Boy Scouts in an Airship | Page 6

you!" the lad cried out, greatly pleased at finding a Boy Scout
there. "Where did you get that?"
"Scouted for it!" was the reply.
"What does it read?"
"Be prepared!"
"Where from?" was the next question.
"Fox Patrol, Chicago."
"You must be pretty foxy," Jimmie laughed, "to get away off here."
The member of the Fox Patrol now made his way through the crowd
and extended a hand to Jimmie.
"You don't look as if it paid to be a Fox," laughed the latter.

The boy certainly did look like a tramp. He was a lad of about sixteen,
well formed as to figure and attractive as to feature, with bright blue
eyes, long, fair hair, and a complexion which would have been perfect
only for the grime upon it. He blushed as Jimmie looked him over, and
involuntarily turned his eyes down to his ragged clothing and broken
shoes.
"Forget that!" Jimmie cried, in a moment. "I didn't mean anything by it.
Where you stopping?"
The fact was that Jimmie suspected from the appearance of the lad that
he was hungry as well as ragged and dirty. He certainly looked hungry.
The boy hesitated before replying, his hands deep in his trousers
pockets, his eyes on the ground. Then a whimsical smile came to his
face and he looked Jimmie squarely in the face.
"No use of lyin' about it," he said. "I'm stoppin' down here at the Blue
Sky Hotel. It's a dandy place to stop at. They never present a board
bill."
Jimmie sat back on the rope which was drawn about the Nelson to keep
meddlesome ones away from the machine and burst into a roar of
laughter. The crowd looked on stupidly, glancing from boy to boy, and
then at one another, as if wondering if these Americans always went
crazy when they met in a foreign land.
"I know that Blue Sky Hotel," Jimmie said, presently, "though I've
never heard it called by that name before. I had a room in one, in
Central Park, New York, until a sparrow cop drove me out of it. I liked
it because I didn't have to dress for dinner there," he added,
whimsically.
"The feed is rather slim," observed the other.
"It's run on the European plan," grinned Jimmie. "You get your sleepins,
an' no one cares whether you get your eatin's or not. What's your
name?"

"Dougherty--Mike Dougherty, Clark street, south of Van Buren!"
"I guess you must be French," Jimmie grinned.
"You've guessed it. Now, what's your name, and what are you boys
doin' here with this old sky-ship?"
"I'll tell you all about it when we get back to the hotel," Jimmie replied.
"Do you know any of the gazabos about here? I want some one to
watch the ginks who are watchin' the mutts who are watchin' the
aeroplane."
Dougherty laughed at this suggestion of a treble surveillance and
pointed out a lanky looking individual who was studying the machine
closely from the outer side of the roped-circle.
"That's Pedro," he said. "He's all right. About all I've had to eat since I
came here he's given me. He's a Peruvian Indian, and in need of money.
Give him a dollar, and he'll guard your guards a month, and never leave
the machine, night or day."
"Does he talk United States?"
"Oh, just a little."
Pedro talked quite a little United States, as Jimmie called it, and a
bargain was soon struck with him. Then the two boys started away
together. First they visited a clothing store, where Jimmie looked at the
best suits in stock, and measured Dougherty cautiously with his eyes. A
full outfit of under and outer clothing provided, they proceeded to the
hotel, where Jimmie ushered his new-found friend into a commodious
bathroom.
"Remove some of your real estate," the boy said, "an' hop into these
new clothes. They ain't very nobby, but the best I could get here."
Mike Dougherty stood looking at Jimmie for a moment as if he could
not believe what he heard. It had been a long time since he had been

clean and properly clothed. Then there came a suspicious moisture to
his keen eyes and he turned away.
"Oh, well," he said, with a tremble in his clear young voice, "mebbe I'll
be able to pay you back some day. Just now I'm--"
"Cut it out!" Jimmie replied. "You hain't got anythin' on me. I've been
there meself, an' the Boy Scout that helped me out told me to pass it
along. That's what I'm doin' now, and there's nothin' more to be said.
When you get washed and dressed, come on to No. 4, that's the second
room from this tub, on the left of the corridor, an' I'll show you the rest