Part 6 (1/2)

”What do you want to know that for?” he asked sharply. ”Are you a warden, or a revenue officer?”

Elmer laughed in his customary cheery way that usually proved so catching, and made him so many friends.

”Well, I should say not, my friend,” he hastened to a.s.sure the other.

”This is the regular uniform of the Boy Scouts. Have you ever heard of the scouts, and would you like me to tell you some interesting things about them?”

The boy looked him all over again, and when he saw what a frank and engaging face Elmer had, he seemed to make up his mind that really he ought to have no fear from so friendly a boy.

”Yes, I would, if you didn't mind telling me,” he went on to say. ”Once, a year or so ago, mother took me to a town to have my teeth looked over--I've got better clothes than these at the cabin, you know--and while we were there I saw a boy dressed like you are. He had a drum, and was beating it ever so hard, making music that nearly killed me, it was so terrible. But I didn't know he was a scout. So I'd like to hear about them, if you don't mind.”

Accordingly, Elmer sat down on a convenient log, it being a part of the very same tree the stump of which the boy had utilized as his rostrum, when playing his sad airs to an imaginary audience.

”Come and sit beside me, please,” he went on to say, encouragingly; ”and first, before I start talking, I ought to introduce myself. My name is Elmer Chenowith, and I live in the town of Hickory Ridge. Would you mind telling me your name, because, you see, it's rather awkward for two boys to chat without knowing how to speak to each other.”

”I'm Conrad!” the boy said simply, as he took the designated seat, and carefully placed his precious violin on the ground beside him.

”Conrad Shock?” continued Elmer, at which the boy shut his teeth hard, and then almost defiantly said:

”Yes, and Jem Shock is my father, too, if you want to know it!”

”That's all right, Conrad,” the other told him. ”I have heard a lot about Jem, but I don't believe much of what is told me. Besides, it's none of my business, and I don't mean to meddle with anybody else's affairs. Now I want to be friends with you. I must hear about your gift of playing, because you have got it without a question. After I've told you all about scouts, and what they aim to do in the world, I hope you'll tell me about yourself, Conrad.”

”Perhaps I will, Elmer,” the other replied, calmly.

So once again the story of scout craft was told in simple language. The boy hung upon every word as though he felt the keenest interest in all he heard. And never could there have been a more zealous narrator than the leader of the Wolf Patrol; for Elmer's heart was wrapped up in his present calling as typified in the khaki, and he fairly fascinated his young auditor by relating how the scouts took upon themselves so many uplifting resolutions; how they learned new things every day by observing, and remembering what they saw and heard; also how the movement was widening in its scope continually until even the Government at Was.h.i.+ngton had taken notice of its beneficial effect upon the youth of the land, and was at last legislating in behalf of the organization.

”And now,” he said in conclusion, ”you understand who and what we are. I have four chums along with me, two of them new beginners whom we call tenderfeet, because they know so little about the great book of Nature, and have so much to learn. We came up here, partly to camp out and enjoy ourselves as scouts always do when they get the chance. Then it happens that the father of one of the boys has bought a big tract of land around Racc.o.o.n Bluff, and his son wanted to survey it over, not being satisfied with the original work. We chanced to see your father while we were on the road, and told him this, but I'm afraid he didn't wholly believe us; but, Conrad, I give you my word of honor as a scout that we haven't the least idea of spying on him, or doing him any harm. Do you believe me?”

The boy looked him in the eye, and doubtless soul spoke to soul in that exchange of looks, for he presently said, slowly but positively:

”Yes, you could never tell a lie if you wanted to, Elmer. And I'm going to tell you that my father has been acting queer ever since he met you boys on the road. I don't know what ails him, but I heard him saying a name over and over again, and looking ever so black.”

”What was the name; can you tell me, Conrad?”

”It was a funny one--Snodgra.s.s,” the boy replied, and Elmer s.h.i.+vered when he heard him say this, for it came to him like a flash that possibly Jem Shock might have some reason to think of that name with anything but pleasant memories.

”That is the name of the new boy whose father owns this property up here,” he admitted; ”but he came from some other section of the country, and has only been in our town a few months. Tell me about your mother, for you say she showed you how to hold the bow. Did she used to play the violin herself long ago?”

”Oh! no, it was her father, the celebrated player, Ovid Anderson. He is long since dead, you know. And this was his violin, too, with which he used to charm so many thousands of people. My mother has often told me how they would take him on their shoulders and march up the street shouting that he was the greatest player in all the wide world. And some day I mean to be his equal; I feel it in here,” and as the boy said this most solemnly, he placed a hand on his bosom, where his heart beat most tumultuously, and called upon him for deeds worthy of the name his ancestor had made famous.

For Elmer had himself heard that name of Ovid Anderson. He remembered that the player, long since dead, had been a Swedish violinist of international reputation. How it came that his daughter should ever mate with a man like Jem Shock, and be lost to the world in this wilderness, was a puzzle too much for Elmer to understand.

But he hoped that all in good time he might find the explanation; for now that he had made the acquaintance of Conrad he was more determined than ever to meet that mother, even if in doing so he had to run the gauntlet of Jem Shock's anger.

But Conrad was showing evidences now of a desire to depart. Elmer would have liked to ask to accompany him to his cabin home, but he hesitated.

Still he meant to pave the way to a future meeting, and then it might be time to ask to meet the boy's mother.

”Our camp is up on the bluff, where the road runs. You can see the smoke of our fire, and perhaps the tent under the trees, if you look that way.

And we'd be glad to have you and your mother, yes, and Jem Shock, too, visit us any time, Conrad, if you felt inclined that way. Do you often come here to play the things that you feel in your soul?”