CHAPTER XXII

PARTNERS

"Just flop around, hey?"

"Yes, that's the way I like to do," said Skinny. "If I was in the bow of a rowboat I couldn't look at you, because you'd be facing backwards. I like to look at you with your white scarf. I like canoes better than rowboats, don't you?"

"They're not so good for dancing or scrapping."

"That's the way you talk, and it's why fellows can't make you out," said the simple Skinny.

"Well, as long as you can make me out it's all right," said Danville. "How 'bout it, are you going to help me?"

"Will you let me! You mean getting your first class badge? Are you going to do it?"

"Might as well, hadn't I?"

"And that's all you've got to do? I mean just test four?"

"N--no, I've got two things to do," said Danville as he paddled idly, occasionally letting the paddle drip. "This scouting is a blamed nuisance."

"Now I can tell you're fooling. Kind of sometimes you remind me of my brother, only he's only a half a brother. Anyway, you're not so fresh like he is. He gets in a lot of trouble being reckless."

"That's the way to do it," said Danville. "Where's the other half of him?"

"I mean we got different mothers," said Skinny. "Once a feller got fresh with me and he knocked him kerplunk. Another feller----"

He was about to stumble into a reference to Danny's pugilistic exploit at camp, but caught himself just in time. He could not trust himself talking about Danny, and it made him feel false and dishonorable, so he changed the subject.

"Only just one test you've got to take to be in the first class? Two, you said two."

"Yep, the other's missionary stuff, training a boy to be a tenderfoot--twelve. I'm not so stuck on twelve except when it's twelve gumdrops for a cent. You don't happen to know any boys that want to be trained as tenderfoots or feets, whatever it is? I suppose we might kidnap one from a farm. But first how about Test Four? Tell me about that seven mile hike, or if it turns out to be any more than seven miles the boy scouts will have to give me a rebate. I've been climbing up the Alps this summer and I'm tired."

"Those are in Europe, hey?"

"And they're up in the air--in Switzerland. Where is this lion's den or whatever you call it? Maybe I could go in a taxi. I've got to do it before my dad comes up or I won't be able to stick him for a pony next winter."

"I can never make out whether you're honest and true for scouting or not," poor Skinny said.

"Oh, I'm honest and true," said Danville. "Tell me and let's plan it out and get it over with."

"You got to be serious about it," Skinny warned.

"All right, I'll start crying if you say so. As I understand it I've got to hike seven miles and seven miles back and write up an account of it--all the time being serious. Now is this cave just exactly seven miles? I don't want to make that hike and then find I didn't go far enough. And if I should find I hiked farther than necessary I'd be good and mad at you. I'm not going to give them any more than they ask for; I'm a stingy chap."

"Is it a real pony--a live one!" Skinny asked.

"If it isn't I'll have my dad arrested for swindling."

"Would you have anybody arrested?"

"I might if I happened to think of it. Let's talk about something pleasant. If I do that fourteen mile hike and close up on the first class tests, will you find me a boy to train as a tenderfoot! That'll be the only thing left to do. Maybe you could leave the scouts and then I'd start in training you--no?"

"They wouldn't let us do that. Just the same we'll find some feller that's not a scout."

"All right then, I guess I might as well take a hop, skip and jump into the first class. Will you go with me to-morrow morning and hold my hand?"

"Sure I will; then I can tell them I was the one that went with you, hey? I can be the one to prove it."

"Sure thing; you tell 'em."

"Are you all excited about it?" Skinny asked.

"Oh I think I'll sleep to-night."

"And to-morrow you can write to your father that you're a full first class scout, hey?"

"Don't forget about the boy I have to catch and train for a tenderfoot."

"Yes, but that isn't exactly a test, kind of."

"Now if you weren't such a little peach of a scout I might use you."

"And I could go in your patrol, maybe; hey? Because my patrol wouldn't be mad if I did."

"Oh, is that so? Well, we'll have to be careful not to make them mad. I suppose they'd beat us up if they got mad; and they wouldn't let us use your canoe."

Skinny seemed to be thinking. "If you're breaking in a new feller then maybe you won't bother with me any more; hey?"

"Then again maybe I will."

"I bet when you get your first class badge, then you'll start getting a lot of merit badges; I bet you'll win a whole lot of them."

"Six or eight at a time, huh?"

"And when you've got your first class badge you can try for camp specials too. Those are things that are not in the Handbook, like the Mohawk Archery set for tracking; you get a target easel and a lot of targets and a real Indian bow and arrows and everything. You've got to track somebody, or an animal, five miles through the woods--then you get it."

"I kind of like that."

"First you've got to find tracks--I'll help you. There's a feller up here named Roy Blakeley; don't you let _him_ help you. He told one scout where there were some tracks and they were nothing but railroad tracks. So do you want to try for that prize after you get your full badge?"

"That's the one for me. Tell me about this canoe; how did you win it?"

"I was all kinder crazy like--kinder like my fingers were asleep. So I even couldn't hold myself back. Do you say a feller can be kinder good even if he's reckless. You don't have to be so terrible if you're bad, do you?"

"Guess not."

"If you like me a lot----"

"That's it."

"If you like me a lot and I do something--kinder--maybe--if I'm kind of not so good all of a sudden--then would you like me just the same?"

Danville Bently gazed amusedly at the poor little fellow wedged into the point of the canoe. There was something pathetic about Skinny's very posture as he sat there, serious, eager, insignificant. He looked out of place and uncomfortable in this beautiful canoe, as if he did not yet comprehend how he had even won it.

His own spectacular excursion into the field of heroic enterprise was like a fairy tale to him now. But he was strong on hero worship. Danville lifted the paddle and poked him with it; Skinny was used to that sort of thing.

"No, I only like Sunday School boys," said Danville. "They've got to be perfect to suit me."

Skinny looked at him as if he did not know whether to believe this or not.

"So if you've been committing any murders or robbing any banks, it's all over between us. Shall we flop around toward camp again now, and wash up for eats?"

"To-morrow morning you'll go on Test Four!"

"To-morrow morning. Then for the archery set and the new recruit."

"Can I be partners with you while you're doing all that?"

"Sure--or falling down on it."

"Sometimes fellers forget when they have dates with me."

"Well I've got a good memory."