“Hugh, if something like that did come off while we were camped on the Hurricane what could we do?” demanded Arthur Cameron.
“Oh, it would be out of the question for scouts to take sides in any labor quarrel; we’d have to be strictly neutral!” the other hastened to tell him.
“Shucks! I don’t mean it that way, Hugh,” continued the other, eagerly. “Wouldn’t it be all right for us to try and help the under-dog in some way? Of course we couldn’t fight, or anything like that, but what’s to hinder us from trying to save the lives of any who might get hurt in the riot?”
Hugh looked decidedly interested.
“That’s a suggestion, Arthur, that does your heart credit,” he hastened to say with enthusiasm. “Certainly there could be no objection to our playing the part of the Good Samaritan to any of the strikers who happened to get wounded. That’s always in the province of scouts; the main part of our manual is taken up with the idea that it’s noble to stretch out a helping hand to those who are down.”
“There is likely to be no doctor near the foreign camps, I should say,” Arthur added, as if the idea was fast taking a firm grip of his mind, “and some of us have made a special study of treating wounds.”
Billy Worth also desired to be heard as favoring the cause of humanity.
“We always carry plenty of lint, bandages, liniment and salve along with us when we go into camp. There’s never any knowing when an accident might happen, with boys handling sharp axes recklessly, and cutting themselves with knives. Of course I hope nothing is going to happen between those two crowds; but if it does, I’m in favor of taking up Arthur’s idea.”
As it was apparent that there were no more strike-breakers coming along the road, at least just then, the boys presently began to pay attention to the various matters they had planned to carry out during this, the first full day in camp.
A couple of them had determined to try the fishing in the river, and as the first requisite toward success they started to find some angle-worms. This is an easy enough task around gardens and compost heaps at home; but off in the woods one has to depend for the main source of supply on grubs taken from decayed tree trunks, beetles, grasshoppers, if they are to be had, and all such things.