CHAPTER XIV ROB MAKES UP HIS MIND
“Whew, but that’s doubly tough, I should say!” ejaculated Andy, when heheard this astounding declaration on the part of the boy whose causethey were about to champion.
Rob, too, was deeply concerned.
“Then it’s easy to understand why you were so wild to get there in timeto stop this horrible act,” he told Donald. “It might be bad enough forthe wretches to do something to cripple the railway services, so as tostop the flow of munitions; but it means a whole lot more to it whenit’s your own father whose life is placed in danger.”
“Yes, and a fayther like mine, in the bargain,” said Donald, so proudlythat it was plain to be seen that the engineer was not without honor andlove in his own family.
“If you hadn’t thought that you possibly could get help here at the oldlogging camp,” said Rob, “and cut across this way to see if the huntingparty was still there, I suppose you’d have taken a different route?”
“Oh, ay,” promptly answered the other.
“In that case you wouldn’t have found yourself caught in that trap?”asked the leader of the Eagle Patrol, as the quartette hastened towardcamp.
“I couldnae well be ketched in the auld bear trap set by me cousinArchie if it was half a mile awa’ I ran, ye ken,” Donald assertednaïvely.
“Well, we will be at the camp in a few minutes now,” Rob went on to say,thinking to further encourage the poor chap, whom he knew to besuffering more mentally than he was physically. “Once we make it, weneedn’t be detained very long. I’m going to depend a whole lot on you totake us across the boundary by the shortest route possible.”
“Ye can wager your last bawbee that I’m capable o’ doin’ it,” came thereply, in such a tone of positive conviction that if Rob had beenentertaining any doubts on that score they were quickly put to rest.
“If you need any extra pilotin’,” spoke up Big Zeb, “count on thischicken to do his best to kerry ye through.”
“Then you mean to keep with us, do you, Zeb?” asked the scout master.
“I sartin do; that is, if ye want me along,” the guide replied. “I’m anAmerican born, and p’raps haven’t had as much friendly feelin’ for theCanucks ’cross the line as I might in times past, but, sir, when I hearshow they are volunteerin’ by the tens of thousands an’ goin’ away ’crossthe ocean to fight ’ginst the Kaiser, I begins to change my ideesconsarnin’ _that_ brood. Now I thinks they air all to the good, an’ Itakes off my hat to them. Yes, an’ arter hearin’ what meanness this ’erebatch o’ schemers is up to, I’d walk all the way to Labrador to upsettheir ugly game; that’s me, Zeb Crooks, Maine woods guide.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that, Zeb,” said Rob heartily. “If you’d seenthe terrible sights we did in Belgium and northern France, you’d feelthat there was need for sympathy for those who are risking their livesto crush all military spirit and prevent a world war like this from everhappening again as long as men people the earth. That’s what’s takingthese Canadian boys away from their homes, nearly four hundred thousandof them. It isn’t alone that the empire they belong to is in danger, butthe whole world is on fire, and the conflagration must be quenched. Theybelieve it can be done only in one way, which is by winning this war. Ofcourse, the Germans and their allies say it’s just the opposite and thatthey are fighting for their very existence. Well, there’s the camp!”
They could just glimpse delicate lances of light which managed to escapethrough the cracks or chinks between the logs that had not been fullyfilled afresh when the hunting party took possession of the bunk-house.
A minute afterward Andy was pounding at the door, but there was littlenecessity for this summons, because the listening scout within had heardthe murmur of their voices and was already fumbling with the bar. So thefriendly door was quickly flung wide open, and Donald found himselfushered into a warm and hospitable interior.
He and Tubby stared at each other, and with reason. Donald on his partmay have thought that never before had he run across so fat a youth asTubby Hopkins, who seemed to be fairly bursting his khaki clothes withplumpness. On his part, Tubby was naturally consumed with a burningcuriosity concerning this young stranger—who he could be; what hadhappened to make him have such a perceptible limp; and, above all, whywere Rob and Andy seeming to be in such a stupendous hurry?
“Sit right down here, Donald,” said the scout master, indicating a rudebark chair close to the cheery blaze, “and I’ll look up that magicalsalve. I know where I put it away in my pack. I give you my word you’llfind it just the thing to soothe that bruised leg of yours. Andy, tellTubby what’s happened, and about our plan of campaign for invadingCanada this very night.”
“W-w-what?” gasped the other, his face the picture of both amazement andconsternation.
“Oh, that’s nothing, Tubby!” remarked Andy airily. “Now don’t go tosuspecting that we’re meaning to do anything that’s wrong. Just theother way, for the boot’s on the other foot, since this is going to bean errand of mercy and meant to keep Uncle Sam from being accused of agrave breach of neutrality by the folks up in Ottawa.”
“For pity’s sake, what do you mean, Andy?” cried poor bewildered Tubby.“Please be good and explain it all in a jiffy. I’ll certainly burst ifyou don’t, I’m that keyed up now.”
“I believe you will, sure enough, for I can hear the hoops of the tubcreaking under the strain right now,” chuckled the other; and thenmaking a fresh start, he went on to say: “This is our jolly chum, TubbyHopkins, Donald. We call him our Friar Tuck when we play at Robin Hoodof the Greenwood Forest, you know. It is his uncle who has been huntinghere and making his headquarters in this old logging camp, though justnow he’s up at the Tucker Pond trying for the big bull moose. DonaldMcGuffey, Tubby, a Canadian boy who belongs to the scouts in his townacross the line and who’s been visiting a cousin on our side.”
