They were a thankful crowd when the scouts managed to get them all aboard; and a dripping one into the bargain.
“We’ve just got to get ashore now, Hugh,” remarked Billy, after the last of the seven had been helped into the launch, this being the father of the family.
“Yes, they’re shivering as it is, and will soon take severe colds in this raw air,” decided the pilot of the expedition, as he started the engine, and headed straight toward a point which he had already picked out as the best place for the fugitives to be landed.
“We’ll see to it that they have a jolly big fire going before we leave them,” Billy continued; for he was very fond of a fire himself, and believed that it was likely to be a solid comfort to shipwrecked people.
“That’s a good idea,” commented the patrol leader, who knew he could leave all that sort of things to his chum, for Billy was a great hand to look out for the material side of things.
As they drew nearer the point they found that there were already people there, who may have reached there by wading through the water when it was not so high; or else by boat or raft. At any rate there seemed to be quite a number of them, watching the approach of the launch with the intense interest that forlorn fugitives, chased out of their homes by a flood, always show in newcomers.
“And think of them not even having the sense to get a roaring fire going,” remarked Billy, “with all that good fuel around them, too! Well, some folks hardly know enough to come in out of the rain. If this scout business is doing one thing for the boys of America, it’s teaching them to use their brains and do things. The next generation isn’t going to be near as helpless as this one.”
“There’s a log leading out into the water, Hugh!” cried Monkey Stallings. “You wouldn’t want to ask for a better place to run alongside. We can get our cargo over the side in great shape.”
Apparently Hugh thought likewise, for he at once aimed to draw up by the log. It proved all that the Stallings boy had prophesied, and as some of the scouts began to assist their passengers ashore the load was soon lightened.
Then while Tip and Hugh and Monkey began to carry the bundles with them, Billy cast around for a suitable place in which to build the fire he contemplated starting. Undoubtedly those hapless people would have good cause to remember the khaki of a scout with feelings of gratitude; and in the future it was going to be reckoned a badge of honor indeed for any fellow around Lawrence to be wearing such a suit.