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CHAPTER XXXV
A BROTHER SCOUT – THE TWO TRAMPS

It was mid-morning before they got the knots out of their neckties, for they followed quiet ways on which few people were to be met. Then they approached a small town entered by a steep hill. At the foot of the hill an old man was struggling to get a hand-cart loaded with cabbages up the slope. The scouts called upon him to ease up; then Chippy took the shafts, and Dick pushed at the side, and they ran the heavy hand-cart up the hill to the door of the greengrocer, whose shop the old man supplied from his little market-garden. At the top of the hill, as they rested to get their wind, a cheery-looking gentleman drove by in a dog-cart. He smiled at sight of them and their task, saluted, and called out; 'Well done, boy scouts!'

The comrades saluted him in return, and he drove off, waving his hand.

'I'll bet he's an instructor,' said Chippy.

'I shouldn't wonder,' returned Dick. 'He looked cheerful enough to be one of ours.'

They only stayed in the town long enough to despatch a post-card, of which Dick had a small stock in his haversack, to Bardon, to say all was well, then pushed on, and were soon in the open country once more.

Two miles out of the town they met a comrade. They were passing a house standing beside the road, when a boy came out at the gate. He started and stared at sight of them, then gave the secret sign in full salute; for he had observed the badge on their hats, and knew them for patrol-leaders. They returned the salute, and the stranger stepped forward and held out his left hand. They shook hands, and he produced his badge.

'I'm No. 7 Midmead Owl Patrol,' he said. 'Midmead's about half a mile farther on. You'll see the village after you turn the next corner.'

He inquired where they had come from, and the Bardon boys told him, and they chatted for some time. The Owl was very deeply interested in their journey, and wished a hundred times he could go on such a tramp. Finally he rushed back into the garden from which he had come. 'Wait a minute,' he said; but the scouts had to wait five minutes before he returned with his hat full of new potatoes.

'Look here,' he said. 'Jolly good, aren't they, for so early in the season? I've grown them in my own garden. I've got a piece of the garden, and I grow stuff, and sell it to buy all I want for scout work. I've done splendidly with new potatoes. I sowed very early, and covered the tops with straw when there were any signs of frost, and got the first potatoes in the village, and made rattling good prices. Do take a few. They'll come in handy at your next camp.'

They thanked him, and Chippy stowed the potatoes away in his haversack. Then their fellow scout, whose name was Jim Peel, accompanied them through Midmead and half a mile beyond.

At midday they halted, and built their fire, and overhauled their store of provisions. They had stayed their march beside a little brook, and in it they washed the potatoes, and then boiled them in their jackets in the billy. After the potatoes were boiled, they washed the billy, and then boiled more water, and made their tea. They were very hungry, for they had made a good long tramp during the morning, and the sandwiches which the miller's wife had given them, the new potatoes, and the tea went down very well. Then they stretched themselves at ease on the grass in the hot sun, with the idea of taking a good rest.

Dick spread out his map, and took his pencil to mark out the route of their morning's journey.

'We're all right, Chippy,' he said in a tone of deep satisfaction; 'we've broken the back of our journey. Look, we're between five and six miles from Newminster. That will be just a pleasant stroll this afternoon.'

'An' that 'ull mean three days each way,' said the Raven.

'That's it,' said Dick. 'We'll do it comfortably, Chippy, my boy.'

He carefully marked the track they had followed, then closed the map, and returned it to the haversack. Their haversacks lay at their feet between them and the dying fire; their staves were beside them. The two scouts now stretched themselves comfortably in the sun, drew their hats over their eyes, and discussed their own affairs.

'I say, Chippy, we're bound to have plenty of cash to see us through now,' said Dick, 'even if we have to spend steady on for the rest of the journey.'

'Rather,' replied Chippy; 'there's a lot o' flour left, an' some tea an' sugar, an' the bakin'-powder, an' the lump o' salt; an' we've only spent eleven three-fardens so fur.'

'Yes,' chuckled Dick. 'I can see father smiling now as he gave me the two half-sovereigns. I know as well as can be what he thought. He felt sure we should be back before now, with our ten shillings for way-money all blued. And one half-sovereign is in my belt, and almost all the other is in my purse.'

