Tom Slade

rns De

from that window," said he, "slid when he touched the groun'." He stopped, but not to pick up a rock. Then he went down on his hands and knees, with never a thought of those treasured khaki t

was a scout of the scouts, and he screwed up his face a

shoes need soling, th

indentation in the soil, as if a petrified a

he kicked into it hard e

le malleable leaden bars used in the cathedral-glass windows. This had evidently pushed its way into the tattered sole, bent a little from the impa

n, where he thought he could discern footprints in the newly-sprouting grass. Several hundred feet away was the boundary fence

safe. He lived in continual dread of losing it. He paused a minute scrutinizing the small crooked marks left by the leaden bar. Then h

e in twenty-five

, and if I should get the pin for her that would knock the Commissioner off his feet, all right. Her

word "Crack

arm from one of the upper casements. He could not make up his mind whether she was beckoning to him or on

stretch it was not visible, but the tumbled appearance of the pine-needle carpet showed where someone ha

d he had fulfilled that in good measure, and the possible danger in connection with it would commend it strongly to the Scout Commissioner. Moreover, the deductive work which preceded

taking the robber, and his little celluloid membership booklet with the precious bill in it, flap

trunk of a tree a couple of hundred feet away. The tree trunk was betwe

ed much larger since he had acquired the scout habit of standing str

Roy's moccasin

Tom advanced cautiously. A flask lay beside the man and he was just taking a measure of encouragement in the prospect of the man's bein

r it was the face of Bill Slade whic

father made a step toward him. "I--I tracked you-stay where you are--I--didn' know who I

old hoodlum phraseology and spoke to his father just as he use

ish brown, was now the color of newly rusted iron. His shoe, which had turned traitor to him and whispered the direction of his flight to the trailing scout, was tied with a piece of cord. He was thin, even emaciated, and there was a little twitch in his eye which grotesquely counterfeited a wink, and which jarred Tom strangely. He did not know

ldier lads, hey, Tommy?"

I d-did ter de marshal. I'm stronger now th

hem soldier f

in his voice: "or I would be if 'twasn't for you. I--I can

Tommy?" said Slade, advancing with a suggest

He felt that he could have stuck out his finger a

d. "I don't care about nothin' e

?" grumbl

now wh

steal?" his f

did an' I wa

th a look of fury. He made a start toward him and

e a thief, wo

said Tom, pitying him. "I sw

th nothin'

mme

thing could be. Then he looked at Tom as if reconsidering the wisdom of an assaul

l nobuddy yer me

ver tell--gi

at fer two days, Tommy, a

oo well to be affected by them, but he saw, too, that his father was a spent man; and he thought

ver-ever tell. It's my blame that we wuz put out o' Barre

ernoon which he had once, long a

the daytime-'cause you'd be a fool to do it. I'm not cryi

he folding membership card of the Boy Scouts of America, attached

er kin say yer sold it fer f

g it forth as if by accident, and

't only becuz yer give me the pin, but becuz ye

ing his father had done for hi

elephoned a lot. Don't--don't lose it," he added, realizing the large

im a little wistfully and doubtful as to whether he was sufficie

as his father passed among the trees with that sideways gait

"so I won't pass on that; but even if I did I couldn't pas

rtune and his cherished

the triumph o