CHAPTER XXIV A GUEST OF THE CLUB

The initiation of Billy took place at the old shack on Duck Island a few days later; and the first formal meeting of the Four Square Club was held immediately after.

Tom called the meeting to order as usual, and they all four sat down on the floor in the customary way; only this time they were careful to sit in the four corners of an imaginary square instead of in a triangle. In the middle of the square thus formed Tom had laid a small iron hoop which he had found in the cellar, and explained that it was intended as a memorial of the manhole in Captain Craven’s turret, like the circle in the center of the square in the Club emblem, and it was voted to use the hoop as a symbol at every formal meeting.

Then the Charter of the Club was read by Dick, and, after that, there was a pause which Tom was the first to break:

“Say, fellows, do you remember what it was the old Admiral said to George Gray about Captain Craven after he had told him the story?”

“I remember,” answered Chippie, “it was something about how the Captain had been doing the same thing every day, all his life, and so he was all prepared to do it then.”

“How’s that?” asked Bill.

“Why, you know, he had to take an oath--the same as we do--and he had been working hard to do his duty and keep his oath in all his work, no matter what it was,” said Tom.

“And so,” Dick went on, “when it suddenly was his duty to get drowned to save the other fellow--why, he just kept right on, doing his duty, and got drowned!”

“Oh, I see,” said Bill, with a little shiver. “Was he friendly with the water?”

“He was friendly enough not to run away from it, anyway!” answered Chippie.

“I say we put that all down in the Charter,” exclaimed Dick.

“Dick!” said Billy earnestly, “I wish we could talk to your Dad about that, and see what he’d say. You know you said I might see him sometime!”

“That’s a grand idea,” chimed in Chippie. “We’ll ask him to come down to the next meeting! What do you think, Dick?”

“Well, he could come down any time after working hours,” said Dick reflectively. “But I tell you what I’d better do. I think I’d better tell him all about the baseball game and what _I_ did first.”

“Yes, _sir_!” replied Bill earnestly, “and tell him about my funk and all. The more he knows about us the better. What do you say, Tom?”

“I say the same thing,” said Tom.

“What I like about this Club is, that we’re all working together for something that’s worth while, and that something is all in the Charter. But--Gee!--the more I think of it, the bigger it seems to me; and an older fellow, like Dick’s Dad, ought to be able to help us a lot.”

Then the meeting adjourned; and that evening at home, Dick had a heart-to-heart talk with his father and told him everything of importance that had happened during the cruise.

Mr. Gray’s face clouded over when Dick made his confession about his foul play at second base, but it soon began to brighten as Dick spoke of the torment which began working inside of him afterwards from time to time, and finally the revolt of his spirit against any further deception when he was about to receive the commendation for having saved the little girl’s cat.

“You gained a victory over yourself, then, Dick, and I thank God! There has always been a mean streak in you which showed itself in what we used to call your ‘dark moods.’ You conquered that mean streak then, and you will be able to conquer it again. Have you had any of the dark moods since?”

“Yes, father, but they have been lighter, and I have been able to drive them away without much trouble.”

“Good,” replied his father, “you could not have told me anything that would have given me more real satisfaction. God bless you, and help you to keep on the same track.”

Mr. Gray listened attentively and with great interest, also, to the story of Billy Brown’s struggle with fears, and every now and then asked a brief question to make sure that he had understood all that had occurred, and all that had been going on in the boys’ minds. He had never heard the story of Captain Craven before, and was delighted with it, as an example of the spirit of loyalty to duty and heroic courtesy.

Finally, when Dick explained the reason why the boys wanted him to come to their next meeting:

“Sure!” he exclaimed warmly, “I wouldn’t miss it, Dick! I’ll explain it to your mother, too, and she wouldn’t have me miss it, either! It means a lot to me to see you and these other lads catching on--while you are still boys--to ideas which it has taken me a lifetime to reach, through all kinds of experience, and some of it pretty tough, too. You tell the other boys that I’ll be there, and that their motto means just as much to me as it does to them.”

