have the advantage of reading and owning them. It is the only seriesof books published under the control of this great organization, whosesole object is the welfare and happiness of the boy himself. For thefirst time in history a _guaranteed_ library is available, and at aprice so low as to be within the reach of all.
=Along the Mohawk Trail= _Percy K. Fitzhugh_
=Animal Heroes= _Ernest Thompson Seton_
=Baby Elton, Quarter-Back= _Leslie W. Quirk_
=Bartley, Freshman Pitcher= _William Heyliger_
=Be Prepared,= The Boy Scouts in Florida _A. W. Dimock_
=Boat-Building and Boating= _Dan. Beard_
=The Boy Scouts of Bob's Hill= _Charles Pierce Burton_
=The Boys' Book of New Inventions= _Harry E. Maule_
=Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts= _Frank R. Stockton_
=The Call of the Wild= _Jack London_
=Cattle Ranch to College= _Russell Doubleday_
=Crooked Trails= _Frederic Remington_
=The Cruise of the Cachalot= _Frank T. Bullen_
=Danny Fists= _Walter Camp_
=For the Honor of the School= _Ralph Henry Barbour_
=Handbook for Boys,= Revised Edition _Boy Scouts of America_
=Handicraft for Outdoor Boys= _Dan. Beard_
=The Horsemen of the Plains= _Joseph A. Altsheler_
=Indian Boyhood= _Charles A. Eastman_
=Jeb Hutton;= The story of a Georgia Boy _James B. Connolly_
=The Jester of St. Timothy's= _Arthur Stanwood Pier_
=Jim Davis= _John Masefield_
=Last of the Chiefs= _Joseph A. Altsheler_
=Last of the Plainsmen= _Zane Grey_
=A Midshipman in the Pacific= _Cyrus Townsend Brady_
=Pitching in a Pinch= _Christy Mathewson_
=Ranche on the Oxhide= _Henry Inman_
=Redney McGaw;= A Circus Story for Boys. _Arthur E. McFarlane_
=The School Days of Elliott Gray, Jr.= _Colton Maynard_
=Three Years Behind the Guns= _Lieu Tisdale_
=Tommy Remington's Battle= _Burton E. Stevenson_
=Tecumseh's Young Braves= _Everett T. Tomlinson_
=Tom Strong, Washington's Scout= _Alfred Bishop Mason_
=To the Land of the Caribou= _Paul Greene Tomlinson_
=Treasure Island= _Robert Louis Stevenson_
=Ungava Bob;= A Tale of the Fur Trappers. _Dillon Wallace_
=Wells Brothers;= The Young Cattle Kings. _Andy Adams_
=The Wireless Man;= His work and adventures. _Francis A. Collins_
=The Wolf Hunters= _George Bird Grinnell_
=The Wrecking Master= _Ralph D. Paine_
=Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors= _James Barnes_
GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, NEW YORK
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Letter to the Public, "Frenk" changed to "Frank" (Pratt and FrankPresbrey, with)
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