“I meant to tell you but I hardly know what I’ve been saying and doing this morning. Sounds like a movie play, doesn’t it? Anyway, I’d rather speak to you the last thing—” “Are you going away?” “Just for a day or so again, down to camp. The old man, old Caleb, is there, you know. Audry,” he added after a pause, “there’s something I want to say to you. Because I know you’d rather have me be honest with myself than be anything else. Before I discovered that dead man, I had already made up my mind that I wasn’t going to give—Whalen—Dyker—away. I thought it all out and I decided not to. I guess you were right—I’m not saying you weren’t. Only I found out I couldn’t do it. Maybe it wasn’t only because he saved my life. I guess all the time I kinder thought he couldn’t be guilty; just sort of instinct as you might say. So you see you mustn’t give me credit.” “I’m glad, Tom; I’m glad everything came out as it did. All’s well that ends well.” “Only I don’t want the credit,” said Tom. “I wonder why he ran away if he was innocent,” she said. “I don’t know,” said Tom, “I didn’t ask him. Maybe he lost his nerve; just the same as you lost your nerve when you thought about stepping over the crevices along the trail. He wasn’t any older than you are now.” “Oh, I suppose you regard me as a perfect kid. And I know you think I’m a coward. _Do_ you think I’m a coward?” “No,” said Tom hesitatingly, “but I think maybe it would be good if you—sort of—went—were—you know—more adventurous. I learned a lot in the trip I just took. Maybe you won’t know just exactly what I mean, but you can get your ideas of what you ought to do from being out in the woods and away on the water and all that. Maybe those things are just as good as books.” Again she looked straight at him with her big, sober, listening eyes. “This is what I mean,” Tom said. “You see, I got to know Ned Whalen and you didn’t. I got to know him by being off in the woods with him and seeing all what he could do, and what kind of a man he is. And I kinder felt it was right to be loyal to him. And you see I was right. So maybe reading and kind of deciding things that way isn’t best. You can’t say there are two sides to scouting, studying and thinking—and then having adventures. It’s having the adventures that help you. Maybe I’m all wrong but if you’re not brave in one way you won’t be brave in another. Anyway, just like you say, everything’s all right that ends well.” “It’s a quotation, Tom, ‘_All’s well that ends, well._’” “I don’t know much about quotations,” he said. “Are you sure you’re coming back? You didn’t do one thing as you promised to do.” “I’m sure I’m coming back—to-morrow.” “I do think maybe you’re right, Tom.”