* * * * *

At the time of the meeting the following Sunday, Dick had brought over a chair for Mr. Gray to sit in while the four boys took their accustomed places, and he assured them that he would be quite ready to adopt their charter as a rule of life. Then, lowering his voice, and at the same time talking more earnestly, he said:

“Dick has told me, boys, of some of your difficulties and victories during this cruise, and your desire to carry on the same warfare against evil, now that you have come ashore again. I believe that there is more of the man in every one of you than there was when you first started on this cruise.”

“Would you like us to read the Charter, sir, before we begin?” asked Tom. “Because it’s about that especially that we want you to tell us. Say, Bill, you ask him what you want to know. But we’ll hear the Charter first.”

So Dick read the Charter through and ended with the words: “and so Captain Craven gave up his life to do his duty as a good scout, and to keep his oath and law; and so, to remind them of his brave and courteous act, the officers of the navy have the custom of saying: ‘After you, Pilot’, when one of them steps back to make way for another; and also, because we want to be reminded of his brave and courteous act and faithfulness to his oath and law, we--the members of the Four Square Club of Duck Island--have written out this story to read once in a while, and have taken ‘After you, Pilot’, as our motto.”

After a little pause, Mr. Gray said: “What was it, Bill, that you wanted especially to know?”

Bill felt a little shy, but he was already beginning to control his feelings more, and so pushed through the shyness and began to talk.

“At the last meeting, sir, Dick was saying that there ought to be something else in the Charter about how it was that Captain Craven was strong enough to do the way he did. And the old Admiral, when he first told the story to George Gray, he said that it was because Captain Craven was in the habit of doing his duty every day of his life--no matter what it was. What do you think of that, sir?”

“I think that’s right,” replied Mr. Gray, “and it would be a good thing to put it in the Charter, because it shows that each one of us can be preparing every day to do whatever may be required of us in an emergency.”

“‘Be Prepared’ is the Boy Scout motto, sir,” said Chippie.

“I know it is,” continued Mr. Gray, “and ‘Be Prepared’ is the motto to act upon every day of our lives, if we want to be strong enough to say: ‘After you, Pilot’, when we get our chance.”

“I see that, sir,” answered Bill, “but if you want to have grit in the water, you have to be friendly with it; and what I wanted to know was, whether Captain Craven was friendly with the water, and if that was the reason he did not mind drowning?”

Mr. Gray thought for quite a while before answering this question; and, while they were waiting in silence for his answer, the boys listened to the lapping of the little waves on the beach near by.

“Of course you know, Bill, no one can say for certain just what passed through that man’s mind; but I, for my part, would say that he had done lots of things in his life that were harder to do than just dying, and that there was no reason for his not feeling friendly with the water. I think he did.”

“It makes me shiver,” said Bill, “to think of getting drowned, in spite of the fact that I am able and willing to swim in deep water any time; it’s being friendly with the water that’s helped me to get my balance, but--Captain Craven--_he knew_ he was going to drown, so what was the use of his keeping his balance?”

“I guess, Bill, that Captain Craven loved the water because he had conquered all fear of it years ago, if he ever had any, and some of the happiest times of his life had been spent in doing his duty at sea. But I’m thinking that he had another habit that prepared him for this emergency. If he hadn’t been drowned at that time he would have reported to Admiral Farragut, his superior officer, every detail of the explosion; and now,--when there was no possibility of reporting to the Admiral,--he may have thought to himself, ‘this drowning will be over in a few minutes, and then I’ll report to the Great Captain, whose child I am and whose will is my duty, wherever I see it.’”

“Won’t you come to another of our meetings some time, sir?” asked Tom after a pause.

“That I will,” answered Dick’s father, “and I tell you what it is, boys; I won’t forget this meeting in a hurry, either!”

As they got up and left the shack, the sun was just setting.

“It’s time for ‘colors’,” said Tom, “will you give the command, sir?” and all stood at attention while Dick slowly lowered the flag.

* * * * *

Transcriber’s note:

Illustrations have been moved to paragraph breaks near where they are mentioned.

Punctuation has been made consistent.

Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

p. 108: Missing words were assumed to be as follows:

the (force the inner) latch (a latch from) into (out into the) at (station at the)