CHAPTER XXV

BEING A SCOUT

When I got back to the hollow Will was just standing there holding his shoes to the fire. I said, “Dub took the boat and he’s gone over to camp--here’s a paper he left on a tree. He’s going to take the blame. Will you let him do that?” I admit I was all--I don’t know, I could hardly speak. I just said over again, “Will you let him do that? You see how he says we shouldn’t scrap--and I’m not going to scrap--no more. We never had any scraps in our patrol. But before I say if I’ll ever speak to you again you’ve got to say if you’ll let Dub Smedley do that.”

All of a sudden Will turned and opened up on me. By the fire I could see his eyes were all shiny like. Up to that time he took all I said. Now he just opened up on me. “Before I ever speak to you again,” he said, “you have to say if you really want me to answer that? I took all you said, even in front of him--I did--but now you say--you want me to tell you if I’m a yellow dog--one of your own patrol! Well I’m a Silver Fox, that’s what I am if you want to know--if you’re talking about animals!”

I just went up to him and I made my fingers into the salute, only I didn’t hold my hand up. I just grabbed his hand. I guess I didn’t know what I was doing but just the same he could feel how my fingers were.

“Listen Will,” I said to him. “Sure we’re Silver Foxes--only listen. I was sore--I admit I was sore--but maybe it isn’t so bad. Look at Hervey Willetts, the crazy Indian, he’s always breaking rules, and everybody likes him. Listen--will you please listen?”

“Do you take it back--that question?” Will said. Jiminies, he could hardly speak either.

“I do, sure I do,” I told him, “only yellow, that’s one color I don’t like except on bananas----”

“Now I know it’s you,” Will said.

“Listen Will,” I said to him. “Listen--we have to be starting back, but listen before we start. Will you cut that out! You’re _not yellow_, you’re the color of vanilla ice, that’s a kind of a silver color--now listen. If I said anything I’m sorry for I’m glad of it. Come on, let’s start back. Shall we hike around north, or go back the way Dub and I came--or both?” Will just sort of laughed, he said I sounded like myself--crazy he meant--I should worry.

So then we started for camp around north, because the trail is better that way.

“I was just bobbing for eels,” Will said. “I didn’t want to hear that Arizona Scout. It looks as if you didn’t want to hear him yourself.”

“Right in the eye,” I said. “See if you can hit me again.”

He said, “I suppose I’ll get sent home.”

“That’s the trouble--can’t be helped,” I told him. “Dub, he has to go day after to-morrow. If he got himself blamed for taking the boat, he’d have to go to-morrow morning----”

“Like I will,” Will said.

“Well, don’t you care,” I told him. “Maybe you’ll be in time to go away with your folks, hey? The sea shore--oh boy!”

“Shall I go to the office as soon as we get to camp?” he asked me.

“Sure,” I said, “and I’ll go with you and we’ll report how Dub saved your life. When he goes home day after to-morrow he’ll be an Eagle Scout and he’ll be down for the Gold Medal. Gee, Will, he’s a mighty nice fellow--I saw him a lot.”

“Why doesn’t he stay?” Will asked me.

“Because he’s just an _in-and-outer_,” I said. “He’s only up for two weeks. I think his folks are pretty poor, that’s what I think. If he’s got to go, he’s got to go. But, jiminies, we don’t want him going with a black eye.”

“I’ll say we don’t,” Will said. “I’ll take the black eye--black’s better than yellow.”

“You said it,” I told him.

When we got to camp, there wasn’t anybody around. We counted the coats and they were all in. Up on Powwow Hill the camp-fire was still going. I guess that old Scout from out west was talking everybody deaf, dumb and blind. We could see dark forms sitting all around. Even Cooking Shack was closed up, so I guess even Chocolate Drop was up there.

I said to Will, “They’re still breadcrusting bedtime stories. I’d like to have a hunk of pie, I know that.”

All of a sudden, there was Dub. I guess he was waiting for us. He just kind of appeared.

I said, “You’re all right, Dub, only you’re not going to get away with it. Whatever you said, we’re going into the office and tell the whole thing, just how it was. We happen to be a couple of solid silver-plated foxes and we congratulate you because you’re an honor hero. I dare you to sneak up to camp-fire and get the key of Cooking Shack from Chocolate Drop. We want to get some pie.”

Dub said, “Listen, you fellows, we’re in luck. Nobody has to go home to-morrow. Even Pee-wee Harris couldn’t have fixed it any better. Nobody saw me come in. The whole blooming outfit is up there listening to yarns--scoutmasters, councilors, everybody.”

“Hurrah for Arizona,” I said.

“You could steal the pavilion and nobody’d know it,” Dub said.

“Let’s steal Cooking Shack,” I especially most hungrily suggested.

“How about your life saving medal?” Will asked Dub.

“Sure, explain all that,” I said. “Do you think we’re yellow just because we eat lemon cake?”

“Have a little sense,” Dub said. “I don’t have to be sent home in disgrace at all, because nobody saw me bring the boat in. And Will doesn’t have to be sent home in disgrace because nobody knows he had the boat out. That leaves the life saving medal. All right, I don’t want it. If I could have been the first to win it and get that hundred dollars too, you can bet I’d have scooped up both awards because I want to stay here. I never said I didn’t. That’s what I wanted most of all, and that’s all I did want. Just because I have to go home day after to-morrow, is that any reason why Will should get sent home and all your plans busted up? I can get my Eagle badge any time I want to. The other one I don’t want. And what I want I can’t get. Listen here, Roy Blakeley, I don’t give you the right to go telling on me--what I did. That’s _my_ business and not yours. You take care of your own patrol and you’ll have your hands full.”

“Good night, you said it,” I told him.

He said, “All right. If I was getting sent home in disgrace it might be different. But I’m not. I’d rather do Will Dawson a good turn than get the Gold Medal, and that’s my business, isn’t it? You can be a Scout in your way and I’ll be a Scout in my way. About two thousand, eight million and three-quarter times I heard Pee-wee Harris tell you to keep your mouth shut. That’s what I tell you now. Take Pee-wee’s advice and keep your mouths shut about what happened to-night. Let’s see how much you don’t know about scouting.”

Will just started to laugh. He said, “It’s easy to see Dub has been going around with you and Pee-wee! He talks like the two of you put together.”

“Sure--separated together,” Dub said. “Does that remind you of yourself? Or are you too busy thinking about my business?”