He gradually let the lady's horse overtake him until its head was abreast of him and close alongside him, then he gradually turned his own horse for taking the corner, and, pressing all the time against the shoulder of the lady's horse, forced it also gradually to turn with him till it was safely directed away from the railings and into the new direction of the road, and here, while still keeping partly ahead of it, he got hold of its reins, and in a short time succeeded in pulling it up and bringing it to its senses.
This is a lesson to everyone to Be Prepared, even at most ordinary moments of strolling along, talking to a friend, to spring at once to the assistance of a fellow-creature who is in danger.
The other day I myself found a horse and cab running away over Westminster Bridge, but I stopped it without any difficulty. The way to stop a runaway horse is not to run out in front of it and wave your arms, as so many people do, but to try and race alongside it, catch hold of the shaft to keep yourself from falling, and seize the reins with the other hand, and drag the horse's head round towards you, and so turn him until you can bring him up against a wall or house, or otherwise compel him to stop. But, of course, for a boy, with his light weight, this is a very difficult thing to do. The share he would have in such an accident would probably be to look after the people injured by the runaway horse.
MISCELLANEOUS ACCIDENTS.
One cannot go through the whole list of accidents that might come under your notice, but the point is that a scout should always remember to keep his head, and think what is the right thing to do at the moment, and be the man to do it, even under the most unexpected circumstances.
Police-Sergeant Cole was awarded the Albert Medal some years ago for removing a dynamite bomb, which he found in Westminster Hall. It was already lit for exploding, and instead of running away and taking cover himself he snatched it up and rushed out of the place and flung it away, and very nearly lost his life in the explosion which followed immediately after. Had he hesitated to think what would be the best thing to do he would probably have lost his own life, and have allowed the place to be smashed up.
A man named John Smith was awarded the Albert Medal, because one day, when at his work in a steel-casting factory, a great, red-hot steel ingot, weighing 26 tons, was about being hoisted out of a casting-pit, when one of the workmen named Stanley slipped, and fell into the pit, which was fifteen feet deep, alongside the ingot in a space of about two feet, which existed between the ingot and the wall of the pit. John Smith immediately got a ladder and ran down into the next pit, from which there was a passage communicating into the first one, and in this way he managed to get into the lower part of the ingot pit and drag Stanley out of it into the empty one. Stanley died of his burns two days later, but Smith, though badly burnt himself, recovered to wear the Albert Medal.
MAD DOG.
A dog that is mad runs along snapping at everybody in his path. Every scout should know what to do when there is a mad dog about, and should be prepared to do it.
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton was one day out for a ride when his dog, which was running with him, went mad, and started to run through the town.