On the other side of the hedge below which the scouts lay, a couple of evil faces looked at each other with evil joy in their eyes. Every word the boys were saying was falling into the ears of a pair of big, burly tramps. One was a stout, middle-aged man, the other a tall young fellow with long legs; both belonged to the worst class of that bad order.

When will this pest of lazy, loutish loafers, often brutal and dangerous, be cleared from our pleasant highways and byways? There are beautiful stretches of our country where it is not safe for women and children to stroll unattended through the quiet lanes, simply because the district lies on a tramps' route from one big town to another, and is infested by these worthless vagrants. There is nothing that dwellers in the country see with greater satisfaction than the conviction, slowly ripening in the public mind, that this tramp nuisance and danger must shortly be dealt with, and the firmer the hand the better. They are the people to shut up in compounds, where they should be made to do a few strokes of labour to earn their living, instead of terrorizing cottagers and dwellers in lonely houses for food and money. But now to our heroes and their experience with two members of this rascally order, feared and dreaded in every solitary neighbourhood.

We have said that the scouts had made their halt beside a brook. They had paused on the bridge where the brook ran under the road they were following, and had observed that a path turned from the road, passed through a narrow gateway from which the gate was missing, and went along the bank. They had gone down the path some sixty or seventy yards, and had made their halt at a point where there was a strip of grass some ten yards wide between the hedge of a field and the bank of the brook.

Half an hour before the boys arrived, a pair of tramps had turned down the same quiet side track, intending to eat the food they had begged in a hamlet near at hand. They had gone some distance beyond the spot where the scouts halted, and did not discover the presence of the latter until they were on their way back to the high-road. The younger tramp was leading the way, and when he saw the boys lying on the bank with their haversacks at their feet, he stepped back into cover, and the two rascals took counsel with each other.

'Might be the price of a pint or two on 'em,' said the elder, a villainous-looking rogue, his tiny bloodshot eyes firing at the thought of drink.

'Mebbe,' said the other; and they went back a score of yards, found a gate, climbed over it into the field, and crept stealthily up on the other side of the hedge. Crouching behind the boys, they heard Dick speak of the money he had about him, and they looked at each other with evil, greedy joy on their scoundrel faces.

The assault was made at once, and through a gap close at hand. It was the stout, heavy man who led the way. With an agility no one would have suspected in his bulky, clumsy-looking figure, he bounded nimbly through the gap, caught up the haversacks, tossed them three yards to the other side of the fire, leapt the fire himself, then stood on guard between the haversacks and their owners. He was followed by the tall young man, who posted himself in front of the scouts, and threatened them with a heavy stick which he held in his hand.

The attack was so sudden, so unexpected, that the scouts, stretched comfortably at full length, could do no more than sit up before their enemies were in position.

'Kape still!' roared the long-legged tramp. 'If e'er a one on yer tries to get up, I'll land 'im one acrost the nut!'

It was quite clear that he was in very savage earnest, and the two scouts sat still and looked upon their foes.

The younger tramp was solemnly ferocious in looks, but the bulky, elder man was grinning all over his drink-blotched face, his broken yellow teeth all on view between purple lips. He had a huge bulbous nose, far ruddier than the cherry, and it shook as he laughed harshly at the captives.

'That's the way to talk, Sam,' he wheezed; 'gie the fust un as moves a good lowk as 'll mek' 'im see stars.'

'What do you want?' demanded Dick. 'You have no right to interfere with us. We have done no harm to you.'

'Hark at 'im!' chuckled the elder villain; 'no right t' interfere, an' the young shaver's got the price o' gallons on 'im.'

Long Legs changed the stick swiftly from right hand to left, and stretched out the right towards Dick.

'Fork over,' he said shortly and savagely.

Dick had been surprised at the sudden appearance of the desperadoes, but that was nothing as compared with the surprise which now fell upon him. For Chippy burst out crying with all his might.

