“Hear! hear!”
“Good for you, Tip; he sure deserves all that and more.”
“Keep still and let Tip do the talking; he’s got something he wants to tell us, don’t you understand?”
Again Tip started in after these remarks had ceased.
“It’s a bit of good fortune that brought Hugh Hardin and his chum Billy Worth to Lawrence just at this time. Only for what he did at the bridge there might have been a considerable loss of life, for some of those fools would have stayed out there till it was too late to get off. That’s a fair sample of the way Hugh Hardin does things. And, fellows, we want him to show us how. You can’t see his wings, but all the same I reckon that he’s the good angel that’s been sent here to help us out of the pit we’ve been wallowin’ in so long.”
Some of the boys must have considered that Tip was waxing eloquent in delivering this harangue, for they insisted on giving him a hearty cheer. When the noise had again subsided, the orator continued, evidently fully in sympathy with his subject, because he had taken a violent liking for Hugh.
“Now, I want you to make me a promise, fellows,” continued Tip. “It’s only right and fair that if Hugh stands by us and does all he can to land the Lawrence Troop back in the place it once occupied that we ought to carry out his orders as unhesitatingly as if he were at the head of our troop. Isn’t that right?”
The answer was unanimous, and given with a roar of approval that left no doubt in Hugh’s mind about the ability of these Lawrence scouts to attain their goal if once they could be given a fair start.
“All right,” said Tip. “That sounds good to me. Now, every fellow who faithfully promises to look up to Hugh Hardin as our temporary scout master, and to obey his commands as such, upon his honor as a scout, raise his right hand!”
He looked around, and seemingly counted the hands that went aloft.