ute!"

Supper had been eaten amid the best of feeling. The assembled scouts
forgot for the time being all their troubles. Lame feet failed to ache,
and tired knees had all the buoyancy of youth again.

The mysterious mountain towered above them, seeming to invite a further
and closer acquaintance. Beside the camp ran the brawling stream, and
the noise of its rushing water would either lull the tired lads to
sleep, or else keep them from doing so. Trees overhung the numerous
tents; and on the whole the camp was a pretty sight, as many a lad
declared in his log of the trip.

When Joe heard Paul say the few words that begin this chapter he gave a
sudden start, and looked up quickly. But the patrol leader and acting
scoutmaster had already turned away, and was walking beyond the confines
of the camp.

After hesitating a moment Joe scrambled to his feet, and followed his
chief. He acted as though he more than half suspected just what it was
Paul wanted to say to him; for several times Joe gritted his teeth, and
shook his head in a way he had; for he was known to be very stubborn
sometimes.

He found Paul on the bank of the Bushkill. He had seated himself on a
convenient rock, and was waiting. The moon drifted in through openings
among the trees, and falling on the water made it look like silver; with
frosting here and there, where the foam splashed up around the rocks
lying in the bed of the stream.

"What d'ye want, Paul?" asked Joe, as he came up.

The noise of the moving water was such that he had to elevate his voice
more than a little in order to be heard distinctly.

"Sit down here, Joe, please," remarked Paul, pleasantly. "I wanted to
have a little talk with you on the side, where none of the boys could
hear, that's all."

"About what?" asked the other, weakly.

"Well, perhaps it's none of my business; but since I chanced to be one
of those with you the night we found your father, and heard about his
losing that little tin box with those valuable papers, I thought perhaps
you might be willing to take me into your confidence, Joe. I want to
help you all I can. You believe that, don't you?"

Joe moved uneasily. He had accepted the invitation to sit down, but his
manner was not at all confidential.

"Why, of course I do, Paul," Joe presently observed, slowly, "I know
you're always ready to help any fellow who gets in trouble. There ain't
a better friend in the whole troop than you are to everybody. But wha