Roy Blakeley Part 7

"Give me another towel, quick," he said to Artie. "Is the window open?

you better go up, Kid."

It was the first time he ever called me kid and he had to cough when he said it. But I just couldn't move. There was something in my throat and my eyes that wasn't smoke, and I said, "I can stand it if you can--Wig."

"Go on up, kid," he said, "we've--got--got--her--talking--now," and he coughed and choked.

"Go on up, Roy," Artie Van Arlen said.

Up on the roof all the fellows were sitting 'round the edge with their legs over, watching the black column in the sky, and shouting when they read the letters. But I was thinking about those fellows down in that cabin filled with smoke and how they were doing that all on account of me.

"Pretty smoky down there," one of the Elks said to me.

"You said something," I told him.

"He's marking up the sky all right, if he can only stick it out,"

another fellow said. "Who's down there with him ?"

"Artie," I said.

"They'll stick it out, all right," Westy Martin said; "it's easier for Artie, he can stay near the window ."

"Bully for you, Wig, old boy!" somebody shouted, just as the E in SAFE shot up. And I knew what it meant--it meant that the words Roy is safe had been printed in great big black letters across the sky.

Then it came faster and faster and it seemed as if he must be turning that damper like a telegraph operator moves his key. "Don't worry!"

it said, "reports false," "Roy Blakeley safe," "Roy safe," "Blakeley alive." He said it all kinds of different ways.

Once Artie came up coughing and choking and watched a few seconds to see if the wind was blowing the smoke away as fast as the signs were made, because that was important.

"It's lucky we have that wind," he said, and then went down again in a hurry.

Pretty soon we could see some searchlights far away and I guess they were on the s.h.i.+ps. But ours was different and nearer to Bridgeboro, and people would be sure to see it, only maybe they wouldn't understand it and that's what made me worry. I'm good on reading smudge signals, even though I never sent many and I never have to have the handbook when I read the code, that's one thing. And I didn't pay much attention to all the talking and yelling, only kept my eyes up in the sky, watching that long smoky column. It beat any searchlight you ever saw. "Roy alive"--"Roy alive" it kept saying and sometimes "don't worry."

I didn't see how any fellow could manage a smudge and send it so fast and keep his s.p.a.ces. The last word before it stopped was SAFE, or that's what it was meant to be, only the short flash for E didn't come. The fellows all began shouting when there wasn't any more, and I heard Pee-wee shout downstairs, "Aren't you going to put the name of the boat?"

"Do you want him to crack the sky open?" I heard a fellow say, and they all laughed.

But I remembered how that last E didn't come and I started down the ladder for all I was worth. I scrambled around the narrow part of the deck to the window and called, but n.o.body answered. The smoke was coming out thick.

"Wig," I said, "are you there? Are you all right? Artie, where are you?"

I had to turn away my face on account of the smoke. I pulled off my scout scarf and tied it over my mouth, so that it covered my ears too.

Then I looked in and down low, because I knew that the smoke wouldn't be so thick near the floor. And I saw Wig Weigand lying there right under the stove pipe and his hand was reaching up holding the damper, and his hand was all white like and his eyes were wide open and staring. Then I shouted for all I was worth.

"Doc! Come down--hurry! Send Doc Carson down, Wig Weigand is dead--he's suffocated."

CHAPTER X

THE RAVENS

Doc Carson is a Raven and he's our First Aid Scout. He always has some things with him, because that's our rule. But you can bet I didn't wait for him. And I didn't care if I was killed or not, I didn't, if Wig Weigand was killed.

So I jumped right through the window and the smoke got into my eyes and made my ears ring, but I didn't care. I could taste it all thick, too, but I didn't care. That was the smoke that had to do what Wigley Weigand told it to, and he scribbled all over the sky with it, that's what he did, and now it had turned around and killed him.

I knew that up to six or seven inches from the floor there is never much smoke and I knew he must have lain down low when he was almost unconscious and worked that damper. And those fellows up there had been laughing and cheering all the while, when he was lying there like that.

I didn't see Artie anywhere and there wasn't any sound. I lay down flat and crawled over to Wig and you bet I worked quick. I tied his hands together with my scout scarf--it was the Silver Fox scarf--and I tied the scarf around my neck.

"Wig," I said, but he didn't speak and his legs and his neck hung loose, sort of, and it kind of scared me. Then I crawled to the window, because I couldn't see the door, dragging him after me. Then I did something I never thought I could do, but maybe you've noticed you can do most anything when you have to. I just stood up, then fell down again, coughing and choking, and my ears were buzzing all the time. But I didn't care, I just stood up again with him hanging to me, and I grabbed the window sill and dragged him half way across it and with his head outside, and then I staggered and tried to grab something and my eyes were stinging and, oh, I don't know, all of a sudden my head knocked and I didn't know any more.

Mr. Ellsworth says that Doc ought to write the rest of this chapter, but he wouldn't, and it's just like him. The next thing I knew I was sitting on the lowest step and Connie Bennet was holding my head. "You're all right," he said, "but you got a good b.u.mp. You were only there a few seconds."

"Did you pull me out?" I said. "Where's, Wig?"

"Doc brought him around," he said, "he got him breathing, then it was easy. We couldn't find Artie."

Maybe it was funny, but just then I didn't seem to be thinking about Artie. I felt my head and found I had a big b.u.mp on it.

"I should worry about that," I said. "Where's Wig?"

Then I got up and went around the cabin to the forward deck and there were all the fellows and Wig sitting up and Doc Carson holding him and moving: him, so as to keep him breathing--scout fas.h.i.+on.

"All righto, kid," Doc said, kind of pleasant, "you're a brick."

I always thought; that I was as big as he was, but he called me kid, and I didn't care. Anyways I couldn't see him very good, I admit that.

Because--oh, well, maybe you can understand.

"Artie's missing," he said. "You didn't see anything of him in there?"

"I couldn't see at all, hardly," I told him.

Then Wig turned his head and looked at me and he was all white and weak looking, especially when he smiled. And he had the remains of my Silver Fox scarf, all torn, around his neck.

"All right?" he said very low.

But I just couldn't speak to him. I don't know what made me do it, but I went up to him and he looked at the b.u.mp on my forehead and said, "Hurt?"

"You should worry about that," I told him.

Then I kind of fixed the Silver Fox scarf better, so that it was around his neck and I tied it in the Silver Fox knot. "Your fellows won't mind if you wear it a little while," I said, and then I unfastened his own scarf, yellow and brown, and tied it around my neck. "There's no fellow can get this away from me to-night," I said, "I'm going to wear the Raven scarf--I am."

Then, all of a sudden, I noticed that Doc had gone away and I was holding his head up alone. So I let it down on the cus.h.i.+on very easy and I saw we were all alone. Maybe you won't understand and it's hard to tell you. But I didn't say anything; I just stayed there and rubbed his forehead.

"We told her," he said, kind of as if he was weak and tired.

"Yup," I said, "you told her"