TELLS HOW I MADE A PROMISE
Then he said, "Were you one of the kids who were coming along with my
father when I jumped out of the boat?" And I told him yes. Then he
said, "You don't think he saw me, do you?" I said, "Yes, he saw you,
but I guess he didn't know who you were, he didn't see your face,
that's sure."
"Thank goodness for that," he said, "because I've caused the old gent a
lot of trouble."
"Anyway," I told him, "I don't see why you don't wear your uniform.
Gee, if I had a lieutenant's uniform you bet I'd wear it."
"Would you?" he said, and he began to laugh. Then he said, "Well, now,
let's sit down here on this bench and I'll tell you what _you're_ going
to do, and then I'll tell you what _I'm_ going to do, and we'll have to
be quick about it." Then he looked out over the water and listened and
as soon as he was sure nobody was coming, he put his arm over my
shoulder and made me sit down on the bench beside him. I have to admit
I kind of liked that fellow, even though I kind of thought he was, you
know, wild, sort of. It seemed as if he was the kind of a fellow to
have a lot of adventures and to be reckless and all that.
"Maybe you can tell me what you're going to do," I told him, "but you
can't tell me what _I'm_ going to do--that's one sure thing."
"Oh, yes I can," he said, "because you're a bully kid and you're an A-1
sport, and you and I are going to be pals. What do you say?"
"I can't deny that I like you," I said, "and I bet you've been to a lot
of places."
"France, Russia, South America, Panama and Montclair, New Jersey," he
said, "and Bronx Park." Gee, I didn't know how to take him, he was so
funny.
"Ever been up in an airplane?" he said.
"Cracky, I'd like to," I told him.
"I went from Paris to the Channel in an airplane," he said.
Then he gave me a crack on the back and he put his arm around my
shoulder awful nice and friendly like, and it made me kind of proud
because I knew him.
"Now, you listen here," he said, "I'm in a dickens of a fix. You live
in Bridgeboro; do you know Jake Holden?"
"Sure I know him, he's a fisherman," I said; "the very same night your
father told us we could use this boat I saw him, and the next day I
went to try to find him for a certain reason, and he was gone away down
the bay after fish. He taught me how to fry eels."
"Get out," he said, "really?"
"Honest, he did," I told him.
"Well, some day I'll show you how to cook bear's meat. There's
something you don't know."
"Did you ever cook bear's meat?" I asked him.
"Surest thing you know," he said; "black bears, gray bears, grisly
bears--"
"Jiminy," I said.
Then he went on and this is what he told me, keeping his arm around my
shoulder and every minute or so listening and looking out over the
water. "Here's something you didn't know," he said. Gee, I can remember
every word almost, because you bet I listened. A fellow couldn't help
listening to him. He said, "When Jake Holden went down the bay, your
Uncle Dudley was with him."
I said, "You mean you?"
"I mean _me_," he said. "I was home from Camp Dix on a short leave and
was on my way to see the old gent and the rest of the folks, when who
should I run plunk into but that old water rat. It was five o'clock in
the morning, and I was just taking a hop, skip and a jump off the
train. 'Come on down the bay fishing,' he says. 'What, in these togs?'
I told him. 'I'll get 'em all greased up and what'll Uncle Sam say?'
'Go home and get some old ones,' he said. ''Gainst the rules,' I said,
'can't be running around in civilized clothes.' 'You should worry about
civilized clothes,' he said. 'Go up to your dad's old house-boat in the
marshes and get some fishin' duds on--the locker's full of 'em.' 'Thou
hast said something,' I told him; 'go and get your old scow ready and
I'm with you.'"
Then he hit me a good rap on the shoulder and said, "So you see how it
was, kiddo? Instead of going home to hear how handsome I looked, I just
beat it up that creek and fished this suit of greasy rags out of one of
the lockers. There was a key in the padlock and I just took off my
uniform and stuffed it in the locker and beat it over to Little Landing
in Bridgeboro."
"You locked the padlock and took the key, didn't you?" I said.
"Righto," he said, "and I thought I'd be back that same night and down
to Dix again by morning. See? But instead of that, here I am and blamed
near a week gone by and Uncle Sam on the hunt for me. A nice pickle I'm
in. What do you say?"
"Gee, I wouldn't want to be you," I said; "anyway, I'm sorry for you.
But I don't see why you didn't go back like you said." Then he went
over to the railing and looked all around in a hurry.
"I guess they won't be back for an hour yet," I told him; "they went to
the movies."
So he came back and sat down beside me again and began talking very
excited, as if I was kind of a friend of his, the way he talked. You
know what I mean. And, cracky, any fellow would be glad to be a friend
of his, that's sure, even if he _was_ kind of reckless and--you know.
He said, "I had so many adventures, old top, that I couldn't tell 'em
to you. Jakey and I have Robinson Crusoe tearing his hair from
jealousy. Kiddo, this last week has been a whole sea story; in itself--
just one hair's-breadth escape after another. Ever read _Treasure
Island?_"
"_Did I!_" I said.
Then he said, "Well _Treasure Island_ is like a church social compared
to what I've been through. Some day I'm going to tell you about it."
I said, "I wish you'd tell me now."
"Some night around the camp-fire I'll tell you," he said. "We were
fishing off Sea Gate and the fish just stood on line waiting for a
chance to bite. We sold three boatfuls in the one day and whacked up
about seventy dollars--what do you think of that? Then we chugged
around into Coney for gas and on the way back we got mussed up with the
tide and were carried out to sea--banged around for three days, bailing
and trying to fry fish on the muffler. On the fourth day we were picked
up by a fishing schooner about fifty miles off Rockaway and towed in. I
said to Jakey, I'm Mike Corby, remember that, and if you give your
right name I'll kill you--you've got to protect me,' I said, 'because
I'm in bad.' You see how it was, kiddo? I was three days overdue at
camp and didn't even have my uniform. I was so tired bailing and
standing lookout that when they set us down on the wharf at Rockaway, I
could have slept standing on my head. And I've gone without sleep fifty
hours at a stretch on the West Front in France--would you believe it?"
