“I want five to go with me,” said Hugh, decisively. “Arthur for one, then Billy, Ralph, Alec, and let me see, you can make the fifth one, Bud. Gather any old bits of cotton or linen you can find, for our supply in the medical kit may soon be exhausted. And hurry, above everything else.”
All this talk and exchange of ideas had taken but a few minutes. As not only the chosen five scouts but their comrades as well jumped at a lively rate to get things ready, another brief interval sufficed to complete the job.
“We’re ready, Hugh!” announced Alec Sands, who looked as though he felt under heavy obligations to Hugh for picking him out as a member of the life-saving corps.
Once upon a time Alec had fought the rising star of Hugh Hardin with all his might and main; for he had had ambitions of his own to be supreme in the councils of the Oakvale Troop of Boy Scouts. After many serious encounters in which Alec generally got the worst of it, he had bowed to necessity and admitted that Hugh was better fitted for the position of leader than he could claim to be.
Since that time the two boys had come to know each other better, and were now the warmest of friends. Alec formerly had shown some ugly traits of character; but these were pretty thoroughly overcome after he turned over that new leaf; and latterly he had developed a popularity among the members of the troop second only to that of Hugh himself.
“Then let’s be off,” the scout master called out. “We must do some tall running, because there are two miles between us and the cement works, and more than that by way of the road, Farmer Stebbins said. But the running will be easier if we keep on to the main pike, and take that the rest of the way.”
Those who were to be left behind hated to see them go, for they envied the fortunate five selected to accompany Hugh. Crushing down the feeling of keen disappointment as best they could, they gave the little group a parting cheer.
“Good luck, boys, and here’s hoping you’ll be equal to everything that you run up against!” called out Ned Twyford, who also made it a point to secretly promise himself that from that time on he was going to take considerably more stock in that “first aid” movement, because here was a plain example of what great value a knowledge along those lines would be to any scout.
Along the road the six boys ran like greyhounds, leaping and bounding with the exuberance of young blood fresh after a good night’s rest. They were following in the tracks of the band of strike-breakers whom they had seen pass the camp on the previous day.
As he ran, Hugh was turning it all over in his mind. He arrived at the conclusion that the new workers must have been smuggled into the works without the knowledge of the strikers; but in some way the truth had become known in the morning, and this was what had brought about an attack in force, followed by the shooting, and the flight of the mob.