IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY
There was no chance of escape now. The simplicity and trustfulness
of Skinny's nature supervened and there, in the very presence of his
wretched half-brother, he told about the whole miserable affair of
Danny's masquerade at camp. Danville Bently, greatly astonished, sat
on a rock listening. He did not seem to be angry, his face was a
puzzle. He had picked up his dripping, muddy scarf and held it
dangling in the final pause when the two half-brothers had ceased
speaking. While still they talked he had glanced rather curiously
from one to the other, paying to each the tribute of friendly
attention. And now, when he spoke, his casual remark bore no
reference to Skinny's concealment, to Danny's fraud, or to his
dubious record.
"You'd never guess that scarf used to be white, would you?" he asked,
looking at neither Skinny nor Danny. "That was white silk. Lucky
I've got a couple more of them." Then after a pause, "I'll bet you
found it pretty damp in that blamed rat-hole. What did you haul the
log in there for?"
"So as to keep the leaves from spreading," Danny said. "I carried
them in and piled them between the log and the wall."
"Some bed," said Danville. "You must have got good and tired of
eating fish. How'd you do, fry them?"
"Yep, that's easy."
"And that what's-his-name you took the blame for--Sharpe? He just
let it go at that, huh!"
"I don't take any credit," Danny said. "I'd have been found out when
you showed up anyway. Sharpy's nothing but a flivver; let him have
his fun."
"Look how I can wring the water out of this darned thing," Danville
said. "Lucky there was water in the cave, hey? I wish you could go
back to camp with us. It's a sticker, what we're going to do now.
We all came through with our lives fine and dandy, and now we don't
know what to do."
"You're not mad at him?" Skinny asked.
"I never get mad," said Danville. "Only I don't see how he's going
to go back to camp--I'm kind of mad about that. We could have some
fun."
"Oh I'll go back," said Danny, desperately. "I'm out of luck; what's
the use trying to beat the game? You did the kid a good turn, and
you did me one too; you saved the both of us. I've got the camp
after me at one end and the school bunch after me at the other--I'm
through. Come on, we'll go back and you can get your Gold Cross,
we'll take care of that, won't we, Tiny? What do you think we
are--half-baked sports? Just because I pulled a slope* on the
reformatory? Hey, Tiny, tell him how I smashed Kinney, and that boy
scout for what he said."
* The elegant phrase meaning escaped.
"I did tell him, he knows," said Skinny.
"Sure, I'll go back; all they can do is give me over to that bunch of
dopes at Blythedale and I'll get a couple of years extra, if I don't
pull another slope on them. They sleep standing up, that menagerie
of yaps. What I did for Sharpy, the boy detective, I can do for you.
I may be black, but I ain't yellow."
"What color would you say I am--not counting the mud on me?" said
Danville. "I never said I wanted any Gold Cross. I saved Alf
because he's my side partner. And as long as I saved you I might as
well finish the job. I'm not going to say I came to this place at
all; I'm not going to say I saved either one of you. And I'm not
going to make a strike for the badge on this hike. It's all off. If
I say I saved Alf then there'll be a whole lot of questions, and nix
on lying. Nobody knows we came here and nobody needs to know it.
I've got twenty dollars and I'll give it to you--ten for smashing
Kinney, and ten for that other fellow for what he said. Will you
look at the mud on that twenty spot? It went right through my
clothes. You visited me for two weeks in camp only I didn't know it,
and my dad will pay the bill. Why don't you go back to reform
school?"
"Would you?" Danny asked.
"Hanged if I know; only won't they get you?"
"Not if I can once get on a ship."
"Well, you have to mind your business, and I have to mind mine. And
maybe I can't see my way clear to go by notices on bulletin boards.
Anyway, I forgot all about saving anybody's life and making the
fourteen mile hike, and you're a darned good scout only you don't
know it. I'd rather be you than Sharpy. I came up here to have a
good time and not to be a detective. I don't care a hang about the
Gold Cross. You can't prove anything by me."
"You mean you're not going to tell--how you found him, and how you
saved us both?" Skinny asked excitedly. "You mean you're not going
to get the _Gold Cross_?"
Danville Bently shook his head and made a wry face. "I don't like
it, it costs too much," said he. "I'm a stingy scout and I won't pay
the price. Come on, what do you say we eat! Tea for three. How the
dickens can you cut two sandwiches to make three helpings? There's a
sticker. Got a lead pencil and I'll see if I can do it by geometry."