CHAPTER VIII.

NURSE JONES MAKES AN APPEAL.

“Gee! that’s talking some, Ralph!” exclaimed Billy. “Hit it up, then, and tell us who’s the guilty party. It’s going to make our job a whole lot easier if we know who we’re chasing after right in the start.”

“Yes, Ralph,” added Alec, impatiently, “put us on the track, if you know so much. I hope it isn’t the old padrone, after all.”

Hugh looked fixedly at Ralph. He suddenly remembered a conversation they had not long before. It flashed through his mind that Ralph must be referring to the subject of that talk when he so positively declared he knew who was guilty of abducting the little boy.

So Hugh simply held up his right hand with three fingers extended; and when the other scout saw this he nodded his head.

“That’s it, Hugh; you take my word for it; those three ugly guards who came sneaking back made this grand-stand play. We were off our base when we thought they just meant to break into the safe in the plant and get something that was kept there. They knew a better way to strike for a big sum; they guessed Mr. Campertown valued Reuben higher than anything he might keep locked up in that safe. What d’ye say, am I hewing close to the line or not?”

“You’ve given me something to think about, Ralph, I own up,” the scout master admitted, with a serious look on his face.

“There were three of them near the works,” Ralph explained to Alec and Billy. “I saw the sly bunch, and dropped in a patch of brush to watch. They acted suspicious, and when I reported to Hugh here we had an idea they might mean to get even for being turned adrift by breaking in to-night and looting the safe of the plant. But, say, they had a game up their sleeve worth ten of that, believe me!”

Billy and Alec were visibly impressed with the force of Ralph’s argument. It sounded reasonable to them.

“Of course the guards went away feeling sore,” ventured Alec, who had a great habit of arguing to himself in a convincing manner, “because they lost a well-paid job. Besides, they are known to the sheriff, and stand a chance of being arrested for willful murder, in case any of these people should die. Yes, I guess they would feel pretty desperate, and the three who came back must have planned some bold game. Ralph, you’re a credit to the troop!”

Ralph was waiting to hear what Hugh would have to say. Others might “render their tribute due to Cæsar,” but until the scout master approved, Ralph would not feel satisfied.

Hugh had meanwhile revolved the idea in his active mind. He saw it looked not only possible but probable that Ralph had hit on the truth.

“Even if they have taken the boy, as you think, Ralph,” he now said, “their motive is not bound to be just what you hint. They may not mean to hold him for ransom; that is a pretty risky thing to do, and the punishment for kidnapping a child is pretty severe, you remember, nowadays.”

“But what else could they mean to do, Hugh?” asked Ralph, puzzled.

“If they could make it look as if some of the strikers had stolen the boy,” continued the scout master, “Mr. Campertown would be sorry he had discharged those guards. It may be they intend to suddenly come rushing in with the child, and claim they rescued him from a bunch of the foreigners, after a warm fight, showing a few slashes in their clothes as evidence of how desperately they battled to take the boy away from the rascals!”

“Whew! that would be a smart trick, now, I should say!” remarked Alec; “but no matter what their game may be, it’s up to us to get a move on and find the trail.”

“To do that we’ve got to go over to the plant first of all, and learn just where the boy was seen last,” Hugh told them.

“Once we strike footprints,” said Ralph positively, “leave it to us to keep on the track.”

“I wish we had a good dog along with us,” ventured Billy; but he was immediately frowned upon by Ralph and Alec.

“Scouts who know their business have no need of hounds that I can see,” the former told him. “Show me plain signs, and I’ll take you to the end of the trail or know the reason why.”

“Well, don’t let’s stand around here any longer, anyway,” Billy returned to say, unable to take up the plain dare there seemed to be in Ralph’s last remark.

“Do we all go along, Hugh?” asked Alec.

“I think a couple ought to stay here in the camp to look after things while the rest are away,” replied the scout master, and then, after glancing around at the eager faces of his comrades he continued: “Harold and Monkey Stallings can be the camp guards. I’ve heard both of them complain of their feet hurting lately, and there may be heaps of walking to do.”

The pair indicated looked very much disappointed; still they were too well drilled to raise any objection to the decree. Hugh was their leader, and when he gave an order their duty was only to obey without questioning the motive or the justness of his decision.

That is one of the things scouts learn—obedience to orders. It is a splendid foundation for their future guidance in life. If they could point to this as the only achievement of scoutcraft there would be a good excuse for the perpetuation of the organization on the ground of having improved boy character; but of course there are dozens of other reasons to show that this movement is the grandest thing that has ever been known in connection with the rising generation.

Hugh was now ready to lead his comrades on to the cement works, in hopes of picking up a clue that would put them on the track. It was fated, however, that there should be further delay, and connected with it another surprise calculated to give them something of a shock.

