.

"Maybe it won't be as easy as Uncle Jeb thinks," he said to himself,
"but anyway, I'll be here and I won't be interfering with them, and I'll
get the cabins finished and I'll go away before they come. They'll have
to like Billy Barnard, that's sure; and maybe he'll tell them about my
not knowing who he was until after I gave them the cabins. They'll all
be on the hill together and they'll have to be friends...."

Yes, they would all be on the hill together, save one, and they would be
friends and there would be some great times. They would all hike up the
mountain trail, all save one, and see Devil's Pool up there. Tom hoped
that Roy would surely show Barnard and his troop that interesting
discovery which he and Roy had made. The hard part was already attended
to--making Margaret and Mr. Burton keep still. And, as usual, Lucky
Luke's part was the easiest part of all--just building three cabins and
going away. It was a cinch.

"Shall I build a camp-fire?" he asked of Uncle Jeb.

And so, in the waning twilight, Tom Slade, liar and forgetter of his
friends, built a camp-fire, on this first night of his lonely sojourn at
Temple Camp. And he and Uncle Jeb sat by it as the night drew on apace,
and it aroused fond memories in Tom, as only a camp-fire has the magic
to do, and stilled his jangling nerves and made him happy.

"In about a month there'll be a hundred fellows sitting around one like
this," he said.

"En that Peewee kid'll be trying to defend hisself agin Roay's
nonsense," Uncle Jeb remarked.

"I ain't going to stay to be assistant camp manager this season," Tom
said; "I'm going back to work. I'm having my vacation now. I kind of
like being alone with you."

"What is them shell-holes?" Uncle Jeb asked. "Yer got catched into one,
huh?"

And then, for the first time since Tom had returned from France, he was
moved to tell the episode which he had never told the scouts, and which
he had always recalled with agitation and horror. Perhaps the camp-fire
and Uncle Jeb's quiet friendliness lulled him to repose and made him
reminiscent. Perhaps it was the letter from Barnard.

"That's how I got shell-shocked," he repeated. "When you get
shell-shocked it doesn't show like a wound. There's a place named
Veronnes in France. A German airman fell near there. It was pretty near
dark and it was raining, but anyhow I could just see him fall. I could
see him falling down through the dark, like. I was on my way back to t