say one word: 'Hello.'"

We tiptoed through. The bed was clean and white, with a sheet outside
instead of the colored spread; and the major was in it. The Elks' flag
was spread out, draped over the dresser, where he could see it. His eyes
opened at us. He didn't look so very terrible, and he tried to grin.

"How?" he said.

"Hello," said we; and we gave him the Scouts' sign.

"Didn't even make me sick," he croaked. "But I can't get up. Don't you
fellows wait. You go ahead."

"We will," we said, to soothe him. Then we gave him the Scouts' sign
again, and the silence sign, and the wolf sign (for bravery) (Note
66), and we drew back. The doctor had told us that we could say one
word, and we had been made to say three!

We had seen that the major was alive and up and coming (not really up;
only going to be, you know); but this was another anxious day, I tell
you! Having an appendix cut out is no light matter, ever--and besides,
here was the fourteenth day on the trail! The major would not be able to
stir for a week and a half, maybe; yet Green Valley, our goal, was only
twenty-one miles away!

"It's all a question of the nursing that he has now, boys," said the
doctor, in council with us. "I'm going to trust that to you Scouts;
these women have all they can do, anyway. We got the appendix out just
in time--but if it hadn't been for your first-aid treatment in the
beginning we might have been too late. That old appendix was swollen
and ready to burst if given half a chance. His pure Scout's blood and
his Scout's vitality will pull him through O. K. That's what he gets,
from living right, following out Scouts' rules. But he must have
attention night and day according to hygiene. We don't want any microbes
monkeying with that wound I made."

"No, you bet," we said.

"I'll leave you complete directions and then I'm going back to the
mines; but I'll ride over again to-morrow morning. Can't you keep him
from fussing about that message?"

"We'll try," we said.

"If you can't, then one of you can jump on a horse and take it over, so
as to satisfy him. You can make the round trip in five hours."

Well, we were pledged not to do _that_; horse or other help was
forbidden. But we did not say so. What was the use? And it didn't seem
now as though either Fitz or I could stand it to leave the major even
for five hours. The Red Fox Scouts of course must skip on, to the
railroad, or they'd miss their big Yellowstone trip, and