CHAPTER XX

TELLS ABOUT THE LOSS OF SOME MONEY

Mr. Ellsworth asked me to come back and get some letters to put in the mail box, so after I saw the gold dust twin start off I went back to the tepee, and just as I was going inside I saw Connie Bennett and Bert McAlpin and Hunt Ward and Stut Moran and Skinny coming down the hill in back of the tepee. Skinny was smiling all over and I could see the wrinkles at the ends of his mouth like I always could when he smiled.

That's when you could see how thin he was. I shouted that I thought Mr.

Ellsworth wanted to see him and he started to run, only Connie grabbed him by the collar, just for fun, and held him back. I heard him say, "Take your time, we're all in on this."

By that I knew that Skinny expected Mr. Ellsworth was going to give him the gold cross. I didn't blame _him_ for thinking so, but the others might have had better sense, because it's usually a week, anyway, before an honor medal comes.

Anyway, they all came down into the tepee and stood looking around as if they expected to see the gold cross on the table. Hanged if I don't think Connie had n idea that Mr. Ellsworth would hand it to _him_, he looked so important like.

Mr. Ellsworth just went on and finished the letter he was writing, then he said, "Alfred, our rescued mariner from across the lake can't find a roll of money he had in his mackinaw. He thinks it may have gone down in the lake. Don't happen to know anything about it, do you?"

I have to admit that I felt sort of funny and I looked pretty close at Skinny. He just stood there staring and I could see by his neck that he was breathing hard and all nervous sort of. Then Mr. Ellsworth asked him again, very pleasant like he always spoke to him. But Skinny didn't say a word, only stood there staring and he gulped as if he was trying to swallow something. Gee, I was all kind of shaky myself now, because I saw Mr. Ellsworth looked at him in a funny way--like a fellow looks at the sun--kind of. As if he was studying him--_you_ know.

Then Connie said, "Why in the d.i.c.kens don't you speak up, Skinny? If you know anything about it, why don't you say so? Do you want to get us all in Dutch?"

I could see that Skinny was just trying as hard as he could to speak, but couldn't on account of that lump in his throat. I know it was none of my business, but I just couldn't keep still any longer, so I said right out:

"The reason he doesn't speak is because he _can't_. Haven't you got sense enough to see that? He thought Mr. Ellsworth was going to hand him the medal and you were crazy enough to let him think so. That's one reason he's all rattled. So I'll answer for him and I hope that'll satisfy you. He hasn't got the money and he never saw it and he never heard of it. It's down at the bottom of Black Lake, that's where it is.

Don't you suppose he had something better to do with himself when he was saving that gold dust twin, than to be going through his pockets?"

"I'm sure I would," Vic Norris said.

"_You!_" I said, "you couldn't even have held him up in the water and you know plaguy well you couldn't--there's not one of you that could.

If you thought more about what he was doing out there in all that storm with his teeth in that fellow's sweater and his hand being blamed near bitten off, it would be better for _you_. All _you're_ thinking about is getting the gold cross into your patrol. What do you suppose _he_ cares about money--a fellow that can do things like that? It's these jelly-fish that go camping with a whole savings bank in their pockets and no shovel to dig a drain ditch with--that's the kind that think about money! You make me sick. Turn your pockets inside out, Alf, and let them see what you've got--go ahead!"

All the while Mr. Ellsworth kept saying, "Shh, shh, Roy," but what did I care? Even he couldn't stop me.

"What's _he_ got to do with it, anyway?" Connie said to Mr. Ellsworth, "I don't see as it's any of _his_ business."

"Well," I said, "I'll _make_ it my business. You've got the kid so nervous and scared, that he can't even find his pockets, he--"

"Just a moment, Roy," Mr. Ellsworth said. "You mustn't forget yourself.

You have done our friends across the lake an injustice."

"When I get through doing Skinny _justice_, it will be time enough to think of _them_," I said. Oh, boy, I was mad.

Mr. Ellsworth said, "We have no wish to search Alfred, Roy. Why all this anger?"

"Because I've heard enough hints and insinuations around this camp, that's why!" I said. Jiminy, I could just feel my voice tremble.

Poor Skinny was fumbling at one of his pockets and he was so scared and nervous, that he couldn't get his hand in even. So I just stepped over and pulled his pocket inside out.

[Ill.u.s.tration: I STEPPED OVER AND PULLED HIS POCKETS INSIDE OUT.]

"Four pennies," I said, "see? Poor but honest, hey, Alf?" And I gave him a good rap on the shoulder. I guess it made him feel good, because he smiled at me even though he did look scared.

Then one after another I pulled all his other pockets inside out, and last I turned out the flap pockets in his khaki shirt. Just as I did that, a key fell out.

"Four cents and a key," I said; "now are you satisfied?"

"We never said he had it," Hunt Ward spoke up.

"Well, now you can see he hasn't anyway," I said.

All the while Mr. Ellsworth waited just as if he didn't have much use for all this business, but just the same wouldn't interfere. That's always the way he is. So now he said, very pleasant:

"I think we're having a sort of tempest in a teapot, Roy. No one has made any accusations. Suppose you let me say a word. It wasn't at all necessary to perform this operation on Alfred. Let me see this key, Alf, my boy."

Skinny handed the key to Mr. Ellsworth and he screwed up his face, sort of funny, and looked at it. Then he said, "Hmph, it's a Yale key, belonging to a padlock, eh? What key is it, my boy?"

Skinny could hardly speak he was so scared. Even I felt sort of shaky-- I don't know why.

Skinny just said, "I found it."

"Here in camp, you mean?" Mr. Ellsworth said, just as nice as I ever heard him talk--awful pleasant and easy, like.

"On the boat," Skinny said, "the day I found the money. It was right on the deck."

"That was the money he gave you," I said. I just couldn't help saying it.

Mr. Ellsworth said, "Now, Roy, you must let me do the talking. Just be quiet a minute."

I said, "Excuse me."

"Now, Alf," Mr. Ellsworth said, "why didn't you give me this key, eh?"

Skinny kept breathing, but could hardly speak.

Then he said, "I put it in the other pocket. I forgot. Mostly I don't put things there."

"I see," Mr. Ellsworth said, just as if he believed every word. "You don't know what key it is, I suppose, Alf?"

"No, sir," he said. And then he gulped and seemed terribly scared and excited.

"All right," Mr. Ellsworth said, "just leave it with me. I expect I shall be able to pin the cross on you in a few days, Alf. Have a little patience."

Then, all of a sudden Skinny blurted out, "Am I a hero?"

"Yes, indeed," Mr. Ellsworth said, and he smiled at him and patted his shoulder.

CHAPTER XXI