JIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
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 S?^i 
 
 I 
 
 JOHN SKALLY TERRY 
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 ESTABLISHED BY 
 
 THE FAMILY IN HONOR OF 
 
 JOHN S. TERRY 
 
 CLASS OF 1918 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 NORTH CAROLINA LIBRARY 
 
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 > K ■ i i in m 
 
 
 "1 i 
 
K THE BOY SCOUT 
 
 m SERIES 
 
 1 $ 
 
 1 THE BOY SCOUTS IN CAMP 
 'i 2 THE BOY SCOUTS TO THE BESCUE 
 
 \ 
 
 --■■* 
 
 3 THE BOY SCOUTS ON THE TRAIL 
 
 4 THE BOY SCOUT FIRE-FIGHTERS 
 
 5 THE BOY SCOUTS AFLOAT 
 
 6 THE BOY SCOUT PATHFINDERS 
 
 7 THE BOY SCOUT AUTOMOBILISTS 
 
 8 THE BOY SCOUT AVIATORS 
 
 9 THE BOY SCOUTS' CHAMPION RECRUIT 
 %0 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 ,11 THE BOY SCOUTS' CHALLENGE 
 
 12 THE BOY SCOUTS' VICTORY 
 
 13 THE BOY SCOUTS UNDER KING GEORGE 
 
 14 THE BOY SCOUTS WITH THE ALLIES 
 
 15 THE BOY SCOUTS UNDER THE KAISER 
 
 16 THE BOY SCOUTS AT LIEGE 
 
 17 THE BOY SCOUTS WITH THE COSSACKS 
 
 18 THE BOY SCOUTS BEFORE BELGRADE 
 
 19 THE BOY SCOUTS' TEST 
 
 20 THE BOY SCOUTS IN FRONT OF WARSAW 
 
 21 THE BOY SCOUTS UNDER THE RED CROSS 
 
Boy Scout Series Volume 10 
 
 The Boy Scouts' 
 Defiance 
 
 OR 
 Will Ransier's Heroic Act 
 
 BY 
 Colonel George Durston 
 
 THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 CHICAGO AKRON, OHIO NEW YORK 
 
Copyright, 1912 
 
 By 
 
 The Saal field Publishing Co, 
 
The Boy Scouts' 
 
 Defiance 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A DASH FOR LIFE 
 
 "It is not what it is cracked up to be," said 
 "Will Ransier gloomily. He leaned wearily against 
 the iron railing outside the waiting-room of the 
 trolley station. 
 
 " What's not what it's cracked up to be, Fat? " 
 asked Tony Keene, the boy beside him. 
 
 u Money,' ' said Will, bitterly. " Money! Look 
 what it 's done to me. Here I am stuck in an 
 old flat. Flail. I won't say apartment, no matter 
 how the janitor glares. Stuck in an old flat when I 
 ought to be out there in Lafayette skinning Jack 
 McDermott out of all of his miggles. It makes me 
 sore! Honest, if it keeps up I'll go to boarding- 
 school and get quit of it! " 
 
 " Dont do that," said Tony hastily, shocked at 
 the threat. If Fatty Ransier was sore enough to 
 want to go to boarding-school then the case was 
 serious. 
 
 " Gee, you don't know what your talkin' about. 
 
4 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 You don't want to quit the bunch like that. You 
 don't know what will turn up. Your folks didn't 
 sell the place in Lafayette, did they? Perhaps 
 your father will lose his money." 
 
 " Naw, he won't!" groaned Fatty. "First 
 place, Dad isn't the losing kind, and, second place, 
 that old land he bought down there in Vir- 
 ginia just fairly spouts oil all over it. Oh, I'm in 
 for it all right! I tell you the only fun I have, 
 Tone, is guying the janitor in the flat. He's none 
 of your Mr. Browns, I can tell'you. He's English 
 or Dutch or something, and he goes in for swells. 
 There are two smart little sissy-boys in the Al- 
 hambra (you know that's the name of the flat 
 where we live), and one of 'em is my age, and one 
 is a year older: and they carry canes. Honest, 
 Tony, I'm going to dent those little boys way in 
 some day, if I get pulled for it. 
 
 ' ' Well, Peters, the janitor, when he sees the 
 Carrolls, he bows and scrapes, and when they ride 
 up and down, he runs that elevator as if he had a 
 sick baby in it: and it's ' Good morning, Mr. Car- 
 roll, sir ! Fine day, sir ! ' The fellows treat him 
 like dirt, too. 
 
 "I couldn't see through it, so I thought I'd ex- 
 periment. One whole tveek I treated him as good 
 as I knew how : just as sweet as a peach. It was 
 1 Good morning, Peters ! Fine day ! ' and a sunny 
 smile from your little Willie, but the Peters man 
 never thawed. Next week I treated him like a yek 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 5 
 
 low dog. Cussed him out if the elevator didn't get 
 right there, and was a mean actor generally. Lit- 
 tle Peters just acted as mean as I did. 
 
 " Next week I never saw him. Didn't know but 
 what the elevator ran itself. Took my time and 
 kept him waiting all I knew how. Nothing doing. 
 And all the while those smart Carroll children 
 were being petted to death. I was crazy to see 
 through it. It didn't seem as if Peters could be 
 such a fool as he acted. Well, the next week, Tony, 
 I hit it!" 
 
 ' ' How sol" grinned Tony. 
 
 " It was just a little matter of tips, just simple 
 little tips. I started in with a cigar. Gee ! Peters 
 nearly fell out of the elevator. It was so sudden 
 and unexpected from me, you know. Next day I 
 donated a quarter, and two days later a half. He 
 told me he had been a ' gentleman's man ' in Eng- 
 land, and would like to press my pants. Only he 
 said ' trousers. ' The next day I dropped a dollar 
 into his pocket when he was looking, and say, 
 Tone, it was money well spent! Peters can't see 
 the Carroll kids at all when yours truly is there. 
 ^Now I have it down to a science. I don't donate a 
 cent until he's most crazy, and then I kind of wake 
 up as if I'd forgotten all about it, and feed him 
 some. Keeps him guessing, you know ! 
 
 " I certainly do hate his sort. Always trying to 
 bleed you. Little snipe! " 
 
 " I didn't think he looked as bad as all that," 
 
'6 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 said Tony. * ' He looked kind of sick to me, or else 
 as if something bothered him. It can't be much of 
 a cinch to have that job. I wonldn 't like it. ' l 
 
 *} Well, you wouldn't like him either if you lived 
 with him the way I have to. I tell you, Tone, it 's 
 worse than that to live in town.'' 
 
 Tony was silent for a few minutes ; he was busy 
 pressing his name on a piece of aluminum in the 
 printing machine beside him. - 
 
 " Well, Fat," he said finally, " you make me 
 feel so good about it, that I guess I'll have to tell 
 you the news. Don't spread it, but the fact is, we 
 are in the same boat ! ' ' 
 
 "What boat? " asked the amazed Fatty. 
 " You mean money? " 
 
 " No such luck," said Tony Keene. " Only 
 we Ve got to bring Fred to town for a few months 
 or a year perhaps. Until fall, anyhow. If he can 
 be treated every day, the doctors say his lameness 
 can be cured ; so we 've got to come in with him. ' ' 
 
 Fatty stood still for a full minute. ' Then he 
 flapped his thin, long arms wildly about his head 
 and let out a war-whoop of pure joy. When he 
 could come down to facts, he said : 
 
 " Tone, you are the only original tight wad. 
 Why didn't you tell me this before? " 
 
 " Just found it out," said Tony. " I am not 
 <3razy over it myself : but of course if it will help 
 Fred, why, it's all right — and they are dead sure 
 that it will help him. He's getting better all the 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 7 
 
 time ; but if he could have a treatment every day it 
 would hustle things up. And the poor kid is so 
 crazy to get well." 
 
 " Must cost a small wad," said Fatty. " All 
 the electrical fhmimy-diddle. ' * 
 
 " Don't you know about it? " asked Tony. " I 
 thought I told you. Mr. Smith is doing it for 
 Fred. Told mother that he was going to do it any- 
 how, and the obligation was all on his side because 
 Fred had done so much for him. ' ' 
 
 " Gee, but that sounds just like him," said 
 Fatty, raising his cap to the absent Mr. Smith. 
 " Isn't he the fine and dandy old peach? " 
 
 " He sure is," said Tony. " He told mother 
 that he hated arguments and that he would rather 
 not talk about it. He has an empty flat here, and 
 we are to take that. ' ' 
 
 " Well, say," said Fatty, " did you mean to go 
 oif with all this dope bottled up and never give me 
 any of it ! You ought to get your head punched ! ' ? 
 
 " No, I thought I'd tell you, although I had 
 made up my mind to spring it on you when we 
 came." 
 
 ' ' You sprang enough, I must say, ' ' said Fatty. 
 " Gee, Tony, but it's good news ! Now I feel like 
 a human being. When are you coming? " 
 
 " Next week," said Tony. 
 
 " Well, you are going to hate it something 
 fierce," warned Fatty. "But two of us — Gee, 
 Tone, I'll hand you one of the Carrolls. You can 
 
8 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 never say I'm not generous. You can help me 
 spend some of Dad's money, too." 
 
 " Why, sure," laughed Tony, " your Dad will 
 like that." 
 
 " Sure thing he will," said Will, earnestly. 
 " Dad has a new scheme. He lets me have about 
 enough for two boys. It's about six times as much 
 as I ever had before, but he says he wants to see 
 how good a use I can put it to. He and I have a 
 business talk every Saturday night, and if I've 
 done any monkey stunts with my little wad, why, 
 he calls me down. • ' 
 
 " Well, here's my car," said Tony. " You'll 
 see me soon! " 
 
 ".Why can't I come out with the automobile 
 and bring Fred and your mother to town? "yelled 
 Fatty as the car slowly started. 
 
 Tony nodded and waved. And Will, happier 
 than he had been since his father's business inter- 
 ests had brought them to town, hurried up Paul 
 street with a light step. 
 
 " Hello, little boy! " cried his mother, as he en- 
 tered the apartment. She was full three inches 
 shorter than Will, and so bright looking that Will 
 always said she sparkled. Her light hair curled 
 softly, and she had pink cheeks like a girl's. Will 
 was proud of his mother. 
 
 " Hello, poor old motherkin! " he said, kissing 
 her on the tip of her nose. 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 9 
 
 11 1 want to go down town, Will, if you will avive 
 the car. I do not like that new man. ' ' 
 
 " Sure," said Will. " He's down there now. 
 I'll go down and tell him he needn't wait. Say, 
 mother, I've got the best news. Mrs. Keene and 
 Tony and Fred are coming in town to live this 
 summer : what do you know about that I ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Ransier sat down limply upon the divan. 
 
 " In town? " she asked. " What for? " 
 
 Then Will told her. 
 
 " Well, I am delighted," she said when he had 
 finished. " I love Mary Keene, and it will be so 
 nice to have her here. I am glad you offered to go 
 and get them, son. We will drive out tomorrow 
 and ask if we can do something to help about mov- 
 ing or settling." 
 
 " That's a good plan," said Will, and ran down 
 to the automobile. 
 
 The Alhambra was the first apartment house in 
 the city of Syrchester, and occupied a corner on 
 Paul street. The Ransier automobile, a big *ix 
 cylinder touring car, stood against the curb and 
 Fatty sat at the wheel waiting for his mother. 
 She was a long time. Fatty thought he would get 
 the car cranked up and go around the block. He 
 got out and stood by the big hood, noticing as he 
 did so a boy on a bicycle coasting rapidly down, 
 Paul street hill. He stopped, then straightened up 
 as he heard a crash and a cry. 
 
 A big gray racing car was booming up the hill, 
 
10 THE COY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 and on the pavement, almost at his feet, lay the 
 hoy who bu* a moment before had ridden down the 
 hill. Fatty ran to his side, remembering with a 
 leap of the heart his training in First Aid to the 
 Injured. This was one of the things required of 
 the B07 Scouts, and Fatty had worked hard to 
 master the lessons. He had practiced on his father 
 and 2nother and the cat — to say nothing of the 
 fellows. With the exception of a couple of boys 
 that Fatty, who was a fine swimmer, had rescued 
 from drowning, this was his first real case : and to 
 his credit be it said that Fatty 's presence of mind 
 did not fail him. 
 
 It was noon and the street was almost deserted : 
 but Will knelt by the unconscious and bloody fig- 
 ure and gently straightened it. One leg was 
 broken, and a great lump on the back of the boy 's 
 head was rapidly growing larger. Across his tem- 
 ple ran a long, ugly cut ; but the worst was a gash 
 across his left wrist, from which the blood leaped 
 in little jets. Will gave one look about for help, 
 then set swiftly to work. A grocery wagon drov£ 
 by and stopped. It was as though a signal had 
 been sounded. Like a flash a crowd collected ; but 
 Fatty worked on over the unconscious form. The 
 crowd talked and jostled. At his elbow a voice 
 said : ' ' Let me help ! ' ' Fatty glanced up at a 
 good looking boy about his own age, who gave 
 the Scout salute and said : 
 
 " Anybody called an ambulance? " 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 11 
 
 " Don't know," said Fatty. " I had to stop 
 that blood." 
 
 The boy stood up and pointed to the grocer boy 
 who stood whip in hand. " Get an ambulance 
 here," he ordered. 
 
 " Yes, get an ambulance," cried a dozen. 
 
 A policeman hurried up, and a doctor came out 
 of a nearby house. * • The boy is dying, ' ' he said, 
 after a hurried examination. ' 6 He must be gotten 
 to a hospital. Where is an ambulance! " 
 
 At that moment the grocer 's young man bustled 
 back. 
 
 " You forgot to say what hospital you wanted 
 to take him to, ' ' he said, 
 
 " Why, you idiot! " cried Fatty. " Didn't you 
 telephone? Doctor, why can't we use my car? " 
 
 The doctor glanced at the large automobile. 
 
 ■ ' Just the thing ! But take this officer with you 
 and drive your best. I will go too. It is a ride 
 for life — the boy is certainly dying." 
 
 They lifted the unconscious form upon the 
 broad tonneau seat where the physician knelt and 
 steadied it. Tony cranked the car. He leaped in 
 while the policeman sat beside him, and the 
 strange Scout clung like wax on the step at the 
 other side, his hand upon the horn. 
 
 ' i Every second counts ! ' ' cried the doctor. 
 
 ; - Let her go then ! ' ' said the policeman grimly, 
 and the big car shot from the curb and went hum- 
 ming into her best pace. Tony set a straight 
 
12 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 course. The constant honk of the horn, the po- 
 liceman with lifted hand, the terrific speed won 
 , them the right of way. They took the last hill with 
 the smooth swiftness of a bird. Will slowed gently 
 up to the curb and leaped out after the policeman. 
 The Scout was already at the hospital door. 
 White-coated attendants hurried out with a 
 stretcher and took the boy into the building. 
 
 For the first time Fatty looked at the doctor. 
 " Will he die, doctor? " he asked. 
 
 " I do not know," he replied. " If he lives — 
 who bandaged that wrist? " 
 
 " I did," said Fatty, modestly. 
 
 " Did you fix his head up, too? " 
 
 " Yes," said Fatty. 
 
 " Well," said the doctor, " how on earth does a 
 boy of your size and age — you can't be over fif- 
 teen or sixteen years of age — how does a boy of 
 that age happen to know all about surgical dress- 
 ings? " 
 
 " Why, I'm a Boy Scout," said Tony. " This 
 boy helped. He's a Scout." 
 
 " Well, boys," said the doctor, " I think you've 
 saved a life today, and your organization ought to 
 be very proud of you. Call and see me, will you ? 
 I have two sons who ought to join the Scouts." 
 
 He gave Fatty a card and hurried toward the 
 hospital. 
 
 " Shall I take you back, sir? " called Will. 
 
 " No; I'll send for my own car later, thank 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 13 
 
 you," said the doctor, and hurried into the build- 
 ing, just as a policeman came out. 
 
 The officer walked up to Fatty. 
 
 " It's a nice day's work, I dunno," he remarked. 
 "A kilt bye, and the divil knows who done it, and 
 you speedin' t'roo the main streets holdin' up 
 traffic just scandalous, and jim av the whole collec- 
 tion — here do be Officer O'Bourke aff his beat, 
 aff his beat, an' him wid two marks against him 
 alriddy. 'Tis a fine day's job." 
 
 "Well, get in and we'll hustle back," said 
 Fatty. " I want to wash my hands. I'm all 
 sticky. I guess the poor kid will die all right, but 
 we can't help him here. My mother is waiting 
 for me. Get in, Scout," he said to the strange lad 
 who still lingered. 
 
 "I'm thinking " said the officer, with a grave 
 face but a twinkle in his merry blue eyes, " that 
 you are at this moment arristed for speedin ' ! And 
 I'll be takin' ye up to the Polees station." 
 
 Fatty laughed. 
 
 " 'Tis no joke," said O'Eourke. " 'Tis there 
 we do be goin\" 
 
 " Why, you old loon," cried Fatty, " what's 
 eatin' you? You can't arrest me for saving life. 
 Besides, you were along — go on back on your 
 beat and shut up about it. ' ' 
 
 " No," said the policeman, " me mind is made: 
 and the O'Eourkes niver change. To the station 
 ye go ! Will it be peaceable wid both of ye or will 
 
 2 
 
14 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 I use force? Besides, did I not like your looks, 
 I'd say ye was impident to an officer, and I'd jug 
 ye for that same, extra." 
 
 " Well, I tell you," said the exasperated boy, 
 M my mother is waiting for me, and I'm going to 
 see her first." 
 
 M All fine," said Mr. O'Eourke. " 'Tis mesilf 
 will explain your badness while you hould the 
 auttymobile from doin' any further damage." 
 
 Arriving at the Alhambra, the officer insisted 
 upon going in to see Mrs. Eansier while Fatty 
 waited in the car with the strange Scout. 
 
 " Now what ails that pinhead of a policeman? " 
 Fatty inquired. 
 
 " He's all right," said the boy. "He is not 
 really arresting us, but he wants us to go with 
 him and report the affair. Did you see who ran 
 the kid down? " 
 
 " I couldn't see the people," said Will, " but 
 you bet I took the number, wrote it down, too. 
 Gee, it was a rotten trick! Those men ought to 
 be electrocuted if that boy is dead. He was on his 
 own side of the street and they swerved over on 
 his side. It was plain murder. Of course they 
 honked, but how could that help ? ' ' 
 
 " It 's fierce ! ' ' said the new boy. 
 
 The officer came out smiling. " 'Tis a lovely 
 lady entirely that your mother is," he declared. 
 " I was sorry I was to explain her boy's misdeeds, 
 She seems to belave in ye like." 
 
• THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 15 
 
 Fatty grinned and started for the Court House, 
 stopping at the side door where the Chief of Police 
 was to be found. 
 
 The two boys entered with the officer, who mo- 
 tioned them to a couple of seats against the wall, 
 while he talked to the Captain. 
 
 " This makes me sick," said Fatty. " What a 
 silly row about nothing ! ' ' 
 
 " All they want is to hear about the accident 
 and all that," said the new boy. " I'm in here 
 often. My father teaches in the Police Gymna-, 
 sium." 
 
 ' ' Teaches f ' ' said Fatty. ' < Is he a Physical In- 
 structor? " v 
 
 " He teaches boxing," said the boy. "I'm Kid 
 O'Connors' son." 
 
 " The Lightweight! " exclaimed Fatty, staring 
 at O'Connors. " What do you know about that? 
 Kid 'Connors ' boy ! Why, I never knew he had 
 a boy ! ' ' 
 
 " Well, he has," said O'Connors, smiling, " and 
 I can fight, too; but my father won't allow me to 
 become a prize fighter. ' ' 
 
 " Gee, I'd think he'd. be crazy to have you," 
 said Fatty, enviously. " Why, he's the Cham- 
 pion Lightweight. I never saw him but I've read 
 about all his matches. ' ' 
 
 "No," said O'Connors, "he thinks I can do 
 something better with myself. He says there is 
 nothing to it at all. You are down and out for 
 
16 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 good and all if you get beaten, and yon are sure to 
 go stale or get out of condition somehow and get 
 *' your knockout. Then you are just a has-been ; do- 
 ing a stunt on a vaudeville stage, and after that 
 tending bar somewhere. 
 
 " He's right, all right," continued O'Connors. 
 " I don't want you to think my father is like that, 
 for he isn't. He's straight and clean; and he 
 thinks boxing is an art. "Why, you could not get 
 him to booze or smoke. My father is a man, if he 
 is a prize fighter. I hope I can be as good and 
 straight as he is." 
 
 " That's it," said Fatty. " I should think he 
 would like to have you go in and elevate the pro- 
 fession." 
 
 " No," said O'Connors. " You can't elevate it, 
 my father says. One fellow will be straight, and a 
 lot of the others will be so rotten that there is no 
 show for straight work. You'll laugh when I tell 
 you, it does seem funny for a prize fighter 's kid, 
 but I'm going to be a doctor." 
 
 " Good work! " said Fatty, who was, however, 
 rather disappointed in the aims of his new friend. 
 
 "Well, it's like this: I've had the uses and 
 abuses and the care of the human body dinned into 
 me ever since I can remember, and if I can't use 
 my knowledge to fight with, I'm going to put more 
 learning of the right sort with it and fight diseases. 
 
 w * Jiminy Christmas, how I hate sickness — - 
 and dirt, too. Say, did you ever see anything 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 17 
 
 prettier than shin when it's clean? It's great! " 
 
 " Well, you are a good one!" said Fatty. 
 " What do they call you? " 
 
 " Fellows call me Chuck," said the boy. 
 *' What's your name? " 
 
 " William and then some Ransier," said the 
 owner of the, name ; ' * but all the boys call me Fatty 
 because I'm so thin. Gee, it makes me mad! I'd 
 like a little meat here and there just for a sam- 
 ple." 
 
 " You need some sort of exercises, maybe," 
 said Chuck. " Well ask father. The Captain 
 wants us now. ' ' 
 
 They went to the Captain's desk and stood at 
 attention. 
 
 " Did you get that number? " the officer asked. 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Fatty. 
 
 " A raysourceful mind," murmured O'Rowrke. 
 " Your papa will be that plazed." 
 
 " You saw it all, did you? " continued the Cap- 
 tain. " Tell me the whole thing." 
 
 Fatty pr ceeded to give a clear account of the 
 affair while the Police Captain frowned and 
 tapped the desk with his pencil. 
 
 When Fatty ended he said : 
 
 " Well, my boy, you may have saved a life to- 
 day, and your promptness in noting that car num- 
 ber may put us on track of the brutes. This sort 
 of thing is occurring too often. If those fellows 
 were not msmg a fake number we will catch them 
 
18 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 and they may have a charge of murder against 
 i them. I wish we had another witness. Well, 
 that's all today, Eansier. What are yon going to 
 do now ? ? ' 
 
 1 ' Go and wash my hands, ' ' said Fatty, smiling. 
 
 1 { Go into the gymnasium, ! ' said the Captain. 
 " O'Connors, yon know the way." 
 
 " Yes, sir," said the boy; and bidding the Cap- 
 tain good-bye, they crossed the big, bare room, 
 went down a short corridor and entered the gym- 
 nasium. 
 
 For a moment Fatty looked about him in de- 
 light ; then his gaze was centered on a pair in the 
 boxing ring near them. 
 
 A soft, fat, bandy-legged youth in tights was 
 hopping heavily around Kid O'Connors, answer* 
 ing his commands with the weak, haphazard 
 thrusts with a pair of fat, red arms, upon which 
 the flesh shook like jelly. 
 
 Fatty smothered a roar of laughter and seized 
 Chuck by the arm. 
 
 " Oh, mamma, mamma," he whispered, " isn't 
 that just lovely f Why, it's the Carroll kid I " 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 SAVED BY A HAIE 
 
 "Yes, that's CarroU; Mr. Clement Carroll/" 
 said Chuck. " Isn't he a mess? "Where did you 
 see him f ' ' 
 
 * ' He lives where I do, ' ' said Fatty. l i Gee, ' ' he 
 added, at once forgetting the fat lad lumbering 
 about, " Gee, is that your father? Isn't he a 
 peach? I'd like to know him! " 
 
 Into Fatty's active brain flashed a picture of 
 himself going back to Lafayette, and saying in a 
 careless way, " I was talking to Kid O'Connors 
 the other day." How the fellows would rave! 
 
 '" That's easy," said Chuck. He liked Fatty 
 and he told himself that he was the real thing. 
 
 Chuck piloted Fatty into the clean, big lava- 
 tory where a dozen shower baths invited cleanli- 
 ness on the part of the force. 
 
 When Fatty had finished scrubbing his hands, 
 the boys came out and met Kid O'Connors, who 
 had just ended the lesson with the panting Carroll. 
 
 " Father," said Chuck, " I want to make you 
 acquainted with Will Eansier. We did a little 
 Scout work together this morning. At least he 
 did it, and I tagged along. ' ' 
 
 " Nothing of the sort, Mr. O'Connors! " said 
 Fatty awkwardly. 
 
 19 
 
20 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 
 Hi.' 
 
 Kid O'Connors, with a boyish smile, extended 
 his hand, still warm from the padded glove, and 
 grasped Fatty's lean fist in what was meant for e 
 friendly grip. 
 
 Fatty bore it like a hero in silence ; but his heart 
 turned over and his bones cracked. He heard the 
 Kid say in a gentle, low voice : 
 
 " Proper pleased to meet yon, Mr. Eansier/ 
 and then he found that his hand was still alive. He 
 put it carelessly behind him and wagged it feebly 
 He guessed he would not put this in when he tola 
 the boys in Lafayette. They wouldn't be inter- 
 ested. 
 
 Chuck began t6 give his father an account of 
 the affair of the morning and Fatty stood watch- 
 ing the perfect body before him. The Kid stood 
 with his arms folded, hugging himself like a 
 boy. His skin was as smooth and fair and shining 
 as pink marble. There were no ugly lumpy 
 muscles; just a beautiful ripple under the silky 
 skin when he changed position. He was light on 
 his feet as a deer ; and quicker than a cat when he 
 moved. His deep-set, brown eyes were keen and 
 sharp, yet kindly ; his short, black hair covered a 
 well-shaped head; but he bore one disfiguring 
 mark of his trade, a " tin ear M puffy and out of 
 shape. 
 
 " That was a good day's work, and I'm glad 
 Charlie was there to help a bit. Hope we'll see 
 somethin' of you. Come in any time. Do you 
 box! " 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 21 
 
 " No, I do not," said Fatty, sadly. " There is 
 not enough of me to stand up before a fellow. It 
 wouldn 't be fair. I 'm so thin he couldn 't hit me. ' ' 
 The Kid laughed. 
 
 " You are thin; too thin. Are you well! " 
 " Tough as a nut," Fatty assured him. 
 " Well, I jolly well know there's some way to 
 broaden you," said the Kid. " We might ex- 
 periment with him a bit, Charlie. Do you eat 
 much? " 
 
 " Yes, a good deal," Fatty assured him; then 
 he stood staring at Charlie. " Say," he de- 
 manded suddenly, " when did you eat last? " 
 
 " Not since breakfast," said Charlie with a grin. 
 " I forgot all about it." 
 
 " So did. I," said Fatty. " And if I get any 
 thinner, I won't be here at all. Come on with me 
 and let's eat. Will you come, Mr. O'Connors! »\ 
 
 " No, thank you," said the boxer, smiling his 
 gentle smile. ' ' I had my proper dinner at noon. ' \ 
 ° He said good-bye to the boys and did not offer 
 to shake hands with Fatty, a fact that relieved 
 that young man. 
 
 The boys walked quickly up the street. 
 " Say," said Fatty, " I believe that is the first 
 time in my life that I ever forgot to eat. What 
 will we do; go to a regular feed joint or a Balti- 
 more? " 
 
 " Baltimore," said Charlie promptly. " They; 
 
 are so clean. ' ' 
 
22 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 Tke boys went into the first Baltimore lunch 
 that they came to, and while they ate two chicken 
 pot pies apiece, — to say nothing of rolls and milk 
 and cnstard pie and baked apples (they agreed 
 that it was too near dinner time to eat much) — 
 they talked over the events of the day. 
 
 After their meal the boys walked back to the 
 Court House where they parted, Charlie going in 
 to wait for his father, and Fatty driving the big 
 car back to the apartment where he gave Peters 
 a tip, and spent the rest of the afternoon on the 
 divan beside his mother telling her about it. 
 
 " Gosh, Mumsy, he was so limp and bloody. I 
 hated to touch him, but Chuck waded right in." 
 
 " How awful! " cried Mrs. Eansier, shaking 
 her curly head. A twinkle came into her eyes. 
 ! ' Will, dear, suppose it had been a girl ! ' ' 
 
 " Girl ! " cried Fatty, horrified as he thought of 
 his handling of the unconscious boy. " Girl! 
 What puts such awful things into your head? 
 Why, if it had been a girl, I'd have yelled for you. 
 Of course I wouldn't have touched her." 
 
