“I’ll be only too glad to do it, Ralph,” came the ready reply. “While I’m about it, Rob, I might as well fetch the little package of war scenes you fellows managed to snap off over in Belgium and France when you were there; also of the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco.”
Ralph looked doubly eager on hearing this.
“Do you mean to tell me, Rob, that you’ve been across the sea, and actually in the fighting zone where the Germans and the French and British are scrapping to beat the band?” was what he flashed out.
“We had that great good fortune,” replied the leader of the Eagle Patrol, modestly; “and saw a lot of things we’ll never forget to our dying day. I’ll tell you more about them while you’re looking over our little collection. They’re not the best pictures we’ve ever taken, because you know we had only a tiny vest pocket edition of a camera, and had to snap most of them off on the sly, for we would have been arrested if caught doing it openly. I see you have a fine reading glass here on the table, and with that you can get a lot of good detail work.”
“Well, I begin to see that I’m going to get real enjoyment out of this visit you and your chums are paying me, Sim,” acknowledged Ralph, frankly.
When later on the pictures were being examined in detail, and there was always some story connected with every one, he repeated this expression a dozen times. Sim or one of the others had a lively yarn to tell of many of the animal pictures—how Mr. Coon, for instance, was induced to snap off his own likeness while in the act of stealing a tempting bait, a cord causing the trap to spring, and the flashlight to flame up, considerably astonishing the invader; also little adventures of their own while stumbling along through the darkness to set a snare for some wary old fox that would never come near the camp.
Ralph enjoyed these reminiscences hugely. They were quite in line with his own fads, and more than once he exchanged glances with his father as though to admit that possibly more enjoyment could be had in hunting with a camera than while “toting” a murderous shotgun through the woods in order to kill off the innocent little beasts and birds that dwelt there.
Then, when the war pictures were being shown, how eagerly did he ask dozens of questions, for every boy has it in him to yearn to see military manœuvres, perhaps a battle royal; though after passing through one such experience his ideas are apt to change radically.
Rob was able to give quite graphic descriptions of numerous thrilling things he and his chums had witnessed, yes, and even participated in. He told these modestly enough, as though it was only a matter of course that scouts should lend a helping hand, and to assist field hospital surgeons take care of desperately wounded men of both sides who were being brought in by streams.
At another time Ralph might have felt considerable doubt regarding the authenticity of these accounts. Somehow, after witnessing the prompt manner in which Rob had taken care of that unlucky boy thrown from the vehicle, and suffering not only a broken arm but a dislocated shoulder as well, it seemed only natural that a wideawake young chap, such as he realized the scout leader to be, should prove equal to even greater emergencies.