Timberline: Get Them Away.

Timberline: Get Them Away.

(Timberline part 17)

I have related how I know who directs these courses and this is to illustrate who protects them as well.

We were all down on the assembly filed playing some of the games when some rather large clouds began to float overhead. The assembly filed was located next to the cliffs and I kept going over to the edge so that I could see the clouds as they were coming toward us for the southwest. I could hear thunder but the storm seemed to be somewhat distant from where we were. A little later as I was standing observing the games a voice came into my mind saying “Get them away form here.” I didn’t think much about it until only a fraction of time had passed when it came to me a with a little more force and with urgency “Get them away from here, NOW”. I looked out over the field and caught the attention of my senior patrol leader. I yelled to him to get the boys to the tent by the cabin and to do it now and I yelled it in such a way that he knew I meant to do it without delay. They started running toward the tent and I followed. The boys were all closer to the tent than I was so I was basically bringing up the rear. When we all got to the tent which had been erected next to the cabin about 150 yards from the field I had the staff instruct all of the patrols to get inside and then for the staff to help me lower the sides of the tent so that we would be protected from the wind and rain. I was standing facing the tent in such a way that as I worked to lower one side I could see the field from where we had just left in my peripheral vision. As I was lowering the sides I jumped as I saw lightning and instantly heard it as well as it struck the place we had just vacated. One of the scoutmasters was still up at the staff area unaware of what was happening with us and as he heard and could also almost see where the lightning had struck became very concerned that someone might have been hit by it since it was in the area where he knew we were holding the activity at the time.  After the storm had passed over we went to the field to see if we could find any evidence of the strike but was not able to find one. He and I started comparing notes and knew though that it had to have struck the area by that field and had the boys all been there they might have attracted it to one of them had I not followed the voice that came to me with the instruction to get them away from the danger of the approaching storm as quickly as I could. The storm had come so quickly that had I not had the voice to warn me I would not have acted in that way since I had been checking the progress from the cliffs and didn’t realize it could move so quickly when it reached the change in landscape from the smaller hills where it had been while I was watching it. I knew I had been instructed to act and was thankful it was given to me in such a way that I knew I had to act quickly in order to do my part in protecting the camp participants.