and Skinny's going to bring it
to you. Chuck him out if you want to--he should worry. If he isn't good
enough for you, he's good enough--do you see that cabin up on the hill?
Do you see this fellow that's with me? He belongs to the Royal Bengal
Tigers, if anybody should ask you, and Skinny's good enough for _him_.
He can sleep up there--he should worry. They've got three extra cots.

"They'd better keep their watches near them," Vic Norris said. "Take
him, you're welcome to him. Nobody ever said we were crooks in our
patrol."

"Nobody said you were," I shouted, and Bert Winton just had to hold me
back, "but you wouldn't talk like that if Mr. Ellsworth was here, and
you know you wouldn't. Do you suppose I'd let anybody say you weren't
on the square? We're all in the one troop. But you boosted Skinny--you
used him. And in a crazy fit he went out and blamed near gave his life
for you. He doesn't know two of the laws. He can't say the oath
straight, because you had his head filled with awards and medals and
things. You wanted the gold cross and now, by Christopher, I'm going to
see that you get it. You'll have nothing to say about it. Skinny McCord
is going to bring you the gold cross just as you wanted, and you're
going to shout and cheer till you can't speak."

"Who'll make us?" Connie said.

"_I will_," I told him.

CHAPTER XXVI

TELLS ABOUT GEOGRAPHY AND ALL THAT KIND OF STUFF

First we tried to find Skinny to take him with us, but he wasn't
anywhere around. Somebody told us they thought he was off somewhere
with Uncle Jeb. I guess maybe Uncle Jeb didn't know anything about all
the talk, because that was often the way it was with him. And even if
he did know, maybe he took Skinny anyway. One thing sure, I hoped it
was true, because whenever a fellow goes off with Uncle Jeb, he tells
him all about the trees and things like that. Trees can be friends to
you and they never go back on you, that's one thing.

I said, "He'll be all right as long as he's with Uncle Jeb."

Bert said, "Yes, but we'll have to get back before camp-fire. He'll be
wandering around alone. I'll take him up to our cabin. Guess he'll be
all right till we get back. Temple Camp can be a mighty lonely place
sometimes, Blakeley."

Just the same, all the way over to the Hudson I kept thinking about
Skinny and hoping he wasn't hiding away from the fellows or off all
alone somewhere. I knew they wouldn't bother with him, especially now,
and I