and so these three parlor scouts, winners of the rotary club award, reached the rear platform of the last car and gazed upon the landscape as it receded before their eyes. the whimsical mr. wilde had put them in bad sorts and the great, vast, stupendous west seemed to confirm all that their chance acquaintance had said.
how hopeless the lot of the lost wanderer here, how useless the good scout handbook, how futile all the pleasantly primitive devices to find one’s way home—when home is just around the corner. they were just boys playing at scouting, nice boys, boy scouts. well, at all events, it had won them this trip to the yellowstone where there would be much to see....
there was certainly not much to see at emigrant. if there had ever been an emigrant there it must have emigrated away, or been blown away as mr. wilde had said of other western stopping places.
certainly there was no sign of life there. yet evidently the place was useful to the railroad for the train stopped there, a visitation of life and energy in a scene of desolation.
not a living soul was there to welcome them. even the companionable noise of the train had ceased or died down to a slow pulsating sound of the locomotive. it seemed an impatient sound as if the steel brute were anxious to be on its way again. how lonesome, even forbidding the landscape looked from the cozy, little refuge where they viewed it. only this little platform between them and the vast unknown.
westy was a sensible, thoughtful boy and the bigness of the country impressed him. it affected his mood. what mr. wilde had said would probably not have been taken too seriously if westy had been in the east. it was not mr. wilde alone, but the whole environment as well, which made all that westy was and had accomplished paltry by comparison. it all seemed to belittle his scouting and make it infantile and ridiculous. everything seemed to impart piquancy to mr. wilde’s home truths. here indeed was the land where men had fought with untamed nature and won out.
it seemed to westy that he had been swimming with a life preserver. he sat down on the car platform and rested his chin on his hands and gazed about. it was not a propitious mood for a boy to be in who was about to be shown the wonders of the yellowstone national park. he almost wished that he had not met that disturbing person, mr. wilde. he could not get shining sun out of his mind. to do anything on a little scale seemed contemptible to westy. was scouting after all a toy?
his two companions caught his mood though they were not as impressionable as he. they sat down on the platform beside him and the three made a rather disconsolate trio, considering that they were within a score or so of miles of their hearts’ desire.
“i remind myself of pee-wee, tracking a hop-toad,” mused westy.
ed carlisle took him up, “just because mr. wilde says this and that——”
“suppose he had gone to scout headquarters in new york for a scout to help them in the mountains,” said westy. “would he have found one? when it comes to dead serious business——”
“look what roosevelt said about scouts,” said warde. “he said they were a lot of help and that scouting was a great thing, that’s what he said.”
“why didn’t you tell mr. wilde that?” ed asked.
“because i didn’t think of it,” said warde.
“just because i get the astronomy badge that doesn’t prove i’m an astronomer,” said ed.
“nobody says a scout’s a doctor because he has the first aid badge,” encouraged warde.
westy only looked straight ahead of him, his abstracted gaze fixed upon the wild, lonesome mountains. a great bird was soaring over them and he watched it till it became a mere speck. and meanwhile, the locomotive steamed at steady intervals like an impatient beast. then, suddenly, its voice changed, there was strain and effort in its steaming.
“guess we’re going to go,” said warde. “now for the little old yellowstone, hey, westy? wake up, come out of that, you old grouch. don’t you know a scout is supposed to smile and look pleasant? we should worry about mr. madison c. wilde.”
“if we never did anything real and big it’s because there weren’t any of those things to do,” said warde. “didn’t he say what you have to do, you do? that’s just what he said.”
westy did not answer, only arose in a rather disgruntled way and stepped off the platform. he strolled forward alone along the outside of the car, kicking a stone as he went and watching it intently. when he raised his eyes he had almost reached the other end of the car. the car stood on a siding quite alone; the train was rushing away among the mountains.
westy martin was at last face to face with something real and big. he and his companions were quite alone in the rocky mountains. the boy scouts of america and the heedless, cruel, monster nature had come to an issue at last.
how this issue was decided and what happened to westy and his comrades before they reached their destination are told in the companion story which continues their adventures under the title of westy martin in the yellowstone.
the end
