[Frontispiece: HE GROPED BLINDLY FOR THE PROJECTING TREE. _Skinny McCord_. _Frontispiece_ (_Page_ 61)] SKINNY McCORD _By_ PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH _Author of_ THE TOM SLADE BOOKS THE ROY BLAKELEY BOOKS THE PEE-WEE HARRIS BOOKS THE WESTY MARTIN BOOKS ILLUSTRATED BY HOWARD L. HASTINGS GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1928, BY GROSSET & DUNLAP, INC. Made in the United States of America CONTENTS CHAPTER I Skinny Loses Something II Shadows III Ears that Hear IV By the Dead Fire V Face to Face VI In the Dim Light VII Dark Plans VIII Stealth IX For Danny X Won XI If XII Scout Law Number Two XIII Alias Danville Bently XIV The Pioneer Scout XV The Serenade XVI The Accused XVII The Masquerader XVIII To Pastures New XIX The New Arrival XX Skinny's Protégé XXI Temple Camp Takes Notice XXII Partners XXIII Henny's Cave XXIV Missing XXV From Above XXVI With the Smoke XXVII Skinny's Hero XXVIII It Runs in the Family XXIX Just as Easy-- XXX Fixed XXXI Holly Hollis XXXII The Night Before XXXIII Victory and Then-- XXXIV The Price SKINNY McCORD CHAPTER I SKINNY LOSES SOMETHING There was great excitement around the camp-fire. Skinny McCord had lost his compass. He had dropped it and it had rolled away, and all the boys were making a great show of helping him to find it. They did this not wholly from kindness. Skinny was a sensitive boy and it gave his comrades great delight to see him embarrassed, as he always was when made the subject of group talk or the center of interest. Not that they would have hesitated a moment to assist Skinny. For they liked him immensely and would have done anything in the world for him. But they were a mirthful lot, these scouts of Temple Camp, and felt a certain bantering enjoyment in seeing him uneasy, as he always was when the spotlight was thrown on him. They liked that diffident way of his--that bashful smile. This was his second summer at camp and still he was shy; he would probably always be shy.... It was not much of a compass that he had lost; just a little tin affair. He was sorry that he had chosen to transfer it from one pocket to another, for now he found himself the star attraction of the camp-fire throng. "It--it isn't much good anyway," he said; "don't bother." But they did bother. They had Skinny where they wanted him and they could not let the occasion go by. He would have to go through with this torture. He often suffered such torture at the hands of these scouts who would have knocked any one down who dared to harm him.