“Yes, and you didn’t have to go breaking the rules to do it,” I said. “I didn’t see any good enough to break,” he said. I said, “Well there’s one thing, I’m going to make a report to Slady[1] about what you did, about the rope and all, and I bet you won’t even have to take your life saving tests on the Eagle award--I bet the Gold Medal will cover that. You’ll have the hero medal and you’ll be an Eagle Scout both.” “That shows Will Dawson did me a good turn,” Dub said. “I’d treat him to an ice cream soda if I was only going to stay up here, if I only had a dime.” “Now you’re starting kidding about it,” I said. Dub said, “All right, if you want me to be serious, listen here. You’re not going to tell Tom Slade anything--you’re going to keep your mouth shut. Nobody has to know anything about this. I did my part, now you have to do yours.” “_And you not get the Gold Medal?_” I just shouted at him. “And how about--gee, don’t you want to go home an Eagle Scout?” “I don’t want to go home at all,” he said. I said, “If I was an Eagle Scout and had the Gold Medal, I wouldn’t mind going home, you can bet.” He said, “Well, are we dry?” Will said, “Wait till I get my shoes dried out a little.” “Yes, and you row straight across,” I told him. “Are you going to walk?” he asked me. “Didn’t I start walking?” I said. “Dub and I are going to finish the way we began. Do you want to get the whole three of us in Dutch? You better put some more wood on if you want to dry your shoes.” “I’ll get a chunk of wood,” Dub said. “You keep drying your shoes,” he said to Will. “You don’t need a very big piece,” I called after him. Dub went running up out of the hollow and away toward the shore. Will was holding his shoes close to the fire. I just sat there on a rock, waiting. Will didn’t say anything to me, and I didn’t say anything to him. I guess we waited about ten minutes. Then I called but I didn’t get any answer. I got up and walked up out of the hollow but I didn’t see Dub anywhere. So I went down to the shore. I could see the camp-fire burning away over at camp. I kept calling Dub but he didn’t answer. It was so dark I took out my flash-light. Because as long as we had gone so far after wood, I thought maybe he remembered seeing a good piece near where I pulled the boat up. But I couldn’t even find the boat. All of a sudden I saw something white on a tree. It was a piece of paper. Then I knew that was just where the boat had been. The paper was held to the trunk by a long, thin switch from a tree that was tied around the trunk. I held my flash-light up to the paper and read it. After I read it I took it down and put it in my pocket, so you can tell that the way I write it out now is just the same as it was on that paper. This is what it said, because I’m copying it. It was all sprawly like.