CHAPTER XIV.

THE HONOR MEDALS.

Things moved swiftly after that, and presently Hugh felt ready to fairly hug himself when he saw that Mr. Merrivale had handed back the little girl to her mother and was wringing Sam’s hand heartily.

The stern man was very much overcome, just as might be expected. He had not known whether his erring boy were dead or yet in the land of the living, and to have Sam thus suddenly bob up, and prove to be a hero, staggered Mr. Merrivale greatly.

Hugh knew it was all right when he heard the gentleman say earnestly:

“Both of us were in the wrong, my boy. I confess it to you now. But from this time on we will begin all over again. Your old room is waiting for you, Sam. Believe me, I shall be well pleased to see you in your accustomed place at table once more.”

Which words told the observing scout master that while most people believed Mr. Merrivale to be a stern and proud man, he may have been suffering even more than his own wife realized.

So they hurried to the car, where the drenched ones were bundled up in all the robes that were handy, after which Gus headed for home at a fast clip. Hugh felt a little anxious about Sam, remembering that the young fellow had been seriously sick lately; but for all that he and his chums were fairly bubbling over with joy as they made for town again.

Billy seemed to be tremendously tickled at the way things had turned out. Every now and then he would nudge Hugh in the ribs, to say something like this:

“Will you oblige me, partner? Then give me a good hard pinch please, right here in the thigh where it’s going to do the most good. Ouch! but that did sting though; and say, I guess I’m awake after all. You see I had begun to be afraid I was asleep and dreaming all these fine things. But Sam did jump in and save the little girl all right, didn’t he? And that was decent of his dad to tell him the old score had been wiped out as if it had never been. Hugh, if I wasn’t in this car along with all the rest crowded together I’d feel like letting out a big whoop, I’m that chock full of enthusiasm.”

Thereupon the scout master begged him to restrain his bubbling spirits until another and more propitious time.

“We’re going to strike the outskirts of the town right away, Billy,” was what he told the scout chum, “and if you started to cheering it might be some folks might think you had gone looney. You wouldn’t want a certain pretty girl I could name to hear such a report of you, I’m sure.”

That sort of counsel caused Billy Worth to change his mind. Nevertheless the whole party looked so excited, and what with the two boys being so bundled up in fur wraps, all sorts of wonderful stories soon drifted like magic around town. In good time, of course, everybody would learn what a strange thing had happened; and how Sam Merrivale, the runaway son, had come back as poor as Job’s turkey, yet able to show himself a hero by risking his own life to save that of his precious little sister.

Sam did not seem to feel any ill effects from his cold immersion in the icy waters of the pond. Perhaps his heart was beating so happily that it kept away the germs of pneumonia and like ills; at any rate he dropped in that afternoon to thank Mrs. Hardin most heartily for all she and her boy had done.

“Everything is working just fine over at our house,” was the report Sam brought with him. “Father has made me tell him everything I’ve done, and I didn’t spare myself one whit either. And would you believe it, he says he’s glad I lost that mine, because if I’d come home feeling that I’d done something _great_, the chances are we never would have come to understand each other as we do now. I expect to go into business a little later, after I’ve picked up some more flesh; and I give you my solemn word, Mrs. Hardin, I’m going to make good, if grim determination can do it.”

“I believe you will succeed, Sam,” she told him simply, “because you’ve had a lesson that is going to last you the rest of your life. I’m pleased also to know Hugh had a hand in helping to bring about this happy ending of all your trouble. Just because I have been so blessed in my own little family is no reason I cannot sympathize with others who have had deep troubles. And no one will be prouder of the success you expect to win than your mother, Sam.”

Thus it appeared that everything had come out splendidly, “just like the ending of a fairy story,” as Billy said.

It was on the following day that Hugh, meeting Gus and his brother on the street while on the way home from school early in the afternoon, happened to think of something.

“I wonder now, Gus,” he remarked, “if in all this excitement you’ve chanced to remember that registered letter Mr. Jones told you about?”