Rob came hurrying up bearing a small zinc box such as salve is oftenkept in. He was down on his knees without asking questions and assistingthe injured lad to roll up his trousers leg to the knee. It seemed thatDonald had a wise and careful mother, for he was wearing, in addition tothe corduroy trousers, a pair of extra thick drawers.
“You’re lucky, Donald,” Rob told the other, “for these corduroys wouldserve as a mighty good buffer; and, besides, you’ve had a pad in theother garment. Bad as your leg may be bruised, it would have been awhole lot worse only for these shields.”
By this time he had bared the lower part of Donald’s limb. The boy hadhis teeth clenched tightly together, as though necessarily there wasmore or less acute pain connected with this business; but it could notmake him even wince, such was his astonishing grit. Andy surveyed himwith renewed admiration, for if there was one thing that he liked to seeit was this quality in a fellow. Andy himself was in the habit of alsosetting his teeth grimly when in pain and suppressing all groans.
As for Tubby, he stared as though he half believed he might be asleepand dreaming all this. He saw a dark black-and-blue bruise on the whiteskin of the boy’s leg, halfway up to the knee. Doubtless there wasanother just like it on the opposite side. Tubby knew it must hurt likeanything. He also wondered greatly what could have given such strangebruises. Then Rob, speaking, excited his curiosity still further.
“You see,” said the scout master, as he started to gently rub some ofthe soothing salve on the leg of the Canadian boy, “if the springs ofthat trap had been new and vigorous instead of rusted out and weak, theymight have broken the bone here. As it was, they just gripped you andheld tight enough to keep you from breaking away, seeing that youcouldn’t possibly manage to get around so as to press down one of thesprings.”
“Trap!” ejaculated Tubby. “Oh, why don’t you hurry up and explain it allto me, Andy Bowles? Rob, you tell me, won’t you? What sort of a trap wasthis poor fellow caught in?”
“It was an old bear trap, you see, that his own cousin h
ad set a whileago, thinking to make use of it, as he had seen the tracks of a bigblack bear over this way,” Andy hastened to say. “Donald was hurryingalong through the woods, never thinking about anything of this kind,when all at once he found himself caught. He’s been held fast there formore than an hour, calling out for help as loudly as he could. He was ina desperate hurry to get across the line, because by accident heoverheard some rascals scheming to blow up the railway bridge this verynight.”
“Great thunder!” was all Tubby could gasp, but the look on his facespoke volumes.
“That’s pretty lively stuff, of course, Tubby,” continued Andy, with theskill of a diplomat, “but the worst is yet to come; for, do you know,Donald’s father is an engineer in the employ of the Canadian railway,and it happens that he pulls the munition train this very night, thatthese fiends are planning to destroy along with the bridge!”
Tubby was fairly holding his breath as he drank in all these amazingdetails. His round face began to grow furiously red with a riot ofemotions that made his heart beat twice as fast as was its wont. Then,as if he dimly suspected that Andy, given to practical jokes, might betaking advantage of his confiding nature, Tubby turned toward the scoutmaster and implored him to corroborate the story.
“Oh, _is_ it all true, Rob?” he asked tremulously. “Would Andy be somean as to deceive a trusting comrade in khaki? Please tell me, Rob!”
“Every word is just as he tells you, Tubby,” said the other, stillengaged in gently, but more vigorously than before, rubbing thediscolored leg of the boy; and, singularly enough, it did not seem tohurt quite as much as at first, from which Donald must be inclined tobelieve there was considerable virtue in that “magical compound” as apain remover and a balm in time of trouble.
“And are we going to stand by him, Rob, and try to break up thedastardly game of those criminal plotters?” continued Tubby.
“You give them a pretty hard name,” laughed Rob. “I reckon they’d denyanything of that sort indignantly, saying anything is fair in war time.All the same, _we_ believe they deserve to be called scoundrels. Yes, wemean to stand back of Donald, if that’s what you mean, Tubby. We settledall that on the way here.”
“Going over into Canada, and warn the bridge guards, you mean, Rob?”
“Nothing more or less,” he was informed steadily. “Our only fear is thatwe may not get there in time to save the bridge.”
“’Course we’re all in this, Rob?” asked Tubby. “You wouldn’t dream ofasking _me_ to stay behind, when anything of this sort was being pulledoff? I’ve never balked when ordered to obey by a superior officer, butin such a case as this—well, you wouldn’t treat me so mean as that, Ijust know it, Rob.”
“Make yourself easy on that score,” said Rob, wishing to relieve thestrain of suspense under which he knew only too well Tubby was laboring.“We’re all going, all but Wolf here, and we’ll leave him behind to guardthe cabin, with plenty of grub to keep him alive for a week. I hope thatsatisfies you, Tubby.”
“Thank you, Rob; I’m more than glad to hear you say that. I never wouldhave gotten over it if I’d been left in the lurch when this gloriousstunt was being pulled off. I promise you that I’ll keep up with theprocession. Surely I can walk as fast as poor injured Donald here, whohas such a game leg. Yes, I’m satisfied.”