He looked appealingly at Hugh as he said this. The scout master knew what was in Arthur’s mind. He understood what a fascination the subject of “first aid to the injured” had been of late to Arthur, and what signal advances he was making in his studies along this line, with an expressed determination to some day become a regular surgeon like one of his uncles.
Still, Hugh wanted to be very sure that he was doing the right thing before he gave his consent to advance in the direction of the disputed territory now given over to anarchy and bloodshed.
In the absence of Lieutenant Denmead, the complete charge of the troop was placed in his keeping, and the responsibility weighed heavily on Hugh. Humanity called on him to accept the opportunity that had suddenly opened up before him; on the other hand, his duty to his chums, as well as to those many parents at home in Oakvale, demanded that he take no unnecessary risks.
The picture which Arthur’s words had conjured up, of poor fellows lying there in danger of bleeding to death because there were no helping hands stretched out to aid them, gave Hugh a cold feeling in the region of his heart. Had he only himself to think about, he would have cast discretion to the four winds, and hurried away on his mission of mercy, regardless of any peril to himself.
Feeling that the responsibility was too much for him to decide alone and unaided, the scout master turned to that solution always available, and which divided the burden, share and share alike.
So he turned hastily on his chums, saying earnestly:
“I can’t find the answer to this thing by myself, fellows, and I want you to decide it for me. Had some of us better start across and try to do something for those who may have been wounded in that fight? When the news gets to the city I suppose the authorities will send out hospital nurses and attendants; but they might take hours in getting on the ground. Ought we go or stay here; that’s what I want you to settle, and I’m not going to tell you what I want to do. Every fellow who believes it to be our duty as scouts to try and help those poor foreigners, hold up his hand.”
He was thrilled to see that there was not a single dissenter; for every hand instantly went up, and when Hugh feebly added, “Contrary no, hold up a hand!” there was not one to be seen.
Hugh sighed with relief. It was just what he wanted, hoped for, and was delighted to have come about. At the same time he felt secret fears lest something terrible follow their forward move.
The next step was to select those whom he knew could be of the greatest good in the work they laid out to attempt. Not every scout has the necessary nerve to hover over a wounded person, and play the part of nurse or doctor; some boys are afflicted with weak nerves, and feel sick at the sight of blood; others are clumsy by nature, and hardly capable of attempting the washing of ugly wounds, with the subsequent binding up of them.