The Wolf Patrol: A Tale of Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts

by John Finnemore

CHAPTER XLIX

DIGGING A WELL

The two scouts crept along the edge of the coppice, eye and ear on the alert. They were hoping to surprise a rabbit in a play-hole, but though they saw plenty of rabbits scuttling to shelter, every hole proved the mouth of a burrow, and that was too much for them to attempt. They worked clean round the coppice, saw dozens of rabbits, but were never within a mile of catching one; at last they came back to their camp.

'It strikes me, Chippy, we shall have to divide the scraps we've got left, tighten our belts, and strike out for the next baker's shop.'

'Looks like it,' murmured the Raven. 'I'm jolly thirsty too.'

'So am I,' said Dick; 'let's see if we can find a pool of clear water in the swampy patch yonder.'

They went down to the little marsh, but though there was plenty of water, it all appeared thick and uninviting. Being scouts, the boys were very careful of what water they drank, and they looked suspiciously on the marsh pools.

'No drink nayther,' said the Raven; 'we'd better get a start on us for a country wheer there's things to be got.'

'Wait a bit, Chippy,' replied his comrade. 'I think I know a dodge to get round this, if we only had a spade to dig with. It's a trick my Uncle Jim put me up to. He often used it when he was travelling in Africa.'

Dick explained what was to be done, and the Raven nodded.

'If that's all there is to it,' remarked the latter, 'I'll soon find the spades.'

He returned to the camp, seized the tomahawk, and began to cut at one of the pieces chopped off the rails. In five minutes of deft hewing Chippy turned the broad, flat piece of timber into a rude wooden shovel. Dick seized it with a cry of admiration.

'Why, this will do first-rate, old chap,' he asid. 'The ground is pretty sure to be soft.'

'Go ahead, then,' said the Raven. 'I'll jine ye wi' another just now.'

Dick went down to the swamp, and chose a grassy spot about twenty feat from the largest pool. Here with his knife he cut away a patch of turf about a couple of feet across; then he went to work with his wooden spade on the soft earth below. In a short time Chippy joined him, and the two scouts had soon scraped a hole some thirty inches deep. From the sides of the hole water began to trickle in freely, and a muddy pool formed in the hollow. Dick now took the billy, and carefully baled the dirty water out. A fresh pool gathered, not so dirty as the first, but still far from clean. This, too, was baled out, and a third gathering also. Then the water came in clear and cool and sweet, and the scouts were able to drink freely.

Chippy was warm in his praise of this excellent dodge, when suddenly he stopped, caught up the wooden spade, and, with a single grunt of 'Brekfus ahoy!' was gone.

His eye, ever on the alert, had marked a small figure scuttling along in the undergrowth of the coppice, and he was in hot pursuit. In two minutes he was back with a fat hedgehog.

'Ye've tasted this afore,' he said. 'How about another try?'

'Good for you, Chippy!' cried Dick; 'it was first-rate. Will you cook it the same way?'

'There ain't none better,' replied the Raven, and set to work at once to prepare and cook the prey of his spade. In the end the scouts made an excellent breakfast. They enjoyed hedgehog done to a turn—or, rather, to a moment, as there was no turning in the matter—the remains of Mrs. Hardy's sandwiches, and a billy of water drawn from their own well. The well and the breakfast took some time, and their start was much later than they had intended that it should be. But, on the other hand, there were the blankets to dry, and between the sun and the fire the latter were quite dry enough to pack away in the haversacks when the scouts were ready to move.

Dick's foot had become quite easy during the night's rest, but after a couple of miles the cut began to let him know that it was there. By the time they had covered four miles it was very painful, and he was limping a little. Then they struck a canal on the side opposite to the towpath, and they sat down beside it on a grassy bank and cooled off a little before they stripped for a good swim in the clear water.

When Dick took off his shoe and stocking, the Raven whistled and looked uneasy. The flesh all round the cut looked red and angry, and the heel was sore to the touch.

'Isn't it a nuisance,' groaned Dick, 'for a jolly awkward cut like that to come in and make the going bad for me? But I'll stick it out, Chippy. It's the last day, and I'll hobble through somehow and finish the tramp.'

'We'll pass a little town 'bout a mile again, accordin' to the map,' said the Raven, 'an' there we'll get some vaseline.'

'Good plan,' said Dick; 'that's splendid stuff for a cut.'

They had their dip, dressed, and pushed forward. At the little town they called at a chemist's and bought a penny box of vaseline. As soon as they reached quiet parts again, Dick took off his shoe and stocking, and rubbed the wound well with the healing ointment, then covered the bandage with a good layer, and tied it over the cut, and rested for half an hour. This greatly eased the pain and discomfort, and they trudged on strongly for a couple of hours.

Suddenly the scouts raised a cheer. Above a grove of limes a short distance ahead, a church steeple sprang into sight.

'Half-way!' cried Dick. 'We've done half the journey, Chippy. Here's Little Eston steeple.'

The Raven nodded. 'We'll halt t'other side,' he said.

In the village they bought a small loaf and a quarter of a pound of cheese, and those were put into Chippy's haversack. At a cottage beyond the hamlet they lent a hand to a woman who was drawing water from her well, and filled their billy with drinking-water at the same time. They made another three hundred yards, then settled on a shady bank under a tall hawthorn-hedge for their midday halt.

'How's yer foot, Dick?' queried the Raven anxiously.

'A bit stiff,' replied Dick; 'but that vaseline has done it a lot of good. I'll peg it out all right yet, Chippy, my son. Now for bread and cheese. It will taste jolly good after our tramp, I know.'

It did taste very good, and the scouts made a hearty meal, and then lay for a couple of hours at ease under the pleasant hawthorns, now filled with may-blossom.