I told him I was very well, but I'd like for him please to tell me who
he was, so I'd know.

Then he gave me another push, and I don't know, there was something
about him that kind of made me like him, and I wasn't scared of him at
all.

"Don't you know who I am?" he said.

"I kind of think maybe you're the fellow that jumped out of this boat
and ran away, when it was up the creek near Little Valley. You look
kind of like him."

"Right the first time," he said, "and I bet you're a bully little
scout. What do you say?" Then he looked out over the water to be sure
nobody was coming.

"I'm a first class scout, and I've got nine merit badges, and I'm a
patrol leader," I told him. "Anyway I'd like to know what you want
here."

"_Patrol leader! No!_" he said, and I could see he was only trying to
get on the right side of me, and that he didn't know what a patrol
leader is at all.

"Can patrol leaders keep secrets?" he said.

I told him if it was a good secret, they could. Then he hit me a good
whack on the shoulder and he winked at me awful funny and said: