and every kid in the place was set to work. After that they made a
rule. Sometimes things have to be done in a hurry. I took Hervey and a
couple of others across the lake, because I knew something serious had
happened over there. I think I had a right to do that. But there's
something else. Hervey didn't tell you everything. You said you didn't
want him to."

"He has never told me everything. I had always been in the dark
concerning him. This tomato throwing makes me rather ashamed, too."

"Yes," said Tom, "that's bad. But will you listen to me if I tell you
the whole of that story--the whole business? I've been away from camp
all day. I only got here fifteen minutes ago. I know Hervey's a queer
kid--hard to understand. I don't know why he didn't speak out----"

"Why, it was because I told him it wouldn't make any difference," said
Mr. Denny, a bit nettled. "The important point was known to me and that
was that he disobeyed me. I don't think we can gain anything by talking
this over, Slade."

"Then you won't listen to me, Mr. Denny?"

"I don't think it would be any use."

Tom paused a moment. He was just a bit nettled, too. Then he stood. And
then, just in that brief interval, his lips tightened and his mouth
looked just as it used to look in the old hoodlum days--rugged, strong.
The one saving, hopeful feature which Mr. Ellsworth, his old
scoutmaster, had banked upon then in that sooty, unkempt countenance.
They were the lips of a bulldog:

"All right, Mr. Denny," he said respectfully.

CHAPTER XXII

ACTION

Tom strode down to the messboards which, in pleasant weather, were out
under the trees. He seemed not at all angry; there was a kind of breezy
assurance in his stride and manner. As he reached the messboards where
some of the scouts were already seated on the long benches, several
noticed this buoyancy in his demeanor.

"H'lo, kiddo," he said to Pee-wee Harris as he passed and ruffled that
young gourmand's hair.

Reaching Mr. Carroll, he asked in a cheery undertone, "May I use one of
your scouts for a little while?"

"I'll have the whole troop wrapped up and delivered to you," said Mr.
Carroll.

"Thanks."

Reaching Gilbert Tyson, he laid his hand on Gilbert's shoulder and
whispered to him in a pleasant, offhand way, "Get through and come in
the office, I want to speak to you."

In the office, Tom seated himself at one of the resident trustees'
desks, spilled the contents of a pigeon ho