"Don't--don't drop him near me," Skinny pleaded, as his rescuer dangled the loathsome body. "My leg stings, I think he bit me." "No he didn't, Alf; I just jabbed you with my knife. Look." He held up the curving slab of bark and there upon it was a tiny wet spot, appalling evidence of the deadly substance that had been ejected from those deadly fangs. "He struck out, but it was meant for a home run all right," Danville said. "Come on, don't be scared, come down and see my new boy friend. I'm going to pass you up now, I've got a new pal." Skinny did get up at that. "See where I made a hole?" he said. "All the smoke came out here and maybe it saved you, hey?" "I think I must have been out when you started, Alf. I pulled somebody out, I thought it was you; I guess I came blamed near getting suffocated. I don't know how I got out, all I know is I got out. I guess some scout from camp must have hiked here ahead of us; he's still dopy. What the dickens happened anyway? There wasn't anything that would burn in that damp place, was there?" "Whatever it was, it was damp," said Skinny; "that's what made the smoke so thick; it was smudge smoke, like what scouts use for signals. Even little bugs came out. I lit a match and then I stumbled over something that was never there before. Anyway, one thing sure, you'll get the Gold Cross. You'll get it for saving me, and you'll get it for saving that other feller. I bet I know who it is, too; it's Pompy Arliss in that Brooklyn troop, because he's out for Test Four, and I was telling him about the cave. But I didn't know he was on his test to-day. You know the feller I mean, that wears his hair all sticking up? He's all the time kidding me." They scrambled down, working their way through the thick underbrush and over rocks, making slow progress because of Skinny's bleeding leg, which soon they had to bandage effectively before going on. "And how about you?" Danville asked. "As long as I know I didn't get bit by poison," Skinny said in his quaint way; "as long as I know that I don't care." "I mean about the Gold Cross," Danville said. "Is that bandage too tight--no? I mean about what you did."