them get you," he shouted, clutching the tree to steady himself,
"'cause I know the trail, I do--I'm a scout--and _I got here
first_--I----"

His hand slipped from the tree, he reeled and fell to the ground too
quick for Roscoe to catch him.

"It's--it's all right," he muttered, as Roscoe bent over him. "I ain't
hurt.... Roll your coat up tight--you'd know, if you was a scout--and
put it under my neck. I--want a drink--of water.... You got to begin
right now to-night, Rossie, with the Colors; you got to begin--by--by
bein' a Red Cross nurse.... I'm goin' to call you Rossie now--like the
fellers in the bank," he ended weakly, "'cause we're friends to each
other--kind of."

CHAPTER X

TOM AND ROSCOE COME TO KNOW EACH OTHER

"I don't know what I said," said Tom; "I was kind of crazy, I guess."

"I guess I'm the one that was crazy," said Roscoe. "Does your head hurt
now?"

"Nope. It's a good thick head, that's one sure thing. Once Roy Blakeley
dropped his belt-axe on it around camp-fire, and he thought he must have
killed me. But it didn't hurt much. Look out the coffee don't boil
over."

Roscoe Bent looked at him curiously for a few seconds. It was early the
next morning, and Tom, after sleeping fairly well in the one rough bunk
in the shack, was sitting up and directing Roscoe, who was preparing
breakfast out of the stores which he had brought.

"I guess that's why I didn't get wise when you first asked me about this
place--'cause my head's so thick. Roy claimed he got a splinter from my
head. He's awful funny, Roy is.... If I'd 'a' known in time," he added
impassively, "I could 'a' started earlier and headed you off. I
wouldn't 'a' had to stop to chop down trees."

"Why didn't you swim across the brook?" Roscoe asked. "All scouts swim,
don't they?"

"Sure, but that's where Temple Camp gets its drinking water--from that
brook; and every scout promised he wouldn't ever swim in it. It wasn't
hard, chopping down the tree."

Roscoe gazed into Tom's almost expressionless face with a kind of
puzzled look.

"It don't make any difference now," said Tom, "which way I came. Anyway,
you couldn't of got back yesterday--before the places closed up. Maybe
we've got to kind of know each other, sort of, being here like this. You
got to camp with a feller if you want to really know him."

Roscoe Bent said nothing.

"As long as you get back to-day and register, it's all right," said Tom.
"They'll let you.--It