So I just went up to him and I said, “Mr. Ellsworth, he’s out playing ball somewheres and I guess he didn’t intend to come. I admit it disgraces my patrol and it disgraces the whole troop. I was going to ask you if you thought maybe I could go away for an hour or so to follow a track I found, but I won’t now; I’ll just stay here and work twice as hard so as to make up for him. And the other fellows in my patrol will too. Maybe that will make it seem not quite so bad.” CHAPTER XV DURING NOON HOUR One of the things that made me feel especially bad was that Wig Weigand and Artie Van Arlen were there working, even after being nearly killed the night before, and Artie was kind of lame, too, from straining his ankle when he fell. Gee, I had to hand it to those fellows. And even Pee-wee was working away with the rest of the Ravens and running to buy nails and everything. Both of the other patrols were all there except Tom Slade in the Elks, but they kept his place open for memory, sort of. After a little while Mr. Ellsworth strolled over to where I was working and said to me—gee, he was awful nice the way he said it—he said, “Roy, if you want to follow up that trail you may as well go ahead and come back after lunch. We’re going to hit the eats pretty soon now.” That’s the way he always says it, “hit the eats.” “I was expecting Westy to go with me,” I told him. “Well, no matter,” he said; “go alone and don’t worry any more about Westy. It wasn’t because Westy or any other single scout was needed here for we have plenty of scouts on the job, but it was just that he didn’t show up when we all planned to be here, that’s all. I don’t like to think of any of my scouts falling down.” “It’s the same about my patrol,” I said, “and I’m ashamed, that’s one sure thing.” He said I shouldn’t feel that way and that he guessed playing baseball was good exercise anyway. But he only said that so I wouldn’t feel bad. Anyway as long as they were going to eat I thought I might as well go ahead and see if I could do that tracking if it didn’t take me too far. On the way down to the other landing I thought what I’d say to Westy. I knew he’d get a troop reprimand, but I decided he’d get a patrol reprimand too, you bet. And I was feeling pretty bad about it too, because none of the Silver Foxes ever got a troop reprimand. They got patrol reprimands but not troop reprimands. And Westy had gone and spoiled it all and, gee, that’s one word I don’t like—_slacker_. When I got to the other landing I started following that trail. If you think Westy had anything to do with it, you’re mighty mistaken, because he didn’t. He always wore scout shoes, I knew that.