THE SHORT CUT
One thing, I hoped they’d all go home soon so I could sit down on a log
and read some more in that book. Only lately I read it, but cracky, that
doesn’t make any difference when it’s a good book, I thought I’d go back
to the ditch pretty soon—as soon as El Sawyer came with the doctor.
But, anyway, I wanted to be alone now.
So I stuffed the book in my pocket and strolled over to where we had
been cutting the saplings. Then I went over close and looked at the one
Skinny had been chopping. I guess I didn’t know what I was doing and
thinking about. Anyway, now that I looked at it, I was sorry I made fun
of him and got mad at him. It wasn’t only because I knew he didn’t take
the two dollars, but anyway, I felt sorry for him.
I couldn’t see him anywhere around and he wasn’t in the ditch, I knew
that. If he had been there then, you bet I’d have been all right with
him. It made me feel bad when I looked at that sapling all hacked and
standing up just as strong as ever. He must have chopped away on it for
half an hour and about all the poor little kid did was to get the bark
off. Right close by, I saw his belt-axe lying just where he left it. It
had Skinny marked on it, and I guess he did it himself. It made me feel
kind of sorry for him that he called himself Skinny. It _was_ his axe,
anyway. And I felt like kicking myself. And I saw how he had been trying
to be a scout just like the other fellows, poor little kid. It wasn’t
any of my business where he got the money. It was _his_, anyway.
Then I began kicking the chips around with my foot and saying, “Poor
kid.” And I said I guessed he’d die before he could ever chop down a
tree. Because, now since I had seen those red spots on his cheeks I knew
how bad he was. I knew he didn’t have any strength at all, and all the
time something he had said kept running in my mind. “_I like the one
about honor._” “Poor little Skinny,” I said. I was feeling bad, anyway.
All of a sudden I heard a sound and saw three or four fellows scrambling
up out of the ditch. So I went over there and just as I got there, I saw
something that I’ll never forget, you can bet.
First I thought it was a ghost, and all the fellows were flabbergasted.
It was Skinny standing right near and clutching hold of a tree, and he
was all trembling and I thought he was going to fall down. Honest, I
never saw anything like the way he looked. His hair was all flying loose
and it made him look wild, because it wasn’t cut. And his eyes were all
like as if they were on fire.
“I got him,” he said, “I got him—he’s coming. He’s getting—out of—out
of his automobile. I got him because I’m—I’m a swamp-rat!” That’s just
the way he said it, and he hung onto the tree and his fingers were all
thin like an old man’s and the spots were in his cheeks. “He’s coming!”
he panted out.
Just then I could see Doctor Winters coming through the trees with a
little black bag. He must have left his machine out on the road about a
hundred yards away. And I guess Skinny must have jumped out and run in
ahead to show him the way. And he just kept saying, “I got him, I got
him. Because I’m a swamp-rat—everybody says so—and I know the short
cut—now can I have a badge—maybe—sometime? Maybe am I a scout now?”
I just looked at him and it gave me the creeps. Because I knew what he
had done. And I remembered now how people called him a dirty swamp-rat.
Many a time I’d heard them call him that. _Just a dirty little
swamp-rat_. And now, he was sort of proud of it.
First, I couldn’t move and I just couldn’t speak. Then I went up to him
and I said—I didn’t care for the doctor or anybody—I said, “Skinny,
there’s one fellow here who knows what the marshes are and that’s me.
Because I came near getting swallowed up by them.”
“It’s—it’s—short—cut,” he just panted out. “All I want to tell you
is,” I said, “there’s not another scout in the whole troop could do
it—do you hear! You’re not a swamp-rat, you’re a swamp-_scout_,” I
said.
Then I was going to say more, only Skinny seemed as if he was going to
fall and the doctor kind of seemed to want me to move away. Anyway, I
went over and got Skinny’s belt-axe to carry it home for him.