 Mrs. Eansier laughed. " My dear, I wish you 
 had a sister," she said. " It is a great shame to 
 have you so afraid of girls. ' j 
 
 "I'm not afraid of 'em! " cried Fatty. "I 
 just don't like 'em; they get my goat every time. 
 If they would ever stop their crazy giggling; and 
 they wiggle so ; and they walk so awkward and 
 wobbly on those high heels. I'll bet my life you 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 23 
 
 were never like that. Girls must have changed.' ' 
 
 Mrs. Eansier laughed and tickled Fatty's nose 
 with her fluffy hair. Fatty laughed too. 
 
 " Mums, you are such a peach,' ' he said. 
 
 i i Will, ' ' said Mrs. Eansier, ' ' what if a girl did 
 that? " 
 
 Fatty bounced off the divan. He glared. 
 
 " Did that," he growled, " did that? Well, I'll 
 tell you what I'd do. I'd just walk off so quick she 
 couldn't see me for the dust. Honest, mother, I 
 don't see what puts such crazy ideas into your 
 head." 
 
 Mrs. Eansier still laughed. "Never mind, 
 dearest," she said, "I'll not let anyone get you. 
 Now go telephone Mrs. Keene and ask if we shall 
 come out there to-morrow. ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Keene was delighted to have them come, 
 and Sunday afternoon they made the eight-mile 
 run to Lafayette, and Mrs. Keene and Mrs. Ean- 
 sier planned for the new apartment in town, and 
 Mr. Eansier went down and had a long talk with 
 Mr. Smith, during which Fred's ear must have 
 burned, because his name was so often spoken. At 
 the close of the confab Mr. Eansier handed Mr. 
 Smith a check, filled out nice and fat, and Mr. 
 Smith put it in his pocket rather reluctantly, and 
 said, " Well, my boy, if you want to do this, all 
 right, but you are not called upon to. ' ' 
 
 And Mr. Eansier said, " That's all right, Mr, 
 Smith. She will take it from you and if we can 
 
24 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 
 save that fine boy, what does it matter who does 
 it 1 Vm mighty proud to be allowed to help. ' ' 
 
 In the Keene barn about twenty of the Lafay- 
 ette Scouts were gathered. 
 
 Fatty and Tony and Foxy Peck sat in a row on 
 the feed box and Spider Morrison filled the wheel- 
 barrow while Geezer Eeed sat all over the peck 
 measure. The other boys sat on the floor and on 
 boxes or leaned against the wall. 
 
 i Fatty told them about the accident, and led up 
 quite easily to meeting Kid 'Connors. 
 
 " Fat wath alwayth the lucky one," sighed 
 Spider. ' ' He wath born tho. ' ' 
 
 " Perhaps I was; but I wasn't born hungry, 
 anyhow," declared Fatty. " What you eatin', 
 Spider? " 
 
 1 l Nuthin ' but an athparagus tip, ' ' said Spider. 
 
 " That's so," said Slinky Mott. " He eats 'em 
 right out of the garden raw. ' ' 
 
 " Thath's all right," said Spider. " It dosth 
 to path away the time." 
 
 " Well, boys," continued Fatty, " you'd ought 
 to see Kid O'Connors close up the way I did. Say, 
 he's a lollypalluza ! He's got the best shoulders 
 you ever squinted at, and a hide like a baby. ' ' 
 
 Spider giggled. " Hide ith good, ' ' he remarked 
 to the asparagus stalk. 
 
 " Well, epidermis, then, you old goat! Guess I 
 know; he's a peach and you want to see him. 
 And there's that boy of his — he's a peach, 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 25 
 
 too; but to think of all the advantages he's got, 
 and he's going to be a doctor. Isn't that the 
 limit? " 
 
 " It thertainly ith," agreed Spider, whose 
 father was a physician with a country practice 
 which took him for thirty and forty-mile drives 
 over hopeless roads. " But we can't all be prithe 
 fighters. ' ' 
 
 " You don't want to call it that to Chuck," 
 warned Fatty. ' ' I noticed that he always speaks 
 of it as i boxing. ' ' ' 
 
 " "Well, you fellows all want to come out. I'll 
 fix it somehow so you can see him. I tell you, he 's 
 the real article. It's getting late — I've got to 
 get my folks and start." 
 
 The boys howled at Fatty's air of importance, 
 and yelled good-bye as the automobile slid down 
 the hill and out of sight. 
 
 Two days later 'Kourke appeared at the Han- 
 dier apartment. 
 
 " Special jooty I'm on, lady," he said, bowing 
 to the pretty woman who greeted him. " 'Tis 
 your son I'm after on a charrge of 'sault and 
 battry. 'Tis himself do be thumpin' me on the 
 back whin we meet and infringin' on the dignity, 
 an' me office. To be tellin' the truth, which is not 
 so plisant, 'tis the poor little lad at the hospital 
 we do be goin ' to see — Mister Will an ' me. He 's 
 sinsible; but he do be dyin', may God keep his 
 sowl. They are goin' to have him tell what he 
 
26 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 
 knows about the accident, more 's the pity. Mesilf , 
 .I'd lit him pass in peace, but 'tis the law, and 
 they've got the brutes what done it, houldin' them 
 without bail in two nate, clane cells wid no rugs to 
 skuff up. So we 're aff up there to see him on his 
 bed o' pain; and 'tis no plisant job. I'd like to 
 clane out a Wells street saloon on election eve best 
 like ; but no matter. ' ' 
 
 " Oh, I'm so sorry," cried little Mrs. Eansier. 
 ■" Could I help, do you think? Where is his 
 mother? " 
 
 " None," said O'Eourke. " Come, then, why 
 don't ye, swate lady? Belike 'twill soothe his 
 passin' do you but hold his lonesome little hand." 
 
 " Call the automobile, Will," cried Mrs. Ean- 
 sier, hurrying to get her cloak and veil. 
 
 On their way to the hospital, O'Rourke gave 
 Mrs. Eansier a history of the dying child. His 
 -only relation was an uncle whose coarse, scolding 
 wife resented the care of a child which did not be* 
 long to her. He earned good wages, however, as 
 messenger boy, so was allowed to stay in the 
 house. But life, according to tender-hearted 
 O 'Eourke, was but a hard thing to the frail boy. 
 Now he was dying. 
 
 ;■" Perhaps better so," said the policeman 
 huskily; " but I wish now I'd bespoke him more 
 kindly once and again." 
 
 The little fellow was a very pitiful sight. He 
 had lapsed again into unconsciousness and the 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 27 
 
 lawyer, sitting at the foot of the high, narrow cot, 
 held his pen in readiness if he should respond to 
 the restoratives. 
 
 Slipping out of her coat, Mrs. Eansier ap- 
 proached. The nurse was stooping to administer a 
 hypodermic. " There! " she said. " It seems a 
 shame to trouble him — he won't rally." 
 
 " He may," said the doctor. " He simply 
 makes no effort to rally. ' ' 
 
 The boy's eyes opened slowly and fixed them- 
 selves upon Mrs. Eansier. " John," said the doc- 
 tor, ' ' tell me how you got hurt. ' ' 
 
 The lad struggled to speak, then without a 
 sound closed his eyes. 
 
 " No use," said the doctor. " He hasn't the 
 strength or will to talk, and we can't give it to 
 him. They'll have to settle the case without him. ' ' 
 
 " I think he will live," said Mrs. Eansier sud- 
 denly. " Will you let me try, please! I can do 
 no harm. ' ' 
 
 " No, you cannot hurt him," said the doctor. 
 " What will you do? " 
 
 " Mother him," said little Mrs. Eansier, 
 fiercely. She flung her pretty hat away from her. 
 It hit the lawyer and he held it respectfully in one 
 hand while he watched the lovely face bend ten- 
 derly above the pillow. 
 
 " John," she said, " John, dear! " Again the 
 eyes opened and gazed deep into hers. 
 
 1 ' When did I die ? " asked the boy slowly. 
 
28 THE BOY SCOUTS 7 DEFIANCE 
 
 " You are alive,' ' said Mrs. Eansier, softly 
 kneeling by the bed and slipping an arm beneath 
 his head. There was a long silence. Mrs. Eansier 
 closely held his hands. 
 
 " Aren't you an angel? " he asked, finally. 
 
 ' ' No, dear, ' ' she breathed. 
 
 " I must toe dead," he persisted. " No one on 
 earth loves me like this, and I'm so cold." 
 
 The nurse slipped away and returned with sev- 
 eral hot water bottles which she put about him, 
 and a hot drink which he took from Mrs. Ean- 
 sier 's hand, swallowing it painfully. 
 
 " Tell us how you got hurt, John," persisted 
 the doctor. 
 
 " No," said Mrs. Eansier, " John doesn't feel 
 like talking now. ' ' 
 
 * * I 'd like to talk to you, ' ' said the boy, wistfully. 
 " If you are not an angel, I might die and then I'd 
 never see you any more. Your arm feels so good 
 under my head. ' ' 
 
 " Yes, dear. I won't take it away. I'll just 
 hold you tight and you are going to get well." 
 
 There was a long silence. The room was very 
 still. Bead by bead a rosary slipped through the 
 big, trembling hands of Policeman 'Eourke as he 
 said his prayers, with all the warmth of his simple 
 soul, for the child upon the bed and the beautiful 
 woman beside it. 
 
 The nurse stepped noiselessly here and there. 
 The doctor kept a light, practiced finger upon the 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 29 
 
 fluttering pulse. Fatty, face to face for the first 
 time with death, felt his heart beat thickly and his 
 mouth go dry. The hat in the lawyer's left hand 
 grew heavier and heavier, but he did not dare to 
 put it down. Again the heavy eyes opened and 
 looked long at Mrs. Eansier. She held him. 
 * * John, you must live, ' ' she said softly — ' l you 
 must live: you must live." 
 
 u I'm so tired, and I hurt so," the boy replied. 
 
 " You will get well and you shall go into the 
 beautiful country to rest," she promised him. 
 tt There is a hammock under the trees, and you 
 shall live there until you are so strong that you 
 will want to jump and run and play about. And 
 there are dogs out there, John, big, beautiful dogs 
 that like boys and want to romp with them. And 
 there is a soft bed for you at night. ? ■ 
 
 The boy listened. She seemed to be dreaming 
 him back to earth. 
 
 " How will I get money to pay my board? " he 
 asked feebly. 
 
 " Oh, you won't need to pay board," she as- 
 sured him. " You are going to a house that be- 
 longs to me. My sister lives there, and she needs 
 a boy to take care of her because her boy died long 
 ago, and she is very lonely. ' ' 
 
 " Is she like you? " asked the boy. 
 
 " Yes," said the soft voice, " only nicer. You 
 will love her. And I need you dreadfully too, be- 
 cause those are my dogs, and now there is no one 
 
30 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 to play with them. There are ever so many nice 
 boys there, too; and you will have such good 
 times together. Just think: all those dogs, and 
 the hammock under the trees, and the country and 
 the green grass. You must live, John. Will you 
 try f John, will you try f or me ? ' ' 
 
 " I do hurt so," came the feeble voice. 
 " I know," she said, " but you are so brave. 
 You will stand the hurt, will you not? You will 
 try, won't you, John! " 
 
 There was another long, long pause. 
 The nurse left the room. 
 
 Again the boy opened his eyes and looked long 
 at Mrs. Ransier. 
 
 " Yes, I'll try," he said, sighing. " But I am 
 awful, awful tired. I think I would go to sleep if 
 — do you think — would you mind— " He was 
 afraid to say it. But people close to death, even 
 poor little messenger boys dare greatly — " I 
 want you to kiss me," he whispered. 
 
 She bent ber bright head and kissed his pale, 
 childish lips. 
 
 " Go to sleep, dear," she said, " I will not go 
 away." 
 
 His eyes closed. The room was silent. In 
 O'Rourke's big hands the beads still dropped one 
 by one. Two big tears coursed down his weather- 
 beaten cheeks. His eyes rested upon Mrs. Ransier 
 as upon a saint. The lawyer, rising, tiptoed from 
 the room, still holding the pretty hat. The boy 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 31 
 
 slept peacefully, and the doctor, releasing the thin 
 wrist, presently went around and gently lifted the 
 boy so that Mrs. Bansier could arise. Beckoning 
 her to follow, he^stepped into the hall. She went 
 noiselessly, followed by Fatty and 'Bourke. 
 
 The doctor took her hand. 
 
 " Dear lady," he said, " the child's life is 
 yours ; for you have saved him. f ' 
 
 " I am so glad, so glad," she said simply, and 
 turned to Fatty. He put his arms about her. He 
 could never tell her how he adored her. 
 
 ' ' My own, own mother ! ' ' he whispered, and 
 kissing her, turned and followed 'Bourke while 
 Mrs. Eansier returned to the sick boy. 
 
 When Fatty and the policeman reached the side- 
 walk, 'Bourke shoved the beads he still held into 
 his pocket, stepped up to Fatty and deliberately 
 shook him. 
 
 " Belave me," he said when that was done, 
 * l whativer manner av a sort ye are, ye are no fit 
 son for such as her. An' ye can smoke that, for 
 'tis truth I'm tellin'." 
 
 " You don't have to shake* me," said Fatty 
 savagely. ' ' I guess I know it myself. ' ' 
 
 " Then 'tis well ye know it," said 'Bourke. 
 " 'Twill save me much care an' trouble teachin* 
 ye, for 'tis the wan thing in life that I feel ye 
 should know." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE CAEEOLLS COME IN 
 
 For a week, Mrs. Eansier spent most of her 
 time at the hospital. Slowly and surely she drew 
 John back from death. Just mothered him back 
 the doctors and nurses said. 
 
 Mr. Eansier and Fatty, left largely to their 
 own devices, found what an awful botch life was 
 without their little, laughing lady., Mr. Ransier 
 clung to Fatty and they had long walks and talks 
 together. Fatty took his father to the Police 
 Gymnasium, where he met Kid O'Connors, and 
 not only arranged to have Fatty take boxing les- 
 sons, but commenced taking them himself. " In 
 self-defense," he said. " For fear I might have 
 to lick Will." 
 
 To Fatty's delight, Mr. Ransier liked Kid 
 O'Connors, and took a great fancy to his son, 
 whom he declared* to be a fine fellow. He never 
 tired of seeing the two soft, pink, fat Carrolls 
 take their boxing lessons. Fatty, however, was 
 afraid of apoplexy. His father had such serious 
 snorting, choking times, hiding his amusement. 
 The Carrolls were too conceited and took them- 
 selves too seriously to dream that anything that 
 they would do could be funny, and pranced and 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 33 
 
 lunged and slapped in the direction of their 
 teacher, but never coming within a foot of him. 
 Once in a while he smacked them smartly, and they 
 strutted around feeling that that indeed was a 
 real boxing match. 
 
 They invited Fatty to have a go but he said that 
 he was only allowed to box with his teacher . 
 
 Charlie never dared put on the gloves with 
 either one. He said he knew that he'd hurt him. 
 So the two Carrolls, talking it over, decided that 
 everybody was afraid of them and called to each 
 other's notice how seldom the Kid landed on 
 either little, pink nose or round chin. 
 
 * f We have too much science for him, ' ' declared 
 Clement. " Did you notice the other day, De- 
 Forest, when he came at me with a left hander, 
 how I stopped him with my right and jolted him 
 on the jaw with my left! Then I danced back and 
 left him when he tried to return." 
 
 " It was great," said DeForest proudly. " I did 
 some nice clean work the other day, too, when I 
 backed him into the ropes. He can't get used to 
 my rushes ! ' ' and DeForest gazed proudly at the 
 beautifully creased trousers enclosing the wonder- 
 ful legs that did such great work. 
 
 At home, Kid O'Connors would declare with a 
 ^roan that the Carroll money was the hardest that 
 he earned. " I would like to just pat them all I 
 wanted for five minutes. Not to hurt them, but 
 just show them what real quick work is. ' ' 
 
34 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 " Oh, go on, father, do it," urged Charlie. " I 
 think you onght to ; they are so conceited. Honest, 
 it would do them good! Do it, and wait until 
 ^ Fatty and I are there. Oh, it will be a circus ! " 
 
 " "Why, Charlie! I never saw you wish your 
 father to do a mean thing before," objected Mrs. 
 O'Connors. "It's not like you." 
 
 " "Well, mamma," said Charlie, " you don't 
 know the Carrolls : if you did you would think I 
 was wishing them mighty good luck. They are a 
 pair of fools. You know, father, they don't know 
 that Will has any money, and as a result, they 
 have no use for him. They suspected when the 
 big automobile came, but Will told them he was 
 running it for a relative. It does belong to a rel- 
 ative : Will 's father. Why, you know how high- 
 headed they are at the gym. Just you wait! 
 Some day I'm going to tell them that the Eansiers 
 have so much money that they eat off gold plates : 
 and then you watch the fun ! ' ' 
 
 Before Charlie could get the chance that he was 
 waiting for, Tony came to the city and Charlie 
 was duly introduced. The boys took to each other 
 and the three planned many a good time for the 
 summer. One day Fatty, fishing in his pocket, 
 drew out a crumpled card. i i That's the card that 
 doctor gave me the day John was hurt. Tony, I 
 never noticed his name; it's Carroll," he said. 
 
 "Why, yes: he's Clement's and DeForest's 
 father. Didn't you know? " 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 35 
 
 " Great Scott, he can't be! " exclaimed Fatty. 
 " He's never with them." 
 
 i i Well, I don 't think that is queer, ' ' said Char- 
 lie. i l See the way it is, Mrs. Carroll is an awful 
 swell, and the boys take after her, and Dr. Car- 
 roll is just a plain, smart doctor. I guess they dis- 
 courage the doctor a good deal. He wants them 
 to be Boy 'Scouts. Don't you remember what he 
 said that day? " 
 
 " Gee, they would be ornamental all right," 
 said Fatty. 
 
 " Would they like to come in? " 
 
 11 Ask them and see," advised Chuck: and 
 Fatty, who was always in earnest, did so the next 
 time they met. 
 
 " Certainly not! " said Clement and DeForest 
 in one breath. " Very common sort of an organ- 
 ization ! Such a mixed class in it. You have all 
 sorts, really! " 
 
 Fatty turned red. 
 
 M No, not all sorts," he said. " There are no 
 fools or idiots, ' ' and walked off. 
 
 " Funny remark," said Clement to DeForest. 
 Clement always spoke first. He had less nose, less 
 chin and was redder and fatter than his brother. 
 
 ' ' Deuced funny ! ' ' agreed DeForest. l ' But I 
 don't think that he is particularly bright. I don't 
 think he caught the idea at all when we spoke of 
 it as being very mixed. ' ■ 
 
 " Probably not," said Clement. 
 
36 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 It was a day or two later when Charlie found 
 his chance. He was at the gym watching his 
 father grimly nurse DeForest along through the 
 lesson. Strange to say, Clement came out in a 
 gorgeous bathrobe and sat beside him. 
 
 " When have you seen Ransier? " asked 
 Charlie. 
 
 " Really I don't know," said Clement in a 
 bored tone. " You see we do not know the same 
 people at all. I never meet him socially. He is a 
 great friend of yours, is he not? " 
 
 " You bet he is! " said Charlie. " Funny how 
 queer he is about money! " 
 
 M How's that? " said Clement. " Sensitive 
 about not having much, I suppose — poor fel- 
 low! " 
 
 " Not quite,' ' said Charlie. " The fact is, his 
 father has so much money that they simply don't 
 know how to spend it. They own half the oil wells 
 in Virginia. Mr. Ransier has just ordered two 
 new automobiles, an electric for Mrs. Ransier, and 
 a big runabout for Will. Will has twice as much 
 money given him as he can spend ; and I never saw 
 anyone so generous, but he'll never forgive you if 
 you speak of money to him. He's awful funny 
 about it ' ' 
 
 Clement 's round, red mouth hung open. 
 
 " For gracious goodness' sake! " he remarked. 
 
 " Sure thing! " said Charlie. " Now he likes 
 you and DeForest like the deuce, but if he thought 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 37 
 
 you liked him for his money, he'd never speak to 
 you. They are real swells, too, — they have a 
 coat-of -arms as big as a platter. ' ' 
 
 " Goodness, gracious me! " said Clement. He 
 shut his round, red mouth. " DeForest is 
 through, ' ' he said. u I '11 go help him dress, ' ' and 
 hurried off. 
 
 One day, a week later, Fatty hurried into the 
 gym with his eyes nearly as round as the Car- 
 rolls '. He looked anxiously behind him, then hur- 
 ried over where Chuck and Tony were watching 
 a practice bout. 
 
 Fatty threw himself down with a force that 
 made the bench crack. 
 
 " Say, did you hear that, fellows? Gee, I'm 
 getting hefty, I tell you! Didn't know I could 
 break the furniture ! " 
 
 " You seem in a big hurry," said Tony. 
 " 'Fraid we'd get away? " 
 
 " No," said Fatty, frowning. " Fact is, boys, 
 I'm worried. I don't know what's the matter: 
 but it's straight goods that if I had a nice, juicy 
 bone in my pocket, those two little Carroll pups 
 couldn't stick tighter to my heels than they have 
 lately. It's awful! They lay for me outside 
 school, and in the elevator — even Peters notices 
 it. Peters says, ' You're growing popular, sir.' 
 
 " Well, I certainly am if that's what you call 
 having those two snips stick to me day and night. 
 They have been to call on mother, and she got in 
 
38 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 wrong, I guess, by patting Clement on the back. 
 Mother's got some sort of a rinkydoo on the wall 
 that tells how some of onr folks came out of the 
 ark or some such foolishness, and DeForest sat 
 and stared at it all the time he was there. Why, 
 he acted kind of dippy over it ! When he got up 
 to go, he edged over and read the motto two or 
 three times. I saw his lips go. I'll bet he was 
 memorizing it so that he could get someone to 
 translate it. Why, I'm nearly crazy! I'll bust if 
 this keeps up ! 
 
 " And as for Clement, I wish you could have 
 heard him talk to mother about the Simple Life. 
 He drooled on about it like a copy-book, and fin- 
 ally mother said : ' My dear child, there is no 
 such thing as the Simple Life. The more you try 
 to make it simple, the harder you have to wofrk.' 
 
 " I thought that ought to hold him, but Clement 
 says just as cool as ice, ' Really, I can 't agree with 
 you, Mrs. Ransier; but one never argues with a 
 lady.' 
 
 " I was crazy to punch him, but mother looked 
 so amused that I thought he'd might as well live 
 along if she got any fun out of it. € Won't argue 
 with a lady, ' says Clement ; and him sixteen years 
 old! I'd like to spank him. Oh, Jiminy, here 
 they come now ! ' ' 
 
 The two Carrolls hurried in, cast anxious eyes 
 about, and with a look of relief on their round 
 faces, crossed the room. 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 39 
 
 "Sorry we missed yon, old chap," said Clem- 
 ent. He sat down close to Fatty. 
 
 " Yes, we thought we conld all come over to- 
 gether," added DeForest, squeezing in between 
 Fatty and Tony. Both boys paid no attention 
 whatever to Tony or Charlie. Fatty stretched out 
 his long legs, leaned his head back against the 
 wall and groaned. 
 
 " Yon do flatter me so," he remarked. " 'Tis 
 almost too much for me I " 
 
 The Carrolls looked at each other, and went off 
 into cackling laughter. " Good work, old man! " 
 they both exclaimed, patting Fatty on the back. 
 
 " Now what? " demanded Fatty. " If I don't 
 choose to go around like a comet dragging a fuzzy 
 little tail, what's the joke? " 
 
 The Carrolls continued to cackle. Tony looked 
 surprised. Charlie hid his face in his hands and 
 laughed until he cried. His joke had worked beau- 
 tifully. He had to share it. 
 
 " Come along, Tone," he said, and walked 
 away. 
 
 " Come back, you pikers," cried Fatty for he 
 was so hemmed in by his admirers that he could 
 not move. 
 
 " In a minute," said Charlie, and, drawing 
 Tony into the lavatory, told him the joke. 
 
 " Oh, it's too funny for words," gasped Tony, 
 when he could speak. " Let's keep it up for £ 
 while. I want to go back and listen. ' ' 
 
40 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 They hastily retraced their steps. Fatty 's eyes 
 were full of murder. His thin arms were folded 
 tightly and he had made himself as small as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 On either side, the Carrolls turned toward him ? 
 their round, pink faces full of admiration. Be- 
 fore them, with a puzzled look in his blue eyes, 
 stood O'Rourke. He put an arm around Chuck 
 and Tony, and said : 
 
 " Belave me, boys, I'd go far and fare worse to 
 look at such a swate sight. 'Tis the free of 'em 
 now settin' there friendly and close as birds on a 
 bough; and me friend Mr. Ransier looks that 
 plazed! " 
 
 " Certainly! " said Clement. " We three fel- 
 lows are congenial, Q 'Rourke. ' ' 
 
 " True fer ye," said O'Rourke solemnly, " as 
 conjaneyul and frindly as St. Pathrick and the 
 snakes. 'Tis fine to see yez ! ' ' 
 
 " Aw, rats! " said Fatty, giving a jerk and 
 breaking away from the two fat boys. " Come 
 on out of this ! ' ' 
 
 " Yes," said Clement. " Come on! This is no 
 place to chat. ' ' 
 
 He jumped up as quickly as possible, and took 
 Fatty's arm. Fatty turned imploring eyes upon 
 the policeman. 
 
 "Say, Mr. O'Rourke," he begged, " arrest 
 me, will you? I'm not safe to have around." 
 
 " I can see that" said the officer, " and fer yer 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 41 
 
 mother's sake I'll take you in and put a straight 
 jacket on yez before ye do harm to the hilpless. 
 What ye've done to so punish yersilf, I dunno; 
 but I '11 look into it. Come alang, then. ' ' 
 
 He laid a hand on Fatty's shoulder and with a 
 great show of force walked off with him. 
 
 Chuck turned to the Carrolls. " Are you go- 
 ing to box now ? " he said. 
 
 Clement stared at him. " Oh, are you two 
 here? " he remarked. 
 
 For a moment Charlie stood still, pale and fu- 
 rious. Then he controlled himself, and without a 
 word walked away. 
 
 " Gee whiz, kid, why didn't you soak him for 
 that t ' ' groaned Tony. 
 
 " He's not worth it," gritted Chuck: " but he's 
 earned all that 's coming to him now. I '11 fix him, 
 the measly mucker ! Let 's find Will. I 'm going 
 to put him on ! ' ' 
 
 Will was marching up and down outside the 
 Court House, with O'Rourke. The boys dashed 
 up. 
 
 " Say, Fatty, you've got to help out," Tony ex- 
 ploded, and both talking, he and Charlie told the 
 whole joke. 
 
 " Well, fellows," said Fatty, " you are sure two 
 Scout pills. You ought to have your faces pushed 
 in for this, but never mind. Let's begin any old 
 time, and see the fun>" 
 
 He started back toward the gym. u Let 'em 
 
42 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 alone now, Fat," counselled Tony. " They are 
 getting ready to box. ' ' 
 
 " Certainly! " said Fatty. "I'm going in to 
 admire theni." 
 
 The boys followed him. Fatty sat in the seat 
 nearest, the ring, and with open mouth and round 
 eyes watched the boxing. He kept up a fire of re- 
 marks, in a low tone, but carefully intended for 
 the ears of the Carrolls. 
 
 " Do you know," he confided to the boys, •' I 
 never noticed the form those fellows have until 
 today ? Gee, they We got a swell build, too ! ' ' 
 
 The Carrolls, listening, pranced and parried, 
 and whacked each other with short, baby blows. 
 When they finally finished, they left the ring for 
 the shower room, more out of breath and self- 
 satisfied than ever. The boys watched for them, 
 and when the Carrolls came out, the three were 
 busy talking about Boy Scout affairs. 
 
 The Carrolls joined them, or joined Fatty, 
 rather, as they seemed to consider the other two 
 quite beneath their notice. 
 
 ' ' Well, old chap, ' ' said Clement, ' ' how was that 
 for a swift round f ' ' 
 
 " Where are the Lafayette Scouts going this 
 summer ? \ 9 . said Fatty, paying no attention. 
 
 f ' Way down in Maine, ' ' said Tony. ' ' Some of 
 Mr. Smith 9 s planning, of course. ' ■ 
 
 " Who is this Smith you talk about? " inter- 
 rupted DeForest. ~ 
 
THE BOV SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 43 
 
 a 
 
 I talk about Mister Smith," said Fatty, 
 coldly. " Mister Smith is the dandiest old gen- 
 tleman on this earth, and you bet it 's an honor to 
 know; him. ' ' 
 
 " Mr. Brown comes next," said Tony. 
 