'Oh, don't 'urt me,' wailed the Raven. 'Oh, please don't. Oh, kind gen'l'men, let me go. I ain't got no money, nary copper: look 'ere'; and in his wailing earnestness he scrambled to his feet, and pulled the pockets of his shorts inside out.

The blow which had been threatened did not fall. Although Chippy had got up, it was to wail and lament, and the tramps took no notice of him except to laugh at his distress. You see, they knew where the money was, and Dick sat still.

'See,' moaned Chippy. 'I ain't got nothin' in my pockets but a knife. It's 'im wot's got the money, mister, not me;' and the Raven pointed to his comrade.

'I'll bet we know that wi'out yer tellin' us,' jeered Long Legs. 'We heerd every word ye said about that. Come on, fork over,' he added roughly to Dick.

Dick did not move; he only looked up at his brother scout. He could hardly believe his own eyes. Chippy's face was twisted into the most frightful contortions of grief, and tears as big as peas were hopping down his cheeks. The Wolf's bewilderment was complete.

'Oh! oh! mister,' cried Chippy, 'lemme go! lemme go! I ain't got a farden.'

'All right, wait a bit,' chuckled the younger tramp. 'We'll put that straight. We'll go whacks with ye. Now then, you, turn that money up, will ye?' he went on to Dick. 'There's nineteen bob an' a farden on ye, we know. We'll ha' the nineteen bob, an' yer mate shall ha' the farden.'

This struck Fiery Nose as a very good joke, and he grinned till he showed his yellow fangs right back to the grinders.

'Righto, Sam,' he laughed; 'we'll mek' a division of it.'

'Oh, oh!' moaned the Raven. 'I don't want no farden. Only lemme go. Oh! oh! B.P. Lemme go, mister, please, an' I'll thank ye ever so much.'

Dick stiffened himself from head to foot. What was that Chippy had worked in among his sobs and moans? B.P. – the motto of their order – 'Be Prepared.' Dick held himself tense as a bowstring, ready for anything.

'The one wi' the rhino ain't in no 'urry to fork over, Sam,' said the elder tramp. 'Ye'll ha' to go through 'im, while I see wot's in these 'ere bags.'

CHAPTER XXXVI
CHECKMATE

The haversacks were behind him on the bank of the brook. Sam, for his part, turned upon Dick with a ferocious oath, and a fresh demand for the money. Of the whining, puling, weeping Raven they took no notice whatever. No notice! Ah, ha, Messrs. Long Legs and Fiery Nose, you are making the mistake of a lifetime.

No sooner was their attention drawn from him than the Raven made his leap, swift and silent as a charging panther. He darted upon the stout tramp, whose back was towards him, as its owner bent over the haversacks. Chippy placed both hands against a certain portion of the tramp's person which afforded him an excellent purchase, and gave a tremendous shove. Fiery Nose stumbled forward, caught his feet in the haversacks, grabbed wildly in the air to save himself, found nothing to fill his clutch, and pitched head first over the edge of the bank into the deep, slow brook. Crash! Splash! he went into the pool, and the water leapt like a fountain under his terrific plunge. But the Raven did not stay to observe the success of his manoeuvre. Quick as a trout in a stream he was off at full speed, but he had the haversacks tucked safely in his arms.

Round whirled the younger tramp in time to see his comrade hit the water. He swung up his stick for a blow at the nimble gliding Raven, but as he sprang at the scout, Dick thrust his staff between the long legs, tripped him up, and sent him sprawling with his face in the hot, smouldering ashes. Chippy was already racing for the road, and Dick followed at top speed.

In a moment the tramp was on his feet, and dashing the wood ashes out of his eyes and hair. Then he caught up the stick which had flown from his hand and pursued the fugitives, a wild medley of execrations pouring from his lips. In the pool Fiery Nose wallowed and blew like a grampus, and howled for help.

Dick looked back and saw the long-legged tramp covering the ground at a tremendous pace. He was a big, powerful fellow, and was armed with an ugly club. The scouts were not out of the wood yet. They turned a corner and saw the gateway with no gate close before them. An idea shot into Dick's head.

'Run straight ahead, Chippy,' he called. 'Leg it down the road.'