As the scout master turned around he was made aware of the fact that Nurse Jones had not taken her departure at the time the sheriff and Mr. Campertown hastened away. Although he had not paid any attention to her up to now, she had apparently hovered close by the boys, listening to all that was said, and showing the most intense interest in what went on.

When Hugh happened to discover her, just after laying his plans with the three chums who had been at his elbow, Nurse Jones made straight toward him.

“I hope you will let me go with you when you start off on this hunt for the lost child, Mr. Scout Master?” she said, earnestly.

The boys exchanged looks. It was a novel request, and Hugh hardly knew how to answer her. Nurse Jones meant well, but then a woman was hardly fitted for enduring the fatigue they might have to encounter when chasing all around the country in search of the daring abductors of little Reuben.

Nurses were all right in their places, but it hardly seemed as though one of them should want to keep company with scouts when they were on dangerous duty.

“I hate to refuse you, Nurse Jones,” Hugh finally said, “but we don’t know just where we will have to go. The distance may be too far for you.”

“But I’m a famous walker, you remember. I’ve made it a practice to cover ten miles every day, and often twice that,” she replied.

Alec snickered at that, for he could see that none of the scouts had anything on Nurse Jones when it came to endurance.

“And then,” continued Hugh, “there’s likely to be danger, because if desperate men have kidnapped Reuben, they will hardly give him up without trouble.”

“That is only another argument in favor of my going with you,” the nurse told him. “In our profession we understand we are bound to incur some peril; and, if there should be fighting of any kind a nurse would be in her element binding up the wounds that followed. You must let me go with you, Hugh. Indeed, I will not be refused.”

The other boys could see that Hugh was “taking water,” as some of them called it; that is, his resolution seemed shaken. While he still objected, he did not appear very firm.

“But why should you want to tag along, Nurse Jones, when all the rest of us are boys used to taking hard knocks? You’ve got some reason for doing this; don’t you think you ought to tell us?”

“Whew!” Alec could be heard saying, half under his breath, for he understood what it was Hugh must be figuring on.

The nurse stood there, as if half hesitating. Then, as though suddenly making up her mind, she turned again to Hugh.

“Yes, it is only fair that I should be taking you all into my confidence, for, after you hear what I have to say, I feel sure none of you can deny me the right to join in the search for my own little cousin!”

Alec acted as though ready to drop to the ground with astonishment. While he and Hugh had decided that there was something peculiar about the actions of Nurse Jones, and that she looked on Mr. Campertown and his grandson as anything but strangers, they had really never gone so far as to figure that there was actual relationship existing between them.

“Yes,” the Red Cross nurse continued hastily, as though now that she had lifted the veil of secrecy she wanted it over with as soon as possible, “I am his grandchild, just as truly as little Reuben, although he has really never set eyes on me before.”

“Then your name isn’t Jones?” asked Hugh, though he hardly knew why he should have made the remark, except that he felt compelled to say something.

“No, it is Campertown, but when I took up the profession of trained nurse, for reasons of my own I chose to be known as Maude Jones. My father was the oldest son of Mr. Campertown. It was the same old story of his marrying a girl his father did not approve of, so he was cut off, and has never seen his father from that day to this—over twenty-three years ago. My father is still alive, though in poor health. He lives in modest rooms in Boston, and part of my pay goes to his support. Now, you know my secret, and surely you will not deny my right to be with you in the search for my own little cousin.”

“When you came out here in the ambulance did you know that the plant where the strike was going on belonged to Mr. Campertown?” asked Hugh.

“I learned it while on the way,” she answered, readily enough, “from Dr. Richter, who had been told about the facts; but it was too late for me to turn back, even if I had wanted to. To tell you the truth I did not think of doing so. A sudden curiosity had possessed me to see with my own eyes what my stern grandfather looked like.”

“Do you mean that you have never seen him even once?” asked Alec, amazed.

“My father is very proud, even though poor,” she told him, with a dignity that impressed the boys. “He has always said that he had done nothing wrong, and would never beg his father to forgive him. If there ever was to be any reconciliation it must come from the other side. And so I was forbidden to ever try and appeal to Reuben Campertown. I mean to continue to obey his wishes, though I hope something may happen to change things. It is a terrible thing to have family quarrels; and really he didn’t look so _very_ terrible just now when he was here.”

Remembering the look of woe on the face of the millionaire, Hugh felt that she was putting it very mildly when she said this. Oppressed with a sense of dread concerning the fate of the child he loved so passionately, Mr. Campertown had really looked like a man who would not have harmed a fly if he could help it.

“And now, am I to accompany you boys, Mr. Scout Master?” asked Nurse Jones.

“I guess you’ve proved your right to go along with us,” Hugh told her; and every fellow nodded in vigorous assent when he said this, for they liked Nurse Jones.