 " You bet! " said Fatty. " Let's go out to- 
 morrow and see 'em. Can't you go, Chuck! " 
 
 " Certainly, we will go," said both the Carrolls. 
 
 Fatty looked at them. " There will not be 
 room for you, ' ' he said, coldly. ' '' Besides, we are 
 all Scouts, and you wouldn't enjoy it." 
 
 " That's the thing I had in my mind to speak 
 about," said Clement cheerfully, overlooking 
 Fatty's remark. " The pater thinks we ought to 
 join the Scouts. ' ' 
 
 "It's pretty mixed, you know," said Chuck. 
 
 " Yes, of course," said DeForest, " but the 
 pater thinks it would be a? good thing for fellows 
 of our standing, you know, Will, to join and sort 
 of — er — elevate it, you know. ' ' 
 
 " Did Doctor Carroll say that? " sternly de- 
 manded Charlie. 
 
 " Well, to that effect," DeForest lied. 
 
 " What is the pater? Is that a name for your 
 father? " asked Tony, innocently. Tony was the 
 best Latin grind in school, the fellows said. 
 
 Clement and DeForest smiled. "It is Latin 
 for father/ 9 they explained kindly. " All the fel- 
 lows in our class call their fathers that." 
 
 " Well, if your ' pater ' wants you to elevate the 
 
44 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 Scouts, I suppose it must be done," said Fatty. 
 * ' Do you know anything about it I ' ' 
 
 " Why, we know that you drill and go camp- 
 ing," said DeForest. M I sounds jolly enough." 
 
 " Oh, yes, it's jolly all right," Fatty assured 
 him, ' ' but look here ! Here 's the smallest thing : 
 every morning you tie a knot in your tie, and you 
 can't untie it until you do some act of kindness." 
 
 " Why should one untie one's tie at all? " asked 
 Clement. ' ■ DeForest and I can tie the best look- 
 ing four-in-hands in town. An English lord's 
 servant taught us. We'll teach you if you like, 
 Will." 
 
 Will sighed. He tapped one finger on his palm. 
 
 " You don't tie four-in-hands, children. You 
 tie just a common, ordinary knot like THIS in 
 the END of your tie, and you wear it dangling 
 outside your vest like THIS until you have earned 
 the right to take it out. And you earn the right 
 to take it out by doing some act of kindness or 
 courtesy. Do I make myself clear? " 
 
 " But, by Jove, man," objected Clement* 
 " that's bound to wrinkle up your tie! " 
 
 Fatty looked at him a long time and sighed : 
 
 " Yes, it will wrinkle up your tie," he admitted. 
 u Now, as this is a primer class, I will tell you 
 some more. You will have to cut out your cussing 
 unless you want a dose of cold water down your 
 slewe. You will have to learn something about 
 your country's flag, which I bet you don't know 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 45 
 
 now. YouVe got to tie a reef, a short bend, a 
 close hitch and a bowline knot. Yon have got to 
 swear to do these things : First, to do yonr duty 
 to God and yonr country. Second, to help other 
 people at all times. ' ' 
 
 Clement interrupted, " Why, that will be a 
 bally nuisance! One's time is too valuable to 
 spend helping other people ! ' ' 
 
 M I suppose yours is," agreed Fatty grimly, 
 " but I thought I ought to mention that part of 
 the oath. Then third is to obey the Scout law. ' ' 
 
 a There is one other thing," suggested Tony. 
 " You must. earn all your own equipment." 
 
 " Why not ask the pater for it? " said Clem- 
 ent. ' i He 'd give it to us cheerfully. ' ' 
 
 " Nothing doing! " said Fatty. " You've got 
 to prove that you have earned it, too. ' ' 
 
 * ' By Jove ! ' ' said DeForest feebly. ' ' We have 
 never had to earn any money. Darned if I 'd know 
 what to do! " 
 
 Fatty was enjoying himself. ' l Well, you must 
 know how to do something," he said. 
 
 DeForest 's mouth, which had been hanging 
 open, closed, then opened again. 
 
 " I can paint on china, ' ' he said. 
 
 " Good work! " said Fatty heartily, but with a 
 twinkle in his eyes. He turned to the other boy, 
 " Now, Clement," he said, " I'll bet you can em- 
 broider! " 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE BASEMENT ROOM 
 
 4t That was a masterly move," said Fatty a lit- 
 tle later, as they lost the Carrolls at the soda foun- 
 tain in a drug store, and walked home together. 
 " Gee, fellows, I'm beginning to think that those 
 dubs are really worth the trouble. It's a cinch 
 that I never wanted to laugh as I did just now. 
 Too bad Clement can't embroider! He could put 
 his little bureau covers and tidies in a suit-case 
 and sell 'em the way the Armenians do. Well, 
 I say we do something! We've wasted the whole 
 day. Let's go up to the house first and see if 
 mother has some cake. ' ' 
 
 In the elevator Fatty said: " Hello, Peters, 
 good afternoon! " 
 
 Peters, a little, thin wisp of a man, merely 
 snarled. He was pale and his hands trembled. 
 
 "Ain't he the limit? " asked Fatty, as they 
 waited for the door to be opened. 
 
 ' ' I tell you, Fat, the man is sick or in trouble, ' - 
 declared tender-hearted Tony. 
 
 " Aw, sick nuthin' ! " sneered Fatty. " He's 
 a sore head, that 's all ! I tell you I believe he 's a 
 miser besides. He gets more tips, and he looks 
 like a rag-bag. Don't think there is any Mrs. 
 
 46 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 47 
 
 Peters. He has a couple of rooms in the base- 
 ment, and he has the back part all fenced off so 
 you can't see in the windows, and he won't open 
 the door unless you go into the front part of the 
 basement. ' ' 
 
 " Mother out? " he asked as the maid opened 
 the door. ' ' Well, all we want is cake. ' ' 
 
 While the generous portions were disappearing 
 Fatty stuck to his grievance. " I say he's a 
 miser : and I vote we find out what he 's got down 
 there. ' ' 
 
 " Better not, had we?" said Tony, weakly. 
 City life was wearing on Tony. There seemed so 
 little to do. 
 
 u Yes, come on," urged Fatty. " If they nab 
 us, I'll take the blame. Honest, fellows, Peters is 
 no good. All he wants is your money. You ought 
 to see him grab a quarter. Wait, I'll show you; 
 I've got fifty cents — let's go down." 
 
 In the elevator, Fatty quietly offered Peters the 
 coin. The man seized it and shoved it deep into 
 his pocket. ' ' Thank you, Mr. Eansier, thank you ! 
 That helps, that helps! " he said. 
 
 On the street Fatty turned to the boys. 
 " Well? "he said. 
 
 "Well," said Tony, " I win! I know I'm 
 right." 
 
 ' * You make me tired, Tone ! Everybody can 
 make an easy mark of you. Now I'm going to 
 prove that I'm right. Tonight I'm going to go 
 
48 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 down cellar as soon as it's dark, and see what he's 
 got locked up there. Are you fellows game 1 ' ' 
 
 ' ' Yes, ' ' said Tony. ' ' I want to go. ' ' 
 
 " So do I! " said Chuck. 
 
 " Well, then it's a go," said Fatty, "and I 
 feel like a burglar already. ' ' 
 
 Chuck and Tony came back about eight o'clock. 
 
 i * Fellows, ■ ' said Fatty, ' ' I have a feeling that 
 mother had better not know this." 
 
 " I say it's a mean trick," said Tony. 
 
 " It would be, Tone, if Peters wasn't such a 
 snipe. He's not worth considering, the little 
 grafter! " 
 
 The boys sat around, feeling like conspirators. 
 It grew dusky. 
 
 1 i Come on, ' ' said Fatty. * ' He 's in the elevator 
 now for three hours. I don't know why we 
 should feel so mean. We don't intend to steal his 
 pile. I just want a squint through those windows. ' * 
 
 They waited until the elevator went up, then 
 dodged down the little blind stairway that led 
 from the hall into the half basement. It was very 
 clean down there, and dark and still. They did 
 not dare turn on the electric lights, but Fatty had 
 a pocket electric torch. 
 
 " Those are rooms for fuel," he said. " I was 
 down here once or twice. The furnaces are over 
 there, and his rooms are behind them. Come 
 along! " 
 
 Guided by Fatty's light, they stepped briskly 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 49 
 
 across the great, empty space, taking care to make 
 no noise. As they cautiously circled the great 
 furnaces they heard, apparently from the air 
 above them, a hollow cough. It was a strange and 
 ghostly sound. Fatty, well in the lead, started 
 violently and dropped his light with a crash. 
 Chuck and Tony grabbed each other. No one 
 spoke or moved. There was no other sound. 
 
 Hastily Fatty rejoined his friends. He pulled 
 them to him and in a shaky whisper said : ' ' What 
 was that? " 
 
 " Somebody coughed,' ' whispered Tony. 
 
 " Naw, it wasn't! " said Chuck. " It was one 
 of the furnace pipes making a noise. ' ' 
 
 Fatty lit a match and found the pocket light. 
 The fall had not improved it, and it gave only a 
 feeble glimmer. Fatty threw the light around, 
 and for a long time the boys stood in a silent 
 group. There was absolutely no sound. The 
 cough, if it was a cough, was not repeated. Fatty 
 nudged the boys and they noiselessly retreated to 
 the windows in the front part of the cellar, where, 
 in the light of the street lamp showing in, they 
 made an effort to fix their little electric torch. It 
 was not a success, however, and Tony urged 
 Fatty to give it up. 
 
 " Now, look here," Fatty whispered, " I be- 
 lieve that was a human cough if it was any at all, 
 and three of us wouldn't imagine it. That's no 
 .sort of a noise to be hearing in an apartment 
 
50 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 house. What if that snipe has got somebody 
 locked up down here? I wouldn't put it past 
 him ! We ought to look into it. ' ' 
 
 " That's what I say," agreed Chuck. " But I 
 think it's a ghost. It sounded ju§t like a ghost.' ' 
 
 " Aw, ghost nuthin' ! " scoffed Tony. 
 
 " Sure thing," said Chuck. " They have 'em, 
 any number of 'em, in England. Father says the 
 ghost at a place called Edgerton Manor used to 
 give a hollow cough just before it appeared. I 
 suppose to kind of prepare you." 
 
 " What did it look like when you saw it? " 
 asked Fatty, glancing over his shoulder. 
 
 " Oh, it was fierce! " Chuck assured them. 
 4 ' First thing you would hear this hollow cough, 
 or perhaps a couple, because you know you might 
 not be listening first off ; then you would see this 
 hooded figure moseying along toward you without 
 a sound. You couldn't see its face until it got 
 close up, and then you saw it didn't have any." 
 
 " Head cut off f " asked Fatty, hoarsely. 
 
 " No, worse than that! Most of its face had 
 been sliced away by a sword-stroke. Then it 
 would wring its hands and groan, and suddenly 
 disappear." 
 
 " Well, what did the old gike mean by plugging 
 around, scaring folks f ' ' demanded Fatty. 
 
 * * Why, it always appeared a week before there 
 was to be a death in the house, to warn 'em. 
 Father saw it once. ' ' 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 51 
 
 " He's alive? " said Fatty. 
 
 u Sllre, ,, said Chuck, " the fellow that saw it 
 didn't die.' ' 
 
 " Don't see why not," said Fatty. "I'd have 
 died! I'd have just dropped dead without any 
 fuss or bother. ' ' 
 
 * ' Well, ' ' said Tony, after a long pause, ' * there 
 are no ghosts here, anyway: but I don't call this 
 much fun. Let 's go up. ' ' 
 
 < < All right, ' ' said Charlie. * < Let 's ! ' ' 
 
 " No," said Tony, unexpectedly. " Let's not! 
 I'm going back! " 
 
 " Why, what's eatin' you, Tone? " asked Fatty. 
 " There's no ghost at the Alhambra. A ghost 
 would have a fat job, I must say, looking after all 
 those families. Come on, let's go upstairs. 
 We've had all I want of it." 
 
 " Go ahead," said Tony, with the bulldog firm- 
 ness which Fatty knew so well. ' * You might just 
 as well go if you want to. I don't care if I ga 
 alone. It don 't bother me any. ' ' 
 
 " Well, I don't see what ails you," said Fatty. 
 " You didn't want to come when we planned it. 
 You know you didn't! You put up all sorts of 
 kicks. Now you're dead set to go on. I don't see 
 as this is any fun. As far as the old ghost goes, 
 why, they may have 'em in England, but I'll bet 
 you can't find 'em here. Don't be a goat, Tone! 
 Old Peters isn't worth our time." 
 
 "Perhaps not," said Tony, stubbornly. "I 
 
m THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 didn't want to come, I own, but that was no ghost 
 coughing. It was a human being. And I'm a 
 Scout, so I'm just going to satisfy myself that 
 everything is all right. Why, it won't take a min- 
 ute to listen at that door or look through the key- 
 hole. If anybody's is trouble, we can tell it too 
 quick — so I'm going! " 
 
 " That's right enough, Fatty," said Chuck. 
 4i I forgot that we are Scouts. I think it's up to 
 us now to see the thing through." 
 
 " All right," said Fatty, "I'm game! " 
 
 They turned and tiptoed back to the furnaces. 
 It was nothing but a chance, of course : but as the 
 "boys passed the spot where they had heard it be- 
 fore, another hollow cough sounded, seemingly 
 from a great distance. Fatty, who was nervous, 
 jumped and gritted his teeth. Chuck clinched his 
 fists. Tony turned in the direction of the noise. 
 Big, square pillars supported the building. On 
 the other side of one of these, in a partition, was 
 a door. Tony went around the pillar. The door 
 was ajar, and a faint light streamed out. 
 
 Thunderstruck, the boys looked in, in their 
 amazement drawing close to the mysterious apart- 
 ment. It was a large room, and the light which 
 made it possible for them to see it shone from an- 
 other room beyond. The place was comfortable, 
 even handsomely furnished. The floor was thickly 
 covered with rugs of all descriptions, from plain 
 squares of rag carpet to torn old rugs from the 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 53 
 
 far East. All sorts and tags of furniture, most of 
 it good, but none "matching, filled the room. In 
 the dim glow, which scarcely lighted the room at 
 all, everything looked better than it was. 
 
 " Say," whispered Fatty, " ain't Peters the 
 swell? " 
 
 Tony nudged him sharply. Tony had ears like 
 a fox: and he had heard in the further room a 
 soft, pitiful sigh. 
 
 The boys stood rigid, holding their breath. 
 Again the sigh trembled on the air, and the three 
 boys all heard it. They nudged each other vio- 
 lently, hitting elbows midway. For a long, long 
 while they stood there, staring about the dark 
 room and listening for some further sound. The 
 stillness was painful. There was something about 
 the comfort and daintiness of the room that made 
 Fatty and Chuck suddenly aware that they were 
 engaged in a contemptible trick. Fatty pulled 
 Tony 's sleeve. 
 
 1 ■ Come on ! ' ' he whispered in his ear. 
 
 Tony shook his head. "I'm going to see who 
 that is," he said. 
 
 " Well, what good will it do you? " 
 
 " Don't know," said Tony, " only I'm just go- 
 ing to do it, that's all." 
 
 " Well, you old bullhead, go as far as you 
 like! " hissed Fatty, angrily. 
 
 ^ The inner door swung a little. The boys drew 
 [back into the darkness. A dim figure appeared 
 
54 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 against the light: a slight, ghostly figure in float-' 
 ing, white garments. 
 
 The figure moved slowly forward. Fatty's 
 blood froze. Was it coming out to them! 
 
 It hesitated in the middle of the room, then 
 turned and, crossing to a big couch, drooped 
 slowly down and, leaning toward the little table 
 beside it, switched on the electric reading light. 
 The boys gave a gasp of surprise. There, with 
 the light turning her fair hair to threads of gold, 
 was a beautiful girl. She was very thin and frail, 
 and seemed to move as though she had no 
 strength. She rested her head listlessly upon the 
 cushions, and again a sigh of weariness or pain 
 cut to the hearts of the three watchers. Fatty 
 jerked their coat sleeves and began backing noise- 
 lessly away. As they reached the furnaces a 
 quick step sounded in the stairway. 
 ' \ Peters ! ' \ breathed Fatty. 
 As he approached, the boys noiselessly circled 
 around to the other side of the furnace nearest 
 them. Peters passed and the boys breathed again. 
 Fatty must have breathed too hard: for with a 
 rattle and crash the fatal torch-lamp dropped from 
 his hand. 
 
 With the quickness of a cat, Peters leaped to 
 the electric button, and flooded the room with 
 light. Then, before he gave one look for the boys, 
 he closed the open door. When he turned and rec- 
 ognized the three guilty explorers, he was a pic- 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 55 
 
 ture of absolute fury. At first lie could not speak. 
 
 " Well, young gentlemen, ' ' he said at last, 
 * ' this is just what I looked for sooner or later : 
 but somehow I never expected it from you. What 
 devilment had you to do I wonder if I hadn 't ap- 
 peared! What had you planned to scare that 
 poor, sick, little lass in there f I jolly well thought 
 she was safe down here from prying eyes, where 
 she could spend the rest of her poor, short, little 
 life in peace — and you, Mr. Eansier, I thought 
 you was a gentleman : and these was your friends ! 
 If I had half the size and strength of my wishes, 
 I'd thrash you all if I lost my place for it. You 
 young, thieving, spying curs — you — you — ' ' 
 
 Tony stepped suddenly toward him, and took 
 the little man by the arm. 
 
 " Shut up, Mr. Peters! " he said firmly. 
 " You've got to hear what I say. Now come over 
 here where the young lady won't hear us and I'll 
 tell you how it happened." 
 
 " I don't care how it happened," repeated 
 Peters. But Tony, who was taller and much 
 stouter than little Peters, dragged him away from 
 the fatal door. 
 
 Fatty felt that they were in for a very bad time. 
 He'd never seen anyone so raging mad as Peters, 
 and he had never felt so low down, so dirt cheap 
 in his whole life. It had looked such a lark, such 
 a harmless, boy trick at first, but the way it had 
 turned out was awful. Peters — poor Peters — 
 
■56 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 with a sick child : and such a child ! Fatty choked 
 clown a groan as he remembered the golden hair 
 and great, blue eyes he had seen. Much as Fatty 
 hated girls he acknowledged that there was a girl 
 no one could hate. She was too feeble. It made 
 you want to do things for her. Fatty wondered 
 if her mother was in the other room. -He woke up 
 j — Tony was speaking. 
 
 " Now look here, Mr. Peters," he said. " This 
 is all my fault, and I'm going to do the talking." 
 
 " It's not your fault," cut in Fatty. " ^ou 
 know I started it, Tone ! " 
 
 " Shut up, Fat; I'm talking! " insisted Tony. 
 
 " We thought that you were awful mysterious 
 about the place, Mr. Peters, because you kept Will 
 in the front part when he came down to see you, 
 and we thought you sort of camped down here and 
 it would be a joke to find out about it." 
 . " Spyin' ! " said Peters bitterly. 
 
 " Yes, I guess that's the English of it, all 
 right," said Tony, with a blush. " But we won't 
 leave any of it out, at any rate. Well, we came 
 down and fussed around, and over by the furnace 
 we heard a cough. At first it scared us; we 
 thought it was a ghost. We talked it over and the 
 other fellows wanted to go back. ' ' 
 
 ' l Afraid ! ' ' sneered Peters. 
 
 " No," said Tony, " but somehow they didn't 
 want to go on. But I got it into my fool head that 
 there might be someone in trouble or someone 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 57 
 
 that needed help, so I said that I was going on 
 with it. So, of course, the other fellows came 
 along. You see we are Boy Scouts, and we 've got 
 to do all we can for other people all the time. ' ' 
 
 " Is that what you name it when you spy on a 
 man, and come near to scaring his poor, sick, little 
 lass to death? " asked Peters. 
 
 " Look here, Peters,'' burst out Fatty, '■* I 
 never dreamed you had a daughter or a family. 
 Why, man, you must know we wouldn't have 
 scared her for the world. We never dreamed 
 you had a place like this down here. It's all rot, 
 Peters, for you to say you think we would have 
 hurt her. Gee ! We were getting out as fast as 
 we could when you came, and if I hadn't dropped 
 that light, why, no harm would have been done. 
 We wouldn't have told. It's your affair if you 
 want to live down here and hide your family 
 away. Now I'm sorry about it, Peters. It was 
 all my fault, and I apologize. The other fellows 
 came because I put it up to them that it was a lark. 
 Tony isn't the sort that spies, and neither is 
 Chuck." 
 
 " Neither is Will," said Tony, earnestly. 
 " Why, he'd not do a mean thing for the world. 
 Honest, Mr. Peters, we are awful sorry! I tell 
 you if there was a thing in the world we could do 
 to show you how sorry we are, we would do it." 
 
 " That's straight," said Fatty, then remember- 
 ing Peters' thirst for tips, he dived into his 
 
58 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 pocket and brought out a five-dollar bill. l ' I wish 
 you'd take this, Peters," he said, pushing it into 
 Peters' hand. 
 
 " No, thank you, Mi*. Eansier," said Peters, 
 drawing back, " I can't take it today somehow, 
 sir; I'm too sore." 
 
 " Please take it, Peters," urged Fatty; " take 
 it, and then we 'li feel that you believe what we 're 
 telling you. Take it and give it to Mrs. Peters, 
 and ask her to get something for the little girl." 
 
 Peters, overwrought and bowed by his sorrows, 
 gave a dry, crackling sob. 
 
 " That's just it," he said finally. " There 
 aint no Mrs. Peters! " 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 peters' confession 
 
 " She's dead," said Peters, simply. " Died 
 when the lass was a little un, only four years old. 
 Now she's fifteen, and she's going same as her 
 mother went." 
 
 " Oh, I gness not," said Tony, hastily. " She's 
 all right ! Why, she looks dandy ! ' ' 
 
 " It's her lungs," said Peters. " She ought to 
 be in the woods. I went up there a while ago, but 
 there's no work there for such as me. I'm such 
 a little tike, and I've but had to do with cities. I 
 couldn't leave her there alone: she's not strong 
 enough to fend for herself, so here she is with me ; 
 and I'm doing my best while I have her. And 
 that, Mr. Eansier, sir, is where your money went. 
 Lord, I. knew 'twas not right to accept so much 
 from a boy, but how could I refuse it when it 
 meant a lot of luxuries that a janitor's pay won't 
 buy? " 
 
 "Why can't you work in the woods, Mr. 
 Peters? " asked Fatty, the five-dollar bill still 
 burning his fingers. 
 
 " There's nothing for a man like me to do 
 there," said Peters, sadly. " You see I'm but a 
 wisp though I'm strong. But people are afraid 
 
 59 
 
60 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 to try me at work on account of my size. My size 
 was big money to me once," he smiled. " I was a 
 jockey over on the other side years ago. ' * 
 
 " Honest? " said Chuck. " I love horses. 
 Don't you ever ride now? " 
 
 " Never," said Peters. 
 
 " How did you happen to stride this job? " 
 asked Fatty. 
 
 6 ' Just chance, ' ' said Peters. ' ' Wait till I 
 speak to the lass and I'll tell you about it." 
 
 He left the room. Fatty rolled a relieved eye 
 toward the others. 
 
 ' ' Say, that was a narrow squeak ! "he sighed. 
 
 " You bet!" said Chuck. " He was mad 
 enough to shoot us. ' ' 
 
 " Aw, I don't mean that/ 9 jeered Fatty. " I 
 mean meeting the girl. ' ' 
 
 " Why, she looks like an awfully nice girl," 
 said Tony. " She must be so lonesome. I won- 
 der if Peters lets her see anybody at all. Here he 
 comes." 
 
 " Well, young gentlemen, since you have seen 
 her you may be interested to know how I happen 
 to have such a daughter. I've an hour to spare, 
 and if you like I'll tell you about it. I'd jolly well 
 like to talk to someone sometimes. I bottle me- 
 self up and bottle meself up and sometimes I can't 
 rightly bear it. I know, Mr. Eansier, that you've 
 thought me strange and surly : but I could not help 
 it, indeed. I am in great trouble, young gentle- 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 61 
 
 men, but I think you will own that I have tried to 
 bear it alone. 
 
 " When I was a lad I was a jockey, and one of 
 the best. I was born and bred in Devonshire, and 
 when I began to ride 'twas for the Edgerton 
 stable, and 'twas Harry Edgerton 's famous horses 
 carried me. Why, 'twas I who rode Blue Belle 
 against Thunderbolt; and I brought May Day in 
 a nose ahead of Filippo : and I was on the Monk 
 when he — but hear me : how could you be inter- 
 ested in this? " 
 
 " My father lived at Edgerton when he was a 
 boy," said Charlie. 
 
 "Did he? " asked Peters, "what was the 
 name? " 
 
 " O'Connors," said Charlie. 
 
 Peters shook his head. " I didn't know him," 
 he decided. 
 
 " Wei], I rode my best, and I loved the string 
 of beauties, and I did well. Sir Harry was like a 
 brother to me. I wooed a sweet lass whose father 
 was landlord of the Edgerton Arms. There was 
 another chap loved her, and he was a jockey, too j 
 and when she said him no, he swore he'd do me. 
 And he did : for the blackguard rode with me in 
 a race, and he swore that I'd fouled his horse. I 
 was so mad, knowing why he'd done it, that I 
 struck him and they disqualified me." 
 
 " They did what? " asked Tony. 
 
 1 * Sent me from the track. I could ride no more. 
 
62 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 Well, my sweetheart, Alice, came down the laiii 
 that night to meet me, for I'd sent heir word I was 
 heading for America, although Sir Harry stood 
 my friend. She came down the lane, and she said, 
 * Phil, what does it mean : this note f ' 
 
 "Isaid, < I'm off; Alice.' 
 
 " < Why? ' she said. 
 
 " * What is there left? ' I asked her. ' I can't 
 ride. I know well your father will not let you 
 marry me now. I have no friend but Sir Harry : 
 and I'm off to America.' 
 
 " ' Is Sir Harry more your friend than I am, 
 Phil? 'she said, soft. 
 
 " i No, I'll not say so, Alice, but you will soon 
 forget me. ' ^ 
 
 " She laughed. Young gentlemen, she had the 
 sweetest silver laugh, 
 
 " ' I'll not forget you, Phil. I'm so afraid to 
 have you go alone, and you so careless about tak- 
 ing cold. I saw Sir Harry today, and we decided 
 that 'twas only safe for me to go along and look 
 out for you. And here's our passage,' she added. 
 4 'Tis a present from Sir Harry ! ' 
 
 " Well, young gentlemen, I could not speak for 
 a bit. So we came to America, and I got work as 
 trainer at some big private stables on Long Is- 
 land. The people were millionaires, and seemed 
 like they never tired of doing for Alice : and we 
 lived like lords. 
 
 " 'Twas there little Alice was born: and 'twas 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 63 
 
 there four years later that her mother died, and 
 there she rests so far from home. I couldn't 
 abide the place after my Alice died, and I went to 
 Buffalo. There I stayed until two years ago. 
 The cold lake winds hurt my little Alice, and we 
 came here. The doctor bills and all had drained 
 me dry: and I took this place as the first one 
 offering. Alice and I had little lodgings over yon- 
 der, but I saw the rooms here, and asked for them 
 and they let me have them with some old furniture 
 from the garret. Mostly those who go leave bits 
 behind, and I've fixed them up so that Alice is 
 housed like the little lady that she is. That's all, 
 young gentlemen. I'm a failure : I'm just Peters, 
 the janitor, but that little girl over there is as 
 fine as God makes them, if she is my daughter. 
 She is educated and as well mannered as the best, 
 like her mother before her. She is all that I have : 
 and can you wonder that I couldn't bear to have 
 you do aught to frighten her 1 ' ' 
 
 " I should say not! But honest, Peters, did 
 you think that we would wrong her? I tell you," 
 said Fatty, patiently going back to the beginning, 
 " we didn't dream of anything like this. Now 
 here's the best thing to do. Don't tell her about 
 us at all, see? We will see what we can do for 
 you. Don't you think it is damp down here? " 
 
 " No, it is dry enough, but she does need the 
 sun," said Peters sadly. " For awhile I took her 
 to the roof, but I don't dare leave her there be- 
 cause she faints." 
 
64 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 " Well, Peters, do you mind if I tell my mother 
 about Miss Alice? " asked Fatty. 
 
 " I hate to bother her," said Peters. " It looks 
 like asking sympathy.' ' 
 
 " What rot! " said Fatty. "I'm going to tell 
 her, and I'm going to tell her now." 
 
 He started for the door. " Say, Peters, I wish 
 you'd just say it's all right. I'm so sorry it hap- 
 pened." i 
 
 " I'm not sorry," said Tony. " Not a bit! " 
 
 " It is all right, sir," said Peters. "I'm sure 
 you understood me, and somehow it has eased 
 me." 
 