The Raven made no reply. He obeyed orders, feeling sure that his comrade had a reason for what he said.

The boys shot through the gateway, and Dick turned abruptly and dropped down beside it. The gateway was a couple of posts on which a wicket had once swung, nothing more. But a thick bramble-bush grew beside the right-hand post, and in cover of this bush Dick was crouching. He peered through the bush and saw the tramp come tearing round the bend. The rascal saw Chippy disappearing over the bridge, and thought the second fugitive had already vanished. He roared a fresh set of exceedingly impolite remarks and wishes, and came on like a tornado in full career. And as he charged into the narrow gateway, a stout patrol staff slid across, and was laid on the inner sides of the posts. He never even saw it, so madly was he bent on his pursuit, and it did its work to a miracle. He put one foot fairly under it, and as he rose to his wild bound the staff took him a little above the ankle and tripped him up. The surprise was so complete that he could not save himself. He came down headlong on the hard causeway, and ploughed up the gravel for a foot or more with his features.

The crash knocked all the wind out of him: it deserted his body in a fierce whistling sound, something between a grunt and a howl, and he was half-stunned besides, with his nose flattened into his face.

Dick gave a yell of delight, whipped out his staff – the stout bit of tough ash had taken the shock with hardly a quiver – and raced after his comrade. Chippy was a good way down the road, and when he glanced back, Dick waved his stick in triumph. The Raven at once eased to allow his friend to come up, and Dick shouted the glad news as he joined his comrade.

Chippy shouted with delight. 'He's done for,' cried the Raven. 'A1, that was. No more runnin' for 'im just yet. That was splendid, Dick.'

The boys swung their haversacks across their shoulders and continued their way at a steady, loping trot.

'Oh, Chippy,' cried Dick, 'but yours was the splendid dodge, the way you took those fellows in! They never dreamed but that you were sick with fright. How did you manage it?'

'Oo,' said the Raven, 'there ain't nothin' in that. Anybody can mek' believe to cry and beg for mercy, like.'

'Ah,' cried Dick, 'but there were real tears streaming down your face, Chippy. How did you do that?'

'Easy as easy,' replied the Raven. 'Yer just jab yer fingers in the corner o' yer eyes. I'll show yer.'

'Thanks,' laughed Dick. 'I'll take your word for it, old boy. It doesn't sound too delightful.'

'I wonder if the old un's out o' the pool yet,' said Chippy, as they trotted on, and the scouts shouted with laughter as they recalled his terrific plunge.

'The other can go back and help his friend out when he's got his wind again,' said Dick.

'Rough on the pool, though,' muttered the Raven; 'that nose o' his wor enough to mek' the water boil.'

'What luck to lose nothing!' cried Dick.

'Barrin' my stick,' put in Chippy.

'Why, yes,' replied Dick. 'Upon my word, I hadn't noticed that. Of course, your hands were filled with the haversacks, and your staff has been left on the bank where we were resting.'

'Ne'er mind,' said the Raven; 'it's wot we could best afford to lose. Soon cut another.'

The boys did not check their pace until they reached a large village a mile or more from the bridge, and then they dropped into their usual scout's stride.

On the other side of the village they came to another bridge, this time spanning a canal.

'Here we are,' said Dick, for the scouts intended to follow the towpath into Newminster: it would save them a mile and a half of dusty high-road.

They went down to the bank and started off along the side of the canal. It was not a dirty piece of water, malodorous and unsightly, as canals are in manufacturing centres: it was like a straight stretch of a clear, beautiful river. There was a towpath only on the one side. The other was a grassy border, where sedges and bulrushes grew, and cows came down from the meadows to drink.

The scouts had barely gone half a mile when they came upon a barge lying beside the bank. They glanced into its cabin as they went by, and saw that a tiny fire was burning brightly in its stove, and that it was a very trim, smart little place. But there was no bargeman, no horse, no one; the barge seemed deserted. The boys went on, and soon heard cries of anger and distress coming down the breeze. They broke into the scouts' trot, turned a bend, and saw a stout lady pursuing a white horse.

Chippy knew all about canals.

