Ted Marsh on an Important Mission

Excerpt

CHAPTER I

TED DECIDES TO ACCEPT

“Ted, oh Ted.”

The speaker’s hail was not altogether unexpected. The boy called Ted turned about and met Captain Wilson half way.

The familiar figure of the boy proves to be Ted Marsh who had come out to Western Canada with his friends, John Dean and Mrs. Dean. After a number of months on the Double X Ranch, months which the boy had found both exhilarating and tremendously to his liking, he had been sent to Wayland Academy. To those of us who have read Ted Marsh the Boy Scout, the following facts are familiar. A brief resume, however, is set forth herewith for those readers who are new so that they can safely gather the threads of our story.

Ted Marsh, a likeable newsboy, living in Chicago, makes the acquaintance of John Dean, a Canadian rancher. Ted takes him to the Settlement to which he belongs. Dean’s interest in the boy grows. Then as the boy begins to show the man the Chicago that he knows, there is the startling clamor of fire engines and all the evidence of a nearby fire. It is in the tenement in which Ted lives. The boy cannot be held back. He rushes into the building to try to save his mother. Fortunately, his mother has already left the burning building. The boy is caught within and only makes his escape by jumping from the window on high into the firemen’s waiting net below.

After a stay in the hospital John Dean and his wife take the boy West with the consent of his mother who unselfishly lets him go because opportunity, so she feels, is there. Ted’s father had left home just before Ted was born.

CAUTIOUSLY HE PROWLED ABOUT

Strong interest centers around the doings of Ted and his new-found friends both at the ranch and at the academy. Adventures are many. The boy is found to be cool in emergencies. He has qualities which bring respect and liking. The end of the story finds him suggested for an important mission to Chicago—and his youth is considered of great advantage by the gentlemen who wish to send him. The opening of the present story finds Captain Wilson hailing Ted, ready to broach the subject and find out if the boy is willing or unwilling to undertake the mission:

The boy saluted. He stood at attention while the captain studied him for a few moments.

“Ted, boy, I come to you on very important business. Not as Scout to Scout, but as man to man. For you can safely refuse to do this—it will not count against you as Scout. Did Mr. Dean see you?”

“Yes sir,” the boy replied. “He told me that in all probability you would wish to see me in reference to an important matter. And he told me that when you did ask me, I was to be sure to decide with no other thought than that of either wanting or not wanting to do it. He doesn’t want my friendship for him or for anyone else to influence me.”

“That’s exactly it, Ted. What we are going to ask you to do, you must, first, want to do, second, feel that you can do, third, be sure it is in line with any convictions you may have. Now, I suppose you are even more anxious to know what it is all about?”

The boy nodded his assent but waited for the other to continue....