"

"That's right," Hervey concurred with surprising readiness. "You've got
the right idea. My specialty is the Eagle badge. See?"

"Well, that's twenty-one badges," Tom said.

"Right-o, and all I need to do now is test three for the stalking badge
and I'm _it_. And if I can't go over the top between now and this time
Saturday, I'll never look the fellows in my troop in the face again,
that's what."

Tom whistled to himself a moment as they strolled along. Perhaps he knew
more than he wished to say. Perhaps he was just a little out of patience
with this sprightly, irresponsible young hero.

"Well, there isn't much time," he said.

"That's the trouble, Slady, and it's got me guessing."

CHAPTER XI

OFF ON A NEW TACK

It is doubtful if ever there was a scout at Temple Camp for whom Tom
felt a greater interest or by whom he was more attracted than by this
irrepressible boy whose ready prowess he had just witnessed. And the
funny part of it was that no two persons could possibly have been more
unlike than these two. Hervey even got on Tom's nerves somewhat by his
blithe disregard of the handbook side of scouting, except for what it
was worth to him in his stuntful career.

The handbook was almost a sacred volume to sober Tom. Still, he was
captivated by Hervey, as indeed others were in the big camp.

"Well, you were after the Eagle and you got an oriole," he said, half
jokingly. "That's what I meant when I said that sometimes you don't
know where a trail will bring you out. You got a lot to learn about
scouting. What you did to-day was better than tracking a half a mile or
so."

"The pleasure is mine," said Hervey, in bantering acknowledgment of the
compliment, "but if there's anything higher in scouting than the Eagle
award, I'd like to know what it is."

"How much good has it done you trying for it?" Tom asked. "Nobody is
supposed to go after a thing in scouting the same as he does in a game.
He's supposed to learn things why he's going after something," he added
in his clumsy way. "You went through the bird study test and you didn't
even know it was an oriole's nest that you rescued. And you forgot all
about something else too, and it makes me laugh when I think about it;
when I think about you and your tracks."

"You think I'm a punk scout," Hervey sang out, gayly.

"I think you're a bully scout," Tom said.

"If I win the Eagle you'll say so, won't you?"

"Maybe."

"And do you mean to tell