"Would you?" he said, and he began to laugh. Then he said, "Well, now, let's sit down here on this bench and I'll tell you what _you're_ going to do, and then I'll tell you what _I'm_ going to do, and we'll have to be quick about it." Then he looked out over the water and listened and as soon as he was sure nobody was coming, he put his arm over my shoulder and made me sit down on the bench beside him. I have to admit I kind of liked that fellow, even though I kind of thought he was, you know, wild, sort of. It seemed as if he was the kind of a fellow to have a lot of adventures and to be reckless and all that. "Maybe you can tell me what you're going to do," I told him, "but you can't tell me what _I'm_ going to do--that's one sure thing." "Oh, yes I can," he said, "because you're a bully kid and you're an A-1 sport, and you and I are going to be pals. What do you say?" "I can't deny that I like you," I said, "and I bet you've been to a lot of places." "France, Russia, South America, Panama and Montclair, New Jersey," he said, "and Bronx Park." Gee, I didn't know how to take him, he was so funny. "Ever been up in an airplane?" he said. "Cracky, I'd like to," I told him. "I went from Paris to the Channel in an airplane," he said. Then he gave me a crack on the back and he put his arm around my shoulder awful nice and friendly like, and it made me kind of proud because I knew him. "Now, you listen here," he said, "I'm in a dickens of a fix. You live in Bridgeboro; do you know Jake Holden?" "Sure I know him, he's a fisherman," I said; "the very same night your father told us we could use this boat I saw him, and the next day I went to try to find him for a certain reason, and he was gone away down the bay after fish. He taught me how to fry eels." "Get out," he said, "really?" "Honest, he did," I told him. "Well, some day I'll show you how to cook bear's meat. There's something you don't know." "Did you ever cook bear's meat?" I asked him. "Surest thing you know," he said; "black bears, gray bears, grisly bears--" "Jiminy," I said. Then he went on and this is what he told me, keeping his arm around my shoulder and every minute or so listening and looking out over the water. "Here's something you didn't know," he said. Gee, I can remember every word almost, because you bet I listened. A fellow couldn't help listening to him. He said, "When Jake Holden went down the bay, your Uncle Dudley was with him." I said, "You mean you?"