im, and I wasn't scared of him at
all.

"Don't you know who I am?" he said.

"I kind of think maybe you're the fellow that jumped out of this boat
and ran away, when it was up the creek near Little Valley. You look
kind of like him."

"Right the first time," he said, "and I bet you're a bully little
scout. What do you say?" Then he looked out over the water to be sure
nobody was coming.

"I'm a first class scout, and I've got nine merit badges, and I'm a
patrol leader," I told him. "Anyway I'd like to know what you want
here."

"_Patrol leader! No!_" he said, and I could see he was only trying to
get on the right side of me, and that he didn't know what a patrol
leader is at all.

"Can patrol leaders keep secrets?" he said.

I told him if it was a good secret, they could. Then he hit me a good
whack on the shoulder and he winked at me awful funny and said:

They are fools who go and tell
Wisely has the poet sung.
Man may hold all sorts of jobs
If he'll only hold his tongue.

"Are you a tramp?" I asked him.

"_A tramp!_" he said, "that's pretty good. I dare say I look like one."

Then he jumped up on the railing and began laughing so hard I was
afraid he'd fall backwards into the water. I told him he'd better look
out, but he only laughed more, and said I was a great kid. Then all of
a sudden he happened to think and he looked around to see if anyone was
coming. Then he said,

"Are you game to help me in a dark plot?"

Gee, I didn't know what to tell him. "It depends upon how dark it is,"
I said. Because, jiminy, I wanted to be careful and watch my step. But
that only made him laugh a lot. Then he said,

"Well, it isn't exactly a black plot, but it's a kind of a dark brown."

"One thing sure," I said, "you're not a tramp, I know that--I can
tell."

"You're a wise little gazabo," he said. "Would you really like to know
who I am?"

I told him sure I would.

"Do you think I look like a tramp?" he asked me.

"I think you kind of look like one," I said; "but you don't act like
one, and you don't laugh like one."

"I've got blamed little reason to laugh," he said, "because I'm in
Dutch, and you've got to do me a good turn. Will you?"

"Good turns are our middle names," I told him, "but anyway, I'd like to
know who you are--that's sure."

Then he said, "I'm Lieutenant Donnelle, Mr. Donnelle's son. And I guess
I had a right to run away from the boat, didn't I?"

"G-o-o-d nigh