TELLS ABOUT HOW I VISITED THE OHIO TROOP'S CABIN
One thing I was sure of, and that was that Skinny went away into the
woods just to be alone by himself, like he said. I knew it was just
like him to do that. Maybe you'll think it was funny for him to do that
when it was raining, but already he was good and wet; you have to
remember that. I said to myself, "I should worry about the key, because
anyway, that had nothing to do with Skinny." But just the same I kept
worrying about something, I don't know just what.
Pretty soon I made up my mind to do something that I didn't want to do.
I went up the hill to where the Ohio troop bunked. They had one of the
big troop cabins that holds two patrols. I guess they were a pretty
fine troop, because they had everything fixed up dandy. One patrol was
called the Royal Bengal Tigers, and the other was called the African
Tigers, and both patrols wore yellow scarfs with black stripes, and all
their scout staffs had tigers' heads on them. Even when they dived from
the spring-board they had a certain kind of a way of jumping, they
called it the tiger spring, and nobody could get the hang of it. Some
organization they had, that's what Mr. Ellsworth said. Every one of
those fellows had a tiger claw hung around his neck. Oh, boy, that was
some troop for you.
I asked one of the fellows for Bert Winton, and he came around from
behind the cabin where he was spearing papers and leaves. I said,
"_You_ fellows ought to be called the gold dust twins, your two patrols
I mean, because you're so plaguy particular--picking up leaves and
everything. You'll be dusting the roof next."
He said, "We're a lot of old maids up here."
Then he climbed up on the cabin roof and sat on the peak and I
scrambled up too, and sat down alongside of him. Honest, that fellow
would squat in the funniest places. And always he had a stick with him.
"Nice and breezy up here," he said, in that quiet, easy sort of way he
had, "and we can scan the horizon. Anything particular?"
I don't know, but I seemed to sort of feel that he knew what I was
going to talk about, and I guess he just scrambled up there so the
other fellows wouldn't hear. Cracky, that fellow always had his wits
about him, that's one sure thing.
I said, "I don't deny that I was kind of sore at you when you spoke to
me down at the lake, and I can't tell whether I like you or not,
because I can never make out what you really think. You've got to know
what a fellow thinks before you know whether you like him or not, don't
you?"
He said you sure did, and then he said, "Well, I know whether I like
_you_ or not, so it's all right."
"I don't care much whether you like _me_" I said, "it's Skinny I'm
thinking about. I know I like _him_, you can bet."
"And that's one reason I like you," he said; "because you like _him_.
Ever notice how the cedar shingles shrink in a dry spell?"
I said I didn't know they were cedar.
"You can always tell cedar by the smell," he said, "and the S warp."
Gee, I didn't even know what an S warp was.
Then I said right out--I said, "You told me that you tracked Skinny.
Would you mind telling me where he went?"
For a minute he just kept moving the stick around and then he said,
"What would be the use of telling you?"
"Because I've got a reason and I want to know," I said. Then all of a
sudden I knew why he climbed up there. It was partly so he could see
all around and be sure no one was coming.
"Well, why do you want to know?" he said.
"Because I'm a friend of Skinny's, that's why," I said. Then I just
blurted out, "I might as well tell you because, anyway, you're smarter
than I am. They found a key on Skinny."
He just said, "When?"
"To-day," I said, "and it's probably a key to one of the lockers in our
house-boat. Besides, that fellow who nearly got drowned had about a
couple of hundred dollars on him."
"Humph, I thought so," Winton said.
I said, "Why?"
"Oh, just because," he said. "The day he came over to try to buy a
fishing-pole he had a roll as big as a cobblestone with him. I
suspected he'd lose it some day and that somebody would get blamed."
"Nobody is getting blamed," I said.
"No, but somebody is being suspected," he shot back.
"Well, he _did_ lose it, I have to admit that much," I said.
"And that's all you're ever going to admit, hey?" he said, all the
while moving the stick around on the roof.
"_You_--_bet_--_your_--_sweet_--_life_, that's all I'm ever going to
admit," I said.
"Bully for you," he said; "you're about the best little scout I ever
knew--next to Skinny."
"I can stick up for a friend, that's one thing," I said.
"Through thick and thin?" he asked me; "in spite of circumstantial
evidence?"
"I should worry about circumstantial evidence," I told him. "Why should
I care about circumstantial evidence? What did circumstantial evidence
ever do for _me_, I'd like to know?"
Then he began to laugh. Gee, _I_ didn't know what he was laughing at.
"Nothing would shake you, huh?" he said.
"Believe me, it would take an earthquake," I told him.
He looked all around and moved the stick around on the shingles, as if
he was thinking.
Then he said, "Well, Skinny went over to the Hudson to that house-boat
you fellows came up on. He followed the old bed of Bowl Valley creek.
Now don't get excited. He had as much right to go there as you have. He
was all worked up, and he isn't just exactly right in his head, you
know that. He just wanted to go home and be all alone by himself. The
house-boat was the only home he knew. I didn't go on the boat, because
I had no right to, and because there was no need to. I didn't know he
had any key. I don't believe he hid anything, if that's what you're
thinking about. I tracked him because I wanted to make sure he was safe
and know what he was doing. As soon as I saw where he was headed for, I
just beat it back. Nothing to it, Blakeley; don't worry."
"But now you know he had a key to a locker," I said.
He just said, "Well, what of it? I believe in him and there you are. I
wouldn't care if he had keys to all the banks and safe deposit vaults
in the United States."
Gee, it just kind of gave me a thrill, the way he spoke. I said,
"Anyway, now I know that I like you. I ought to have had sense enough
to know before."
Then he said, "You see, Blakeley, Skinny's a mighty queer little
proposition. If it wasn't for that scoutmaster you fellows have, I'd
say he would never make a regular tip-top scout. But I think that Mr.
What's-his-name--Ellsworth--is a wonder."
"Believe me, you said something," I told him.
"You know yourself," he said, "how that kid talks--shouts, I mean.
Stealing silver, picking pockets! What are all these fellows to think?
Most of the fellows here come from good folks. They don't understand a
poor little codger like Skinny who is half crazy, because he's been
half starved. You know yourself that he doesn't fit in here. I don't
say he isn't going to. But I'm good at arithmetic, Blakeley--"
"Gee, you're a peach on tracking, too," I said.
"Well, and I know how to put two and two together," he said. "I knew, I
just felt it in my bones, that that gold dust twin with his swell
bathing suit and his waterproof mackinaw was going to lose his roll in
the water. He carried it loose in his mackinaw pocket--a camper, mind
you. He had a wad big enough to pay off the national debt, and I knew
it would tumble out and it did. Skinny's one of those poor little
codgers that's always unlucky. He happened to be there. He happened to
have a key. He happened to go to the house-boat. I got hold of his
tracks just because I didn't want him to come to any harm while he was
all worked up. The reason I didn't say anything about where he went
was, because there are a whole lot of fellows in this camp that would
put two and two together and get five. Understand? They'd say he went
to hide Goldie's freight shipment of dollar bills. So I kept still. No
harm in keeping still."
"Oh, cracky," I said, "but I like you. _I'm_ keeping still about
something too and you can bet I know how to keep my mouth shut. You can
just bet I'd do anything for a friend, I would."
"Well, Skinny's got a good friend," he said.
"I didn't mean Skinny," I told him; "but he has got two good friends,
anyway, and that's us, hey?"
He just said, "That's us," and then he slid right down the roof and
jumped off the edge, awful funny like.