I knew that fellow in school and I never had much use for him. He
graduated when I was in the primary. At recess he used to take our
marbles, just to make us mad. And after we started our troop he used to
call us the boy sprouts. I guess he thought he was funny. Harry Domicile
hasn’t got much use for him either, and you bet your life Harry Domicile
knows.
“Gee, I didn’t think he’d do that,” Westy said.
“Come ahead,” I told him; “he won’t get away with it anyway.”
We went right up to the garage and I walked straight inside. The men had
gone home and it was all dark except for the headlights on Charlie’s
car. It wasn’t his, it was his father’s. But he told all the girls it
was his. He was just stepping out and I went right up to him, because
Westy was so kind of ashamed that any one would do such a thing that he
just couldn’t speak of it. He’s a dandy fellow, Westy is.
I said, “Will you please give us the flashlight that you took?”
“Hello, sprouts,” he said; “what’s troubling you now?” And he gave me a
kind of a push, you know, just as if he was jollying me.
I said, “Will you please give me the flashlight you took?”
“Light? What light?” he said, very innocent like.
“The one you took from in front of my house,” I said. “You’ll either
give it to me or I’ll have you arrested. If you think I’m afraid of you,
you’re mistaken. And you can keep your hands off me, too. You better
button your coat or you’ll be stealing your own watch next.”
He just began laughing.
“That’s all right,” I said; “I mean what I say.”
He took the flashlight out of the car and said, “You don’t mean this, do
you?”
“Yes, I mean that,” I said; “it’s got this fellow’s initials on, so you
needn’t try to make us think it’s yours.”
He just gave me a poke with it and kept on laughing. Gee, I was mad.
“Your hands remind me of tanglefoot flypaper,” I said.
“Yes?” he just laughed. “Well, here’s your old light. What’s the matter
with you kids? Can’t you take a joke? I just wanted to see if you were
good at tracking. You claim to be such great Buffalo Bills——”
I said, “Yes? Well, you’ve got Jesse James looking like a Sunday School
teacher.”
“I see you’re all right at trailing,” he said; “here take your light. I
was giving you a test. What’s the matter with you?”
He was very easy and offhand like, but I could see he was kind of
nervous.
He said, “And I suppose you’ll be telling the whole town about your
great stunt.”
“Don’t worry,” I told him. “I’d be ashamed to remind the town that
there’s such a fellow as you here. All we want is what belongs to us.”
He began digging down in his pocket, all the while saying, “Well, we’ll
just keep it a little secret between ourselves and——”
I guess just then he found he didn’t have any money. Because he finished
up by saying, “And we’ll have some ice cream sodas the first time I meet
you on Main Street. Now how’s that?”
“Sure,” I said, “and we’ll put the spoons in our pockets when we get
through.”
“Well, now, you’re not going to go round shouting, huh?” he said, kind
of anxious.
Then for the first time Westy spoke. He said, “We promise not to tell
anybody, if that’s what you mean. So you needn’t worry about that.”
“How about you, Kiddo?” Charlie Slausen asked.
“Oh, I promise,” I said.
“Well, then, let’s see if you’re as good at keeping your word as you are
at tracking,” he said. “I thought you’d find me. Now it’s a go, is it?
Not a word?”
“That’s what we told you,” I said. Gee whiz, I was so disgusted I could
hardly speak to him.
“Climb out through that window,” he said.
Then for the first time I noticed that he had closed the big door.
“Go ahead,” he said; “I’ll come out after you.”
He was such a blamed peculiar kind of a fellow that we didn’t have any
idea what he was up to. Whatever he did seemed to be kind of on the sly.
The window was on the side of the garage. After we had climbed through
we started back up Willow Place. Pretty soon we saw a dark figure going
across the street very quietly and we thought it must be him.
“I guess he doesn’t want his father to know he was using the car,” Westy
said. “That’s why he sneaks out.”
“He had to come in with it, though,” I said.
Westy said, “Sure, but that isn’t any reason for him not watching his
step when he goes away. He wasn’t going to show himself on Willow Place
till he was sure no one was there.”
“Well, there’s no harm done,” I said. “We’ve got the flashlight.”
“Yes, and he’s got our promise,” said Westy.
“He needn’t lose any sleep over that,” I said. “A scout’s honor is to be
trusted—Law one, page thirty-four. Correct. Let’s go over and get a
couple of sodas.”