CHAPTER XXIX

EYES TO SEE AND EARS TO HEAR

Then all of a sudden I made up my mind I wouldn’t be scared. I walked right toward where I had seen the thing, because I wanted to prove to myself that I hadn’t seen anything at all.

Then, in a minute, I had to laugh to myself. I came to the end of the narrow board-walk that is built out to deep water where the diving board is. Out at the end of the springboard I could hear a voice, very low. I walked right out along the boards, making a lot of noise so as to prove that there wasn’t anything spooky at all.

Away out at the end of the springboard I saw some one sitting with his feet dangling over. When I got away out to the end I saw it was Hervey. Sitting right close beside him was Sandwich. Hervey had his bathrobe on but it was thrown off from his shoulders and I could see he only had his trousers on. He was kind of shivering.

I said, “You gave me a good scare, Herve. I saw you come out here, but I couldn’t see the platform under you, the mist is so thick. I thought you were a ghost or something. What are you doing out here anyway?”

“Oh, just sitting here,” he said. “You’d better go to bed; you know the rule.”

I said, “How about you?”

“I’m not a part of this outfit any more,” he said. “I’m through—almost through.”

I said, “You’re just as much of a scout as I am to-night. It’s a wonder you couldn’t keep one rule before you go away. What are you going to do? Go in swimming? And besides when you tell me I’d better go to bed that’s as much as saying I’m not as good as a dog. Do you say that—that I’m not as good as a dog?”

“Sandwich didn’t call me a liar,” he said.

“Did I call you a liar?” I shot back at him.

“You’re a scout,” he said, “and they’re all the same. They’re as much the same as a lot of clothes-pins.”

I said, “I know you’re different, Hervey. But I didn’t call you a liar and none of us fellows did. I admit they think you lied and——”

“You think so too, don’t you?” he said.

“I don’t know what I think,” I said. “But I know I like you, and I’m going to stay right here as long as you do. A scout has to—no matter what, a scout has to——”

He just laughed kind of sneering like. He said, “You call yourself a scout. G-o-o-d night! You’re a peachy bunch, you fellows. You ought to all be slapped on the wrists—Arnoldson and the whole crowd.”

I said, “Yes, and how aren’t we scouts?”

“You’re all the time shouting about deduction, and observation and all that bunk,” he said. “I don’t _claim_ to be a scout. But if I did I wouldn’t wear a pair of blinders. I wouldn’t hear a friend called a liar, I wouldn’t. Hey, Sandwich?”

“What did we do?” I asked him.

“Well, one thing,” he said, “did you notice the ’phone in Administration Shack to-night? Did you notice the receiver was hung upside down? Did you notice how somebody must have been rattled and hung it up in a hurry? Did you notice the map portfolio lying open? Did you stop to think that it was while everybody was at supper that I ’phoned? And one thing more I’ll tell you too; the voice that answered me lisped. Now you better run to bed. Hey, Sandwich?”

“What do you mean—lisped?” I asked him. “What of it?”

“Don’t make me laugh,” he said. “You don’t even remember that the sharpy we met on the other side of the lake to-day, lisped. You don’t remember how he was asking about the trail here? He was the fellow that gave me the name of Wilkins, because he was all rattled when the ’phone rang. Stick around a little if you’d like to see him dance. He’s going to do a dance to-night that he never did before. And it isn’t going to cost him a cent. Is it Sandwich?”