Then he said, "You see, Blakeley, Skinny's a mighty queer little proposition. If it wasn't for that scoutmaster you fellows have, I'd say he would never make a regular tip-top scout. But I think that Mr. What's-his-name--Ellsworth--is a wonder." "Believe me, you said something," I told him. "You know yourself," he said, "how that kid talks--shouts, I mean. Stealing silver, picking pockets! What are all these fellows to think? Most of the fellows here come from good folks. They don't understand a poor little codger like Skinny who is half crazy, because he's been half starved. You know yourself that he doesn't fit in here. I don't say he isn't going to. But I'm good at arithmetic, Blakeley--" "Gee, you're a peach on tracking, too," I said. "Well, and I know how to put two and two together," he said. "I knew, I just felt it in my bones, that that gold dust twin with his swell bathing suit and his waterproof mackinaw was going to lose his roll in the water. He carried it loose in his mackinaw pocket--a camper, mind you. He had a wad big enough to pay off the national debt, and I knew it would tumble out and it did. Skinny's one of those poor little codgers that's always unlucky. He happened to be there. He happened to have a key. He happened to go to the house-boat. I got hold of his tracks just because I didn't want him to come to any harm while he was all worked up. The reason I didn't say anything about where he went was, because there are a whole lot of fellows in this camp that would put two and two together and get five. Understand? They'd say he went to hide Goldie's freight shipment of dollar bills. So I kept still. No harm in keeping still." "Oh, cracky," I said, "but I like you. _I'm_ keeping still about something too and you can bet I know how to keep my mouth shut. You can just bet I'd do anything for a friend, I would." "Well, Skinny's got a good friend," he said. "I didn't mean Skinny," I told him; "but he has got two good friends, anyway, and that's us, hey?" He just said, "That's us," and then he slid right down the roof and jumped off the edge, awful funny like. CHAPTER XXIII TELLS ABOUT HOW I DID A GOOD TURN That night Mr. Ellsworth wasn't at camp-fire and nobody knew where he was. All the time I had a funny feeling and I kept looking away from the fire and up the dark path to see if he was coming. I wasn't listening to the yarns at all. And that night I didn't sleep--I just kind of felt that something was wrong. You know what I mean--I could just feel it in the air. The next morning was nice and bright and sunny and it seemed good, because there had been such a lot of rain lately. On my way over to breakfast, I stopped outside of Council Shack to read the bulletin board and see what was on for the day. I saw that the Elks were going stalking, and I was glad of that, because I knew Skinny liked stalking and I was glad he was with them at last. But just the same I felt kind of funny all the while I was having eats.