And so they started down for camp together, verging away from the tracks
of glory, so as to make a short cut.

"I bet you're smart, ain't you?" Skinny asked. "I bet you're the best
scout in this camp. I bet you know everything in the handbook, don't
you?"

"I wouldn't know the handbook if I met it in the street," Hervey said.

Skinny seemed a bit puzzled. "I had a bicycle that a big fellow gave
me," he said, "but it broke. Did you ever have a bicycle?"

"Well, I had one but I lost it before I got it," Hervey said. "So I
don't miss it much," he added.

"You sound as if you were kind of crazy," Skinny said.

"I'm crazy about you," Hervey laughed; and he gave Skinny a shove.

"Anyway, I like you a lot. And they'll surely let me be a second-class
scout now, won't they?"

"I'd like to see them stop you."




CHAPTER XVI

IN DUTCH