 The boys, all shaking hands with Peters, filed 
 upstairs and sat in a row on the base of one of the 
 great stone lions at the entrance to the Alham- 
 bra. Fatty removed his hat and brushed back his 
 thick locks. 
 
 " Never, never, never again for mine," he 
 vowed. " Say, I never went through so many 
 kinds of feeling in that length of time in my life. 
 I felt bad enough over John, and when he com- 
 menced to get well I thought I'd take a rest: now 
 here we are with the girl on our hands." 
 
 " Why, we won't have to do anything," said 
 Chuck, " not unless we want to, anyhow." ■ 
 
 " But we will want to! " said the gentle Tony. 
 " We are so sorry for her, you know. The best 
 way is to tell our mothers and I guess I'll go home 
 and tell mine now. She's not going to like all of 
 the yarn a little bit," said Tony. 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 65 
 
 11 Nor mine! " said the others. 
 
 Going up in the elevator, Fatty clapped Mr. 
 Peters on the shoulder and smuggled the five -dol- 
 lar bill into his pocket. Having done so, he heard 
 a sigh of relief and went whistling into the apart- 
 ment. 
 
 On the divan sat the two Carrolls. They wore 
 white trousers and dark coats. Fat, knotted silk 
 ties of a blazing purple color burned under each 
 round chin. Purple silk socks adorned their fat 
 ankles. On their laps, each held an expensive 
 panama. As Fatty entered, they arose. 
 
 " Ah, old chap," they remarked. " Just wait- 
 ing for you ! Mighty glad you came ! ' ' 
 
 " So am I," said Fatty, with a glance at his 
 parents ' dismal faces. * ' So am I, fellows ! It 
 was good of you to wait just to say good-night. ' ' 
 
 He shook each by the hand, and moved slowly 
 toward the door, taking the Carrolls with him. 
 
 " Come again when I'm in, so we can visit. 
 Awfully sorry you've got to go. Good-night! " 
 
 With a firm hand on each fat shoulder, he 
 steered them into the hall and closed the door. 
 
 On the divan his mother had her face buried in 
 a pillow. Mr. Eansier was regarding him over 
 his glasses. " I can't help wondering at times, 
 son, what you are going to be when you are 
 grown. I must say that was a masterly move." 
 
 Mrs. Eansier 's pretty face popped up from the 
 pillow. " Are they really gone? " she asked. ** I 
 wonder if they know what has happened. Yes, 
 
66 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 Will, I'm like your father, ' ' she said. ' ' I wonder 
 what you will be." 
 
 " I won't be a janitor, anyway," said the future 
 Ambassador to England, finally. 
 
 " That's good," said his father. "It is the 
 only profession that I've known you to shy at. 
 You've run a great course, Will; everything from 
 circus master to missionary. I don't see just why 
 you balk at the job of janitor. Seems a very safe 
 and uneventful life. Of course there are bad 
 times, when you turn Mrs. Brown's steam off in 
 zero weather and put full head on for Mrs. Jones, 
 who never likes much heat But those things will 
 occur. I think, Will, I'd have a spell of being jan- 
 itor if I were you. ' ' 
 
 " Not for mine," said Will. " I know a jani- 
 tor, and that's enough! Say, motherkin, I've got 
 a job for you — it's another orphan." 
 : " Not the janitor, I hope," gasped Mrs. Ean- 
 sier. " I just simply can't adopt Peters ! " 
 
 "It is Peters' daughter," said Fatty, "and 
 mother, I think us Scouts will have to come to the 
 front. She's fifteen years old, mother, and I 
 guess she's going to die: and she's awful pretty." 
 " Do you think she is pretty? " asked Mrs. Ean- 
 sier, sitting up very straight in her amazement. 
 
 " Yes, I do," said Fatty, " but of course I didn't 
 have to speak to her. You will though — Oh, yon 
 will have to get into the game, motherkin! " 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 67 
 
 " I don't know what you've done or whom you 
 have found: but I'll promise now to help you out, 
 son, if only for what you did tonight. ' ' 
 
 " That's the best mother ever! " said Fatty, 
 patting her on the arm. " Now I'll tell you the 
 whole thing, and then you say what you think." 
 
 He left out no part of the story. Mr. and Mrs* 
 Ransier looked pretty grave at the motive of the 
 affair, it was too much like plain spying : but they 
 laughed and laughed over the ghost part. 
 
 That night, after Fatty had gone to bed, satis- 
 fied that his father and mother would see the fel- 
 lows through, Mrs. Eansier said: " I'm not a bit 
 sleepy. "Why not see that Peters man tonight? If 
 it is just as it looked to Will, I think that it is a 
 very sad case. ' ' 
 
 Mr. Ransier went out to the elevator and spoke 
 to Peters. i l He will be off duty in fifteen min- 
 utes. We just caught him," he said, returning to 
 his wife. i \ I think you are right. We may better 
 have our talk first before the boys make any mis- 
 take." 
 
 It was a long and serious consultation which 
 followed. When Peters finished Mrs. Ransier 's 
 lovely eyes were soft with- tears, and Mr. Ransier 
 was troubled with a bad cough. 
 
 " Now, Peters," he said, " I am convinced that 
 you have done everything in your power for that 
 little girl. The manly part for you now is 
 to accept some help. I grant that it may not 
 
68 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 be easy or agreeable, but it is now the really 
 manly thing for you to do. We want to help you 
 and you must allow us to do so : but we won't take 
 the credit or pleasure of the task from our, Boy 
 Scouts. In the morning we will have a talk with 
 them, and you may be sure, Peters, that We have 
 your little girl's welfare very much at heart/ ' 
 
 Early in the morning Mrs. Eansier went down 
 into the basement. She was gone a long while. 
 Mr. Eansier and Fatty had both exhausted their 
 patience before she returned. 
 
 " It is simply pitiful! " she exclaimed. " And 
 the child is an angel. I don't wonder that you 
 said she is pretty. And such sweet, attractive 
 manners.' f 
 
 Fatty fidgetted. 
 
 ' She won't have to be here, will she, mother- 
 kin? " 
 
 " No, my dear, the child is too ill to be any- 
 where but in her own room. She must be moved 
 at once. I think, dearest," she said, turning to 
 Mr. Eansier, " I will spend some of my oil well on 
 the child. In fact, I have already commenced. 
 The very tiptop apartment in the house is small — 
 really a bachelor apartment; and I have taken 
 that for her. It is extremely airy and sunny, and 
 she can be moved up there in the elevator." 
 
 " That was a very wise thing to do," said Mr. 
 Eansier, heartily. " What about furniture? " 
 " Peters has plenty. He has the rooms full 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 69 
 
 of castaway furniture, and he has mended and 
 tinkered and polished and re-covered things until 
 they fairly shine. And he is so happy! He is 
 sure now that she will get well. Well, they will 
 be happy for a while, at any rate. ' ' 
 
 " Well, I don't like it," said Fatty. 
 
 41 Why, Willi " said Mrs. Eansier. 
 
 " No, I don't / " said Will. " We found her 
 and we wanted to help. You've done it all. I tell 
 you the fellows will be sore ! " 
 
 " Done it all? " cried Mrs. Eansier. " Well, I 
 have not! I have scarcely made a begin- 
 ning. In the first place, I don't think that Peters 
 actually has enough to eat. He spends every cent 
 on medicines and tonics and cod liver oil for that 
 child. His skin is fairly stretched over his bones. 
 If you can't think up some scheme to make him 
 eat, she will outlive him. That is the very first 
 thing. Second plan, if she is to be saved, she must 
 have a trained nurse. Someone to, give her oil 
 rubs : and take care of her generally. Oh, yes, she 
 simply must have a nurse. They come high, Will ! 
 Twenty-five dollars a week. You Scouts will have 
 to work. ' ' 
 
 " That's what we want," said Fatty. 
 
 " Well, in that case you had better go help 
 Peters move. Take everything from one room 
 first, and then let Peters take his daughter up and 
 shut her in there. Then she won't catch cold." 
 
 Fatty started and at the door met Tony and 
 
70 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 t 
 
 Charlie, whom he took with him. Peters greeted 
 them with real pleasure. They soon had the 
 freight elevator loaded, and in a very short time 
 one of the airy rooms, blazing with sunshine, was 
 ready for the sick girL 
 
 " Now we'll skin out," said Fatty, losing his 
 nerve as usual, " and we'll come back as soon as 
 she is fixed." 
 
 " I'll go down and help you ge'c her," said 
 Tony. "It's hard work moving sick folks." 
 
 Fatty, leaning against the stone lion at the door 
 where they were waiting to be called back for the 
 rest of the moving, shook his head solemnly. 
 
 " Honest," he said, " now doesn't Tony beat 
 the Dutch f He '11 go down there just as easy as if 
 he saw girls every day, and help move her. Per- 
 haps he'll even help put on her shawl! He's a 
 perfect wonder! " 
 
 " Honest he is," said Charlie, overawed at his 
 friend's daring. " You just can't get his goat. 
 He's a holy terror, Tony is! " 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 "Morning, Will!" called DeForest Carroll 
 with enthusiasm in his squeaky voice. " How's 
 everything? " 
 
 " Fine," said Fatty. " How are you? " 
 
 u Couldn't be better," said DeForest. " I have 
 an order for two hair-receivers." 
 
 " Hair-receivers? " said Fatty blankly. 
 " What are hair-receivers? " 
 
 " Why, little china boxes with a hole in the 
 cover to put your combings in," explained De- 
 Forest, easily, " I have an order to paint two." 
 
 " Oh, you have! " said Fatty. " Well, won't 
 they be sweet? What you going to put on 'em? " 
 
 " Apple blossoms on a French grey ground on 
 one, and pink bow knots on pale blue on the 
 other," said DeForest, glibly. 
 
 " It sounds perfectly dear," said Fatty seri- 
 ously, "but awful puttery. Isn't it? " 
 
 ' ' Oh, no ; I like to do it, ' ' said DeForest. l ' But 
 I'm so sorry for Clement. He can't think *p a 
 thing to do. ■ He wanted to tend the telephone for 
 pater, but pater, he said he couldn't afford to risk 
 anybody's life, and wouldn't have him. Mater 
 was awfully peeved at pater about it." 
 
72 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 ' ' I should think so ! " agreed Fatty. ' ' Wonder 
 if we couldn't think something up. There ought 
 to be some work just fitted to a fellow of Clement's 
 talents. ' ' 
 
 " There must be," said DeForest, with convic- 
 tion. ' ' But you see so many things are not suit- 
 able for fellows in our class. ' ' 
 
 Fatty gritted his teeth. " Yes, that's so," he 
 agreed. " Now I wonder if the things I've done 
 would be all right. ' ' 
 
 " Oh, of coarse, dear chap," said DeForest. 
 
 " Well, then," said Fatty, wickedly, " once I 
 worked in a creamery; but that won't do because 
 there 's none about here. I had a paper route, too. 
 We'll consider that later. Then for a while I 
 carried home washings for people. Had a little 
 express wagon, you know, and used to put the 
 baskets in and take 'em around to the wash- 
 woman. That would be easy work for Clement," 
 said Fatty, rolling an innocent eye at DeForest. 
 
 DeForest was apparently on the verge of chok- 
 ing, his round, pale eyes popped, his round, red 
 mouth hung feebly open, his pink cheeks blazed. 
 
 " I worked in Mr. Trotter's grocery, too, off 
 and on. Oh, yes, and I worked in the livery stable. 
 That's the ticket! We'll get Clement a job in a 
 garage. I notice he's crazy about automobiles. 
 Where is he? We'll put it up to him." 
 
 DeForest struggled to speak. " Better not," 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 73 
 
 he said. " Eeally, I'd advise you not to. Clement 
 is very hasty, awfully hasty." 
 
 " Hasty, how? " asked Fatty. 
 
 "Why, his temper, you know! Eeally he is 
 very violent! " 
 
 " What does he do? " said Fatty, " Lie down 
 on the floor and kick and scream ! ' ' 
 
 " Not any more," said DeForest innocently. 
 " He controls himself wonderfully now. And I 
 think he is better since you came. He looks up to 
 you, really." 
 
 " Awfully good of him," said Fatty, nudging 
 the stone lion. " I like to feel that I am of some 
 use in the world." 
 
 ' ' Oh, you are ; really, old chap, really ! And you 
 are such a good mixer! Clement and I don't 
 mix very well, and it's too had, because the pater 
 is really hipped on the subject. Always quotes 
 some bally old writer who said some rot about the 
 proper study of mankind being man. I don't see 
 the good of mixing, myself, or didn't until we met 
 you. The mater is dead set against it. ' ' 
 
 " Where's Clement now? " asked Fatty. 
 " Never saw you apart before." 
 
 " He's busy with the manicure." 
 
 " Do you mean she's shinin' his nails? " de- 
 manded Fatty, with a glance at his own well-kept 
 hands, " Can't that dub even take care of his 
 own fingers? " 
 
 " Why, of course, not properly," objected De- 
 Forest. 
 
74 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 " Well, DeForest, that's one way where dear 
 Clement could earn a little. I'll give him a few 
 lessons in the simple knack of doing things for 
 himself and see how it goes ■ — oh dear, oh dear, I 
 think I must leave you, DeForest! Too much 
 whipped cream was always bad for me!" 
 
 " I don't quite catch your drift, old chap," said 
 DeForest, with a smile. 
 
 DeForest showed a dimple when he smiled : but 
 poor Clement had two. 
 
 " All right," said Fatty. " Guess I didn't 
 mean anything at all: but I need some air, so 
 good-bye. ' ' 
 
 Fatty walked rapidly down the street. " Do 
 good to somebody all the time," he mused. \ " If 
 that doesn't mean the Carrolls I'll eat my hat. I 
 wonder if the Scouts could beat them into shape. 
 It's worth trying because it's about the toughest 
 gob I ever saw. But they must have some good 
 stuff in them. Dr. Carroll is a peach ! ' ' 
 
 As he reached Lawrence Street he paused. 
 Tony was hurrying toward him up Paul Street, 
 and Charlie had just turned down Lawrence. 
 (When the boys met, Fatty said solemnly: 
 
 " Boys, we've got to have a council of war to- 
 day. Let's go up to the flat and chin awhile. 
 Mother is there with John. I brought him over 
 from the hospital for the day: but we will go into 
 my room, and then if we need mother to consult 
 with, why, she'll be handy." 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 75 
 
 John, still bandaged but growing stronger every- 
 day, was propped up on the divan with a look of 
 perfect happiness on his face as he watched Mrs. 
 Eansier at her writing. 
 
 " Hello, John! 'Lo, munisy! We are going 
 into my room to consult, ' ' said Fatty. 
 
 ' ' Oh, very well, ' ' said Mrs. Eansier, smiling at 
 the boys. 
 
 " It's a funny thing,' ' said Fatty, when they 
 had shut themselves in, ' ' it 's a funny thing about 
 dimples. Now my mother's dimples always make 
 me want to kiss her; and the Carrolls' dimples 
 make me mad every time I see 'em. ' ' 
 
 " It's the Carrolls and not their dimples that 
 make me mad," said Charlie. " I know I'm go- 
 ing to do something fierce to those kids some day. 
 I never have a square show, anyhow. Just be- 
 cause I'm Kid O'Connors' boy, why, I mustn't 
 fight; because my people are so touchy about it! 
 Wish I could go off somewhere where no one 
 knows me, and have a good fight — I'd just 
 like to spoil some pill's mug for him. I'd like to 
 do it just once; then I think I'd be satisfied." 
 
 " Say, you are in a sweet mood," said Fatty, 
 " and I bet it won't improve when I tell you what 
 I 've got framed up for you. ' ' 
 
 " What now? " said Charlie. " Yesterday it 
 ■was house-breaking and burglary. What's on 
 today? " 
 
 " Playing nursemaid," said Fatty. 
 
J6 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 " That girl! " roared Chuck. " Well, I guess 
 not — not for mine ! You have another think com- 
 ing this time, Fatty. ' ' 
 
 " Hold on, hold on, dear child! " said Fatty. 
 " The truth is so much worse that I hate to tell it 
 to you. Fact is, I'm about decided that we will 
 spend the summer reforming the Carrolls." 
 
 There was a long silence. Tony beat his head 
 with his open palm. 
 
 " You can decide all over again then," said 
 Charlie. " I don't like the sample." 
 
 " All right," said Fatty, " but I think it would 
 be a good way to spend the summer. Now it's up 
 to us to get busy. So far as I can see, we are doing 
 a lot of loafing; and for one, I'm sick of it. We'll 
 have a good time and it will be all sorts of sport 
 to put them through." 
 
 " How about the girl? " asked Tony. 
 
 "That's another thing," said Fatty, "but 
 mother has to come in there. I thought the Car- 
 rolls would be sort of a rest after taking care of 
 her." 
 
 ' * They might, ' ' Charlie agreed. 
 
 Fatty recounted the conversation of the morn- 
 ing, while the boys laughed and laughed. A tap 
 on the door was followed by Mrs. Ransier's curly; 
 head. "May I come and hear the joke? " 
 
 Fatty told the story again and Mrs. Ransier 
 joined in the laughter. 
 
 " That certainly is funny," she said, " but 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 77 
 
 really, boys, I think your plan is a very good one." 
 
 " It's not our plan; it's all and every bit Fat- 
 ty's," said Charlie. " I'm not very strong for it 
 myself, Mrs. Ransier. I think it will be an awful 
 waste of time. Why, you can't make anything of 
 fellows like the Carrolls." 
 
 " I don't know whether you can or not, my 
 dear," said Mrs. Ransier, kindly: " but isn't it 
 worth trying? Wouldn't it seem worth while if 
 you succeeded? " , 
 
 u I suppose it would," said Charlie. " But 
 Mrs. Ransier, you don't see the side of them that 
 we see; you don't see the worst side of them." 
 
 Mrs. Ransier sighed. ' ' To be perfectly honest,. 
 Charlie, I hope that I do, because the side I see is 
 very bad indeed. So silly and so unboyish. I da 
 think that it would be fun for you Scouts to see 
 what really could be made out of such material." 
 
 " There's one thing you can't make out of it, 
 anyway," said Charlie, " and that is a boxer. 
 Father has tried and tried. Dr. Carroll put him 
 up to doing his best with them. Doctor said he 
 wanted them to box because that might convince 
 him that they were not girls. Poor man, I guess 
 he's not so crazy over them himself." 
 
 " Don't say that ! Of course he loves them, but 
 perhaps he would like to have them a little differ- 
 ent. I don't think you Scouts have been very busy- 
 lately, have you? I would feel sorry to think that 
 city life makes you careless. Think it over, why 
 
 6 
 
78 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 don't you, before you decide to let the chance slip. 
 If you could help put manhood into those boys, or 
 Tather bring it out (for it surely must be there), it 
 ivould be a task well worthy of your order. Don't 
 you think so? " 
 
 Fatty sighed. " Yes, I do," he said: " and I'm 
 for trying it. ' * 
 
 < < I'll try," said Tony Keene. : 
 
 " So will I," said Charlie: " but it certainly 
 makes me tired just to think of it. What shall we 
 do first, Mrs. Eansier % ' ' 
 
 She laughed. " I cannot tell you," she said, 
 * ' and now that you are really going to try it, I am 
 willing to confess that I think that you've taken 
 up a very hard task." 
 
 " Say, motherkin, that's exactly like you," 
 Fatty burst out. " Honest fellows, mother is the 
 limit! I really think she is! That's an old trick 
 of hers. She goads you into doing a thing; the 
 harder it is the more she tries to make you do it. 
 Then when she's made you think you've really got 
 to do it, she just sits back, and looks pleased and 
 proud and worried and says : i Dear me, Will, 
 what a wonderful thing for you to think up ! How 
 ever will you do it? ' Oh, you needn't blush, 
 mother : I'm on to your curves ! " 
 
 "I'm blushing for you, you bad, disrespectful 
 child ! ' ' laughed Mrs. Eansier, showing a full set 
 of the dimples Fatty loved. " And I'm so cross 
 that I'm going right back to stay with John! " 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 79 
 
 " No, you're not," declared Fatty, firmly. 
 *' Now you have settled that question for us, you 
 can settle another. What are we going to do 
 about Peters? " 
 
 " Peters? " asked Mrs. Pansier innocently, 
 t ' Peters ? "Why, what about Peters \ ' ' 
 
 - i You know what I mean ! " he said. 
 
 " Oh, do you mean his daughter? Why don't 
 you sag what you mean, Will dear ? I would never 
 I have guessed. Well, boys, I want to tell you all I 
 think about that case. You have heard Peters ' 
 ! side of it, and you have seen the little girl. I have 
 i had two doctors here to see her. Now, boys, they 
 both say that she will die. If she had been taken 
 to the woods a year ago she might have lived. 
 Poor, poor Peters, when he took her into that 
 basement, he did the worst thing he could possibly 
 have done. Of course he does not know this. I 
 think that he would go crazy if he should think it. 
 That child is all the little man has to live for. And 
 the doctors say she will die. And she is so young 
 and so pretty and so sweet! Her mother must 
 have been a very superior sort of person. Boys, 
 I have a feeling that perhaps the doctors are 
 wrong — I do not doubt that she has lung trouble, 
 and I am sure that she is a very, very sick child ; 
 but I think that if you boys want to take the case, 
 that there is hope for her yet. ' ' 
 
 " What can ive do? " asked Tony anxiously. 
 
 "I'll tell you," said Mrs. Pansier, " but first 
 if you will listen I want to tell you a story. 
 
i 
 
 80 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 " When I was a young girl I spent a good many 
 of my summers with friends in the North Woods. 
 Now the lady with whom I stayed was a good, good 
 woman. She had the welfare of the whole eoun- 1 
 tryside close to her heart; and one day she said: 
 ' Elizabeth, there is a young girl a mile from here j 
 who is dying with consumption. ' 
 
 ' ■ I said : i Why, Mrs. Laker, I did not think 
 that people could die of consumption in the North 
 Woods! They come here to get well, do they 
 not? ' 
 
 " 'This poor child is dying at any rate,' said 
 Mrs. Laker. l She is poverty poor and lives in a 
 house that is like a wood-shed. No plaster, just 
 unmatched boards, where the snow drifts through 
 in winter. If she could only be warmly clothed 
 and decently fed, her last few months would be 
 easier, at least.' 
 
 " I had some money that had been given me, 
 and of course I rushed off to the little town near by 
 and bought yards and yards of soft red flannel ; so 
 much of it that Mrs. Laker sighed at the thought 
 of the poor girl who could not live to wear it out. 
 Mrs. Laker volunteered to make it up into the 
 needed garments, and I then gave the rest of the 
 money to Mrs. Laker for groceries. I went home 
 a day or two later, and by-and-by I forgot the girl. 
 You see I had never seen her. Two years passed 
 before I saw dear Mrs. Laker again. Well, seeing 
 her made me think of the poor girl, and I asked 
 how long she had lived. 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 81 
 
 " ' My dear, she is alive and well, and is en- 
 gaged to be married, ' said Mrs. Laker. 
 
 " ' Alive! ' I said. \ Why, didn't she die? ' 
 
 ** To make the story short, boys, all the poor 
 girl needed was sufficient clothing. When that 
 was supplied, her poor, little, chilled body 
 gathered sufficient warmth to make her well. 
 
 " Now the case we have on hand is a little like 
 that. Alice does not need clothing; but she does 
 need an interest in life. She is fading away for 
 lack of it. She is a young creature, and she is shut 
 up like a bird in a cage. She has absolutely no 
 companions. She has nothing to fill her thoughts. 
 She is too weak to make an effort, and I don't see 
 but what you must make it for her. ' ' 
 
 " Oh, mother," groaned Fatty, " what do you 
 want us to do ? " 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Ransier, " when little John 
 was so hurt, and I made up my mind what ailed 
 him, I went to work to do what seemed best. I felt 
 that I had the key to the situation, and I defied 
 death, I wouldn't let him die. He needed me as 
 long as he had no real mother. That stupid nurse 
 might have done as well if she had had eyes to see. 
 He wanted loving. ' ' 
 
 * * But mother ! ' ' cried Fatty in a tone of agony. 
 
 " Oh no, my dear Alice has all the loving she 
 needs. Poor Peters adores her. He loves her so 
 much that he is too tender to her. She will surely 
 die as things are, unless you boys make a great 
 
82 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 sacrifice, and give her the change and companion-l 
 ship that I feel she needs. Come, boys, isn't it| 
 worth trying! I know you have no use for girlsj 
 but wouldn't you be glad to think that long ago! 
 some boy had saved your mother 's life 1 ' '* 
 
 " Oh, Lordy, Lordy! " groaned Fatty. " l| 
 wish she was at the bottom of ten feet of water ! fj 
 
 " Why, Will Eansier, what a wicked, wichect 
 thought, ' ' gasped his mother, her blue eyes flash-] 
 ing. 
 
 " Why, no," said Will. " I only meant that 
 then it would be such a cinch to jump in and bringl 
 her out. I'm strong on that sort of life-savings 
 Now, mother, come right out and tell us what we* 
 ought to do. Make it good and plain so we can 
 make up our minds whether we can do it or not. 
 As far as I can see, it's an awful job you're put-^ 
 ting up to us. ' ' 
 
 " Not too hard for these nice boys to tackle,"' 
 said Mrs. Eansier, flashing her winning smile at 
 the three discouraged lads. " Not one bit too 
 hard for you three. And it will do you good as 
 well as Alice. Now let me tell you. As I said, the 
 dear girl is just pining for lack of interest. She 
 came here to Syrchester sick and a stranger : and 
 she has not been well enough to make a single girl 
 friend. If you boys had sisters we could call upon 
 them to help us : but boys, you are Scouts ! Take 
 hold of this as joyfully and cheerfully as you would 
 of any other task, and as you would say, make 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 83 
 
 good. You, Will, can take her for short rides 
 every day. I think she could stand it if you went 
 slowly enough. Tony and Charlie can visit with 
 her. Only ten or fifteen minutes a day. Tell her 
 about Fred, Tony, 'and what a fine fight he is mak- 
 ing to get well. You, Charlie, can interest her in 
 physical exercises: and you will doubtless help 
 her more than either of the others. Take up a task 
 worthy of you, my Boy Scouts; defy death, and 
 see if you can save that little girl. ' ' 
 
 i i Fierce ! But I guess we '11 have to pick it up, ' * 
 said Fatty. 
 
 *i Looks so! " said Charlie gloomily. 
 
 " Why, we won't mind," said Tony. " I have 
 some girl cousins and they are real nice. I don't 
 mind 'em at all. We will have to get a lot of fel- 
 lows to help with the Carrolls, but let us three 
 look after Peters' little girl. What do you sayf " 
 
 " All right," said Charlie, " and we'll call it 
 the Scout Defiance : so we've got to win out." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE CAEEOLLS LEARN TO MIX 
 
 " Why wear your bestest necktie, son? " said 
 Mrs. Ransier the following morning. ' ' I thought 
 this was city-cleaning day." 
 
 "It is," said Fatty, grimly, " and it's more 
 than that. Didn't you hear me say yesterday that 
 I would be the first to go see that girl? Say, 
 mother, what do you talk to 'em about anyway? 
 If I could only paint hair-receivers like DeForest, 
 I could show her them. I'm going to call: but 
 she 's going to do the talking or there '11 be a frost. 
 I guess all I ever said to a girl in my life was 
 *• hello.' That is, unless I was made to. This 
 would be pie for Clement and DeForest." 
 
 " That is just the reason you need the expe- 
 rience, my dear," said Mrs. Ransier, earnestly. 
 f* You think that Clement and DeForest are great 
 jokes ; yet they are perfectly at ease when you are 
 utterly lost. I hate to think that my son, who can 
 ride and swim and shoot and is growing up to be 
 a, true sportsman, is unable to talk easily and 
 pleasantly for half an hour with a strange lady." 
 
 u Gee, that's straight from the shoulder, 
 mother ! ' ' laughed Fatty. 
 
 "It is meant to be," said Mrs. Ransier. " I 
 
 84 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 85 
 
 would be very happy to have you gain the ease 
 and grace of the Carroll boys, without their silly 
 and affected ways." 
 
 " Well, I'm certainly prepared to do my best, at 
 any rate, ' ' said Fatty. 
 
 " Then yo2 will succeed, my dear." 
 
 Fatty's confidence in himself oozed more and 
 more as he approached the Peters' door. He 
 walked up. Somehow, he did not want to take the 
 elevator, and talk to Peters. 
 
 He reached the door and pushed the button, 
 hastily glancing at his watch. He'd tell her he 
 had an engagement in fifteen minutes. 
 
 The latch clicked. At any rate he didn't mind 
 the nurse, and perhaps the girl was too tired to 
 see anybody. Fatty looked up hopefully as the 
 door opened. 
 
 6 • Good morning ! ' ' said Alice Peters. 
 
