Camp. Things get out.

The first thing I did was to go straight to see Bert Winton. I said,
"I've got something to tell you. Can you come out alone?" Because,
honest, that fellow was so popular he could never get away from his
troop.

He said, "Come on out on the lake for a row."

So we went down to the landing and on the way a couple of fellows asked
us if we'd heard about little Skinny. Anyway, we didn't pay any
attention to them. One fellow who belonged in a troop from Boston,
said, "I hear his patrol isn't going to bother with him any more."

I said to Bert--that's what I called him now--I said, "If that was
true about the money, he wouldn't get the gold cross, would he?"

He said, "Nope, I guess not. Bravery doesn't count for much if a fellow
is crooked. A highwayman is brave if it comes to that."

By that I knew that there's a lot to being a hero besides just being
brave. Crinkums, I learned a lot of things from that fellow.

"But as long as he didn't do it, we should worry," I told him.

"That's us," he said

When we got in the boat he took the oars and I sat in the stern and we
just flopped around. There aren't many fellows out rowing mornings,
because they're either tracking or stalking or cleaning up or maybe in
for a dip. We could see the fellows busy about the cabins and hear them
shouting and it made me feel awful sorry for Skinny, somehow. I didn't
see him anywheres and I wondered where he was.

"Well, kid," Bert said (most always he called me that), "things get
worser and worser, hey?"

"Do you still say he didn't do it?" I asked him; "I don't know _what_
to think--look at that money."

"Ever take a good look at Skinny?" he said.

"Yes, but look at the money," I said.

"What do I want to look at it for?" he said; "it ought to be hung out
on the clothesline from all I've heard," he said.

Oh, boy, I was glad to hear him say that. "I wouldn't let any fellow in
this camp except you call me 'kid,'" that's what I told him.

He just rowed around a little while, making dandy feather strokes, and
then he said,

"Mr. Ellsworth didn't send that money over to Daniel Boone and Buffalo
Bill yet, did he?"

I said, "You mean the gold dust twins? No, I don't think he did."

He said, "Well then, we've got to fix _that_ and We can't ask Mr. E.
not to do it The tide's against us, kid; nobody's going to listen to
us--not yet."

Then all of a sudden he sat up, got his oars set right, and oh, bibbie,