f from suspicion, however.
At the words "Smokey's all to the bad," Jimmy forgot everything,
particularly himself and his own illness.

"Where izze?" he asked breathlessly. "I wanna see'm right away. D'yuh
get me? Aw, don't you tell me that li'l nigger's gone an' croaked?"

"Naw, he ain't croaked," said Fred Smith, the painter, "but he's awful
bad, and he sent me to meet you, Jimmy, and tell you to come right on
just the same, 'cause everything's ready."

"He's up there," said Fred when they got to the shack. Jimmy, short of
breath as he was, went up that ladder like a streak. At first he could
see little, the garret was so dark, but a faint voice said from some
burlap bags in the corner:

"Is dat youse, Chimmy?"

"What's de matter, Smoke?" Jimmy's voice was shaky and a short sharp
cough punctuated his question.

"Bles' if Ah knows," said Smokey. "Ah was hammerin' a nail in Christy
Mat'ewson when somet'in esploded in ma chiss. But say, Chimmy, light de
can'le an' pipe de livin' room. Some--swell--Chimmy!--an' Ah done it
a-all ma-se'f!"

Jimmy found the candle and lighted it. He surveyed Smokey lying in the
corner, his eyes and head seeming a misfit for his frail body. The
candle illumined the comic supplements and art sections on the sloping
roof walls and the sofa with its flour-sack bedding turned down as for a
guest. Lastly Jimmy's eyes encountered several dark red spots on the
floor.

"Swell, ain't it, Chimmy?" said Smokey. "Why don't you-all say
something?"

For answer Jimmy blew out the candle somewhat hastily, and Fred at the
foot of the ladder heard some one sobbing in the mansion above.

The Scoutmaster turned to fumble with some papers on his desk. The
Commissioner sat silent, his eyes wide and a bit shiny. He said nothing
for at least half a minute, then, clearing his throat:

"And what then?"

"Oh, the rest is simple enough," said the Scoutmaster. "One of our
Scouts got wind of it and told his patrol leader and they investigated.
Then they got the other Scouts of the patrol together, went into the
woods and cut some fuel, got a basket of grub and provisions from their
mothers and a delegation of two called on Dr. Trudeau--you've heard of
him--died just the other day--the Grenfell of the hills--and the doctor
sent a nurse and then moved Jimmy and Smokey to a hospital, and----"

The Scoutmaster broke off, chuckling.

"Funny thing," he said, "when the great doctor climbed the ladder to
where t