 " Oh, good morning! " stammered Fatty. 
 " Are you at home? I mean I thought I'd come 
 up and ask how you felt. I'm Fat — I mean I'm 
 Will Eansier! " 
 
 " Come in," said Alice. " I thought that you 
 were Will Eansier. I've heard my father talk of 
 you. I'm feeling very well, thank you." 
 
 She led the way into the sunny sitting-room, 
 and sat down facing him. In the next room the 
 nurse moved busily about. Alice sat looking at 
 him quietly. 
 
 " ItVa nice day," she said. 
 
86 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 "Fine! " said Fatty. 
 
 He laid his hat on the floor, then immediately; 
 picked it up. 
 
 ' ■ Dandy ! ' ' he said, looking ont of the window. 
 That gave him an idea. " Do you like automo- 
 biling? " he asked. 
 
 " I've never ridden in one," said Alice. 
 
 " Is that so? " said Fatty. " Mother says — 
 that is, I'm going to — I mean, would you like to 
 go some day? " 
 
 " Indeed I would! " said Alice eagerly. 
 " Only I don't believe I could. I get so tired." 
 
 " Oh, it will rest you," Fatty assured her. 
 
 There was a long pause. Fatty couldn't think 
 of anything more to say about automobiles. 
 Games — perhaps she liked games. 
 
 M Did you ever play hockey? " he inquired. 
 
 " No," said Alice, " I don't know what it is." 
 
 " Great game! " said Fatty. 
 
 " I never had a chance to learn," said Alice. 
 4 * Is it anything like checkers ? ' ' 
 
 Fatty looked at her with a sigh. " No, not a 
 bit," he replied. 
 
 " What do you like to do best? " said Alice. 
 
 " Swim," promptly. " Next to that I like to 
 ride horseback and shoot. But I'd rather swim." 
 
 " It must be wonderful," said Alice. " How 
 do you make your arms go? " 
 
 * l Dead easy ! ' ' Fatty said. 
 
 Once more he put down his hat. Then he kicked 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 87 
 
 it under his chair out of the way, and proceeded 
 to tell Alice how to swim. He explained the dif- 
 ferent strokes, and told her how to dive. He was 
 a good talker, was Fatty Eansier, and he led her 
 down, down to smooth, sandy places where the> 
 water weeds grow and the startled fishes leap 
 away. He told her about the accident at Fishers 
 Point, and she shuddered at the account of Foxy 
 jPeck lying crumpled up on the sand, fifteen 
 feet down. He gave all the credit of the saving 
 to Tony ; but because she was a girl, and because 
 he told her, she did not believe a word of it and 
 regarded him from that moment as a hero. When 
 the nurse came in with a glass of malted milk for 
 Alice, Fatty looked at the clock and then con- 
 sulted his watch. " What's the matter with those 
 ! things? " he demanded of no one in particular. 
 "It's not as late as that. I've only been here 
 about fifteen minutes, haven't If " 
 
 " I think the clocks are right," smiled the 
 nurse, and Fatty got himself out without acci- 
 dent, and dashed down the stairs two steps at a 
 time and burst in upon his mother. 
 
 " Well, that's done," he said* undoing his best 
 tie. 
 
 " Poor dear, it took a long time, didn't it? It 
 must have been such a bore." 
 
 " Well, honest, mother, it really wasn't a bore! 
 That Alice girl isn't silly like lots of 'em, and 
 she's an awful good talker," said honest Fatty, 
 
88 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 never realizing that for the last three-quarters of 7 
 an hour of his call, Alice had had no chance to 
 say more than " My! " and " Oh! " at intervals. 
 
 It was the day set for the great city-cleaning 
 crusade : and every Scout in the city had been or- 
 dered out, to assist. Fatty was hours late, but 
 soon found the other fellows, dirty and happy, 
 digging out the unsavory rear of a little grocery 
 on Dawley Street near by. Five or six strange 
 Scouts worked with them. 
 
 " Say," called Chuck as soon as Fatty came 
 within hailing distance, " where you been? " 
 
 " Went up and called at the Peters'," said 
 Patty, mysteriously. 
 
 " Well, for cat's sake! " said Chuck. " Did 
 you stay al^morning! What are we up against, 
 anyhow? Is it fierce! " 
 
 " Haw! " said Fatty. " Guess we can do the 
 trick all right." 
 
 " Fine! " said Tony. " I thought we could." 
 
 " Say," said Chuck again, " what do you think 
 those crazy Carroll kids are up to to-day? They 
 are out with the fellows cleaning things up." 
 
 " What for! " gasped Fatty. " It's n*>t their 
 funeral! " 
 
 " It may be, at that," grinned Charlie. * They 
 are down on Barnet Avenue now. TheyVe got 
 ©n sweaters and old pasts, and they wanted to go 
 into Hie worst lf>caMty I knew about." 
 
 " Wly, what ails #ie idiots? " said Faifft 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 89 
 
 " They said they had talked it over, and had 
 decided to go in on this and see if they were really 
 fitted for Scouts. I told 'em to begin on some- 
 thing easy. Why, great Scott, this is no work to 
 break them in on! They are stubborn brutes, 
 though, and said that was the reason, they might 
 as well try the most distasteful thing going. 
 Then they would know if they could stick it out. ' * 
 
 " Did they say distasteful? " asked Fatty. 
 
 " Course: you didn't think 2" did, did you? " 
 growled Chuck. " So I sent 'em down on Barnet 
 Avenue, where they'll most likely get their heads 
 punched if they are not careful. Well, we are 
 through here, and I say we go down and have a 
 squint at the boy wonders, and see how they are 
 turning out." 
 
 As the boys turned into Barnet Avenue they 
 saw, a block ahead, a shouting crowd. 
 
 " Bet it's the boys," cried Chuck, beginning to 
 run. 
 
 As they dashed up and pushed their way in, 
 they beheld Clement Carroll facing a big rowdy, 
 whose blotched face was crimson with rage. 
 Clement was carefully rearranging his tie and un- 
 buttoning his sweater. 
 
 " You don't do no cleaning in my back yard, 
 you don't! " roared the big fellow. " You fat 
 little fool, you, keep out of my place, and keep 
 your pals out or I'll do you good!" 
 
 " Sorry," said Clement in his high, girlisli 
 
90 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 voice, " awfully sorry, old chap, but weVe got 
 to do it. You really ought to assist us. Your 
 place is certainly very unsanitary, you know. * ' 
 
 " Don't you call my place names! " yelled the 
 big boy. " You better find a better name than 
 that and find it quick, or I'll push your face in 
 for you," 
 
 " Well, it's rotten then, if you prefer," said 
 Clement, calmly. " And I think we'll go in now 
 and clean up, since you haven't the decency to do 
 it yourself," and he turned to go. 
 
 The fellow gave a roar and, leaping forward, 
 launched a heavy blow. It struck Clement on the 
 neck, and staggered him. 
 
 Chuck took a step forward and Fatty jerked 
 him back. 
 
 i l Let him alone ! " he whispered. 
 
 Clement looked the bully over. 
 
 " Very unsportsmanlike!" he piped, reprov- 
 ingly. He undid his tie, put it in his cap and 
 handed them to DeForest, who stood near, pale 
 and silent. Then he took off his sweater. He but- 
 toned his left glove and stepped up to the sneer- 
 ing bully. 
 
 " I hate to touch you," he remarked, " but 
 really you need a good thrashing." 
 
 The fellow roared and came at him. To Chuck's 
 surprise, Clement parried the blow prettily, and 
 came back with a lunge that took the fellow in the 
 left eye, but he drove a terrific right hander, fol- 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 91 
 
 lowed by a left which caught poor Clement on his 
 round nose, and covered him with a freely flow- 
 ing stream of blood. 
 
 Clement turned pale. 
 
 "He's sick," said Fatty. 
 
 "No!" gasped DeForest. "Oh dear, he's 
 losing his temper ! Oh dear ! ' ' 
 
 Clement was losing his temper. Once more the 
 bully drove home on Clement -'s eye. It closed. A 
 look new to the boys came into his face. He be- 
 gan to remember his lessons. Blow after blow 
 he rained upon the big fellow, whose wind was 
 beginning to leave him. Clement seemed fresher 
 every instant. It was evident that the stranger 
 was trying for a clinch, but Clement fooled him. 
 
 A blow under the ear sent Clement to his knees, 
 but he scrambled up and dashed under his op- 
 ponent's arm before he could follow it up. 
 
 Watching his chance, Clement circled around 
 his foe, then sent a crashing right against the 
 point of the rowdy's chin. He crumpled up and 
 went down in a heap. Chuck leaped in and threw 
 both arms around Clement. 
 
 "Oh glory, glory!" he cried, "that was 
 lovely! Wait until I tell father. Say, why 
 didn't you fight like that before? " 
 
 " Never needed to ! Did I hurt him much? " 
 
 "He's pretty groggy, but he'll come — Gee, 
 here's the patrol! " cried Fatty, leaping to his 
 feet as the big, covered automobile came clanging 
 down the street. Two policemen leaped out. 
 
92 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 " Boy Scouts, eh? " said one, looking at them. 
 16 Nice work for yon, I must say! This fellow 
 has had an awful crack. Did you give him 
 that! " looking at Clement. 
 
 * ' Certainly, ' ' said Clement through his swollen 
 nose. " And I meant to do bore, obly he didn't 
 stad ub log enough. ' ' 
 
 * * Well, you are a bloodthirsty young savage ! 
 You can come and tell the Captain about it. 
 O'Connors, did you see this! Get in! And you, 
 too ! ' ' he added, indicating Fatty and Tony, and 
 two other boys who were not in Scout uniform. 
 
 " Eud hobe and get be sub clean hadker- 
 chiefs," called Clement to his brother who hur- 
 ried at once toward Paul Street, bearing his 
 brother's cap. 
 
 At the station the two policemen took the big 
 fellow, who still was wobbly on his legs and as- 
 sisted him in to the Captain. Clement followed, 
 Fatty and Chuck on either side, and the two 
 strangers close in the rear. 
 
 The Captain leaned back in his chair for a 
 long time looking at the boys. 
 
 " Well, you are sights! " he said. 
 
 " Good bordig! " said Clement, politely. 
 
 " Good bordig yourself! " said the Captain 
 with a twinkle in his eyes. Clement stood waiting 
 the Captain's next move. His own father would 
 not have known him. His soft white shirt was 
 smeared with dirt and blood. One sleeve was 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 93 
 
 torn almost out. His left eye was closed, and his 
 nose looked like a red pincushion. He still wore 
 his gloves, but the right one was split across the 
 knuckle. The leathery face of his foe had not 
 suffered so much, but he looked ragged enough at 
 that, and swayed unsteadily. 
 
 " He liked to killed me, Cap," he said, point- 
 ing to Clement. " He came near busting my 
 jaw. ' ' 
 
 " "What made him attack you? " 
 
 " It's more than I kin tell you," said the boy. 
 I I was sittin' on our steps and this snide comes 
 up and he says, i Git out o' here! ' and kicks me." 
 
 " Oh, really! " said Clement. "Do please 
 stick to facts! You know that's not true." 
 
 " Hope I may die if it ain't, Cap! " urged the 
 boy. 
 
 f l Let 's see ! Your name is Branders, Bill 
 Branders, isn't it? " said the Captain. " And 
 you know me, don't you, Bill? Well, we'll see 
 what these other boys say. Did you see the 
 scrap, fellows? " 
 
 "Yes, sir," said the group. 
 
 "All right. Let's hear your story, Charlie; 
 you ought to have the hang of it. ' ' 
 
 Charlie stepped to the desk, and gave a clear 
 account of the whole affair, the boys agreeing 
 with every particular. 
 
 " Well, Bill," asked the Captain when they had 
 finished, " what have you to say to that? You're 
 
94 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 under suspended sentence now, aren't you? I 
 guess you'll have to go to see Judge Grove: and 
 let me tell you that I shall tell him that you need 
 a good hard jolt.' I wish I could give it to you. 
 I tell you, Bill, I'd enjoy it! " 
 
 Bill began to whimper. " Say, Cap," he said, 
 " this ain't fair! AH these kids are lyin'. I 
 ain't got no friends here to tell how he fit me 
 first." 
 
 ' ' Take him along, ' ' said the Captain. i ' He 's 
 the biggest nuisance in the whole ward. ' ' 
 
 Bill was led off muttering, until the policeman 
 at his elbow gave him a sharp shake. 
 
 " Better get right home, Carroll, and fix up J 
 your face. I'll hold you to appear when wanted. 
 You stay here a moment, the rest of you." 
 
 " If you will allow be, Cabtain, I'll use your 
 telephode," said the disfigured Clement, in his 
 own easy manner. " I think I'd bedder call a 
 taxi." 
 
 v Wouldn't an ambulance be better? " laughed 
 the Captain. 
 
 " Do, I'b all right," said Clement. " I odly 
 hobe my brother has told my bother about it. ' ' 
 
 " It will kind of give your mother a set-back, 
 won't it? " said Fatty. " Say, Clement, while 
 the taxi's coming, wish you'd tell what ever got 
 into you to go on such a crazy bat anyhow. ' ' 
 
 " Yes, it's out of your line, isn't it, Carroll? " 
 asked the Captain. 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 95 
 
 " Dot ady bore," said Clement. " See my 
 father wanted be to be a Boy Scout. I told De- 
 Forest that it would be well to try it sobhow to 
 see if we liked it. We couldn't think of anything 
 more disagreeable and dirty than this cleaning 
 affair, so we cabe out and took a hand. Thed I 
 bet by friend and I really had to thrash him. ' ? 
 
 " Yes, you did," said Chuck. " I thought I 
 was going to have to do it myself, at first: you 
 were so polite and so slow getting to work. ' ' 
 
 ' l Well, ' \ said Clement, ' ' a fellow has to be 
 polite; and I wouldn't spoil that tie: it was a 
 present from a young lady. She bade it herself. 
 See if I hadn't- taken it off, old chap, it would 
 have been spoiled! " 
 
 " It sure would! " said the Captain, looking at 
 the red shirt front. " It sure would! " 
 
 Clement, riding home in the taxi, was in pain 
 but happy. A new force stirred within him. He 
 felt thinner, straighter, more of a man. It was 
 very strange. He certainly disliked to fight, and 
 was disgusted at his condition: but he had found 
 out that he could fight and he would never feel 
 the same again. He buttoned the sweater closely 
 over his chest, drew Fatty's cap over his disfig- 
 ured face and trotted into the Alhambra and up 
 the one flight to the Carroll apartment. His 
 mother opened the door, looked at her eldest born 
 ; and burst into a fresh flood of tears. 
 
 " Oh, Clement, Clement! " she wailed. " How 
 could vou do Hi " 
 
96 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 " Dever bind by looks, bother," said Clement. 
 " It was dot as bad as I look and soud." 
 
 Dr. Carroll put bis band on tbe boy 's shoulder 
 and turned him to the light. " Nothing the mat- 
 ter with him, Celeste ! He '11 be all right in a day 
 or two. Why, these are honorable scars! I 
 didn't waste the money I gave Kid O'Connors, 
 did I, son? " 
 
 " No, you didn't, father," said DeForest. 
 " Why, that fellow would have killed Clement if 
 he hadn't had boxing lessons. He was heavier, 
 and half a head taller. I tell you I was frightened 
 at first, but Clement was perfectly calm. ' ' 
 
 " I had to be," said Clement. " It was a bally 
 nuisance fighting like that in the street. I felt 
 awfully common for a bidute, then I thought, 
 <Bix, Clemed, bix! > " 
 
 " You thought what? " cried the doctor, 
 ."Mix," explained DeForest. " Don't you 
 know that's always what you are telling us to 
 do?" 
 
 The doctor roared. " Well, you mixed all 
 right this time, son," he said, patting Clement on 
 the back. " Now let's fix that face — I'm too 
 proud to find that you are a real boy to want it 
 spoiled! " 
 
 He took Clement by the arm and went with him 
 to the bathroom. " By George! " he said. "It's 
 going to be convenient to have a sawbones for a 
 daddy if you are going to ' mix ' very often." 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 97 
 
 Mrs. Carroll, who had stopped to listen, again 
 broke into loud sobs. " Oh, DeForest," she 
 wept, " I have given up my life to you boys! I 
 cannot believe that after all my years of teaching, 
 and of protecting you from evil influences, that 
 MY SON could return to me in such a condition. 
 It is really unbelievable. Sometimes, DeForest, 
 I fear that your father has low instincts which 
 are cropping out in Clement. Why, his whole 
 manner is changed! " 
 
 " Sure thing! " said DeForest, cruelly; "it's 
 a good thing for him. I've learned a lot today 
 — I want to mix, too ! " 
 
 His mother covered her eyes. " Leave me! " 
 she cried. " I cannot bear it. Tell Marie to 
 bring me a cup of strong tea. ' ' 
 
 DeForest went to the bathroom and reported 
 the conversation. Presently the doctor came out, 
 still smiling, and found his wife, teacup in one 
 hand and smelling salts in the other; while on 
 her knee, ready for use, was a dry handkerchief. 
 
 " Celeste, you are making a mistake," said the 
 doctor gently. " But it is not your fault wholly. 
 You are like many American women, — you have 
 been too sheltered and cared for to be able to 
 realize the stern necessities of a boy's up-bring- 
 ing. It is the happiest moment of my life today 
 to find that Clement, whom I considered a pretty 
 poor specimen of a hoy, was ready and wilMng 
 and properly equipped to do the right thing at the 
 
98 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 right time. He may never have to fight again as 
 long as he lives: but at least he knows that he 
 can fight. He has started now, and he '11 learn the 
 other needful lessons." • 
 
 The doctor cleared his throat. " It makes me 
 proud, my dear, to think that in a very few years 
 I shall be the father of a man." 
 
 As he finished, a loud crash resounded from De- 
 Forest's room. 
 
 " What fell? " called the doctor. 
 
 " Nothing," assured DeForest. " I just 
 smashed my hair-receivers ! ' \ 
 
 " Why, I'll have two men for sons! " said the 
 doctor, proudly. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE CONFESSIONS AT THE FAIR 
 
 Some time after the famous fight, Doctor Car* 
 roll and Mr. Ransier met on the steps of the Al- 
 hambra. 
 
 " Haven't seen you for some time," said Mr. 
 Ransier as the men shook hands. 
 
 * ' No ; a doctor leads a very uncertain life, ' ! 
 said Dr. Carroll. " Our boys see each other 
 often, however. They seem thoroughly to enjoy 
 each other's society." 
 
 " Yes, they have great times . together," 
 laughed Mr. Ransier. 
 
 " You have heard the latest, of course," said 
 the doctor. " I mean their plan for securing 
 the concessions for the popcorn booths and check- 
 rooms at the State Fair ? ' ' 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Ransier. " Will mentioned 
 in an offhand way that they were negotiating 
 for them, and I hurried around to see the Fair 
 Commissioner in order to give them some finan- 
 cial backing, if necessarj^ibut they had arranged 
 it all themselves. They are a great lot, doctor! " 
 
 ' i They certainly are ! We will have to go over 
 and buy popcorn, at least. To tell the truth, I 
 think that their care, and the new interests they 
 
 99 
 
100 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 have presented to Alice Peters, will save her life. 
 There is a doctor at Wild Wood Inn, where she is 
 staying, and he and I keep in touch all the time. 
 He is very favorably impressed by her improve- 
 ment. The child has a remarkable way of mak- 
 ing friends. I do not believe Miss Simmonds, her 
 nurse, could be induced to leave her. If she has 
 no set-back, I think she has a fair chance of life. 
 I will go up myself in October and look her over 
 carefully. In the meantime, it is keeping the boys 
 hustling to meet their share of her expenses. 
 But it is good for them ; very good for them ! It 
 gives ^them a taste of responsibility and an un- 
 derstanding sense of life. I shall regret very 
 much if we lose our little patient, for the boys 
 would always feel that they had not made suffi- 
 cient efforts." 
 
 " Decidedly we must not lose her," said Mr. 
 Eansier. " What is there that could be done, 
 that has not been tried? " 
 
 " Not one thing," said Dr. Carroll. " I think 
 that your wife 's wisdom has saved the day in fill- 
 ing the child's life with new interests. At pres- 
 ent the fact that she must help to look after little 
 John keeps her from tj^nking of herself. I am 
 convinced that your wife sent him up there for 
 -that purpose;" 
 
 " She is quite equal to it," said Mr. Eansier. 
 <" Well, if I can do anything, why, call upon me. 
 I think our kids will do well at the Fair, and we 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 101 
 
 must certainly ride over and see them. I have a 
 friend from Lexington who is to bring up a string 
 of horses. We are to have some running races 
 .this year, I believe. If DeWolfe comes, we will 
 see some beautiful animals.' ' , 
 
 " I'd like very much to see them," said Dr. 
 Carroll. " There's nothing I like quite as much 
 as a fine horse. I have not told my boys, but I 
 mean to get them each a riding horse this fall. 
 I wish to show them some practical proof of my 
 pride in the change that I see in them. I owe it 
 largely to your son, Ransier." 
 
 " Not at all! " said Mr. Ransier. " There is 
 good stuff — fine stuff in your sons, doctor, and 
 I don't doubt that the Boy Scouts brought it out 
 more rapidly than it would otherwise have ap- 
 peared. Well, we will go to the Fair together 
 then, doctor, so cure your sick people all up in 
 good season." * 
 
 " I will, I will," said the doctor. 
 
 In arranging for Alice to go to the North 
 Woods, Mrs. Ransier had offered to pay all the 
 expense of the nurse, Peters paid for the child's 
 medicines, and the boys assumed the burden of 
 her board and other expenses. There were five 
 of them now, for the Carrolls, who were now Ten- 
 derfoot Scouts in good standing, had begged to 
 help on the plea that Peters was their janitor as 
 well as Fatty's. It was well that the boys did 
 join forces, because there was always ten dol- 
 
102 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 lars a week to be earned for Alice's board, be- 
 sides a reserve fund which Fatty decided was 
 necessary for unexpected expenses. They had 
 been obliged to deposit quite a sum as guarantee 
 of good faith when they secured the popcorn and 
 checkroom privileges at the fairgrounds, and 
 their treasury was now empty, to say nothing of 
 the loans secured from Tony's and Fatty's own 
 bank accounts. 
 
 " Never mind, we'll go the whole dog," de- 
 clared Fatty, in one of their frequent consulta- 
 tions. * * If it breaks us, all right — but we stand 
 to make a bunch of money. Why, we've got to! 
 Now the only thing to do is to just hustle. ' ' 
 
 They did so, and the morning of the Fair found 
 every popcorn stand on the fairgrounds in charge 
 of white jacketed Scouts. Fatty, who had been 
 unanimously chosen manager, walked nervously, 
 from one place to the other, directing and ex- 
 plaining. The two Carrolls had charge of the big 
 checkroom at the entrance. The first half of 
 the first day of State Fair week is always de- 
 pressingly dull and quiet; and the boys passed 
 through anxious hours as the hot popcorn piled 
 up with but few buyers. Fatty made his rounds 
 ofterier, and his words were cheering, but he 
 fretted inwardly. Still he did not despair. Fatty 
 was always filled with a conviction that he would 
 succeed. 
 
 A number of the Lafavette Scouts had volun- 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 103 
 
 teered their services, well repaid by the fun of 
 the venture. One of the most important stands in 
 the centre of the grounds Fatty had put in charge 
 of Spider Morrison and Geezer Eeed, with the 
 feeling that Spider's jolly face and funny lisp, 
 and Geezer's dry wit would draw trade. It cer- 
 tainly did so. Spider, willing to do his best for 
 the cause, used his lisp for a drawing card, and 
 rent the air with his calls. 
 
 During the afternoon trade picked up, and by; 
 four o'clock the boys were all busy. Tuesday 
 morning things started off rather more briskly, 
 
 \ and late that afternoon the boys were working in 
 grim silence. 
 
 During the afternoon Fatty went over to the 
 paddock to look at the horses belonging to Mr. 
 DeWolfe, his father's friend from Kentucky. 
 Fatty had never seen Mr. DeWolfe, but it was 
 easy to recognize the gentleman who was raging 
 and stamping up and down outside the stall of a 
 hooded and blanketed pacer. Fatty sidled up 
 and proceeded to listen. 
 
 " Outrageous, suh, perfectly outrageous! " he 
 roared at the short, fat man, evidently a trainer, 
 who stood sulkily chewing a straw. " Piece of 
 
 I absolute carelessness! You should have kept 
 hold of that nigger every step of the way No'th. 
 
 , I should have brought him myself. The idea of 
 
 ' lettin' him fall off the cah right heah m Syrches- 
 ter, and break his mizzeble laig! " 
 
104 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 " Why, Cunnil, we couldn't help it," replied 
 the trainer. 
 
 The Colonel was too angry to hear. 
 
 " Heah I am tryin' to show these No'therners a 
 real runnin' race, heah I've risked bringin' 
 Sweet Alice up heah in all this heat, and 
 there's nobody I'd trust to ride her. I'd give 
 one thousand dollars for a good jockey who would 
 win that race ! ' ' 
 
 Fatty's eyes bulged. " Peters! " he whispered 
 to himself. He stepped before the raging Col- 
 onel and lifted his hat. 
 
 " Colonel DeWolfe? " he inquired, with an air 
 that even the polite Carrolls might have envied. 
 
 " Yes, suh! What is it? " exploded the Col- 
 onel, scarcely glancing at him. 
 
 " Did you mean what you just said about a 
 jockey, sir? " 
 
 1 ' I suttenly did ! ' ' said the Colonel. 
 
 " Well," said Fatty, "I'll bring you a first- 
 class jockey in two hours. If he is satisfactory, 
 will you stick to the bargain? " 
 
 " On the word of a gentleman, my boy! "said 
 the Colonel, the frown clearing from his brow. 
 
 " Very well, sir," said Fatty, and left the pad- 
 dock, his brain in a whirl. Hurrying through the 
 entrance, he heard a clear voice hail him. 
 
 " Where away, Will? " it called. There in the 
 line of automobiles just passing in at the great 
 arched gateway was his father's car. He dashed 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 105 
 
 up to it, hastily greeted his mother and Mrs. Car- 
 roll, and cried: 
 
 " Oh, father, will you give me this car for an 
 hour? " 
 
 " What's the matter? " asked his father. 
 "Did you forget something? " 
 
 "No," said Fatty earnestly. "It's the big- 
 gest deal I ever carried through, if I do get away 
 with it. I can't stop to tell you." 
 
 " Ladies," said Dr. Carroll, " you surely 
 would not stand in the way of a great financial 
 deal, would you? " 
 
 " Decidedly not," said Mrs. Carroll, rising. 
 * i Let 's give up the car, by all means ! ' ' 
 
 " Oh, thank you ever so much! " said Fatty, 
 hurrying to open the doors. Laughing at his 
 prompt acceptance, they vacated the machine. 
 
 i l Back home ! ' ' cried Fatty to the chauffeur, 
 and waved his cap as the big car moved away. 
 
 It seemed to Fatty that he would never reach 
 the Alhambra. They were held up at railroad 
 crossings and in the crowded streets-. At last, 
 however, they stopped at the apartment, and 
 Fatty rushed past the stone lions and pushed the 
 bell for the elevator. It descended with aggravat- 
 ing slowness. 
 
 Fatty commenced talking at the first glimpse 
 of Peters' shoes. He was in full" swing when 
 Peters' baggy knees descended, and was saying: 
 " So get a move on yourself! " when Peters' 
 amazed face appeared on a line with his own. 
 
106 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 " If you will please to say that all again, Mr. 
 Will! " he asked. 
 
 " Get the other elevator man! " said Fatty, 
 " I'll tell you all the news as we go back. You've 
 got to come to the fairgrounds with me. It's a 
 big thing, Peters' Where's that elevator boy, 
 anyhow? Down cellar! I'll get him! You get 
 into some other clothes ! " 
 
 Once started, he told him the whole affair. 
 
 " Now what do you say, Peters? Can you do 
 it? " he demanded, shaking the little man's 
 skinny arm. 
 
 " For my Alice," he said. " Why, Mr. Will, 
 sir, I will ride if I have to lift the horse down the 
 home stretch! " 
 
 " That's another funny thing," said Fatty, 
 suddenly remembering. " The mare's name is 
 Sweet Alice." 
 
 " It's a sign," said Peters, solemnly. 
 
 " Do you suppose," asked Fatty anxiously, 
 " that you've forgotten how to ride? " 
 
 Peters gave a short laugh. " I jolly well 
 haven't! " he said. " I was born in the saddle 
 like, Mr. Will, and ridin' is like breathin' to me, 
 an' easier. I looks older than I am, too: and I'm 
 under weight, which is a good thing for a jockey. 
 Blarst me ! " he cried with a shaking voice, ' ' I 
 want to ride. If I can get a good horse under me 
 again, I'll forgit me troubles for so long at any 
 rate. ' Sweet Alice,' eh? " he mused. " Well, a 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 107 
 
 beauty ye must be and I'm pinin' to see ye. An 
 automobile's but a slow thing at that, is it not, 
 Mr. Will?" 
 
