And, indeed, it did seem as if the Lord was with Leon Chase and made his strength in this desperate minute--like that of one of the famous knights of the Round Table--as the strength of ten because his heart was pure!--Purified of all but the desire to help and save! "Starrie's got him! Starrie's holding on to him!" came in an exultant cry from a group of boys rigid upon the river-brink; in their midst gleamed the face, pale and fixed as the ice itself, of Godey Peck; and from Godey's eyes streamed the first ray of ardent hero-worship those rather dull eyes had ever known--leveled at the Tin Scouts. "Keep cool, boys! Take it easy an' you'll land him now!" shouted Captain Andy. Afraid, for their sakes, to burden farther the ice with his massive body, he, too, stretched himself, breast downward, on the more solid crust near the bank, and seizing Colin's ankles directly they came within reach added another link to that human chain by means of which Jack's half-conscious body was finally drawn ashore and placed in his mother's arms. "You saved him, Leon. I'll thank you as well--as well as I can--Leon!" quavered the grandmother's broken voice. "Aw! that's all right," came in an embarrassed shiver from between the chattering teeth of the foremost rescuer, from whom the water ran in rivulets that would freeze in another minute. "I'll forward the names of you four boys to National Headquarters, to receive the scout medal for life-saving!" proudly cried Scoutmaster Estey, who at this minute appeared upon the river-bank, while he plucked Jack's numbed body from his mother's shaking arms and set off at a run with it toward the nearest house. Leon was hustled in the same direction by an admiring crowd. But whence came that shrill challenge waking the echoes of the Christmas Eve? Did Godey's lips utter the cry: "What's the matter with the Boy Scouts? They're all right!" And a score of throats gave back the answer:-- "Three cheers for the Boy Scouts of America! Three cheers--an' a tiger--for the Owl Patrol." "Say, Mister!" Half an hour later, as Scoutmaster Estey issued from the cottage where, with the help of Kenjo Red and another scout, he had been turning his first-aid knowledge to account in the resuscitation of little Jack, he heard himself thus addressed and felt a hand pluck at his sleeve. Looking down, in the twilight, he saw Godey Peck. "Say! it hasn't made 'softies' of 'em, this scout business," declared Godey oracularly. "I want to be a scout too. Us boys all want to come in!" He glanced behind him at his gang who had constituted him their spokesman. "Really? Do you _all_ want to enlist in the Boy Scouts of America?" "Sure! We want to come in now at the rate of sixty miles an hour, you bet!" Godey chuckled. "Oh! well, if you're in such a hurry as that, come round to my house to-night; we're going to have a Christmas celebration there." And the tall scoutmaster walked off, laughing.