CHAPTER VI.
THE EAGLES LEAD THE WAY TO SUCCESS.
"Don't shoot, gents! I reckon I'm pretty near all in!" called out theman who was in the crotch of the oak tree.
At the same time he elevated both hands as a sign that he was unarmedand did not intend to offer any hostile demonstration. Undoubtedly thesight of the three big officers in blue, not to speak of four stalwartlads dressed in scout uniforms, must have convinced him that he hadreally run to the end of his rope; and that after being checked sopositively in his break for liberty, the next best thing for him to dowould be to give in and have his wounded leg attended to.
"Hello! got you, have we, Con?" remarked the Chief pleasantly.
"Looks like it, Chief," grunted the man, who must have been inconsiderable pain, Rob determined, as he saw the drawn look on his face."Just gimme half a chance, and I'll drop down out of this. It ain't theeasiest thing agoin' for a man with a leg swollen up like mine to move,once he sets still five minutes."
"That's so, Con," the head of the Hampton police force said, as hestepped forward; "and I'll help you down all I can."
If Rob had had a good opinion of the burly Chief before, that added toit; because his consideration for a suffering wretch, even if he were ahard character, proved that the policeman had a heart.
The fugitive was helped to the ground, and he sank down with a halfstifled groan. They could see that his face had a peaked look, and thathe was compelled to grit his teeth savagely together, as though tryinghis best not to show signs of weakness. Yes, Con was a man of more thanordinary nerve and grit, Rob knew, as he noticed all this; but then hehad made up his mind on that score before now, so he was not at allsurprised.
"Corporal Merritt," he said, turning to his second in command; "supposeyou take a look at this poor fellow's leg, and see if you can't dosomething in an emergency to ease the pain. Like as not we'll have tomake a stretcher and carry him to where the wagon was left."
"All right, Rob!" was the ready answer Merritt gave; while his eyesfairly sparkled with satisfaction at having the patrol leader show suchconfidence in him as to turn over this duty to his charge. As a rule Robgenerally took it upon himself to play the part of doctor when anoccasion arose that required such work.
And imagine the astonishment of those three policemen as they saw thecorporal immediately set to work to tackle his job with the assurance ofan experienced physician or surgeon. As for the injured man, he staredas though hardly knowing what to believe, to see a mere boy undertake atask like that.
Tubby gave one look as Merritt unwound the rough bandage that thewounded man had wrapped tightly around his injured leg, and gasped as heturned his head away. Andy kept on staring as though fascinated; but atthe same time had any one observed the boy closely he would have foundthat Andy's usual healthy color had given place to a ghastly hue.
If Merritt experienced anything of the same feeling as he proceeded tomanipulate the limb of the man, he certainly did not let the weaknessinterfere with his work.
"I may hurt you some, but stand it as well as you can," he told theother. "Because I have an idea the leg may not be broken after all, butonly badly wrenched and torn by striking some hard object. Steady, now!"
A minute later, as boys and officers stared, and mentally gave Merrittcredit for knowing all about "first aid to the injured," the corporalwent on to say:
"It is just as I thought, for there is no fracture of the bones that Ican find. But you have neglected it so long and strained it so bywalking and running that I'm afraid you're going to have a bad time withthat leg. But I'll put something on that will ease the pain, more orless, and bind it up fresh for you. Then we'll get you to the wagonsomehow, without your having to walk."
"Say, are you what they call the Boy Scouts?" asked the injured man, whohad been listening to all Merritt said, as well as watching his deftfingers work, with amazement written large upon his peaked face.
"Just what we are," Tubby hastened to inform him; "and you can see nowwhat the scouts learn. You are not the first man who has been handled bythe members of the Eagle Patrol, Mister."
"Well, I wanted to know!" muttered the man, still staring, as though hecould not understand how mere boys could master the art of handling abad wound like that with such skill, and show the nerve to do it at thesame time.
"Where's Rob going?" asked Tubby just then.
While Merritt was working Rob had held the torch so that he could see,until Andy had taken a hint, and scraped enough dead leaves together tomake a little fire, and in this way given all the light that was needed.
Apparently the patrol leader was not satisfied with having overtaken oneof the desperate fugitives who had escaped from the Riverhead jail. Hemust have figured, while standing there, waiting until the fire hadattained sufficient size to allow his moving off, that possibly theother rascal might not have run much further, as they would surely havecaught the sound of his pressing through all that dense undergrowth; forat the time Con was helped up into his tree by the shorter man, thepursuers could not have been far away.
And so the scout who carried that useful electric hand torch proceededto find the tracks of the second man; after which he began to followthe trail.
