Hugh could hardly believe his eyes. As for Billy Worth, he let out a wild whoop.
“Why, what’s this?” he cried. “It sure looks like our chum, Monkey Stallings. Hey! are you Mr. Sperry’s nephew? Well, if this doesn’t beat the Dutch!”
The boy whom Billy called by such a queer name, and who also answered to that of Eben when at home or in school, was in fact an Oakvale scout, and a member of the Fox Patrol. He had only been in Oakvale a comparatively short time, but being full of enthusiasm had managed to work his way up to the grade of a second-class scout.
He came by his absurd title honestly enough; indeed his comrades could not have dubbed him by any fairer nickname than that of “Monkey,” for he was a regular athlete, and could do all manner of wonderful stunts, from turning flip-flops to hanging by his toes from the limbs of trees, walking a tight rope, and in fact everything that a circus star of the sawdust ring could do.
“What! you here in Lawrence, Hugh; and Billy, too?” he burst out, apparently as much astonished at seeing them as they had felt at sight of him.
“I came here on some business with a lawyer for my folks, and Billy wanted to keep me company,” explained Hugh. “When the trains were abandoned we found we had to stay over, so here we are. But I had no idea you had left Oakvale, Monkey.”
“I only had time to catch the train after my ma asked me to come up and visit Uncle Henry for the Easter holidays, as he always thought a heap of me when we all used to live up in Maine. Then, hang the luck! I hardly got here before I ate something that doubled me up like a jackknife, and I’ve been sick ever since. But when he came back a little while ago and told me how terrible things were getting, I made up my mind I was going to take the launch out and see if I couldn’t help some poor folks save their stuff.”
“That’s just what brought us here,” declared Tip Lange, who had witnessed this meeting of chums with evident delight, since it smoothed away all their difficulties like magic.
“And we’re going off with you to assist in the good work, hear that, Monkey?” asserted Billy, with the manner of a dictator who would not take no for an answer.
“Sure thing!” sang out the Stallings boy, with a happy grin. “Say, having our assistant scout master along is going to take a load of responsibility off my poor shoulders, don’t you forget it.”