ughts back on the work. Once, when the ball was
traveling around the bases, his attention wandered, and when somebody
threw the sphere home, it almost struck him in the head.

"Let's call it a day," cried Ted Carter, "before Tim gets killed."

Tim smiled absently. He looked around for Don. The patrol leader was
gone. He walked away slowly, turning one question over and over in his
puzzled mind. What new trick was this, anyway?

Next morning he went around to Don's house. He was still sure that
something had been hidden, and that at the proper moment the surprise
would be sprung. He was watchful and cautious.

The practice ran its course serenely. Barbara came out, and after
watching awhile, wrote a four-word message and asked Tim to send it. Don
received it without a mistake.

"Isn't that splendid?" she cried. "The Wolf patrol will surely win points
in the signaling, won't it?"

"We'll give them a fight," said Don.

Tim said nothing. But the fire to be something more than the Wolf patrol
failure began to burn again. When the last message had flashed back and
forth, he handed Don his flag.

"We'll get down to real work after this," said the patrol leader.

Ah! So here was the trick. Tim waited.

"Sending messages back and forth," Don went on, "is all right while we're
brushing up the code. We know the code now. It's time to begin to
specialize for the contest. One of us will have to do nothing but send,
and the other nothing but receive."

Still Tim waited.

"Which do you want to do, send or receive?"

"I--I'll send," said Tim. He felt like a boy who had squeezed his fingers
in his ears and had waited for a gun to go off, and had then found that
the gun was not loaded. He was bewildered, lost, confused.

Wednesday he came again. And still there was no bossing, no giving
orders, no high hand of authority. Perhaps there was no trick.

"Ah!" Tim told himself, "there must be. Why did he shift me here? Why
didn't he let me stay with Alex? There's a reason, all right."

And so, whenever he and Don were together, on the baseball field or in
Don's yard, he found himself weighing every word and act.

Friday night's meeting brought no change in the score. Each troop, eager
and keen, reported faultlessly. The blackboard read:

PATROL POINTS

Eagle 122-1/2
Fox 127
Wolf 124-1/2

Tonight there was silence when the scores were posted. The contest had
grown too tight for mere noise and bluster. A