That night we were going to have a special troop meeting to decide about chipping in money for our cruise up to camp, because we didn’t have much left on account of spending so much for paint and lumber and different things. I knew how the fellows and Mr. Ellsworth would be feeling about me not coming back and Westy not showing up, and I knew how the Silver Foxes would feel, especially. But anyway, I had my mind all made up. After supper my sister Ruth played a game of tennis with Westy and while they were playing I went up to my room and got out the Scout Handbook. Then I read the scout laws over, but anyway I knew them. After I had read them all I made two crosses with a lead pencil, one alongside of one law and one alongside another. Then I put the Handbook in my pocket and went downstairs. It was time to go to the meeting now and so we started off. “You seem awful funny,” Westy said; “what’s the matter?” “It’s patrol business,” I said; “it’s about——” “Is it about me?” he asked me. “It’s about my patrol,” I said; “it’s about the Silver Foxes. Did you ever hear that a Silver Fox never makes a mistake about a trail?” “No,” he said, kind of puzzled. “You want to read up natural history,” I told him. “A silver fox knows the tracks of all the different kinds of animals and if he could talk he could tell you about them.” “Too bad he can’t talk,” Westy said, sort of jollying me. “_I_ can talk,” I said. Then after a minute I said, “It’s about the Elk patrol, too.” He didn’t say any more and pretty soon we got to the troop-room—that’s in the Public Library. We were a little late, but I wanted it that way, so we wouldn’t have any talk with anyone before the meeting started. Everyone said “hello” to us, but they were the coldest “helloes” _you_ ever saw. “If I’d known it was going to be as cold as this, I’d have worn my sweater,” I told Westy. Even my own patrol didn’t say anything to us, and they all looked kind of glum. I heard Will Dawson say something about our patrol being “in bad,” but I didn’t pay any attention—I should worry. Now the way we sit at the beginning of troop meetings is in three rows and each patrol is one row. The patrol leader always sits at the right hand end of the row and Mr. Ellsworth sits in front. If there are any local councilmen they sit in front with him. But it doesn’t look much like that after things get started, I can tell you that. That night Mr. Bennett was there, too. He’s on the Local Council. When Westy and I went up to our row to sit down, nobody said anything to us at all, not even the fellows in our own patrol. Ralph Warner was sitting in my seat at the end, and he said, kind of cold like, “Do you want to sit down here?”