THE DUTY OF THE SCOUT
When two days had passed and the storm still raged, the scouts began to feel more anxious than ever. The snow continued to sweep past the cabin in blinding sheets. It was difficult to know whether all this came from above, or if some was snatched up from the ground and whirled about afresh.
In some places enormous drifts abounded, while other more exposed spots had been actually swept bare by the wind.
The scouts had not suffered in the least, save mentally. The cabin proved to be fairly warm, thanks to the great fire they kept going day and night; and they certainly had no reason to fear for any lack of provisions with which to satisfy their ever present appetites.
Still, from time to time, murmurs could be heard.
“One thing sure!” Sandy Griggs was saying toward noon on this third day of the blizzard, “this storm is going to upset a whole lot of our plans.” 173
“Knock ’em into a jiffy!” added Bluff.
“We’ll never be able to skate down the creek to the lake, if it’s covered with two feet of snow,” Sandy growled.
“Oh! for all we know,” laughed Paul, “this wind has been a good friend to us, and may keep the smooth ice clear of snow. We’d better not cry until we know the milk has really been spilled.”
“But any way,” Bluff continued, bound to find some cause for the gloomy feelings that clung like a wet blanket, “we’ll never be able to run our iceboats back home. Chances are we’ll have to drag them most of the way.”
“All right, then,” Paul told him, “we’ll make the best of a bad bargain. If you only look hard enough, Bluff and Sandy, you’ll find the silver lining to every cloud. And no matter how the storm upsets some of our plans we ought to be thankful we’ve got such a snug shelter, and plenty of good things to eat—thanks to Mr. Garrity.”
“Yes, that’s what I just had in mind, Paul,” spoke up Bobolink. “Now, you all needn’t begin to grin at me when I say that. I was thinking more about the fellows who may be shivering and hungry, than of our own well-fed crowd.”
“Oh! The Lawsons!” exclaimed Bluff. “That’s a fact. While we’re having such a royal time of it here they may be up against it good and hard.” 174
Perhaps all of the boys had from time to time allowed their thoughts to stray away, and mental pictures of the Lawson crowd suffering from hunger and cold intruded upon their minds. They forgot whatever they chanced to be doing at that moment, and came around Paul.
“In one way it would serve them right if they did get a little rough experience,” observed Spider Sexton, who perhaps had suffered more at the hands of the Stanhope bully and his set than any of the other scouts.
“Oh, that sort of remark hardly becomes you, Spider,” Paul reminded him. “If you remember some of the rules and regulations to which you subscribed when joining the organization you’ll find that scouts have no business to feel bitter toward any one, especially when the fellows they look on as enemies may be suffering.”
“Excuse me, Paul, I guess I spoke without thinking,” said Spider, with due humility. “And to prove it I’m going to suggest that we figure out some way we might be of help to Hank and his lot.”
“That’s more like it, Spider!” the scout-master exclaimed, as though pleased. “None of us fancy those fellows, because so far we’ve failed to make any impression on them. Several times we’ve tried to make an advance, but they jeered at us, and 175 seemed to think it was only fear on our part that made us try to throw a bridge across the chasm separating us. It’s going to be different if, as we half believe, they’re in serious trouble.”
“But Paul, what could we do to help them?” demanded Bluff.
“With this storm raging to beat the band,” added Tom Betts, “it would be as much as our lives were worth to venture out. Why, you can’t see ten feet away; and we’d be going around in a circle until the cold got us in the end.”
“Hold on, fellows, don’t jump at conclusions so fast,” Paul warned them. “I’d be the last one to advise going out into the woods with the storm keeping up. But Tolly Tip told me the snow stopped hours ago. What we see whirling around is only swept by the wind, for it’s as dry as powder you know. And even the wind seems to be dying down now, and is blowing in spasms.”
“Paul, you’re right, as you nearly always are,” Jack affirmed, after he had pressed his nose against the cold glass of the little window. “And say! will you believe me when I say that I can see a small patch of blue sky up yonder—big enough to make a Dutchmen’s pair of breeches?”
