“But I haven’t a cent,” answered Bonner in a weak voice. “And there’s all these doctor’s bills and the nurse—”
“But you’re goin’ to be our chauffeur and live with us,” protested Art. “Father said so. You can save all your wages. An’ we’ll all help!”
The young aviator, very white in the face, turned his head to the wall.
“Now that’s all right, Bill,” went on Art, choking a little himself. “Father wants you—we ain’t got no chauffeur an’ we need one. You’re goin’ to stay long as you like. The folks say you ain’t got no folks where you lived. So what’s the difference? This is a bully town even if it ain’t no city. You’ll be well an’ out in a few days, an’ then you’re a-goin’ right to work for us an’ I reckon that’ll mean forty or fifty dollars a month an’ board an’ keep. An’ when you ain’t busy with the automobile we’ll all turn in and help fix your aeroplane. An’ while that’s goin’ on,” concluded Art with a new and happy idea, “you’ll join the Wolf Patrol an’ be a Boy Scout with all of us. What’s the matter with that, Bill?”
At last the sick boy turned and asked the nurse if he might try to sit up for a few minutes.
“Yes,” she answered, “but Arthur will have to go now.”
“I wanted to see all the boys,” exclaimed Bonner weakly.
“Not to-day,” insisted the nurse. “You’ve talked long enough.”
“Is he goin’ to sit up a little while?” broke in Art as he saw the look of disappointment on the patient’s face. When the nurse nodded, he added, “Then you let him sit over there by the window. An’ wait till I call you, won’t you?”
A half hour later ten of the Boy Scouts were gathered at the Trevor home in full uniform. Ordering them to fall into line, Leader Connie marched the squad to the guest-room side of the house. At the words, “Column front—squad halt!” a chair was wheeled to the open window, and for the first time Willie Bonner saw the boys who were soon to become his chums. And the scouts in turn had their first good look at the boy whose skill and daring was to mean so much to them. There were only embarrassed smiles and nods on the part of each, a formal salute from the scouts and a weak “Thank you, boys,” from the invalid, and the nurse wheeled his chair away.