“I’m in luck to find you all together,” he said genially, as he resumed his seat. “Though I’m going to call personally at each of your homes,” he added. “I’ve just been telling Mr. and Mrs. Layton something of what happened this afternoon. Of course I know you’ve already told them about it, but I know how modest you are, and I wanted them to know not only the truth but the whole truth.”
The boys blushed, and the captain laughed. “You’d have blushed still more if you had heard all I said,” he observed. “But at that I didn’t say enough. Your parents ought to be proud of you.”
“Here are two parents that are,” observed Mrs. Layton, and her husband smiled assent.
“I was talking with an old friend of mine some weeks ago,” remarked the captain, “and we were discussing whether American boys were what they used to be in the older and rougher days, when even the younger members of the family had to be trained to hold off an attack by Indians. He held that there was still as much good stuff in them as there ever was, and to prove it he told me about a group of boys that were with him in Spruce Mountain not long ago. And if what he told me was true—and I never knew him to say anything that wasn’t—he proved his point.”
“Tell us about it,” urged Mr. Layton, exchanging a meaning glance with his wife, while the boys looked at each other with an unspoken question in their eyes.
“I don’t remember that he mentioned names,” went on the captain. “Simply said that they were interested in radio and that at his invitation they’d come to spend a few weeks in the mountains. He’s a Forest Ranger and uses radio a lot in his work, and I suppose that’s what got him in touch with the boys. They went there just for a lark, but while they were there a big fire broke out—one of the toughest fires to fight he’d ever seen. Well, Mr. Layton, he told me that those boys—none of them over sixteen and some scarcely that—behaved like veterans. They fought the fire with all their strength, were here, there and everywhere, and did as good work as any of the rangers who had been accustomed to fighting fires all their lives. And when they were finally trapped by the flames they made a raft, got out on a lake, and by rigging up some kind of radio contrivance, fought off some bears that tried to climb on the raft. Bentley got quite worked up while he talked to me about them. Couldn’t say enough in praise of them.”
“Did you say his name was Bentley?” asked Mr. Layton.
“Yes, Paul Bentley,” replied the captain. “Why, do you know him?” he asked quickly.
“I know him very well,” replied Mr. Layton, with a quiet smile. “In fact he’s one of the best friends I have.”
“And do you know the boys he was speaking of?” asked the captain.