 . " There are the fairgrounds," said Will, smil- 
 ing at Peters' impatience as the speedy car 
 bumped over bridges and whipped around 
 curves. He knew well how it felt to Peters. 
 Fatty showed his pass and directed the chauffeur 
 to the paddock. Jumping out, he hurried into 
 the DeWolfe stables and bumped into his father. 
 
 1 ' I told you, Eansier ! ' ' cried the voice of Doc- 
 tor Carroll, " I was sure, from the Colonel's de- 
 scription, that it was your son." 
 
 Fatty marched past them and up to Colonel De- 
 Wolfe. 
 
 " Here's the jockey, sir, and I am sure that he 
 will win your race, ' ' he said. 
 
 The old Colonel glanced at Peters with a criti- 
 cal eye. 
 
 " Well, my man, you've got the right build. 
 Where did you ride ? ' ' 
 
 " 'Twas long since; but you needn't fear that 
 I've forgot. I rode in England. I rode for Sir 
 Harry Edgerton of Edgerton. ' ' 
 
 " That's rather odd," said the Colonel, turn- 
 ing to the ladies. " Sweet Alice heah is a de- 
 scendant of the Edgerton horses. Her great 
 grand-dam came from there." 
 
 Like a flash Peters entered the big box stall, 
 and with a practiced hand stripped the eovers 
 from the glossy black beauty. 
 
108 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 He looked her over, his face quivering. ' ' 1 
 can name her great grand-dam, Colonel DeWolfe, 
 sir! " he cried, his voice shaking. " She was 
 Queen Blue Belle and she had that star, and the 
 reddish hair down in her mane. ' ' 
 
 " Now that is odd," said the Colonel again. 
 " Well, I'll take you on, Petahs. I doubt your 
 winning; she's freakish, very freakish, and you 
 say you've not ridden for years: but you'll do 
 your best I don't doubt, since this young man 
 backs you. Better try her today, Petahs. Un- 
 fortunately her race is set for tomorrow. I wish 
 I could get it put ovah," 
 
 "It's not necessary, sir," said Peters. " You 
 see 'twill help a good bit, my knowing her blood." 
 
 " Well, we will leave you with her, my man. 
 I will be in latah." 
 
 The party left the stable and walked slowly 
 back toward the main building. 
 
 " Well, suh," said the Colonel, " unless that 
 little man has forgot to ride, it looks to me like 
 it was a good thing the niggah broke his laig." 
 
 Fatty, in perfect agony to tell the amazing 
 news, hurried to the stand presided over by Tony 
 and Charlie. Kid O'Connors and his wife were 
 there talking to them. 
 
 Fatty's wonderful tale was received with 1 
 whoops of delight. 
 
 " Well, that was great, simply great! " said 
 Kid O'Connors. " He'll ride all right if he's 
 
 \ 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 109 
 
 English. It's not the prejudice of my blood: but 
 certainly the English jockeys are the greatest in 
 the world. Where did you say he came from,. 
 over there? " 
 
 " Prom some place in Devonshire," said Fatty. 
 " I forgot the name — I'll ask him. Why, there 
 he is now! Wonder if anything 's wrong! " 
 
 Fatty gave a yell and Peters, who was evi- 
 dently in search of him, hurried up. 
 
 " I'll not be able to get back to the Alhambra 
 tonight, Mr. Will," said the little man. " I don't 
 want to leave the little un for a minute. She took 
 to me like a brother. It's jolly funny to see that 
 trainer back there. He follows every step I take. 
 He says it is because he's afraid I'll get lost. Me 
 lost after fifteen years around American cities! 
 He's afraid I'll run away or get hurt before the 
 race. Why, Mr. Will, I'd not miss riding that 
 race for what's left of me life. I'm going to- 
 saddle her soon — won't you come round? But 
 I'm so mixed up with happiness: what I started 
 to say was, could you most kindly see if that ele- 
 vator boy can do my work until tomorrow? I'll 
 pay him well. He will have to get someone to 
 take his place while he eats. ' ' 
 
 " I think our chauffeur can run an elevator," 
 said Fatty. " If he can't, why, we'll have to hang 
 "dp an ' Out of order ' sign on it. I tell you, 
 Peters, this is an important affair. We can't 
 stick at a little thing like an elevator. Why, what 
 ails Mr. O'Connors? " 
 
110 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 They turned, and together stared at the Kid. 
 His firm, clean-cut face was colorless: his deep- 
 set brown eyes were fixed upon Peters with a look 
 of wild intensity. Peters, meeting his gaze, 
 stared back with a wonder which passed into utter 
 amazement and unbelief. 
 
 The Kid took an unsteady step forwards. 
 *J Philip Evans! " he said in a low voice. 
 
 Peters began to shake. " Don't fool me! " he 
 cried. ' ' It can 't be — it can 't be — it — is — my; 
 little Peter, ain't it? " 
 
 t ( Yes, brother, it is ! ' ' cried the Kid. 
 
 "With no thought of the crowds watching, the 
 two men kissed each other, a proceeding which 
 caused Fatty to kick his left leg violently with 
 his right foot and made the Kid's admirers doubt 
 their senses. It was hard to believe that their 
 hero of the ring could be guilty of such weakness. 
 
 "My — my little Peter," said Peters, putting 
 iris hand on the taller man's shoulder. " Why 
 did ye never write me? " 
 
 " I did often," said the Kid, " until I got tired 
 of having no answer. I thought you must be 
 dead. And here we are in the same city together 
 at last! " He turned to his wife. , ■■ 
 
 " Mary, this is my brother Philip that I've 
 often told you about: and you've seen Charlie 
 many a time, I'll be bound! " 
 
 " Many's the time," said Peters, " but I never 
 dreamed it was my own nephew; and him so good 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 111 
 
 to Alice! How strange things do come out! It's 
 queer how you knew me, Peter; I've certainly 
 changed. ' ' 
 
 " Not a bit/' said the Kid. " A little thinner, 
 maybe, and some lines and a grey hair or two: 
 but very much the same. What made you change 
 your name, Phil ! ' ' 
 
 " That's a long story," said Peters, sighing. 
 " And you were not born Kid O'Connors! Isn't 
 there as much fighting stuff in the name of 
 Evans? " 
 
 " More! " laughed the Kid. "I'd never dare 
 stand up against an Evans myself. But that's a 
 long story too, brother, and we '11 have to sit some- 
 where and talk it all over. Where will that be ? " 
 
 " Come to the paddock tomorrow morning," 
 said Peters. " I'll only be busy off and on with 
 my little mare and there'll be plenty o' time to 
 visit. ' ' 
 
 The trainer, who had fidgetted in the back- 
 ground, hurried up. " Any time you're ready, 
 Peters," he said, " I'll show you the way back." 
 
 Peters looked at him pityingly. " Mr. Blair," 
 he said, " I could find my way back to that 
 sweet, pretty, little mare if I'd wandered farther 
 afield than this. But I'll walk back with you 
 now. You'll see to the elevator boy then, Mr. 
 Will? I'm sorry to trouble you, but I must stay 
 right in that stall tonight. Good-bye for tonight, 
 brother P^ter.** 
 
112 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 Fatty dropped wearily down on a box. " Say, 
 fellows," lie said, " don't yon ever say a word 
 against dime novels, or nickle libraries, or picture 
 shows again. The way long lost brothers have 
 cropped up around here today gets my goat. 
 And Peters even knows the great grandmother of 
 the mare he 's going to ride ! He knew just how 
 many red hairs this one ought to have in her 
 mane. What do you suppose is due to pop up 
 next? I mean after the race? Of course that *a 
 next on the program." 
 
 " Dunno," said Tony, smiling. 
 
 And it was well indeed that he could not see thft 
 horror that lay before them. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE HOME STRETCH 
 
 By nine o'clock the following morning all the 
 Scouts associated in the Popcorn Trust had taken 
 turns going to see Peters and Sweet Alice. At 
 nine-thirty both Peters and the horse disap- 
 peared in the interior of the racing stables at the 
 other side of the track, followed by the fidgety 
 trainer and the still more fidgety Colonel. 
 
 What looked like a toy saddle dangled from 
 the Colonel 's hand. The other hand held a bun- 
 dle of scarlet and black satin. " Gee," said 
 Charlie, " our new uncle is going to look like a 
 sofa pillow! " 
 
 As the morning went on the excitement about 
 the stable grew keener. Stable boys hurried here 
 and there. Older men led horses up and down, 
 hooded, blanketed, and bandaged like mummies. 
 Each was followed by its rider or driver, wor- 
 ried, anxious, fretful as porcupines, and shedding 
 orders like quills. Perspiring rubbers hurried 
 here and there with pails of water. Gentlemen in 
 silk hats with fat, shiny watch chains draped 
 across fat figures, walked about watching the 
 horses. On the track, slim beauties covered many 
 times with a perplexing lot of straps and weights, 
 
 113 
 
114 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 intended to control their paces, swept round and 
 round, their drivers sitting carefully on the long 
 tails spread across the sulky seats, and humped 
 far over the horses' backs. At eleven o'clock the 
 crowd, scattered about the grounds, began to 
 move toward the mammoth grandstand. In the 
 vast space underneath at long high counters, a 
 nervous row of young men and elderly women 
 dispensed " hot dogs," ginger ale, coffee, sand- 
 wiches and doughnuts. Everybody was in a 
 frantic hurry, and everybody was hungry, raven- 
 ously hungry. The " hot dog " men could not 
 slap the mustard on fast enough. The ham in the 
 sandwiches got thinner and thinner, and drew 
 further from the outside edges except when a 
 large piece of fat sprawled all over the inside and 
 hung out at one corner, making you pick that one 
 because you thought there was a lot of good meat 
 inside. People made change with a quickness 
 and sureness that was amazing. "Women, old 
 folks and little children stood at the counters and 
 ate sandwiches and " hot dogs." • 
 
 At the Women's Christian Aid booth, where 
 the muddy blackness of the coffee was offset by 
 the pale blueness of mugs of milk, the attendants 
 were so tired that they matched the milk rather 
 well. Overhead came the hollow thunder of hun- 
 dreds of feet tramping up and down the aisles of 
 the grandstand finding seats. Along, the front, 
 next the rail, was a row of private boxes. Their 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 115 
 
 comfortable chairs looked very inviting to the 
 hot, tired crowds gathering on the long, hard 
 benches. It was a great day for Syrchester. Her 
 greatest horse, which had raced so successfully 
 in the West and South, was at last to trot at 
 home. 
 
 " The Baron " was a household name among 
 the lovers of horseflesh, and his owner, young 
 Mr. Black, as he sauntered here and there, into 
 the judges' stand or across the track, was watched 
 by hundreds of friendly and admiring eyes. 
 
 At twelve o'clock the huge stand was full; at 
 one, it was crowded; and the bleachers, at either 
 side, were jammed with men and boys. At one- 
 thirty, the " No Boom " sign was put up at the 
 ticket entrance to the grandstand, and disap- 
 pointed hundreds, whose tickets had been secured 
 far ahead, raged and roared at the row of police- 
 men stationed there. The band, in one corner of 
 the grandstand, played at intervals. When it 
 stopped, a number of hot, tired, hungry babies 
 screamed and yelled at the tops of their voices 
 and were jounced into worse misery by their 
 mothers. The private boxes gradually filled with! 
 beautiful women and dainty girls and well- 
 dressed men. In the judges' stand the bell 
 clanged. 
 
 Out in the racing stables, in the stall occupied 
 by Sweet Alice, Peters and Kid O'Connors, 
 sitting side by side on a soap box, had pieced to- 
 
116 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 gether the torn fragments of their lives. The 
 Kid had come to America to live with his mother's 
 brother, when he was a little chap nine years old 
 and, of course, he had the most to tell. Not many 
 things happen to folks in an old English village, 
 and Peters' life had been uneventful enough un- 
 til the misfortune which drove him away from 
 home. 
 
 u But why did you change your name, Phil? " 
 asked the Kid finally. " Wasn't Evans good 
 enough for you f ' ' 
 
 " Too good," said Peters. " I did not want to 
 carry it when folks thought me disgraced. So I 
 called myself Peters in memory of you. But you 
 changed too, lad. "Why was that ? ' ' 
 
 " Oh, uncle had no boy, and all day long he was 
 coaxing and promising, if I would only take his 
 name. I did it to please him, and it 's many a time 
 I've wished it back, but I'm Kid O'Connors now 
 to the end of the chapter. And there 's this about 
 it, Phil. Over here," as you've no doubt seen, 
 names don't mean much. It's what you are, or 
 what you do, or what you gain, that counts." 
 
 " It's true; it's true," said Peters sadly, " and 
 I'm a failure, lad, just a failure! " 
 
 " Not a bit! " said the Kid, clapping his bro- 
 ther's satin-covered shoulder. " Don't you feel 
 you can win the race? " 
 
 " Of course! " said Peters, simply. 
 
 " Well, then, that's all there is to it! You've 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS , DEFIANCE 117 
 
 siot had the ghost of a show for years and 5 *ars. 
 A jockey like you, a horseman trying to ru,a an 
 elevator! I'm a fighter, Phil, and I've got the 
 belt for my class. I don't approve of the profes- 
 sion, but that's neither here nor there. What 
 would I make of the job, think you, if I left box- 
 ing, and took to writing books'? You have not 
 had your chance, Phil, for these many years, but 
 I've a feeling that your luck has turned.' ' 
 
 " We'll hope so," said Peters, with a wry 
 smile, " because I'll say this, that I'm not main 
 strong for the woman's work, and the elevator 
 rubs me the wrong way of the grain — I'll havi? 
 to get back to the horses somehow or other, lad." 
 
 Across the track sounded the harsh clang of tho 
 starter 's bell calling the first heat of the trotters, 
 
 " Think I'd better skip," said Kid, rising. 
 " This will be the first of many talks, Phil. Good 
 luck to you, lad ! I'll not worry. I know you can 
 lift the little girl under the wire ahead o' the 
 others. ' 9 
 
 " I've got to! " said Peters. " I'm riding for 
 my little Alice today! " 
 
 The brothers parted, and Peters turned to the 
 black muzzle that poked fondly at him. Already 
 he had won the little mare's heart. Taking off 
 her blanket, he took a chamois and smoothed 
 down the glossy, shining sides. 
 
 " We'll show them, won't we, Beauty? " he 
 whispered. 
 
118 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 Colonel De Wolfe, stepping in the door, saw and 
 heard Peters' soft, coaxing whispers. 
 
 " Everything all right, Peters! "he inquired. 
 
 " Couldn't be better, sir." 
 
 " Do your best to win, then," said the Colonel, 
 41 although I scarcely hope for it: you are a total 
 stranger to the mare. ' ! 
 
 " Oh, no, Colonel De Wolfe, sir, we are not 
 strangers; we've just found each other again. 
 I've told her all about Edgerton, and she knows 
 we are old friends. I'll win, Colonel! It's not 
 the mare that's freakish; it's the boy what's rode 
 her. A horse is just pretty near what you make 
 it so far as disposition goes. It's my opinion that 
 nine out of ten is born with good, sweet tempers, 
 and they got the wrong handling. Spoiled in the 
 makin', sir, all spoiled! " 
 
 i l Have you seen any of the other horses ? ' J 
 asked Colonel De Wolfe. 
 
 1 i All of them, sir ! They are mighty good ones, 
 but here is a better. We'll make it unless there's 
 some accident," said- Peters positively. 
 
 The Colonel sighed. He wanted Sweet Alice 
 to win for many reasons: and he felt that 
 he had chanced upon a great jockey: but even so 
 the little mare was freakish when she got nervous, 
 and he wondered if she would run true with a 
 strange hand on the rein. 
 
 There was absolutely nothing to do, however 5 
 but return to the box where the ladies, with Mr, 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 119 
 
 Barrier and Dr. Carroll, sat breathlessly watch- 
 ing the last heat of the " Baron's " race. Sud- 
 denly, as Colonel De Wolfe slowly ascended the 
 stairs of the grandstand, a roar arose. It sounded 
 like a wave as it swept over the bleachers and the 
 big stand. As the four horses came trotting into 
 the last stretch, every person on the stands leaped 
 to their feet. ' ■ Baron — Baron — Baron ! ' * 
 they cried : and as the home horse whirled under 
 the wire, a scant nose ahead, a deafening cheer 
 arose. Cheer followed cheer. Hats were flung 
 up and young Mr. Black, slowly coming from the 
 judges' stand, took the already blanketed win- 
 ner, and himself led him toward the stables. 
 
 1 ' Is there always so much enthusiasm ? ' ' asked 
 Colonel De Wolfe. " I missed the other races." 
 
 "Oh, no!" said Dr. Carroll. " Syrchester 
 is considered very cold : but that horse was bred 
 here, and is owned by a man who is extremely 
 popular among lovers of good horseflesh. No, 
 Syrchester is very unenthusiastic usually. I've 
 never seen the people so v pleased. Why, your 
 race is next, is it not, Colonel? Now, ladies, we 
 will all have to give a ' good thought ' as the 
 mind cure people say, and perhaps it will help; 
 Sweet Alice and our friend Peters to win." 
 
 It was a good field for a running race. Six 
 slim, clean-cut beauties filed out of the racing 
 stable. The first was a magnificent, greaf animal 
 fairly tingling with life. His rider was gorgeous 
 
120 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 in green and gold. Next, all in blue, a long, thin 
 jockey tried to control the skittish lunges of a 
 dark roan. Three bays followed, and it was evi- 
 dent at a glance that they were scarcely to be con- 
 sidered in the race. 
 
 Behind them Sweet Alice picked her dainty 
 way. Peters, flashing in his scarlet and black 
 satin, sat her so lightly and held her so delicately 
 that Colonel De Wolfe drew a deep breath. 
 
 " That fellow's a magnificent rider! " he half 
 whispered. 
 
 As the horses drew up at the judges' stand, 
 there was a shout and five tousled and excited 
 boys dashed up the stairs, closely followed by an 
 angry policeman. 
 
 " Come back here! " he cried and gave a lunge 
 for the nearest one. It was Charlie O'Connors, 
 and with his father's own quickness he slipped 
 away from the officer and bounded to the top step. 
 The policeman, now furious, made a grab and 
 caught Tony, whom he jerked roughly toward 
 the stairs. 
 
 " Here, officer! " cried Mr. Eansier. " Those 
 boys belong in this box." 
 
 "Not on your life!" said the angry man. 
 *' Those boys have no entrance tickets." 
 
 "You've got them in your pocket, father! 9f 
 yelled Fatty, furiously. 
 
 Mr. Eansier felt in his pocket and drew out the 
 five colored slips. 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 121 
 
 " Yes, and we came near not seeing our own 
 race ! ' ' said Fatty, scowling. 
 
 " Never mind, son, dear, you all are here now, 
 are you not? " 
 
 " I don't know whether we are or not ! "We had 
 the worst time to get under that fence ! ' ' 
 
 " Well, stand up at the back of the box where 
 you can see over our heads/ ' said Mr. Ransier. 
 
 The beautiful group of horses trotted gaily to 
 the starting point, and lined up. Track hands 
 stretched the barrier across th^ track. 
 
 1 1 Go I 9 ' cried the starter. 
 
 The line leaped forward : all but the roan, who 
 stood teetering a moment, then began to back. 
 The starter's bell rang loudly, and the horses 
 turned back. 
 
 Three times the roan held them back on a false 
 start. Then the starter in the judges *■ stand put 
 the megaphone to his lips and in a roar which 
 could not be understood on the grandstand, 
 warned the rider in blue that it was his last start. 
 With a new touch, the jockey brought the roan 
 into place and the barrier fell. Almost on a di- 
 rect line, the six horses swept forward. 
 
 "They're off!" exclaimed Fatty. "Now 
 we'll see what old Peters is made of ! " 
 
 The grandstand was silent. Down came the 
 horses and swept past the grandstand. Fatty, 
 who had a voice big enough for four boys, roared 
 over the Colonel 's head, ' ' Get a move on. Peters, 
 get a move ce* "* 
 
122 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 The Colonel jumped and smiled, then forgot 
 everything but the group of horses speeding away 
 round the track. 
 
 A third of the way round, Clement Carroll 
 •cried out, " Fellows, there are two horses falling 
 out! " 
 
 " Good thing! " said De Forest. " They were 
 no good. ' ' 
 
 Across from the grandstand a horse suddenly 
 stumbled. 
 
 " Aw shucks! " said Fatty. " Got a stone in 
 Iris shoe. Well, that cleans 'em down pretty well ! 
 Now if that old sucker will only ride — Oh, the 
 old frozen face, she's falling behind! Ain't that 
 the limit ! Oh, Chuck, look at that — the old goat ! 
 Oee, I thought that bunch of money was going to 
 help some! " 
 
 Chuck followed the horses with keen eyes. 
 " She's not much behind! " 
 
 " Much! " cried Fatty, in agony. " Much, you 
 silly idiot! She has no business to be any be- 
 hind ! * ' Fatty had forgotten all about Colonel De 
 Wolfe. He stood pounding on the back of the 
 Colonel's chair. Far away the horses turned into 
 the home stretch. 
 
 The people stood to see. 
 
 " She's gaining! " cried Fatty, leaning far 
 over the Colonel's chair. " She's up with the 
 others! There goes that roan! Now there's only 
 the black! She'll i^ever make it — yes, she's up 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 123 
 
 to him now! — No, he's ahead — no, she's 
 ahead! " 
 
 " Oh, ride, Peters, ride! " 
 
 Down the track thundered the pair, neck and 
 neck. 
 
 " Gee, see the fellow on the black use his 
 »Thip ! ' 9 gasped Chuck. 
 
 " Where's Peters' whip? " cried Fatty again, 
 \,gony in his voice. Then with a loud yell as the 
 horses swept under the wire, " We've won, 
 ^e've won! " choked Fatty and pounded the 
 Colonel violently on the back. The other boys 
 were hopping up and down and yelling with the 
 jrowd. 
 
 " Well," cried Mr. Eansier, ' f do you know 
 what you are doing? " 
 
 Fatty, thumping the dignified Colonel vigor- 
 msly on the back, stopped in embarrassment. 
 
 " Why, say! Colonel De Wolfe, I beg your 
 pardon, sir! I didn't know what I was doing. 
 But we won ! We won ! " • 
 
 The horses came back to the judges' stand. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Eansier and Dr. and Mrs. Carroll 
 were shaking hands with Colonel De Wolfe and 
 congratulating him. The Colonel's face glowed. 
 
 " Friends," he said, " winning that race meant 
 a great deal to me. I bred that little roan myself, 
 and I'm glad to be justified in her." 
 
 " Let's go over and see Peters." said Fattv. 
 11 We're off, mother! " 
 
124 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 <; Just a minute, Eansier," called the Colonel* 
 " I want you to know that I was so certain that 
 your man Peters would win that I wrote this out 
 before I left my rooms at the Seneca House.' ' 
 He handed an unsealed envelope to Fatty. 
 
 " The money! " said Fatty in an awed tone. 
 
 " Well, I guess mother can tell you about Alice 
 — you are mighty good ! ' ' 
 
 " She has told me," said the Colonel. 
 
 The boys fidgeted. 
 
 " Why don't you take the money to Peters? ff 
 said Chuck. " It will tickle him almost to death 
 to think that the Colonel had the check all made 
 out beforehand." 
 
 " All right," said Fatty, and with a shouted 
 good-bye, they dashed down the stairs and in the- 
 direction of the racing stables. 
 
 " A thousand dollars! " said Tony. 
 
 "Made in about a second," said Fatty. " I 
 think I '11 be a jockey ! I 'm almost thin enough — * r 
 
 " Well," said Charlie. " Not for mine! I bet 
 there's no more in it than there is in boxing. 
 You don't race every day, and it's a hard life 
 spent in stables, and when you get too old to ride, 
 why, you're just a stable hand or at best a. 
 trainer. ' ' 
 
 v Let's have a squint at the check," said Tony, 
 4 • Gee, I'm glad it's not in bills ! " 
 
 Fatty slipped the paper from the envelope, and 
 looked: at it. He stopped. 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 125 
 
 "Say, I'm dippy! " he confided to the boys 
 staring over his shoulder. " This won't do! " 
 he said. " See what he's done! The old Colonel 
 has made a mistake. ' ' 
 
 " Take it right back and show him," said Clem- 
 ent. " We'll wait here. He might feel a bit em- 
 barrassed. ' ' 
 
 Fatty sped through the crowd and breathlessly 
 offered the check to Colonel De Wolfe. " You 
 must have been thinking of something else, 
 Colonel," he said. " You have made this out 
 wrong. ' ' 
 
 The Colonel examined the piece of blue paper. 
 He smiled. 
 
 " No, my boy, that is correct. It may not be 
 exactly the amount specified, but it is near enough 
 to cover my notion of just payment. Run along 
 and see if Peters is willing to call it a square 
 deal." 
 
 Fatty walked slowly back to the boys. 
 
 " What did he say? " they all demanded. 
 
 " He said it's made out all right," said Fatty 
 in a dazed tone. " Told me to take it to Peters 
 and see if it satisfied him." 
 
 " Fwe thousand dollars," said Clement Car- 
 roll. ' ' If money will do it, Alice is saved ! ' ' 
 
 " Come along and show Peters," said Tony, 
 breaking into a run. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE WILD-CAT AT THE BABS. 
 
 Peters, still in his top boots and smooth riding 
 breeches, and the little satin jacket and cap of 
 scarlet and black, stood near the mare's head, 
 watching the men rub down the delicate, spring- 
 like muscles that had performed such wonders. 
 Alice kept her pretty muzzle turned toward him 
 and her little ears pushed forward at the sound 
 of his voice. She loved her new friend, recogniz- 
 ing, with an animal's delicate instinct, the love 
 and sympathy which the little man gave her. 
 
 Peters was a true horseman, and not a make- 
 believe. He first won the little racer's love and 
 then he knew that she would do anything in her 
 power for him. So he stood beside her, watching 
 every move of her rubbers, while the boys gazed 
 on in an agony of excitement. 
 
 Fatty, who bore the wonderful envelope, was 
 kept well to the front that no time might be lost. 
 Twice Fatty said " Peters," but Peters shook his 
 head and smiled. 
 
 " Wait 'til the little mare is comfortable, Mr. 
 Will, sir," he said, " then I'll be with you." 
 
 At last even Peters was satisfied, and the boi 
 stall was closed on the pretty winner, and Peters 
 turned to the boys. 
 
 126 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 127 
 
 " Well, young gentlemen, I suppose you've 
 come to shake 'ands, ' ' he said. 
 
 "Not yet," said Fatty, "We- haven't time. 
 Here 's something for you to read. ' ' 
 
 Peters wonderingly opened the envelope. 
 Once, twice he read the check. Then he laughed 
 " That's a fair joke," he said. 
 
 " Jokenuthin'! " said Fatty. " I went back to 
 see." 
 
 " Yes, he went back and asked the Colonel," 
 said Tony. 
 
 "Hope to die, it's straight goods!" said 
 Chuck. 
 
 i l On honor ! ' ' said both the Carrolls. 
 
 They all talked at once. They hung on Peters * 
 shoulders; they shook him by the arms; they 
 poked grubby fingers into his satin-covered ribs; 
 they slapped him on the back. Peters, jarred and 
 jostled, did not seem to know it. He stared at the 
 check like a man in a dream. 
 
 1 ' Five thousand dollars ! "he said at last. 
 " Five thousand dollars! Why, boys, if money 
 will do it, that ought to cure my little Alice! " 
 His poor, lined, lean, little- face worked pitifully. 
 " Five thousand dollars! I felt rich as a lord with 
 the promise of one thousand. Where is the 
 Colonel ? I must thank him for this, and I must 
 tell him what it means to me. ' ' 
 
 "He's coming now," said Clement, looking out 
 the door. 
 
128 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 " Let me go alone, boys, if you please," said 
 Peters, as the crowd prepared to follow. 
 " There's things that you can best say man to 
 man." 
 
 The boys watched Peters approach the big 
 Colonel, and saw him take the little man by the 
 hand. Then they sauntered back to their popcorn 
 stands. Their interest in the races was over. 
 
 " Nice hearty handshake he appeared to be giv- 
 ing my new uncle," said Chuck. 
 
 " Well, he's a hearty, big man," said Tony. 
 
 ' ' ' Ha-ha — cried-little-Willie-joyf ully, ' ' ' said 
 Fatty sarcastically: " You needn't look for big, 
 hearty men necessarily when you are after a hu- 
 man stone crusher. Nay, nay ! I met a little man 
 once and shook hands with him in a friendly way, 
 and for about three hours afterwards I was 
 simply crazy with curiosity as to whether I had 
 any hand or not. There was something on the 
 end of my arm, but it looked and felt like a mul- 
 lein leaf. Chuck 'Connors ' nice, gentle, little pa 
 did it!" 
 
