The Boy Scout Treasure Hunters | Page 5

The boy
who had been shut up for a year and more looked hungrily through the
great entrance way. It was free to all. He walked cautiously in, keeping
a suspicious eye wide for policemen; for though he thought he was free
he was in bondage to his guilty conscience.
Of the many attractions the one which made the greatest appeal to
Glen--and the only one he could afford, for his sole fortune was the
nickel he had for car-fare--was the merry-go-round with its gaudy
horses and its gurdy tunes. He bought a ticket and mounted one of the
turbulent steeds with a little thrill of anticipatory pleasure. The music
began, the movement gradually quickened, and he was just giving
himself up to the pleasure of it when he saw working toward him, on
the inside running-board, a man collecting tickets. On his coat was the
nickeled badge of a constable. Glen did not know that he was a special
officer for the sole purpose of protecting his own outfit against rowdies.
In his eyes it was the approach of the law. Although they were now
swinging round at a good rate he slipped from his horse and jumped, at
peril of his neck. The sight of an official badge struck terror to his soul.
So it was wherever he went. He saw in every man an officer. One
might have supposed the park policed by an army. He had just dodged
one of the two real park policemen when he overheard a momentous
conversation.
A man from the bathhouse came by.
"Anything doing, Jake?" he asked the officer.
"Nothing much," replied the policeman. "They 'phoned us a boy got
away from the reform school. They think he might just have come out
to the park for fun and overstayed. Ain't seen any one, have ye?"
"Not me."
"Well, if he's in here we'll get him as he goes out. I'll watch one gate
and Barney the other."

So they were on the look out for him. But there was nothing in his
present clothing to suggest the reform school boy, and though he was
hatless there were numbers of hatless boys in the park. There were
many people of all kinds, in fact, and if he went with the crowd, he
could surely slip out unnoticed. Yet he feared to attempt to pass the
representative of the law at the gate. How conscience doth make
cowards of us all!
It was a good deed, done impulsively, that solved Glen's problem. An
automobile was passing. The occupants were all watching the bathers
in the lake, excepting a little chap of three who had seized the
opportunity to climb over the door with the evident idea of jumping to
the ground. When Glen saw him he was poised on the running board
ready for his jump. Like a flash Glen jumped for the footboard of the
moving car and interposed his body as an obstacle to the little fellow's
leap. The women in the car screamed and the man who was driving
stopped his car in surprise at the intrusion. It was only when Glen
hauled the little boy up to view that they saw what he had done.
"I am Jonathan Gates," said the man, offering Glen his hand, "and this
is my wife and daughter. We don't know how to thank you for saving
that little scamp from harm."
"We might at least take you back into town," suggested Mrs. Gates.
"But I am going west, into the country," said Glen.
"That is still better," said Mr. Gates. "We live eight miles west of here
and will take you wherever you say."
"I'll go just as far as you go," Glen replied. "I live away out west and
am on my way on foot. Every mile is a help."
They passed through the gates without any notice from the officer who
was watching for an escaped Reform School boy, and Glen felt safe
again.
"We have not visited the park in a long while," explained Mrs. Gates,

"and it was all new to us. That is why we lost sight of Jack. He was
very anxious to run back and see the monkeys again."
"I have never been there before at all," said Glen. "And I am glad I saw
this monkey. I was passing and I just went in by chance."
"Not chance," said Mr. Gates. "Let us say Providence. Our boy might
have been badly hurt or even killed. Certainly you were led by
Providence, or I would rather be more definite and say the hand of
God."
"Oh I don't know. I guess not," stammered Glen, greatly embarrassed.
He wondered what Mr. Gates would say if he knew that he came to the
park in running away from