"I didn't save anybody, I only tried to," said Skinny. "You don't get it for only trying. But maybe if you were still in there I'd have saved you, hey? But you get it twice, kinder. And I'm just as glad, too, because now I got a friend that's a hero. So are you going to stay my friend even now I Even when you get the Gold Cross, are you? I won't be mad if you don't--but are you? Because now Howell Cross and all those scouts will _surely_ be after you! Because the Gold Cross is the biggest, _specialest_ thing in scouting. Even it's greater than being an Eagle--even. It's for saving life when you risk your own, like you did--twice even. Because that snake might have killed you, mightn't he? So now you'll get your first class badge, and you'll get the Gold Cross, and will you let me be the first one to see it? I bet you're proud, hey--that you'll get it? Do you know who'll give it to you? Not anybody that belongs at camp--not trustees even. A commissioner! A national one!" "No!" "Honest, I cross my heart. So will you go around with me kinder steady, even after that?" "No, that's asking too much," Danville laughed. "I can tell you're joking." For answer Danville only drew the little, limping fellow close to him, and so they picked their way down through the brambly thicket off the eminence which enclosed the little cave. "Sure I'm proud, Alf," laughed Danville frankly. "Then why don't you act so?" "Do you want me to dance a jig in this jungle!" "You'll be the big hero of Temple Camp, that's what you'll be. Even they print all about you in the newspapers, when you get the Gold Cross." "And do you think I'm going to forget all about the pal that was with me when I won it?" Danville asked, rather more earnestly than was his wont. "Because," said Skinny with that nervous eagerness that Temple Camp was so fond of mimicking, "now I got a friend that's a hero and I can talk about him. Because my brother Danny, I couldn't talk about him to fellers, but I can talk about you all I want--how you're a hero." "Take your time, I haven't got it yet," said Danville. "Sure, you've as much as got it." "Don't count your chickens till they're hatched. When I get it I'll have it." They picked their way down by a circuitous route and around to the entrance of the cave where Danville's rescued victim of the fumes sat on the ground with hands clasped around his updrawn knees, blinking and looking about in a dazed kind of way. Skinny stopped short, his whole thin little body trembling. "Danny!" he cried. "It's Danny, it's my brother! It's Danny that you pulled out of the cave! Danny, nobody knows where you are, and they didn't catch you, hey? The reform school people--Danny?" "Who's the guy you've got with you?" Danny asked uneasily. CHAPTER XXVIII IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY