om the mountain. Hervey was then so exhausted as hardly to
know him. The young assistant fancied a sort of constraint among the
boys and he thought that maybe Hervey's condition had taken an alarming
turn.

"Ask Mr. D.," said one of the scouts.

"H'lo, Mr. Denny," said Tom, stepping into one of the cabins. No one was
there but the scoutmaster. "Where's our wandering boy to-night?"

"He has been dismissed from camp, I'm sorry to say," said Mr. Denny.
"Sit down, won't you?"

Tom could hardly speak for astonishment.

"You mean the camp--down at the office----"

"Oh, no, I sent him home. It was just between him and myself."

"Oh, I see," said Tom, a trifle relieved, apparently. "It wasn't on
account of his hurt?"

"Oh, no, he's all right. He just disobeyed me, that's all. That sort of
thing couldn't go on, you know. It was getting worse."

Mr. Denny had now had a chance to review his conduct and he found it in
all ways justified. He was glad that he had not weakened. Moreover,
there was fresh evidence.

"Only just now," he said, "one of the scoutmasters came to me with a
notice from the bulletin board utterly ruined by a tomato which Hervey
threw. He was greatly annoyed."

"Sure," said Tom.

"I don't exactly blame you, Slade----"

"Me?"

"But you took Hervey with you across the lake. He had promised me not to
leave camp. Where he went, I don't know----"

"You _don't_?"

"No, and I don't care. He was picked up by the people in the bus, and if
it hadn't been for that I suppose I'd be answerable to his parents for
his death. He was very insolent to me."

"He didn't say----"

"Oh, no, he didn't say anything. He assumed an air of boyish
independence; I don't know that I hold that against him."

"But he didn't tell you where he had been--or anything?"

"Why, no. I had no desire to hear that. His fault was in _starting_. It
made no difference where he went."

"Oh."

For a few seconds Tom said nothing, only drummed with his fingers on the
edge of the cot on which he sat.

"This is a big surprise to me," he finally said.

"It is a very regrettable circumstance to me," said Mr. Denny.

There ensued a few seconds more of silence. The boys outside could be
heard starting for supper.

Tom was the first to speak. "Of course you won't think I'm trying to
butt in, Mr. Denny, but there's a rule that the camp can call on all its
people in an emergency. The first year the camp opened we had a bad fire
here