"You were right, Colonel, as usual," said Uncle Jack, heartily. "Bruce is coming around. He'll be the biggest Safety Booster in the whole United States before morning!"
"Sure pop!" exulted the dapper little Colonel. "I'll have to wire my King about this day's work!"
It was long after Bonnie's bedtime, and the nurse waiting in the hallway was beginning to wonder if her little mistress was never coming upstairs. On the avenue outside, in the soft, mellow Hallowe'en breeze, jack o' lanterns and soot bags were still being paraded up and down, horns blowing, rattles clattering. Two street urchins, bolder than the rest, crept up to the great iron gate in front of the Bruce mansion and vainly struggled to lift it off its hinges. Still the mill owner sat before the fire, Bonnie on his knee. He could not bear to let her go tonight, even to bed.
In the flames dancing on the hearth, the big man was seeing visions—visions of the Safety First work that would be started tomorrow morning in every mill in the whole Bruce chain. "I'll telegraph every manager to get busy on Safety work at once if he wants to hold his job," he thought to himself. "I won't lose another day!" For after hearing from the Dalton twins and from Chance Carter the way their spare time was spent, his own work in the world seemed suddenly very small and mean. Here he—Bruce the rich, Bruce the powerful, with the safety of thousands of lives in the hollow of his hand—had been holding back the great work which these striplings had been steadily, patiently—yes, and successfully—building up!
"I'll send those three youngsters each a copy of my telegram in the morning," he muttered, looking more eager and enthusiastic than he had looked for many a day. "I'll write across the bottom of each telegram, 'The Safety Scouts of America did this!' And the wonderful part of it is," he added, "that it's only what any boy and girl could do, every day of their lives. I wonder why somebody didn't start this Safety Scout idea long, long ago!"
Over in the Dalton cottage, only a few blocks away, Bob and Betty were going upstairs to bed.
"Many, many happy returns of the day!" whispered Betty to her brother as she kissed him good night.
"Same to you, and many of 'em! But our 'One Day's Boost for Safety' didn't amount to much today, did it, Betty?" For Bob and Betty had yet to hear of Chance Carter's adventures, and Bruce had given them no hint.