It immediately led him into the thickest of the underbrush; and thisfact only added strength to the boy's former deduction, to the effectthat no one could push on through all this matted growth without makingall sorts of sounds capable of being readily heard by keen ears aquarter of a mile away almost.
Merritt had now finished bandaging the wounded leg of the man, and thefellow frankly told him it was feeling many times better already.
"You're a sure enough wonder, boy, that's what!" the man went on to say;and while he did not thank the amateur surgeon in so many words, Merrittcould easily trace gratitude in the tone of his voice. However, theyoung corporal was not doing this in order to receive praise, butbecause it lay in the line of his duty as a scout.
"Got one man, anyway, Chief, didn't you?" Andy remarked.
"Half a loaf, they say, is some better than no bread," answered the bigman, chuckling, as though vastly amused over the result of thissingular hunt in company with the Boy Scouts.
Before he could say anything more, there arose a series of loud"k-r-e-e-es" from the direction where the patrol leader had gone aminute or two before.
"That's Rob!" cried Tubby, all in a tremor at the thought of newdevelopments coming on the carpet.
"And he wants us to come along!" added Andy. "Listen! There's somebodyelse calling out, too, and it's a gruff voice, boys. I wonder, now, ifRob's cornered the other runaway in a tree, too. Let's hurry on andsee!"
They were soon all in motion, leaving the wounded man alone by thelittle fire, since in all probability he would never dream of attemptingfurther flight. And Merritt did not feel like being cheated out of hisshare of the fun in order to stand by and watch one who was really theprisoner of the Chief.
They had little difficulty in knowing which way to move, for the racketstill kept up ahead. It was found to be pretty hard work pushing throughall that dense mass of ground vines, bushes, and closely growing dwarfoaks, whose branches caught Tubby several times and almost choked him.
Once he did actually find himself gripped by the throat by one of theselower limbs, and lifted off his feet for the space of three seconds; sothat ever afterward Tubby was fond of saying that he knew from actualexperience just how Absalom must have felt when he was caught by hislong hair and left hanging in a tree.
"Rob, oh, Rob, where are you?" called Andy, as they drew nearer to thestrange sounds, which, besides spoken words, seemed to consist of theswishing of hurtling stones or clubs, and jeering laughter, all so queerthat the scouts could make little or nothing of them.
For answer there was a flash, as Rob turned his torch toward them forjust the space of a second; and at the same time he was heard callingclose at hand:
"Here I am, just ahead of you, boys! Better look out or you'll get
hit!"
"But what in the wide world is going on, Rob?" demanded Merritt, as heheard some object strike with a heavy thud among the bushes not two feetaway from him.
"I'll show you what it means!" laughed Rob, who it turned out washiding back of a fairly large tree-trunk not five feet away. As he spokehe sent the white light of his torch straight ahead once more.
What they saw astonished them. A moving figure caught their attention,and no explanation was needed to tell the boys that this must be theshorter one of the precious pair of rogues who had broken jail, andgiven the authorities of Suffolk and adjoining counties such a scare.
He seemed to be groping all around him, as though trying to find morestones or fragments of broken limbs with which to bombard the patrolleader, whose presence was betrayed by the flash of his torch.
"What's he doing there; and why does he lean over like that?" called outTubby, at the same time dodging behind a convenient tree, when he sawthe man proceed to hurl a stone in their direction, following it up witha stream of hard words that told how furious he felt.
"Why, the fact is," said Rob, still laughing, as though he considered ita good joke on the fugitive, "that he got himself in the neatest trapyou ever saw. In the dark and his hurry he pushed his foot into somesort of frog made of the roots of a bush, and after that got so twistedup in the vines that if he was promised a thousand dollars for doing it,he just couldn't break away. I flashed the light on him, you see, wherehe was lying low, hoping we'd clear out and let him get away; and he wasso mad he began to fire everything he could lay hands on at me. There'syour second man, Chief. I'll hand over the job of taking him to you."
"Well, I wouldn't be afraid to wager you could do it as clever as thenext one if it was up to you, son!" remarked the big officer, as hestarted toward the spot where the baffled fugitive crouched, lookingabout as furious and ugly as any one could who had been tripped up inthis neat manner by ill fortune.
Of course the fellow saw that the game was up. He did not dare to offerany resistance when the Chief walked up to him and ordered him to holdout his hands. And when there came a sharp "click" that made Tubbywince, they knew that the fugitive from justice had been retaken, andthat he stood a fair chance to face a judge and jury before many days.
It required considerable labor to get him free from the trap that Naturehad so cruelly sprung upon him, but in the end this was accomplished;and upon returning to where the little fire still burned, they found thewounded man lying there on the ground, as comfortably as he could, andawaiting them with an expectant look on his face.
Boy Scouts Under Fire in Mexico Page 6