"Sure, I believe it," I told him.
"I'll tell you the whole business some day when you and I are on the
hike."
I said, "Cracky, you can bet I'd like to go on a hike with you."
"That's what we will," he said, "and we'll swap adventures."
I told him I didn't have any good ones like he had to swap, but anyway,
I was glad he got home all right.
"_All right!_" he said, "you mean all _wrong_. Maybe you saw the
accounts in the papers of the two fishermen who were picked up after a
_harrowing experience_--Mike Corby and Dan McCann. That was us. I left
Jakey down at Rockaway to wait for his engine to be fixed and beat it
out to Jersey. _No house-boat_! Was I up in the air? Didn't even dare
to go up to the house and ask about it. That rotten little newspaper in
Bridgeboro had a big headliner about me disappearing--'_never seen
after leaving Camp Dix; whereabouts a mystery_'--that's what it said,
'_son of Professor Donnelle_.' What'd you think of that?"
I told him I was mighty sorry for him, and I was, too.
Then he said how he went to New York in those old rags, and tried not
to see anybody he knew and even he hid his face when he saw Mr. Cooper
on the train. And then he telephoned out to Bridgeboro and Little
Valley and made believe he was somebody else, and said he heard the
houseboat was for sale and in that way he found out about his father
loaning it to our troop, and how we were probably anchored near St.
George at Staten Island. Oh, boy, didn't he hurry up to get there,
because he was afraid we might be gone.
So then he waited till night and he was just wondering whether it would
be safe to wait till we were all asleep and then sneak onto the boat,
when all of a sudden he saw the fellows coming ashore and he got near
and listened and he heard them speak about going to the movies, and he
heard one fellow say something about how Roy would be sorry he didn't
come. And do you want to know what he told me? This is just what he
said; he said, "When I heard your name was Roy, I knew you'd be all
right--see? Because look at Rob Roy," he said; "wasn't he a bully hero
and a good scout and a fellow you could trust with a secret--wasn't
he?" That's just what he said. "You take a fellow named Roy," he said,
"and you'll always find him true and loyal." He said there was a fellow
named Roy on the West Front and he gave up his life before he'd tell on
a comrade.
Then he said, "You see how it is with me, Skeezeks, I'm in a peck of
trouble and I've got to get those army duds on and toddle back to camp
as soon as I can get there and face the music. I've got to make an
excuse--I've got to get that blamed uniform pressed somehow--I suppose
it's creased from the dampness in that locker. I've got to straighten
matters out if I can. I just managed to save my life, and by heck, I'll
be lucky if I can just save my honor and that's the plain truth."
"So you see I've got a lot to do," he said, "and you've got just the
one thing to do, and that's a cinch. It's to keep your mouth shut--see?
Suppose the old gent knew about this. Suppose my sister knew I was
within a quarter of a mile of the house and didn't go to see them. You
know what girls are."
I told him, "Sure, because I've got two sisters. And I bet they'd like
you, too. I bet they'd say you were good looking." Then he began to
laugh and he said, "Well, I bet I'd like them too, if they're anything
like you. So now will you keep your mouth shut? Ever hear of the
scouts' oath? The Indian scouts' oath, I mean--loyalty for better or
worser? Don't say I was here. Don't say you know anything about me.
Keep your mouth shut. If my name should be mentioned, keep still. You
don't know anything. Nobody was here, see?"
I said, "Suppose Mr. Ellsworth or somebody should ask me?"
"Who's going to ask you?" he said; "you say nothing and they'll say
nothing. I fought for my country, kiddo, and I've got two wounds. You
don't want to spoil it all for me now, do you?"
I said, "I bet you're brave, anyhow."
"I'd rather face two German divisions than what I've got to face
to-morrow," he said; "but if I know it's all right at this end, I won't
worry. Are you straight?"
"I wouldn't tell," I told him; "cracky, why should _I_ tell? And I can
see you've got a lot of trouble and you're not exactly all to blame,
anyway. Only I hope I'll see you again sometime because, anyway,
whatever you did I kind of like you. It's one of our laws that a fellow
has to be loyal. Only sometime will you tell me some of the things you
did--I mean your adventures?"
"I'll tell you all about the jungles and the man-eating apes down in
Central America," he said.
So then he went into the cabin in a big hurry and he took the key out
of his pocket and he opened the locker and took out his uniform. It was
all wrinkled and damp, but anyway, he looked fine in it, you can bet.
After he got it all on and fixed right, he stuffed his old clothes into
the place and locked it up again. I bet any girl would say he looked
fine, that's one thing sure.
Just before he climbed over the railing he put his hand in his pocket
and took out some change and he was in such a hurry that he dropped
some of it and it went all over the deck. I started to pick it up for
him, but he only said, "Never mind, let it go, you can have all you
find, and here's a quarter to get a couple of sodas."
I said, "We don't take anything for a service, scouts don't."
"Well, you can have a soda on me, can't you?" he said, trying to make
me take the quarter.
"If you want me to be loyal to you, I have to be loyal if I make a
promise, don't I?" I said.
He said, "What promise?"
And I said, "I can't take anything for a service."
Then he hit me a rap on the shoulder and laughed and he punched me in
the chest, not hard, only kind of as if to show me that he liked me.
Then he said, "Bully for you, kiddo, you're one little trump." Then,
all of a sudden he was gone.
Sometimes you can't tell just why you like a fellow, but, anyway, I
liked him just the same.