Still the law might choose to investigate this shooting, and it would be apt to go hard with him if he were accused by these boys of having refused to let them assist those unfortunates who were bleeding to death.
The man was shrewd enough to see that, which fact doubtless made him answer Hugh as he did.
“Oh! so far as that goes none of us here have any objections to you carrying ’em off, and fixin’ ’em up the best way you can,” he called out, with a short, nervous laugh. “They would have it, and forced us to fire. It was our lives or theirs. They rushed the gate with guns and knives flourishing. We had to fire, or it would have been all over with the lot of us. You hear what I’m saying, don’t you, boy?”
Hugh thought it wise to repress his feelings of indignation. It would never do for him to boldly tell this man, that as far as he had seen, all of the wounded had been shot from the rear, which would indicate that they were in flight at the time of being injured.
“Yes, I hear you, sir,” the scout master replied; “and I thank you for giving us permission to do what we can for these poor fellows.”
“Oh, that’s all right, boy!” continued the man, “and I hope you’ll warn ’em not to come near this works again if they know what’s good for ’em. The men that are in here want to work at the wages the strikers refused. They threw up their jobs, and if they try to trespass on the company’s property, they do it at their peril. We’ve got the law back of us, and you tell ’em so, kid, hear that?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Hugh, though he certainly did not mean to be made the mouthpiece of this bragging guard leader.
“My men had orders to shoot low, and I don’t reckon that any of the poor fools have been killed; but it’s their own fault, anyway. When a mob of hundreds of wild men and women rush a little party of a dozen men, it ain’t no time for being over-particular where you send your lead. Go on, then, and do what you want. I’ve heard a heap about you scouts; let’s see if you do know anything about taking care of the wounded.”
Hugh waited for no more. With that permission he was satisfied none of them would be fired on by the guards in hiding behind the stockade.
Turning, he immediately hurried back to where he had left the other fellows. They had done what they could to staunch the blood that had been flowing from a nasty wound. The woman was weak and, Hugh feared, in a bad way.