 The boys howled. 
 
 "What a cheerful liar you are, Fat! " said 
 Charlie, hammering Fatty between the shoulders, 
 
 " Straight goods! " said Fatty. " Why, even 
 yet that poor hand has nightmares about it, and 
 tries to get under the bed." 
 
 " Aw, you are crazy! " said Charlie. 
 
 "All right, then," said Fatty. "After this 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 12} 
 
 I'll talk nothing but business. We are going to 
 have an awful heavy day to-morrow, fellows. 
 They tell me Thursday is the biggest day of the 
 whole week. I've got to make the rounds and 
 see that there's all sorts of corn and butter on 
 hand. How are you coming with the checkroom, 
 Clem? " 
 
 " Couldn't be better, " declared Clem. " We are 
 just coining money. All you have to do is to show 
 people a little politeness, and lots of times they 
 decide to leave two or three parcels, where they 
 expected to leave only one. Once a woman wanted 
 to leave her baby. It was asleep, and she said that 
 it wouldn't wake up for a couple of hours, but I 
 knew that if it did, I wouldn't know what to do 
 with it ; so I sent her on to the day nursery. De- 
 Forest went with her and carried the baby. ' ' 
 
 " Good old sport ! " said Fatty, patting De For- 
 est's chubby shoulder. 
 
 He blushed as he explained, " One couldn't do 
 less. My word, that woman didn't weigh ninety 
 pounds, and the baby weighed at least thirty! " 
 
 * ' It must be fierce to be one, ' ' said Fatty. 
 
 " A baby! " asked Chuck. 
 
 " No, no, NO," cried Fatty, " a woman! It 
 must be fierce to be a woman." 
 
 " You can bet it's a lead pipe cinch to be a hid; 
 lugged around and fed and put to sleep. Gee, 
 they have the snap ! I think of it every time I see 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 131 
 
 " See 'em all!" said the others, and Fatty 
 strolled off alone. 
 
 As he passed the stand run by Spider Morrison 
 and Geezer Eeed, he saw that Slinky Mott was 
 running the popper and Spider sat near, resting. 
 
 " Come with me, Spider, and see the sights."" 
 
 " All right," said Spider. " Can you look out 
 for things without my athistanth for a little, f el- 
 loth? If tho, I'll go." 
 
 He laughed, and with Fatty started for the 
 Midway where the side-shows were. As Fatty 
 said, they did not want to improve their minds. 
 What they wanted was thrills. Poor Fatty I 
 Spider remembered afterwards what he had so 
 carelessly said. 
 
 They idled down the noisy street lined by tents 
 and gaudy show-houses tossed together for a sin- 
 gle week. They saw the Strongest Man ; and the 
 Fattest Woman ; and the Bearded Lady, and the 
 Dwarfs. It was between meals for the Snake Eat- 
 ers, evidently, for they were not eating any of the 
 discouraged little garter snakes, which were 
 curled up in the corners of the pen. They passed 
 the Beauties of the Orient, because Fatty said 
 they were nothing but girls, and the Egyptian 
 Tumblers also, because Spider said one of them 
 kept a shoe shining place right near where the su- 
 burban cars came in. Just beyond this was a 
 long, low tent with a double rail inside leading 
 past scores of boxes and booths and cages. Here 
 
132 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 you really did get your money's worth. A dime 
 to go in at one end and see it all. Fatty got a 
 thrill first crack, because the girl standing up in 
 front beside the barker had about ten feet of a 
 dopy boa-constrictor around her neck, and its 
 slow, switching tail brushed Fatty as he went in. 
 
 They began at the very beginning; and that 
 was a sort of board pit within which, on two 
 wobbly stools, sat the two fattest boys anyone 
 ever saw. They were so much alike that Spider 
 whispered to Fatty : ' * Thay, have you the leasth 
 idea which one you're lookin' at? I don't know 
 whether I'm theein' this one or some other one." 
 
 They wore tights, and seemed contented. They 
 were eating ice-cream cones in large bites, but 
 they said never a word. Fatty and Spider gazed 
 at them for a long time. Finally they arose, 
 brushed off the bits of cone with the backs of their 
 pudgy hands, and still in silence fell upon each 
 others' necks. They pulled and hauled, rocking 
 to left and right. 
 
 ! ' Now, what in Sam Hill do they think they are 
 doin'? " asked Fatty. 
 
 u Wrestlin'," said a small boy, proudly. 
 
 " Well, well," said Fatty, " wouldn't that frost 
 you? I'd never guess it, never in this world! " 
 
 As suddenly as they began, the boys parted and 
 let themselves down gingerly upon their stools. 
 One of them felt under a coat in the corner and 
 brought out two bananas, one of which he handed 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 133 
 
 to his partner or brother or twin, as might be. 
 They began to eat solemnly. 
 
 " Next! " said Fatty, and they went on, pass- 
 ing a cage where a mongrel collie slept peacefully. 
 He was labeled: " Wild Dog of Siberia,' 9 
 
 Spider said he'd like to show 'em his bull pup. 
 The Snake Lady's enclosure was next. She had 
 returned and was just lifting the heavy, lazy 
 snake from her bare shoulders. 
 
 " Gosh! " said Fatty. " When I'm president, 
 I'm going to push through a law that women must 
 have an allowance somehow, so that they won't 
 have to make shows of themselves. It's awful! " 
 
 The boys glanced at the worn and tired face, 
 and passed on. A great tank was next, and in it, 
 all but his head under water, sat a man clothed in 
 black Jersey bathing tights. The water was not 
 very clear, and Fatty regarded him with disgust. 
 
 " Gee, I don't want to see his stunt! " he said. 
 " He looks spoiled." 
 
 Next was an open cage strongly barred. It was 
 set back a little and a space in front as long as the 
 cage and about three feet in width was staked, and 
 a rope stretched about. The placard at the top 
 said, ' ' Wild-Cat — Beware. ' f 
 
 The big brute lay against the bars at one end, 
 fast asleep ; but as they stared at him, he opened 
 his eyes and regarded them with a look of eon- 
 eentrated hate. Cold, cruel and revengeful, Ms 
 eyes held theirs. 
 
134 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 " Mercy, Percy, how peeved you look! " said 
 Fatty, reprovingly. 
 
 Spider leaned on the rail and stared at the ani- 
 mal ? s face. 
 
 " I don't like his sthyle a little hit! " he said. 
 " Thee that paw hanging through the hars. It 
 looks as limp and thoft as ragth; but I'll bet it 
 could about tear you to piethes." 
 
 " I don't like his looks enough to stand and 
 look at him myself," said Fatty. " Come on; " 
 he pushed Spider along. " This is a bum show 
 anyhow. Guess the only real thing in the joint is 
 the wild-cat, and I guess he's pretty sleepy." 
 He glanced back at the big animal in time to see 
 a picture which haunted him for years. Even 
 when Fatty was a grown man, with children of his 
 own, he would wake in the night shuddering with 
 horror of the picture that would not fade. 
 
 A little, curly-haired girl, left to herself while 
 her family stood gazing at the snake charmers, 
 had slipped under the ropes stretched before the 
 big cage of the wild-cat, and calling " Kitty c 
 kitty! " approached the dozing animal. 
 
 Fatty yelled, but too late. With a dimpling 
 smile, the little one took hold of the great paw 
 hanging between the bars. Like a flash the sleep 
 ing brute changed to a screaming, snarling pic- 
 ture of fury. 
 
 Deep into the tender baby's wrist sank the long 
 daws, while the other paw, slipping through the 
 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 135 
 
 bars, drew the curly head close to the hot mouth 
 and cruel fangs. 
 
 "With one bound Fatty was beside her. Jerking 
 up the corner stake, he thrust it through the bars 
 and into the furious creature's face. Becogniz- 
 ing a new enemy, the wild-cat released his hold 
 upon the child's arm, and struck at Fatty, tearing 
 his left arm to the bone. 
 
 Heedless of his hurt, Fatty struck again and 
 again at the brute's face. At the third blow, the 
 wild-cat succeeded in seizing Fatty's arm, and 
 seemingly satisfied to have some victim, dropped 
 the child. Her arm and hand torn, and her golden 
 curls red with blood, the little one fell fainting 
 under the cage. 
 
 It was Spider who came to Fatty's rescue. 
 Seizing another stake, he thrust the end into the 
 creature's mouth. With a new cry of pain and 
 fury, the animal released Fatty, to seize the tor- 
 turing stick. The proprietor of the show came 
 running up, too late, with a big iron rod. 
 
 In a crumpled heap beneath the cage the little 
 
 - one lay unconscious. A great crowd surged into 
 
 I the tent. The child's mother lay in a dead faint; 
 
 beside her three children shrieked wildly. Other 
 
 voices, women's and children's, took up the 
 
 screams. 
 
 Far back in the corner of the cage, his eyes like 
 balls of fire, his lips frothing, his long tail twitch- 
 ing, the wild-cat, crazy with the taste and smell 
 
136 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 of blood, crouched for a spring. He lifted his 
 voice in wild yells of. rage that sounded far above 
 the other sounds. Outside, in the tent, the crowd 
 was packed solidly. The ambulance, summoned 
 by someone from the Eed Cross building, only 
 got through when the crowd was beaten back by 
 policemen. Tender hands picked up the poor, 
 torn baby, and carried her out. Fatty, leaning 
 heavily upon Spider's shoulder, groaned as 
 Spider hurriedly twisted his handkerchief about 
 the injured arm in an effort to stop the blood 
 which poured down. " Good old Fatty — good 
 old Fatty! " Spider kept saying to the pale and 
 trembling boy. " Good old sport! Just keep a 
 sthiff upper lip, my nith old Fatty, and you'll be 
 all right. " 
 
 " Sure thing! " said Fatty, shaking, in a whis- 
 per. "I'm all right. I'll be all right, I tell you, 
 when they get the lights lit," and then Fatty, just 
 as tfee ambulance doctor came running toward 
 him, felt the pain leave and the darkness swal- 
 low him. He went down millions and millions of 
 miles into it; and that was the last poor Fatty 
 knew until he woke in the Eed Cross building, 
 faint and sick, and his bandaged left arm paining 
 and burning almost harder than he could bear 
 without groaning. He gritted his teeth and kept 
 the groan in, and was glad of it, when he saw his 
 own mother's pretty face near his. She was very 
 pale and her lovely eyes were red. 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 137 
 
 "Hello, motherkin," said Fatty, in a wabbly 
 voice. " Just what's the row? Oh, yes, I know! 
 Oh, say mother, don't tell me I fainted! If I did, 
 don't tell the fellows. Gee, how they would guy 
 me! " 
 
 " Oh, son, son! " Mrs. Eansier cried. " How 
 proud I am of. you ! And how it hurts me to have 
 you hurt, my dear, dear lad! " 
 
 "I'm all right," said Fatty, bravely. 
 ' " Mother, do you know if the little kid's all right! 
 I wish you could find out somehow." 
 
 " She is all right, young man," said a doctor, 
 suddenly appearing. " But you must not talk 
 for a while, even with your mother. We cannot 
 risk any fever, Mrs. Eansier." 
 
 "Of course not," said Mrs. Eansier. "We 
 will not talk now." 
 
 You may talk to him if you like. It might be 
 a good thing if he gets restless; but Be must not 
 
 After feeling Fatty's pulse, the doctor went 
 out. 
 
 " Fire ahead, mother," said Fatty. " What's 
 the news since we met? Say, I'm going to keep a 
 side-show when I'm older, just to show 'em! " 
 ^ " You are going to keep still," said Mrs. Ean- 
 sier, putting a pink finger on Fatty's lips. " I 
 [ want to talk," and Fatty, pale with pain, lay and 
 \ listened until at last, quieted hy morphine he 
 f slept. 
 
 i 
 
138 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 In another room the doctors bent above the in- 
 jured child. 
 
 " Only a half -inch more, and the claw would 
 have torn the jugular, " said one. " It was one of 
 the most awful accidents I have ever heard of. 
 Young Eansier saved her life. I don't compre- 
 hend yet how he moved and thought as quickly as 
 he did. He got out of it luckily, at that. If his 
 blood is good, he will be comparatively comfort- 
 able by morning, and by night I think he can go 
 home, don't you? This is such a fearful noisy 
 place. ' ' 
 
 " He can go if he is very careful,' ' said the 
 other doctor. "'"We will see, we will see! " 
 
 In the meantime the crowd still surged about 
 the tent where the accident occurred. The police 
 had "finally succeeded in pressing the people back 
 until the tent was empty, and then closed the 
 flaps. Spider, held as a witness, sat on a box and 
 watched a couple of cub reporters near the wild- 
 cat's cage enact Fatty's part of the recent scene 
 in order to write down the length of Fatty's leap. 
 
 An older reporter, spectacled and bald, ques- 
 tioned Spider considerately, while a young lady 
 reporter, in a mannish jacket and a Fedora hat, 
 sat beside Spider on his box and wrote feverishly. 
 
 It was not a large box and Spider was very 
 much fussed. He was not experienced in the 
 ways of young lady reporters, and lisped more 
 than ever. He tried twice to rise, but she grasped 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 139 
 
 his coat tail with a firm and shapely hand and 
 jerked him back. " Sit down! " she said crisply, 
 but kindly. 
 
 "How far do you think your friend jumped 
 when he leaped to the child's rescue? " asked 
 the bald reporter. 
 
 ' ' I don 't know, ' ' said Spider. 
 
 " You should know,'' said the young lady re- 
 porter. 
 
 " Yes, I know I should,"' said Spider meekly. 
 " I've been asked theven times tho far! " 
 
 " Well, we'll say he leaped seven feet," said 
 the young lady reporter, glancing at the bald 
 man. 
 
 " Is he long-legged? " asked the man, smiling. 
 
 " All legth! " said Spider. " Ath thoon ath he 
 jumped, he sthuck hith arm in the cage and 
 choked the wild-cat with one hand, while he got 
 the child looth with the other." 
 
 The young lady reporter stopped writing and 
 looked at him. " That's not true! " she said, se« 
 verely. 
 
 " No," said Spider blandly, " but it goeth tho 
 well with that theven foot jump that it theems a 
 pity not to thay tho ! " 
 
CHAPTEE XI 
 
 A VISIT FROM MR. BROWN 
 
 About two o 'clock the following afternoon Fatty 
 lay alone in his high, narrow, hospital bed. His 
 mother and father had ridden back to the city to 
 see that his room was in readiness and the nurse 
 waiting. After the grounds closed for the night, 
 Patty was to be dressed and allowed to go home 
 in his father's big car. 
 
 Fatty was very, very, very lonesome. He was 
 not used to being in bed, and he did not like to be 
 alone. Also the nurse worried him. She smiled in 
 a firm, determined manner that made Fatty afraid 
 to smile back, for fear she would not want him to. 
 He never felt sleepy but she came noiselessly in, 
 her arm jerking something up and down. It was 
 a thermometer. She would thrust it under his 
 tongue and, leaving it sticking out at a foolish an- 
 gle, would say with her firm smile, " Keep it 
 there, please! " 
 
 Then she would go away. After a few hours, as 
 it seemed to Fatty, she would take it out and look 
 at it. She always looked pleased except the time 
 when she stayed away long enough for Fatty to 
 whip it out and hold it on his hot water bag until 
 he heard her rubbery footsteps returning. She 
 
 140 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 141 
 
 dicing like it then, and Fatty didn't either, for 
 she sent for doctors and pulled down shades and 
 wouldn't let the fellows in. And she smiled more 
 firmly th^n ever, so that Fatty was afraid to tell 
 what he had done. That convinced Fatty that 
 you must never play tricks on a nurse cmd a ther- 
 mometer. 
 
 Fatty looked idly around the room. One fly, the 
 lonesomest fly that Fatty had ever seen, climbed 
 slowly up the wall. 
 
 Fatty felt so sorry for it that he hoped it would 
 get behind something before the nurse and the- 
 thermometer came back. But the fly was slow, and 
 while Fatty watched it, the door opened. 
 
 " Not that I approve," cried the nurse, jumping 
 as usual into the middle of a sentence, " but 
 your people — yes, I understand that they take 
 the responsibility." Fatty said a silent farewell; 
 to the fly and turned toward the door. A dear,, 
 rough, familiar figure was advancing toward him.. 
 
 " Wall, wall, Willyum! " said the visitor. 
 
 It was Mr. Brown of Lafayette. 
 
 " Gee Hoovers! " said Mr. Brown, letting him- 
 self gently down into a chair and shaking hands • 
 limply with Fatty, f* Gee Hoovers,. Willyum, this, 
 is too bad! " 
 
 " How did you hear? " said F&fcty, who did not. 
 dream of the newspaper fame- he had gained in a. 
 single night. 
 
 Both stopped to watch the- nurse* She tiptoed! 
 
,142 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 close to the lonesome fly, smacked him with the cor- 
 ner of her heavy apron, then picking up his corpse 
 she went smiling out of the room. 
 
 " Awful fidgety wimen is, even nurses," said 
 Mr. Brown. ." Wall, I tell you how I heern it. I 
 was up at the school house getting red up for school 
 openin ' next week, and when I was restin ' by a win- 
 dow for a minute, I seen Mis ' Brown come steam- 
 ing up the street. Mis' Brown has hung over our 
 gate a-lookin' after me a lots, off 'n on, but she 
 ain't never chased me up, and I got worried when 
 I seen her. I thought mabby the kitchen chimbly 
 had fell — ^ there's some loose bricks that had ought 
 to be seen to. So I went to the door to meet her, 
 and she says, ' Brown,' she says, ' come right 
 home and put on your best pants. Willyum Ean- 
 sier has got into a fight with a man-eatin' tiger 
 that was bein' exhibited at the fair,' says she, ' and 
 he's most et up.' 
 
 . I says, c Woman, you're crazy, or else it's .one 
 of the boy's jokes.*' " 
 
 " 'No,' she says, ' it's in the paper,' and then 
 she showed it to me. I must say, Willyum, that 
 newspaper account made you out to go in' some, 
 rasslin' with man-eatin' tigers and wrestin' great 
 iron bars outer the cage to choke him w^th. I've 
 a great idea of your powers, Willyum, but I own I 
 was some took back. Mis' Brown, she shook my 
 arm, and she kept savin*, i Well, Hennery! Well, 
 Hennery ! ' like a f onygraf — and finally she says, 
 ft Well, Hennery, what do you think about itf ' 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 143 
 
 " 1 says, ' Woman, us Scouts do seem to git 
 right into the middle o ' things that happen ! ' and 
 then I started for the pants and here I be ! I must 
 say this ain't as bad as what really happened ac- 
 cordin' to the papers, and I'm glad of it. 
 
 " Ginerally, it's a disappointment when things 
 ain't so bad as you hoped. It's like bein' called 
 in to dinner from the woodpile and having just 
 side meat and cold potatoes, and findin' out that 
 what you thought you smelt cookin' was just 
 drippin' tryin' out." 
 
 Mr. Brown patted the thin hand as he looked 
 around the bare room. 
 
 " I was never into a hospital before," he said. 
 " 1 s'pose this is their idee of comfort. Now to 
 me it looks skim pin' somehow. And that nuss! " 
 His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. ' ' About 
 the fly now! It didn't do no harm, did it! Jest 
 one, so! I'd never a thought she'd seen it, but 
 she did soon as she opened the door. She sort o' 
 stiffened up the back. I thought course it was a 
 mouse. An' it was only one fly ! Well, they are all 
 awful fidgety, Willyum. ' ' 
 
 " What did you do after you changed your 
 clothes? " said Fatty, who liked details. 
 
 " I come on out," said Mr. Brown, simply. 
 " But it was danged slow work. Lafayette was 
 boilin'. The excitement was wuss than when Trot- 
 ter's store burned up with Trotter and Tony 
 Keene inside of it. Where are them boys, any- 
 
144 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 how ? ' ' said Mr. Brown, looking around the small 
 room. " I must say I thought they'd be sticking 
 by your side." 
 
 u The nurse won't let 'em in," said Fatty. 
 " She says they are too excitin'. I say I wouldn't 
 fuss half so much if I could hear about things. I 
 don't know how the stands are doing or anything. 
 I'd like to find out. Gee, it makes me crazy! The 
 boys '11 think I'm a quitter! " 
 
 " Not in a general way they won't," said Mr. 
 Brown, soothingly. " How would it be for me to 
 go and just take a squint at things ? ' ' 
 
 " Oh, do! " said Fatty. " Look around and 
 come back and tell me." 
 
 " Good idee," said Mr. Brown, rising slowly. 
 He produced a little box. " Mis' Brown sent ye 
 this," he said, offering it. " It's some fruit pud- 
 den. She throwed it together while I was changin' 
 to come, but I guess it's pretty tasty. According 
 to the paper you was past pudden; but she had 
 faith an' here it is." 
 
 "I bet it's good," said Fatty, as Mr. Brown 
 lumbered out of the room. 
 
 Fatty lay comfortably listening to the passing 
 crowds and finally he slept. Mr. Brown, steering 
 his slow way through the hot, eager crowd, bore 
 down on the nearest popcorn stand. 
 
 " Nickel's worth o' popcorn! " he said, gruffly. 
 
 Spider Morrison, without looking up, handed 
 him a hot, buttery bag and took the nickel. 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 145 
 
 " Thanks ! " he said briefly and handed another 
 bag to another customer. There was a crowd 
 around the stand. Spider's part in the wild-cat 
 scrimmage had made him a marked man. People 
 came to stare, and incidentally spent money for 
 popcorn. 
 
 " Ain't they gruff with customers? " said Mr. 
 Brown to no one in particular. " Now if that 
 young feller had spoken to me gentle, I'd a bought 
 another bag! " i 
 
 Spider looked up at the words, stared and flung 
 himself upon Mr. Brown, to the amazement of ike 
 crowd. 
 
 " Hurrah, boys ! " cried Spider. " Gee, Mither 
 Brown, you do look good ! Have you theen Fatty? 
 How'th everything back in the old towm? Folks 
 changed much? " 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Brown. " They're actin' 
 kinder relieved and calm-like, last few days. 
 Since Fair started 'twas. Folks says to me, they 
 says, * Ain't it real sweet and quiet now that Mor- 
 rison boy has packed up and went off ? " 
 
 Spider laughed. 
 
 " Wall," said Mr. Brown, " I seen WMlyum jest 
 now, and he sent me on a tour of inspection. I got 
 to report if you're tendin' to business. I see you 
 be, so I'll go along. WhicK point of tfete compass 
 does Tony occupy with that new fellar? " 
 
 " Right across there," said Spider, painting, 
 and Mr. Brown lumbered away. After Me fead vis- 
 
146 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 ited all the popcorn stands and had bought a bag 
 at each, he walked back to the entrance and leaned 
 down to the little wicket where Clement and De- 
 Forest took charge of parcels and extra garments. 
 
 " What's your price for storin' a hat? " he 
 asked. 
 
 " Five cents," said Clement courteously, hand- 
 ing him a check. 
 
 " I ain't got no extry hat," said Mr. Brown, 
 " but I do like to know things. ' ' 
 
 De Forest, peering over his brother's shoulder, 
 laughed suddenly. 
 
 "I'll bet you are "Will's Mr. Brown from La- 
 fayette," he said. 
 
 u The money's yourn! " said Mr. Brown, 
 " What made you suspicion me? " 
 
 " I don't know," said De Forest. He went to 
 the door and opened it. * l Come in and visit with 
 us a little while. This is not our busy time. ' ' 
 
 4 ' Guess I will ! Guess I will ! ' ' said Mr. Brown, 
 who could never see a chair without wanting to oc- 
 cupy it. " I've done a good lot o' hustlin' to-day. 
 It was something scandal 'us the way I changed my 
 cloze, and I come throo town so fast I didn't even 
 take time to get a ice-cream sody." 
 
 " Why, let's have one now," said Clement.^ " It 
 would taste good." 
 
 " Not yet, son, not yet," said Mr. Brown. 
 " Let's set and get acquainted. See I like to get 
 real close acquainted with every Boy Scout I know. 
 
THE BO Y SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 147 
 
 I heard Willyum talk some about you two. He has 
 an awful good opinion of you, and he 's got awf ui 
 good judgment, Willyum has. I 'low a good deal 
 on his judgment, and Willyum, he leans on me. 
 We've done quite a little plannin' together, mostly 
 when we was choppin ' wood. You ain 't never been 
 to Lafayette, have ye? Funny, — it's so close to 
 Syrchester. But all the better. It's like pickin' 
 up a noo book. If ye like it, you're glad you ain't 
 never read it before, and if it's stoopid, why, then 
 you're glad also! But you'll like Lafayette when 
 you git right into it. It is excitin' at times. This 
 here is Clement, I bet, ' ' said Mr. Brown, studying 
 the smiling boy. * ' There was earmarks Willyum 
 said I'd know you by. What do they call you to 
 home? " 
 
 " Clement and DeForest," said Clement, rub- 
 bing at the hated dimples, which he knew were the 
 " earmarks." 
 
 " Ain't they awful stylish names to wear in 
 your workin' cloze? " asked Mr. Brown. 
 
 " Why, it's funny," said Clement, " but we 
 never had nicknames in our lives until just be- 
 fore we joined the Scouts. Then a fellow we knew 
 hit on Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee with Dum 
 and Dee for short. Of course, Dee is not bad, but 
 I wouldn't stand for Dum, you can bet, so I had 
 to give the chap a jolly good thrashing. So now 
 they call DeForest, Dee, and they call me Kid, be- 
 cause I've had to fight a couple of times, I suppose. 
 Kid Carroll—" 
 
148 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 " Wall, that's nothin' to discredit you, and 
 Kid's easy to say. I'm not for promiscyous 
 scrappin'; but there is times when fightin' is as 
 necessary as eatin', and most as pleasant." 
 
 " You are right," said " Kid " Carroll. 
 " Funny how you feel about it, and when you 
 fight for a principle or a duty, why, you have got 
 twice the science. Just twice! " 
 
 " It's certainly so," said Mr. Brown. " I fit a 
 feller twice my size once f er what might be called 
 a trifflin' offense by some, but, Gee Hoovers, it 
 made me killin' mad. He was teasin' a couple o' 
 kittens. ' ' 
 
 " What wath he doin' to 'em? " asked Spider 
 Morrison, who had walked in while Mr. Brown 
 was talking. 
 
 ' t Wall, he was teasin ' 'em ; that 's enough said, ' ' 
 said Mr. Brown grimly. " And of all the cow- 
 ardly, low-down, mean, snide tricks in v;his world, 
 teasin' animals is about the worst ! I fit him, any- 
 how. I was about seventeen and he was two or 
 three years older, and big ! Lord, he was big ! But 
 I had the advantage at that because I didn't drink 
 and I was fightin' for them poor, innocent, squall- 
 in' cats. I remember I mussed him up a good 
 deal." 
 
 " Was he pretty groggy when he got up? " 
 asked Clement with the air of a brother fighter. 
 
 "'He didn't get up! " said Mr. Brown. " He 
 was took home and nussed considerable first, and 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 149 
 
 his folks talked some about arrestin\ But a lot 
 of folks seen it and, besides, they was the con- 
 stable's cats." 
 
 1 ' That wath bully ! ' f said Spider, then stopped 
 and gazed in horror at the wicket where the face 
 of a young woman appeared. Her keen, blue eyes 
 flashed across the four faces, her hair was brushed 
 smooth as a boy's and she wore a Fedora hat. 
 
 She shook a pencil at Spider. " Hello, you 
 Spider Morrison! " she said. " You see I re- 
 member your name. I'm not through with you 
 yet!" 
 
 " Exthcuse me," said Spider politely, " I am 
 not at home thith evening." 
 
 " Well, I don't want you now, anyway," said 
 the young lady reporter. " I want to come in 
 there and check my things. I am going up in the 
 aeroplane." 
 
 DeForest opened the door and she stepped 
 briskly in. 
 
 She took off her hat, and, opening a small bag, 
 took out a half dozen hairpins and proceeded te 
 skewer her hair still tighter. Then she took a 
 small mirror from the bag. 
 
 " Hold that," she said to Spider. " You are 
 an old pal of mine, you know. Don't let it wabble 
 like that, — you make me dizzy! " 
 
 She took out a small box, and opening it, put a 
 coat of powder on her smooth chin. Another trip 
 into the bag's amazing interior, and a veil was 
 closely tied around her h^sd. 
 
150 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 • * Anybody got a sweater ? ' ' she demanded. 
 
 " Here's mine," said Kid Carroll. 
 
 " Thanks, that's a dream," said the strange 
 young person, hustling into it. u Now who has 
 got some pants clips ? ' ' 
 
 " Some what? " said Spider, feebly. He still 
 held the looking glass. 
 
