It was no wonder that this dubious brother treated Skinny with a kind of protective kindness. Such an odd, likable, temperamental little bundle of nerves he seemed, when aroused. It was his fate never to be at his best in public; his sadder fate to be at his very best with this fugitive adventurer when secrecy was imperative. A queer little hobgoblin of a boy he seemed without one single evidence of the scout in his appearance. He led the way up the hill till their progress was interrupted by an old railroad cut, which at that point was so overgrown that it seemed a natural hollow. Clambering down the side with the aid of trees and brush, Skinny stood triumphantly beside a tiny shanty which had once been a shelter for a switchman. It was now quite fallen to pieces, but its board roof had been propped up, and the dense brush that tumbled over it effectually concealed it and kept it from leaking too freely. As a romantic retreat there was much to be said for it. Skinny had discovered it and made it his own; it was his private retreat. Within there was nothing but a shelf and an old red lantern hanging on a rusty nail. But there was oil inside the lantern which Skinny had once fetched thither in a tomato can. The smell of this lantern when lighted was like unto no stench that ever assailed human nostrils. To this remote refuge Skinny was wont to repair when he wanted to pretend that he was a pioneer, and when the banter at camp was too vociferous for him. The very sight of this place was a relief to Danny, and he perched on the shelf while Skinny lighted the lantern. "Listen here, Tiny," said he. "Do you remember when you was just a little bit of a shaver and you said I was half a brother----" "I didn't mean it that way--honest----" "I know you didn't, you thick little dub. Do you remember how pop told you I was _half-brother_, not half a brother! Then when Dick Kinney said you were only about a quarter of a brother and he took your ball away, do you remember how I landed him one? Knocked him goofy? And you said you'd pay me back?" "Sure, I do, Danny, only----" "Naah, there's no _only_ about it kid. I got a letter from pop and he said how he sent you fifteen dollars--I got it at Blythedale. He says when I get out next year he hopes I'll work. Get a picture of me sticking around a reformatory till next year! Listen, kid, they had me out fixing a grape-vine over an arbor, tying it up. They even give me a ball of cord, the poor simps! So listen to what I did. I picked out a nice long stem of grape-vine--_a nice long one_. Nice and long--and thick. And that one I didn't wind around the new arbor; I only laid it nice and easy on top. You'd think it was all wound up like the other branches and things but it wasn't. Camouflage! About--oh thirty or forty feet, maybe, of the cord I rolled up and put in my pocket. Of course those wise guys had to have their ball of cord back.