Bob jumped, gave a snort of surprise, and jammed his hand into his pocket. What had got into the b.u.t.ton anyway?
Then an idea flashed across his mind--perhaps the Safety b.u.t.ton was trying to warn him. To be sure, if the wrestlers went down hard on the cement sidewalk, it might mean a broken skull! In his hurry to get them off the walk and over on the gra.s.s, Bob lost his head. He made the mistake of trying to do it by force; he caught hold of George"s elbow, and got a sharp dig in the pit of his stomach for his pains.
"Hey, fellows--danger!" he yelled, when he could catch his breath. "Get over on the gra.s.s--look out!"
His warnings came too late. George, much the bigger of the two, got a hip-lock on Joe, and, forgetting everything else in his struggle to "lay him out," gave a sudden heave that sent Joe sprawling on his back. His head struck the sidewalk with a thud.
That was all. Joe lay like a lump of lead.
"He"s _dead_!" screamed Betty wildly. She threw herself at the gasping George. "You--you"ve _killed_ him!"
George, puffing and blowing from his struggle, held her at arm"s length.
A big policeman suddenly came around the corner. "Here, what"s all this?" he asked sternly, bending over the fallen wrestler.
"He struck on the back of his head," spoke up Bob. "They were wrestling--just in fun, you know--and Joe struck his head on the sidewalk. Is--is he dead?"
"Small thanks to you young rascals if he isn"t," growled the officer.
"Crazy Indians, wrestling on a cement walk! Where does he live?"
He lifted the limp body in his arms and hurried to the Widow Schmidt"s modest little cottage with the green blinds and the neatly scrubbed doorstep. George and Bob, feeling very sick, trailed sadly along after him; they hated to think of the look that would come into the Widow Schmidt"s motherly face. Joe was all she had in the world.
Betty, womanlike, was first to think of the doctor. Almost before the policeman had reached Joe"s side, she was running to the corner drug store as fast as her feet would carry her. The druggist would know where to reach a doctor with the least delay--she could telephone.
It seemed ages before the fluttering lids opened and Joe"s black eyes looked out on the world again. "No bones broken," said the doctor at last. "Half an inch farther to the right or left, though--"
He stopped, but the twins understood. Silently they gripped Joe"s hand as it lay helpless on the bed, nodded to George, and the three tip-toed out of the hushed little room.
That night, before Bob and Betty went to bed, Sure Pop came back. He found the twins sitting with their heads together, studying Bob"s _Handbook of Scout-Craft_ as if their lives depended on learning it by heart in one evening. Bob still lacked a few months of being old enough to join the Boy Scouts; he had long looked forward to his coming birthday, but it had never meant so much to him as now.
Sure Pop nodded and smiled as he saw the familiar handbook. "Good work!"
he said. "All true Scouts are brothers, you know. Well, how about the "three keeps" of the Scout Law? Did you find them as easy as you thought?"
Bob and Betty grew very red. They did not know what to say.
The Safety Scout saved them the trouble. "Joe"s better tonight," he told them, comfortingly. "I"ve just come from there, and the doctor says he"ll be up again in a day or so. What shall we do tomorrow, friends--begin hunting for adventure and planting Safety First ideas?"
Bob looked at Betty and swallowed hard at a lump in his throat. Somehow this wise little Sure Pop knew everything that happened!
"I think," said Bob, frankly, "we really planted one today!"
_All true Scouts are brothers._ --SURE POP
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
ADVENTURE NUMBER SIX
THE LIVE WIRE
Sure Pop saw, the moment he laid eyes on Bob and Betty next morning, that they had made up their minds to earn a magic b.u.t.ton apiece that day.
"Where shall we go for today"s adventure?" was the first question.
The Safety Scout laughed. "We probably shan"t have to go far. Once a Scout"s eyes are really open, so that danger signs other folks wouldn"t notice begin to mean something to him, why, adventure walks right up to him. It walked right up to you two yesterday, but you didn"t read the signs till too late. Being a Scout, remember, means doing the right thing at the right moment. Now let"s start out and walk a few blocks, and see what danger signals we come across that other folks are overlooking."
Just as they opened the gate, Mrs. Dalton came to the door. "Bob! Come here a moment, please. I want you to take a note over to Mrs. Hoffman"s for me. Their telephone is out of order."
She lowered her voice as she handed him the letter, and added, "Who is that out there with Betty?"
"Oh, that"s one of the Scouts. We"re going out for a little practice scouting."
Mrs. Dalton knew how eagerly Bob had been awaiting the day when he could become a Boy Scout. She trusted the Scouts and was glad to have Bob and Betty spend their vacation time in scouting. She little guessed that the three friends were to start an order of Safety Scouts which even fathers and mothers would join.
Bob hurried back to Betty and Sure Pop. "Can you wait while I run over to Mrs. Hoffman"s with this? All right, I"ll be back in no time!"
Hurrying though he was, he looked both ways before he crossed the car tracks, for already the habit of "thinking Safety" was growing on him.
He reached Mrs. Hoffman"s in record time, delivered the note, and raced back toward home.
As he slowed down to catch his breath, he met a crowd of yelling youngsters "playing Indians." Several of them wore Indian suits. One, dressed as a cowboy, tried to rope him as he pa.s.sed. This gave the Indians an idea, and they came howling after Bob, waving their tomahawks and promising to scalp him. Two yelping dogs joined in the chase.
Bob grinned and broke into a long, easy run which soon shook the redskins off his trail. But at a sudden delighted whoop from the enemy he stopped and looked back.
"Hi-yi!" yelled the biggest Indian. "Look at that telephone wire on the ground! Come on, let"s chop it off and use it to bind the palefaces to the stake."
Pellmell across the street swarmed the little fellows, each bound to get there first. But Bob was too quick for them. Hatless, breathless, he threw himself between the Indians and the swaying wire. "Get back!" he roared. "That"s no telephone wire--it"s alive! Keep back, I say! You"ll be killed!"
It was no easy thing to stand between the youngsters and the deadly wire. They were laughing and yelling so hard, and the dogs were barking so wildly, that at first Bob couldn"t get the idea of danger into their heads. He fairly had to knock two or three of them down to keep them from hacking at the wire with their hatchets. Would they never understand? "I won"t forget this time, anyway!" muttered the boy, gritting his teeth as he remembered the "three keeps" of the Scout Law.
Up ran one of the dogs, capering around with sharp, ear-splitting barks, and tried to get his teeth into Bob"s ankle. When Bob tried to kick him away, of course the Indians and cowboys yelled harder than ever. The dog stumbled and fell across the electric wire--gave one wild yelp of pain--and lay there kicking and struggling, unable to jerk himself loose. Worst of all, he had landed in a puddle of water, so that the electric current was pouring straight through his twitching body into the wet earth.
At last Bob managed to drive all the boys back out of harm"s way, only to see one of the cowboys rush for the dog with a cry that tore at Bob"s heartstrings.
"It"s Tige! Oh, Tige!--poor old Tige! Let me go! I"ve _got_ to save my dog!"
Bob had grabbed the little fellow and held him tight. "Too late, old scout," he said, with tears in his own eyes as he saw the dog kicking his last. "Tige"s done for, I"m afraid. Keep back, there--that wire will get you too!" For the boys were crowding nearer again.
"Who has a telephone at home?" asked Bob.
"We have," said one of the larger boys.
"Then run home quick, call up the Electric Light Company, and have them send their repair crew. Tell them a live wire has killed Tige and may kill the boys if they don"t hurry. Tell "em it"s at the corner of Broad Street and Center Avenue. Run!"