 " Clips — clips — clips that yon nse on a bi- 
 cycle. There's a pair now! " she cried, seizing 
 a pair hanging on a wheel. 
 
 " Bnt those are checked. Yon can't have 
 those," cried DePorest. 
 
 11 Oh, don't be fussy," said the young lady re- 
 porter. " If the fellow that owns them comes be- 
 fore I do, why, give him a quarter out of that bag 
 you've got, Spider. 
 
 " I've got a chance to go up in an aeroplane, 
 and it means a big write-up for me. I'll make a 
 whole column just out of my sensations. But I 
 don't want to look like a parachute, so I'm going 
 to fasten my skirt with those clips. Ta-ta, boys, 
 I'm off! I'll throw you a kiss when we get up a 
 thousand feet," and skipped out, banging the 
 door. 
 
 There was a stunned silence, then Mr. Brown 
 said musingly: " I didn't have a thing to donate 
 but a celluloid collar and my jackknife. But if 
 she'd wanted 'em, she'd a had 'em. My, my. ain't 
 I lucky Mis' Brown ain't built on them lines? 
 Spider, she seems to be layin' fer you pertickler." 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 151 
 
 Spider groaned. " Don't talk about it," he 
 said. 
 
 * ' She that bethide me on the thoap box yester- 
 day, and I '11 thwear she asthked me a million ques- 
 tions. And she kept thitting me down hard any 
 time I tried to thneak away. "When I told her the 
 truth, she said it wath too tame ; and when I made 
 up thome, she thaid I lied. I couldn't pleath her! 
 I bet sheth a good sport, at that. Leth go thee her 
 fly." 
 
 They went out, leaving DeForest with the stand, 
 and watched the big mechanical bird begin its 
 graceful flight. 
 
 Then Mr. Brown, with a handshake all round 
 started alone for the paddock, refusing the com- 
 pany which Spider and Kid Carroll fairly thrust 
 upon him. 
 
 1 1 Thank ye just the same, boys !" he said, 
 " but I'm off on a little kind o' tear to-day, now 
 I've seen that Willyum ain't chawed and clawed 
 the way the papers said, and you'd likely be in 
 the way. I might take to drinkin'," he added, 
 stopping a small boy and buying a cone of pink 
 ice-cream. 
 
 He dawdled along, his big, slow, kindly face 
 turned here and there in search of new sights and 
 amusements. When he reached the long curving 
 stables where the horses had their clean, light, 
 airy quarters, he scanned the names of the own- 
 ers until he reached the big card bearing the name* 
 
152 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 of Colonel Asa Lee De Wolfe, Cloverdell Farms, 
 Cloverdell, Ky. Mr. Brown turned in, and one by 
 one studied the sleek beauties, each in its box stall. 
 When he reached the stall with Alice's name above 
 it, he leaned comfortably across the bar, and held 
 a big hand out to the shining black mare. 
 
 ' \ Wall, wall, peachie, you done 'em ail up, 
 didn't you? " he asked, as she wheeled at the 
 sound of his little, clucking call, and thrust a 
 slender muzzle into his coat pocket. 
 
 " Wall, I'd say you was just a mite spoiled! 
 How'd you know I was loaded with candy just on 
 the chanca of meetin' you? 
 
 ' ' Why, you pretty, I 'd like to a seen you race ! 
 But Wiliyum's going to tell me all about it, so 
 it'll be most as good as seem' it." 
 
 A white moustached old man with a red face 
 and big frame entered the stable, and cast a sus- 
 picious look at Mr. Brown, who turned a calm and 
 kindly gaze upon him, and then held out a large 
 and rather smudgy hand. 
 
 " I've an idee from what Willyum Ransier said 
 that this is Colonel De Wolfe," he said. " I'm 
 Brown, Hennery Brown of Lafayette — " 
 
 " I'm suttenly pleased to meet you, sah," he 
 said heartily. " Any friend of young Eansier is 
 a friend of mine. A remarkable boy, Mr. Brown ! 
 It was wuth the trouble of the trip north to meet 
 him; and he put me in touch with the most re- 
 markable jockey I've ever seen. Why, that man 
 Petahs is old enough to be shelved, but he's as 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 153 
 
 active as a boy and as agile as a monkey. And 
 he knows horse talk. I've caught him talkin* 
 to Alice every time he's here; and she un- 
 derstands every word of it. He 's suttenly a won- 
 der! Why, that man could make any horse do 
 whatever he liked. I wish I had someone like him 
 at home." 
 
 M Well, it's only a question o' carfare, ain't 
 it, Colonel? Did you put it to him? " 
 
 "It never occurred to me," said the Colonel, 
 simply. " Why, I don't believe he'd consider it! " 
 
 " Why not? " asked Mr. Brown. " Have you 
 hern about his daughter that the boys is tryin' to 
 nuss back to life? Wall, if I was Peters, I'd 
 ruther take that little girl down there and jockey 
 for just house rent than to stay up here elevatin* 
 and janiterin' for a livin'." 
 
 " A jockey gets big pay," said Colonel De 
 Wolfe, staring at the little horse. 
 
 " Wall, that settles that end," said Mr. Brown 
 easily. " Now about the little girl. How are you 
 off down there fer climate? " 
 
 1 * Finest in the world ! ' ' exclaimed the Colonel. 
 
 " Wall, then there's that fixed," said Mr. 
 Brown. 1 l When would you say they orter start? " 
 
 The Colonel laughed. " You are certainly a 
 hustler," he said. 
 
 " Not so very much, but see I'm a sort o' Boy 
 Scout myself, so I haf to keep my end a movin'-," 
 said Mr. Brown. 
 
154 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 "It is suttinly a fine plan," mused the Col- 
 onel. 
 
 " That's what it is," said Mr. Brown, " and 
 I'm mighty glad the idee 'cnrred to you. Funny 
 how you come to think of it ! " 
 
 -- It is funny," said the Colonel, looking slyly 
 at the innocent Mr. Brown. " But at that, I do 
 believe I couldn't do a bettah thing. It is high 
 land all about us there at Cloverdell, but there is 
 one fine little cottage on the estate that stands 
 right up on a knoll. You can see foh miles from 
 the porch, and the rivah is only a quarter of a 
 mile away. There's a beautiful garden with the 
 little place. It is empty now. I could let Petahs 
 iiave it just as well as not, and he's the best jockey 
 I ever saw." 
 
 " Wall, then that's off our minds," said Mr. 
 
 .Brown. " I hope somebody sets Peters down care- 
 
 :ful before he gets this thing broke to him. It 
 
 wewld seem land of overcomin' after elevatin' and 
 
 janiterin'." 
 
 Once more he solemnly shook hands with Col- 
 onel De Wolfe. " By Gee Hoovers, Colonel, I 
 really must say I b'lieve that's the best idee you 
 ever had! " 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 SAVED. 
 
 Mr. Brown, having parted reluctantly from Col- 
 onel De Wolfe, whom he clubbed a ' i fine old feller 
 with mighty good idees, ' ' hastened at his best pace 
 to tell Fatty all the news. 
 
 It was almost time for the gates to close and 
 the crowds were hurrying towards the entrance. 
 As he approached the Eed Cross building, he was 
 surprised to see a stocky, well-built youth dash 
 madly around the corner of the building and hide 
 behind a wagon that was there. 
 
 When Mr. Brown came nearer, the boy thrust 
 out a cautious head, and gave the Scout salute. 
 Mr. Brown turned to go to him, but Spider — 
 for Spider it was — waved him frantically back, 
 pointing as best he could around the corner of the 
 building to the front steps. Mr. Brown looked. 
 There, not five feet away, gazing eagerly in the 
 opposite direction, was the young lady reporter. 
 
 " Hello! Do you happen to know where that 
 Spider Morrison kid is ! ' ' 
 
 " Why, he must be on the grounds som'ers, 
 ain't he, Ma'am? " answered Mr. Brown, weakly. 
 
 6 ' You would think so, ' ' she said. ' ' I have been 
 hunting for him everywhere, and I've almost run 
 him down a dozen times." 
 
 155 
 
156 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 " Wall, wall! " said Mr. Brown, approaching 
 the corner of the building where he conld talk to 
 the young lady and still keep an eye on Spider. 
 
 " Now, Ma'am, I've knowed that boy quite a 
 spell; fifteen or sixteen year off an' on, I should 
 say, and I never knowed him to do anythin' what 
 you might call wuth reportin'. He ain't been 
 elopin' or forgin', or any of them reely up-to-date 
 tricks, has he, now! " 
 
 The young lady reporter laughed. 
 
 " Oh no, hardly," she said. " I just want him 
 to give me an interview that I can publish about 
 the Boy Scouts. Spider is so refreshingly orig- 
 inal, and his lisp is so cunning." 
 
 Behind the wagon, Spider hit himself violently 
 in the head with his clenched fist, and kicked an 
 imaginary boy. 
 
 ■f Wall, I'm afraid he ain't much on intervoos, 
 Spider ain't," Mr. Brown mused. " I notice he 
 avoids 'em as much as he kin when the Principal 
 of the High School gits anxious to see him. Some- 
 times it's reel pinted the way he gits around bein' 
 intervood. I've seen Mr. Foure, our Principal, 
 what you might call reel put out about it. Now 
 it ain't that way with me; I'm alwus reel pleased 
 to talk, especially when I can git a smart, perky 
 young lady like you to converse with. ' ' 
 
 " Thank you," said the young lady reporter 
 awkwardly. Compliments were not in her line. 
 Besides, she wanted Spider Morrison. 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 157 
 
 " I think that I will just sit down here and 
 wait," she said, suddenly dropping down on the- 
 step. " He's bound to come back, because he's 
 left his coat inside ! ' ' 
 
 " Why, what's his coat doin' here if Spider 
 ain't in it? " asked Mr. Brown in surprise. 
 
 " He came to see the Eansier boy, and went out 
 on an errand, and it was then that I began to miss 
 him. Of course, ' ' added the young lady reporter 
 with frightful cocksureness, " it is annoying to 
 hang around and waste time like this, but I'll get 
 him sooner or later." 
 
 v Ain't it nice to feel like that — so sure and 
 settled? " said Mr. Brown appreciatively. " It 
 must save an awful lot of guessin'. Now from 
 what I know o' Spider, I ain't never sure I'm 
 speakin' to him unless I got him by both laypels, 
 and a hollerin' in his ear. When you got to send 
 in your write-up? " 
 
 " Tonight," said the young lady, uneasily. 
 
 The farm wagon behind which Spicier had taken 
 refuge was a large one. There was some straw in 
 the deep box, and Spider, with a sad farewell wave 
 of his hand toward Mr. Brown, cautiously climbed 
 over the wheel and laid down. 
 
 " Got to get it all wrote up and in tonight, eh? " 
 said Mr. Brown. i ' Wall, that don 't give ye much' 
 time, now does it? " 
 
 " No," she said, " but, you see, he will come 
 
 back for his coat. ' ' 
 11 
 
158 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 " I wouldn't lot on it," said Mr. Brown. 
 ii Leastways, not too much. Spider ain't sot on 
 -coats. I knowed him leave a good one up the 
 Methodist steeple when he was climbin' up there 
 after doves. He tied it on the bell clapper for 
 safe keepin 5 goin' up, and comin' down he was so 
 busy hold-in' the doves with two hands and hangin' 
 on with ike rest of his self that he clean f ergot it. 
 That was a Sat 'day night an' nex' day the bell 
 rung kind o ' mufHed and holler. Lord ! Some o ' 
 the good folks took it fer a sign, and fer three 
 weeks there was the rousmist meetin's! " 
 
 " "What happened then? " asked the young lady. 
 
 ' l Somebuddy went up and investigated. It was 
 alwuz that way, — some fool investigate '. An' 
 there he found that coat tied on by the sleeves, 
 with Spider Morrison's 'rithmetic papers in it." 
 
 The lady reporter laughed. 
 
 " What did the people think, who had taken it 
 for a sign ? ' ' 
 
 " They never knowed, because what they didn't 
 know wouldn't hurt 'em." 
 
 " Who found the coat? " asked the reporter. 
 
 " I done it," said Mr. Brown. " So I just give 
 it to Spider. An' this just shows what a feller 
 will do fer a lady. I never told that before. I 
 bet if Spider could see you, just see you a setting 
 and a waitin ' on that step, that he 'd fairly scorch 
 things to git here and tell you everything he 
 knows." 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 159 
 
 Mr. Brown rolled a cautious eye toward the 
 wagon, and met a glare of fury from the boy 
 whose head was cautiously lifted over the edge of 
 the box. 
 
 " Well, I wish that he would come," said the 
 girl. " I can't wait more than half an hour 
 longer. ' ' 
 
 " I can't wait much longer myself," said Mr. 
 Brown. ' l I got to see Willyum, and report some 
 Scout business, and git home. I dunno what the 
 woman will say to me now. ' ' 
 
 * ' You needn 't stay with me, ' ' said the reporter. 
 " I can rest here as well as anywhere else." 
 
 In the wagon two stout legs kicked sadly in the 
 air. The young lady settled herself comfortably, 
 then, being a woman as well as a reporter, she 
 suddenly changed her mind. 
 
 " Come to think of it," she said, u I'll go after 
 his chum, that Geezer kid. I'll get his ideas and 
 put in the lisp. ' ' She briskly tucked her pad and 
 pencil into her handbag, and arose. " If Spider 
 comes, you might say that I want to get hold of 
 him." 
 
 She walked swiftly away, without further good- 
 bye, and as soon she was at a safe distance, 
 Spider leaped from the wagon and joined Mr. 
 Brown, who was contentedly cutting a large chunk 
 from a brown square of tobacco. 
 
 " Wall, wall, Spider! Where you bin keepin* 
 yourself," he asked gravely. " I got a message 
 
160 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 \ f er you. A young lady wanted me to say that she 
 wanted to get a-hold of you. ' ' 
 
 " By golly, I'll eat my hat if she ever doth! " 
 cried Spider. " That girl hath sthpoiled every- 
 thing for me. I'm thimply worn out ! " 
 
 " It's your fault for bein' so refreshin'ly or- 
 iginal, and havin' that cute, cunnin' lisp," said 
 Mr. Brown cruelly. " Spider, I got a handle on 
 you now, son. If you don't walk chalk this winter 
 sure's I'm school janitor, I'll tell Willyum, and I 
 guess you kin sorter surmise the rest," 
 
 " Well, I'll thay one thing, Mithter Brown, ith 
 all off with uth if you ever tell thith," said Spider, 
 hurrying ahead into the hospital. 
 
 They found Fatty impatiently awaiting them. 
 
 " Gee, you came near staying all night! ,f he 
 said, fretfully. 
 
 ' i Wall, Willyum, you give me a good lot to see 
 to, and I had to do a little life-savin' on the side." 
 
 " You are so late I can't hear about it any- 
 how, ' ' said Fatty. ' ' Father will be here in about 
 ten minutes. Help me with my clothes, will you? 
 I don't want that nurse fiddling around." 
 
 It was slow work dressing with the hurt and 
 feverish arm to guard and Fatty found that he 
 was too weak to stand without assistance. When 
 the automobile came, Mr. Brown coolly picked 
 him up and carried him out and into the big ton- 
 neau. 
 
 Mr. Eansier had both cars. He drove the big 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 161 
 
 car himself, while the chauffeur took the roadster, 
 and they both went back to the city loaded with 
 boys, Fatty leaning against Mr. Brown and held 
 firmly by his strong and tender arm. 
 
 It was a week later before Mr. Eansier, who 
 had volunteered to attend to Fatty's part of the 
 Fair business, was ready to call a meeting of the 
 five Boy Scouts who stood together for Alice 
 Peters in what Fatty called the ' \ Defiance Club. ' ' 
 
 Fatty was much better. His wholesome, clean 
 blood had repelled the poison in the claws of the 
 wild-cat, and the painful wounds were healing 
 nicely. Dr. Carroll, with the excuse of going to 
 see how Alice was progressing, had carried Col- 
 onel De Wolfe off for an automobile trip to the 
 North Woods. 
 
 On the evening of the day set for their return, 
 the boys met Mr. Eansier at his apartment. When 
 the two Carrolls came in it was evident that they 
 were laboring under great excitement. 
 
 " What's eatin' you? " Fatty inquired peev- 
 ishly, from his divan. " Gosh, you've got some- 
 thing on your minds! Look at 'em! " he said, 
 turning to Spider, who was spending Saturday 
 and Sunday with him. * * Look at 'em ! I hope I 
 may never see such a pair of chessy-cats. " 
 
 Clem Carroll laughed outright. 
 
 " Awfully sorry not to explain, old chap," he 
 said. " But it's not my funeral, so I can't tell. 
 It will all come out in a little while." 
 
162 THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 
 
 Fatty grunted. He wasn't strong for secrets 
 when he was on the ontside. He was still scowl- 
 ing when the door opened and Colonel De Wolfe 
 came in followed by Doctor Carroll. They too 
 wore an air of pleasant mystery and Fatty gritted 
 his teeth. He locked at the two Carrolls and for 
 the first time noted the great change in the boys. 
 The fat Carrolls had disappeared. New inter- 
 ests and manly aims, better hours and hard ex- 
 ercises had changed the tv^o boys almost past rec- 
 ognition. The hated dimples still remained but 
 scarcely showed in the new firm leanness of cheek 
 and jaw. The fat was disappearing from their 
 bodies, leaving a sturdy squareness of build which 
 delighted their father. 
 
 Mr. Eansier proceeded at once to the business 
 part of the meeting. 
 
 " As Will was laid up, someone else had to take 
 charge of his share of the Fair business," said 
 Mr. Eansier. " So I have settled things for him 
 and wish to submit my report. " 
 
 He laid in the hands of each person present a 
 neatly typewritten page covered with figures. 
 There was silence for a few moments, then Dee 
 Carroll whistled softly, and everybody began to 
 talk at once. Such an amount from a week's hard 
 work they had never hoped for nor dreamed of. 
 
 " Bather remarkable results, don't you think? " 
 he asked. 
 
 " Puffectly amazin'," the Colonel exploded. 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 163 
 
 " Yes, suh, absolutely astoundin' ! I will say, 
 young gentlemen, that I am proud to know men 
 of youah ability and attainments. To make a sum 
 like that and devote it to such a cause is worthy 
 of the highest type of manhood. As I have been 
 given to understand, you were the means of dis- 
 co vahin' this po' young girl, by some fo'tunate 
 accident ' ' — The boys threw sheepish and guilty 
 glances at each other » — " and you detuhmined to 
 fight death away from her." 
 
 Mrs. Ransier flashed a bright smile at the lads. 
 " It was the Scouts' Defiance," she said. 
 
 u A most noble one," said the Colonel. " I 
 can tell you now, confidentially, suhs, that that 
 po' Petahs has confessed to me that at the time 
 you f ohtunately discovahed his secret, that he was 
 neah stahvation! His po' little wages were goin' 
 every cent foh comforts foh that sweet, sufTerin' 
 child. It was a beautiful sacrifice, friends, and 
 po' Petahs richly deserves all the assistance thet 
 you can give him. Now I have one or two little 
 suggestions to of±ah, and as they consuhn Petahs, 
 it might be well to call him. Don't vou think so, 
 Ransier? " 
 
 " Decidedly yes," said Mr. Ransier, and started 
 to the door. 
 
 " Let me go! " said Mrs. Ransier; " I do not 
 think that I can quite stand being here when you 
 tell him." 
 
 The boys looked grave, and thought of Alice. 
 
164 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 Was she worse? It suddenly occurred to Fatty 
 and Chuck and Tony that Dr. Carroll had not 
 mentioned her name. Chuck turned to Tony and 
 whispered, " Bet she is goin' to croak! " Chuck 
 was always slangy when he was worried. Tony 
 with his eyes on the Carroll boys ' beaming faces, 
 shook his head. 
 
 As Peters entered the door, pushed in by Mr. 
 Eansier, the boys felt their fears set at rest. 
 Alice must be better, for a look of perfect peace 
 overspread Peters ' thin face. 
 
 Colonel De Wolfe shook him heartily by the 
 hand. 
 
 " Petahs, I congratulate you. Doctah Carroll 
 and the othahs told me the good news about 
 youah daughtah, and when I saw her, I made up 
 my mind quite unofficially that the little girl was 
 well on the way to recovery." 
 
 " Thanks to you, sir, and thanks to every one,' ' 
 said Peters. " Yes, sir, Dr. Carroll tells me that 
 my Alice is going to be well again. ' ' 
 
 He suddenly clinched his bony hands and in his 
 thin cheeks the knobs rose and fell. 
 
 " Oh, I hates to ferget I'm a man, gentlemen, 
 but I can't forget that I'm a father, too; and 
 you'll have to overlook it, if all your wonderful 
 kindness almost makes me cry. I ain't got a way 
 to thank you — I don't know a word fit; but 
 just you look at my little Alice, gentlemen, and 
 you'll guess a bit of what I feel. Why, with what 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 165 
 
 the Colonel gives me for the race, and the won- 
 derful lot the young gentlemen made, I've got a 
 new hold on life as well as she." 
 
 His face quivered; and he looked wistfully at 
 the Scouts. " I tell you, I don't know how to 
 thank you boys," he said huskily, " but Alice and 
 I will pray God bless you every day of our lives." 
 
 The boys, badly embarrassed by the poor little 
 man's gratitude, wriggled uneasily. 
 
 " That's nothing," said Fatty at last, as no one 
 else offered to speak. " It was just Scout work, 
 you know." 
 
 " Then God bless the Boy Scouts! " said Pet- 
 ers fervently; and the Colonel added a hearty 
 " Amen." 
 
 " Well, you still have fine news to hear, Pet- 
 ers," said Doctor Carroll, " so you must pick 
 yourself up and bear good fortune as manfully 
 as you underwent sorrow. Listen to what the 
 Colonel has to say." 
 
 "I wish that youah friend Brown was heah," 
 said the Colonel, smiling. " He has a genius for 
 putting good ideas into othah people's haids and 
 I'll bet that he's good at explainin' 'em. But he's 
 not present, so to be short, Petahs, I am plannm* 
 to take you and Alice home to Clovahdell with me. 
 I need you as a jockey, Petahs, and I'm afraid I 
 will have to have you. In fact they are renovatin' 
 youah little cottage now; and I got word this 
 mohnin' that it will be all ready next week. I've 
 
166 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 got a nice ole black Mammy to look aftah youh 
 chile, and that will give you plenty of time to 
 work out the colts. And this heah magnificent 
 sum the boys have eahned, and what you don't 
 need to spend of youah racin' money, would make 
 her a nice little nest-egg, Fetalis. You see, she '11 
 need schoolin' when she's strongah, Petahs, and 
 theah you ah ! " 
 
 There was a long silence, then Peter looked up, 
 his face pale glowing with happiness. 
 
 " It will be heaven^" he said simply. 
 
 " Then it is all settled," said the Colonel 
 briskly, clearing his throat. 
 
 The door opened, and Mrs. Eansier entered, 
 leading by the hand a fair young girl in whose 
 face the clear color of health already glowed. 
 
 " Ah," said Dr. Carroll, " here is our patient 
 now! " 
 
 The girl bowed prettily, and the boys, with the 
 exception of the two Carrolls, who came forward 
 and greeted her easily, all froze into awkward 
 positions beside their chairs. 
 
 i( She can only stay for a moment," said Mrs. 
 Eansier, grasping the situation with her usual 
 quickness, and talking rapidly. " I thought Mr. 
 Eansier would like to see how well she looks." 
 
 " I should say I would! " said Mr. Eansier, 
 heartily clasping the girl's little hand. " This is 
 certainly a pleasure, Miss Alice! " 
 
 1 ' She says she is not a bit tired after that long 
 
THE BOY SCOUTS ' DEFIANCE 167 
 
 automobile ride, doctor, ' * continued Mrs. Eansier. 
 il Isn't that wonderful? Now she is going to be 
 very quiet for a day or two, and then she will be 
 ready to have us all come up to see her. So you 
 see we will have to hurry away now. ' ' Mrs. Ean- 
 sier cast a mischievous glance at her son. " If 
 you can spare us," she added. 
 
 Fatty glared back. How his mother did love 
 to tease! It was not until he heard the spring 
 latch click that he was sure that the girl was 
 really gone, and that his mother and Peters had 
 gone with her. He sighed — a long breath of relief. 
 Fatty sat moodily peering into the future. It 
 was full of girls. He could read his fate — his 
 awful fate — there. 
 
 As he pondered, the Colonel spoke. 
 
 " Well, doctah, and Eansier, I must be goin' 
 along. This has been a most enjoyable meetin', 
 suhs, and I would like to say that it is a pity that 
 theah are not moh Boy Scouts than theah ah. I 
 shall see to it pussonally that the Clovahdell boys 
 become Boy Scouts, if I have to get these heah 
 boys to come down and teach them. I tell you, 
 boys, the earnestness of puppose, the defense of 
 the weak and helpless, the chivalry toward 
 womanhood that you have shown in this aftaih, 
 lias touched me to the very heahl \ I suttenly am 
 proud to know you all. And next yeah, if we 
 all ah alive, I'm go in' to send my cah up and get 
 you all down to Clovahdell foh the summah." 
 
168 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE 
 
 Fatty sat up. " Great Caesar's ghost, Colonel, 
 do you really mean it f ' ' 
 
 " On the honah of a gentleman, suh! " he said. 
 
 Fatty looked at the boys. " We all accept," 
 he said solemnly. 
 
 " This includes you, too, Morrison," added the 
 Colonel to the unusually silent Spider. " You 
 ought to come in on this, if only foh what the 
 reportahs have made you suf£ah." 
 
 " I'm a million times obliged," said Spider, his 
 fine eyes lighting up. " But it wath really only 
 one reporter, the young lady one. Merthy me, 
 I'll never thee a Fedora hat or a penthil without 
 thuddering! " 
 
 " It has been an eventful summer," said Doctor 
 Carroll, rising, " and it has had a happy sending. 
 Little John is well again, and Kid 'Connors has 
 found his brother. Alice is going to recover her 
 health, and Peters will be able to give her a com- 
 fortable, happy home. Will has saved a child 
 from a frightful death, though at some cost to 
 himself. My sons have become just the boys that 
 I wanted them to be, and all these things have 
 come about through the Boy Scouts, and their 
 Defiance. 
 
 " True enough," said Mr. Eansier. " And 
 I've left one piece of good news for Will until the 
 last. I'm through here, son. We are going back 
 to Lafayette!" 
 
THE BRADEN BOOKS 
 
 FAR PAST THE FRONTIER. 
 
 By JAMES A. BRADEN 
 
 The 6ub-title " Two Boy Pioneers " indicates the nature of this 
 Story — that it has to do with the days when the Ohio Valley and 
 the Northwest country were sparsely settled. Such a topic is an 
 anfailing fund of interest to boys, especially when involving a 
 couple of stalwart young men who leave the East to make their 
 fortunes and to incur untold dangers. 
 
 " Strong, vigorous, healthy, manly." — Seattle Times, 
 
 CONNECTICUT BOYS IN 
 THE WESTERN RESERVE 
 
 By JAMES A. BRADEN 
 
 The author once more sy»ds his heroes toward the setting sun. 
 " In all the glowing enthusfasm of youth, the youngsters seek their 
 fortunes in the great, fertile wilderness of northern Ohio, and 
 eventually achieve fair success, though their progress is hindered 
 and sometimes halted by adventures innumerable. It is a lively, 
 wholesome tal«, never dull, and absorbing in interest for boys who 
 love the fabled life of the frontier." — Chicago Tribune, 
 
 THE TRAIL of THE SENECA 
 
 By JAMES A. BRADEN 
 
 In which we follow the romantic careers of John Jerome and 
 Return Kingdom a little farther. 
 
 These two self-reliant boys are living peaceably in their cabin 
 on the Cuyahoga when an Indian warrior is found dead in the 
 woods nearby. The Seneca accuses John of witchcraft. This means 
 death at the stake if he is captured. They decide that the Seneca's 
 charge is made to shield himself, and set out to prove it. Mad 
 Anthony, then on the Ohio, comes to their aid, but all their efforts 
 prove futile and the lone cabin is found in ashes on their return. 
 
 C A P T I V E S ~T H R E E 
 
 By JAMES A. BRADEN 
 
 A tale of frontier life, and how three children — two boys and a 
 
 f:irl — attempt to reach the settlements in a canoe, but are captured 
 \y the Indians. A common enough occurrence in the days of our 
 ®r£at-£randfathers has been woven into a thrilling story. 
 
 BQU2n> m CLOTH, each handsomely &i f|J1 
 illustrated, cloth, postpaid - - «jl 8 .UU 
 
 tSAe Saalfield Vtihlishing Co* 
 
 AKRON, OHIO 
 
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