'Broke 'is tow-line, an' now he's 'ookin' it,' observed the Raven. 'Come on – scout's job 'ere.'

The old white horse was not hooking it very fast. There was no need that he should. The stout lady jogged a few steps, then settled into a walk. The old horse cropped the grass beside the water till she was close at his heels, then he jogged off a little and settled down to grazing again. But the active scouts soon settled his hash. They passed the stout lady at full speed, and ran down the old nag within fifty yards. Then Dick led him back to the barge-woman, who was mopping a hot red face with a big red handkerchief.

'Well, I'm more'n a bit obliged to yer,' she panted, 'an' thank ye kindly. The line parted, and I thought I never should ketch that dratted ole creetur. Ah, ye good-for-nuthin',' she cried to the horse, who now held down his nose and looked meekness itself, 'an' the good missis I am to ye. Allus plenty to eat, and no whippin'.'

'He went off on a little beano,' said Chippy soothingly. 'Don't blame 'im. They all will when they get the chance. Now we'll rig 'im for ye tight an' sound.'

The boys led the horse back to his deserted task, fished the broken rope out of the water, and joined the parted ends with a sheet-bend knot, such as all scouts learn to tie.

'Goin' to Newminster?' asked the bargewoman.

'Yes,' said Dick.

'In a hurry?'

'Not particularly,' he said.

'Why not ride along o' me? It ain't fast, but it's as easy as anythin'.'

Now, neither scout would have confessed it to the other for worlds, but each of them was feeling the three days' tramp a little; and besides, the idea of gliding along the river-like canal on the barge, which was very clean and gaily painted, was rather fascinating.

'You're very kind,' said Dick, and glanced at his comrade.

'I'd like it prime,' murmured Chippy.

'Jump on,' said the stout lady; and the scouts were aboard in an instant.

Dick was less familiar with a barge than Chippy, and he inspected with the deepest interest the snug, neat little cabin, as bright and clean as a new pin, with its little stove, its narrow seats, its shelves, and cupboards, with everything stowed away in shipshape fashion, the whole place reminding him of a room in a big doll's house.

Chippy complimented the lady of the barge on the smartness of her ship.

'We keep it as tidy as we know 'ow,' she replied. 'Me an' my 'usband we niver tek' dirty loads – coals, or anythin' like that. Crockery an' earthenware we got under the canvas now' – and she nodded forward – 'that's the sort o' load for us. Queer thing the ole horse broke loose this arternoon when I'm by myself, which don't often happen. My man he's gone on to Newminster, an' there we'll stop to-night.' Then she gave her attention to steering the barge round a bend, while the old horse plodded along the bank as meekly as if thoughts of running away could never enter his head.

In a quiet bend of the waterway the bargewoman roared 'Wo!' and the white horse pulled up at once and whickered.

'Time for 'is nosebag,' she said, 'an' 'e knows it very well. An' we'll have a cup o' tea. I allus pull up for that, an' tek' it quiet an' comfortable, wi'out havin' to bother about steerin'.'

She fished out a tin bucket already filled with chaff, and proceeded to climb ashore and hang it round the horse's head.

'Tea for three,' murmured the Raven. 'More grub;' and Dick smiled.

The meal was a very cheerful little affair. The scouts sat on the roof of the cabin in the sunshine, with their cups beside them, and their hostess spread butter liberally on the slices of a large cottage loaf, and encouraged them to eat heartily, and set them a first-rate example herself.

Over the teacups they chatted freely, and the boys explained their movements. Among other things, they narrated their adventure of a few hours ago with the tramps, and the bargewoman was very indignant.

'Lazy good-for-nothin' varmin – that's what I call them tramps!' she cried. 'I know what I'd do wi' 'em. I'd take ivery man-jack of 'em by the scruff o' his neck, an' set him at a job, that I would, as sure as my name's Hester Slade. An' I'd say to him: "When that's done ye'll get sommat to eat, an' not afore." That's wot I'd say. "Work or starve!"' And Mrs. Slade waved the bread-knife above her head, as if it were a sword flourished in defiance of the whole army of tramps in general.