ed saying we'd like to earn some money; talk is
cheap."

"Sure, that's why we use so much of it," said Roy. "If it cost anything
we couldn't afford it."

"Well," said the young man, "I've got a job and I need help. It's
outdoors and it means camping and living rough. It means cooking our own
meals. You could get a little money out of it; not much, but a little."

Perhaps it was what the stranger said, perhaps the way he said it, but
something caused them all to turn and stare at him.

He was a young fellow of about twenty-three or four and of very shabby
appearance. The threadbare suit which he wore must have seen long
service and either it had never been a very trim fit or he had lost
flesh. His face, indeed, seemed to imply this, being thin and pale, and
there was a kind of haunting look in his eyes.

But his demeanor was creditable, he seemed quite free of any taint of
the shiftlessness which his appearance might have suggested, and his
amusement at the scouts' bantering nonsense was open and pleasant. Mr.
Bennett contemplated him with just a tinge of dubiousness in his look.
But the scouts liked him.

"What's the nature of the work?" Mr. Bennett asked.

The young man seemed a trifle uneasy at being directly questioned but no
one would have said it was more than the diffidence which any sensitive
young fellow might show towards strangers.

"It's taking down two or three buildings," he said; "just shacks. My
name is Blythe."

"Here in town?"

"No, up at the old camp."

"Oh, you mean Camp Merritt? I heard the government sold the whole
shebang. What are they doing? Putting gangs to work up there?"

"I'll help you tear down Camp Merritt!" Pee-wee shouted.

"No, they're just giving the jobs out piecemeal," the young man said
amid the general laughter. "Anybody that wants to tear a building down
can get permission. They give so much a building. I undertook three. If
I could get some help and do it in a month or so I'd have a little
money. I haven't got anybody so far. I suppose that's because it's out
of the way."

"Oh, then you don't work for the wrecking concern?" Mr. Bennett queried.

"Only that way," the stranger said.

"You belong hereabouts?"

"N--no."

"Anybody else working up there?"

"Not now."

"I suppose these youngsters could get a commission to haul down several
buildings themselves if they wanted to?" Mr. Bennett inquired. "Cut out
the middle man, huh?"

The young fellow seemed a