“Hurrah! that settles the old blizzard then!” cried Sandy Griggs. “You all remember, don’t you, the old saying, ‘between eleven and two it’ll 176 tell you what it’s going to do?’ I’ve seen it work out lots of times.”
“Yes,” retorted Jud, “and fail as often in the bargain. That’s one of the exploded signs. When they come out right you believe in ’em, and when they miss, why you just forget all about it, and go on hoping. But in this case I reckon the old storm must have blown itself about out, and we can look for a week of cold, clear weather now.”
“We’ll wait until after lunch,” said Paul, in his decided fashion that the boys knew so well; “then, if things brighten up, we’ll see what we can do. Those fellows must be suffering, more or less, and it’s our duty to help them, no matter whether they bother to thank us or not.”
“Scouts don’t want thanks when they do their duty,” said Phil Towns, grandly. “But I suppose you’ll hardly pick me out as one of the rescue party, Paul?”
“I’d rather have the hardiest fellows along with me, Phil,” replied the scout-master, kindly; “though I’m glad to know you feel willing to serve. It counts just as much to want to go, as to be allowed to be one of the number.”
Bobolink especially showed great delight over the possibility of their setting out to relieve the enemy in distress. A dozen times he went to the door and passed out, under the plea that they 177 might as well have plenty of wood in the cabin; but on every occasion upon his return he would report the progress of the clearing skies.
“Have the sun shining right away now, boys,” he finally announced, with a beaming face. “And the wind’s letting up, more or less. Times are when you can see as far as a hundred feet. And say! it’s a wonderful sight let me tell you.”
Noon came and they sat down to the lunch that had been prepared for them, this time by Frank and Spider, Bobolink having begged off. The sun was shining in a dazzling way upon the white-coated ground. It looked like fairyland the boys declared, though but little of the snow had remained on the oaks, beeches and other forest trees, owing to the furious and persistent wind.
The hemlocks, however, were bending low with the weight that pressed upon their branches. Some of the smaller ones looked like snow pyramids, and it was plain to be seen that during the remainder of the winter most of this snow was bound to hang on.
“If we only had a few pairs of snow-shoes like Tolly Tip’s here,” suggested Bobolink, enthusiastically, “we might skim along over ten-foot drifts, and never bother about things.”
“Yes,” Jud told him, a bit sarcastically, “if we knew just how to manage the bally things, we 178 might. But it isn’t so easy as you think. Most of us would soon be taking headers, and finding ourselves upside down. It’s a trick that has to be learned; and some fellows never can get the hang, I’ve been told.”
“Well, there’s no need of our talking about it,” interposed Paul, “because there’s only one pair of snow-shoes in the cabin, and all of us can’t wear those. But Tolly Tip says we’re apt to find avenues swept in the snow by the wind, where we can walk for the most part on clear ground, with but few drifts to wade through.”
“It may make a longer journey av the same,” the old woodsman explained; “but if luck favors us we’ll git there in due time, I belave, if so be ye settle on goin’.”
Nothing could hold the scouts back, it seemed. This idea of setting forth to succor an enemy in distress had taken a firm hold upon their imaginations.
Besides, those days when they were shut up in the storm-besieged cabin had been fearfully long to their active spirits, and on this account, too, they welcomed the chance to do something.
There could no longer be any doubt that the storm had blown itself out, for the sky was rapidly clearing. The air remained bitter cold, and Paul advised those whom he selected to accompany 179 him to wrap themselves up with additional care, for he did not wish to have them take the chance of frosting their toes and their noses.
Those who were fortunate enough to be drafted for the trip were Jack, Jud, Bobolink and Tom Betts. Some of the others felt slighted, but tried to be as cheerful over their disappointment as possible.
Of course, Tolly Tip was to accompany them, for he would not have allowed the boys to set out without his guidance, under such changed and really hazardous conditions. A trained woodsman would be necessary in order to insure the boys against possible disaster in the storm-bound forest.
Well bundled up, and bearing packs on their backs consisting in the main of provisions, the six started off, followed by the cheers and good wishes of their comrades, and were soon lost to view amidst the white aisles of the forest.