"Why, surely," he said, "I'm not suspecting him of anything. Neither is anyone else. The only thing that puzzles me is, how the key happened to be on the deck where he found it. We swabbed the decks so thoroughly before leaving Bridgeboro. One of our boys might have dropped some change and never known it But how did the key happen to be there? We know how it happened in Alfred's pocket, but how did it happen on the deck? We scouts claim to be observant, and yet that key was right on the deck from Bridgeboro all the way down to St. George. That's the queer thing." Oh, boy, didn't I feel guilty. Especially I felt guilty because Mr. Ellsworth was so nice and pleasant about it. Because all the while I knew where that key came from, and it seemed just like lying not to tell. Gee, I was kind of sorry now that I promised Lieutenant Donnelle that I would never tell about him coming there. I couldn't say anything, so I just kept still. All the while Mr. Ellsworth kept looking at the key and thinking and humming a tune to himself. Pretty soon he said, "You don't happen to know where Alfred went when he disappeared, do you, Roy?" I said, "No, I don't; all I know is I couldn't find him." "He was gone for four or five hours," he said, very slow, as if he was sort of thinking. I guess I felt just about the same as Skinny did now. Anyway, I was all shaky and it was hard for me to get started saying anything. Then I said, "Mr. Ellsworth, Skinny went off because he was all scared and excited, and he wanted to be all alone by himself. Often I've felt that same way. I felt that way after I passed my second class tests. I don't deny he's kind of freaky. I think he just went off in the woods. You know yourself it's in the Handbook that trees are good companions. He just wanted to be alone. I bet he wasn't a hundred yards from camp. Skinny's kind of queer, you know that." Then Mr. Ellsworth just laid down the key and put stamps on two or three letters and said "All right, Roy, just see that these get mailed, will you?" He didn't say what he was going to do and I guessed he wasn't going to do anything. And even suppose he did, what was the harm? But just the same I felt awful queer and shaky. I guess maybe it was because I couldn't come right out and tell him the plain truth about that key. CHAPTER XXII TELLS ABOUT HOW I VISITED THE OHIO TROOP'S CABIN One thing I was sure of, and that was that Skinny went away into the woods just to be alone by himself, like he said. I knew it was just like him to do that. Maybe you'll think it was funny for him to do that when it was raining, but already he was good and wet; you have to remember that. I said to myself, "I should worry about the key, because anyway, that had nothing to do with Skinny." But just the same I kept worrying about something, I don't know just what.