“Well, I’m glad you spoke of it, Hugh,” Gus hastened to reply, “because to tell you the honest truth so much has been going on every minute at our house that for one I forgot all about that letter. So did Sam here, because he’s never mentioned it. Let’s all walk over to the post office now, and he can get his delayed mail.”

“Oh! I’m not overcurious about it,” remarked Sam. “It’s probably only a few lines from my lawyers up in Nome telling how they neglected to charge me for some item, and asking me to remit. Well, they’ll have to wait until I get to earning some money, because just now I’ve only got the five dollars mother gave me.”

When the letter was produced Sam was rather surprised at its size. His hands, too, trembled a little as he started to carefully open the envelope; but then his recent weakness might explain that.

Hugh and Gus watched him as he started to read. Suddenly Sam gave vent to a whoop that must have rather astonished some of those good people of Oakvale who chanced to be in the post office just then.

“Bully! Well, what do you think of that?” he exclaimed, his old Western cowboy instincts causing him to snatch off his felt hat and slap it against his leg with a vim.

“What is it, Sam; tell us, please?” begged the now equally excited Gus.

“Great news, Gus, glorious news, I tell you!” cried the other, his face beaming with joy. “My lawyers write that it has been learned that the mine belongs to me all right. Seems that there was foul work done, and the fellow has confessed his share in the game. They say the court has opened up the case again, and reversed its former decision on the strength of the new evidence, so that my claim holds good. And there is a big company that intends to make me a splendid offer for my property, so that I may not have to go back there.”

Such hand-shaking as followed, and then a rush was made for the Merrivale home to tell the wonderful news. Hugh could see that both parents were well pleased with the bright future that loomed up for Sam. He also understood just what the tender mother-heart meant when Mrs. Merrivale, looking at her husband, nodded her head wisely and said:

“Well, it’s safe enough for this to come _now_, because everything is working together for good, please Heaven!”

And Hugh knew she was thankful that Sam had for a time believed himself to be wretchedly poor, and ready to come back home to once more look upon the faces of those who, in years gone by, had loved him as a child. Had it been otherwise, Sam might never have truly repented, and found the peace of mind that he now enjoyed.

Later on Gus was one day greatly surprised when Hugh came over and showed him a wonderful medal with his name inscribed on it. It was the “badge of courage” that a wise committee in the headquarters of the Boy Scouts of America sees fit to bestow upon each and every member of the organization who at peril to his own life succeeds in saving that of some one else, whether a comrade of the khaki or even a stranger.

Gus, as has been mentioned before, had long envied some of his chums who wore one of the bronze, silver or gold medals that distinguished them above their mates; and it had been the height of his ambition to some day have a chance to win such a proud trophy for his very own. Now he found his name inscribed on a gleaming silver medal that placed him on the same Roll of Honor with Hugh and Arthur.

Billy Worth, too, had been remembered in a similar manner, and the other two might have been had they not already possessed the highest mark of esteem that it was in the province of the Boy Scout Court of Honor to bestow.

Hugh would often look back with considerable satisfaction to the little excursion undertaken by himself and several comrades, at the suggestion of Gus Merrivale. They had certainly enjoyed their Thanksgiving outing up in the timber belt, and memories of that night of the great storm would never leave them.

Then again, fortune had allowed them to be of considerable assistance to both Casey the tramp, and Sam Merrivale, so that they could always believe they had succeeded in all they planned when agreeing to accompany Gus on his then mysterious errand.

But there were other things beginning to occupy a prominent place in the ever restless mind of the young assistant scout master. What some of these new duties and ambitions were will be told in the pages of the next story, under the title of “The Boy Scouts for Home Protection,” and we certainly hope that all who have enjoyed reading about the camp in the lumber wilderness will make sure to secure a copy of the new volume, where Hugh and some of his chums figure very prominently in scout activities.

THE END.

Footnotes

[1]See “The Boy Scouts as Forest Fire Fighters.”

Transcriber’s Notes

--Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public domain in the country of publication.

--Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and dialect unchanged.

--In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.)