On that occasion Hugh had actually saved a boy of the town who would otherwise have been carried down with the bridge. His act had been witnessed by hundreds of people, and is talked about to the present day as a fine example of presence of mind and prompt action.
On account of having thus saved a human life at great risk to himself, Hugh Hardin had received from Headquarters a gold medal, the highest honor that any scout can ever hope to gain. Being a very modest fellow, however, Hugh did not often wear this token of appreciation, though he was proud of it all the same.
It may interest the new reader to know just how Alec, Tom and Arthur came by the bronze medals they wore. During the preceding summer the main part of the troop had gone camping, and it happened that at the time there was a strike of laborers in a large cement works not far distant. When the company imported strike-breakers, and employed guards to protect the property, the foreign strikers grew furious.
So it came about that there was a serious riot during which many of the ignorant strikers were shot. It might have been called a one-sided battle, for a dozen men, and some women as well, were more or less seriously injured.
In this terrible crisis Hugh Hardin and some of his scouts came on the scene. With the usual promptness that characterized his actions, Hugh had started a temporary field hospital. Having learned the first principles of caring for gunshot wounds he and Arthur, assisted by others of the troop, managed to stop the flow of blood in such a way that when the Red Cross surgeon and nurses reached the scene later on, they declared that the work of the scouts merited the highest praise. Indeed, they went even further, and said that were it not for the prompt aid afforded by the young surgeons one or more lives might have been lost.
And since those wise gentlemen at the head of the great movement for the uplift of boys are always quick to recognize real merit, a bronze medal had soon come to every member of Oakvale Troop who had been instrumental in the work of that field hospital.
Since that time things had gone as usual. Some of the boys had gone on summer vacations. Those who remained at home fished, went swimming, played baseball, tennis, and even camped for a week.
Then school had brought back the absent ones, and once more scout affairs began to pick up. Thanksgiving would be the next little breathing spell. At present, the School Board had decided that during the time of the County Fair there was to be only a morning session for all the scholars. Of course, this was intended as a means for letting them attend the Exhibition, and acquiring more or less knowledge along many lines; for Oakvale was proud of having been chosen as the regular site for this yearly Fair.
“I want to tell you that I’m not sorry to be so near home,” Tom Sherwood observed, after they had arrived at the border of the town, where the break-up of the little fishing party would take place.
“But we haven’t been wasting our day, understand,” added Alec, as he held up his fine string of perch and noticed that one of them still showed signs of life, in spite of the fact that they had tried to knock each captive on the head when taken so as to avoid needless suffering, as every true scout should do.