Of course it was only Courtlandt Parker, who was in Dale's grade at school and a very familiar person indeed. But somehow, in this rôle, he did not seem nearly so familiar and intimate. To the watching tenderfoot it was almost as if he had ceased for the moment to be the airy, volatile, harum-scarum "Court," whose pranks and witticisms so often kept the whole grade stirred up and amused, and had become solely the sober, earnest, serious color-bearer of the troop. "A lot of it's the uniform, of course," thought Dale. "It does make a whopping difference in a fellow's looks." He glanced down at his own worn, still disheveled garments with sudden distaste. "I wish I had mine!" he sighed. A moment later, still hesitating in the background, reluctant to face that trim, immaculate line, he caught the scoutmaster's glance,--that level, friendly, smiling glance, which was at once a salutation and a welcome,--and his head went up abruptly. What did looks matter, after all--at least the sort of looks one couldn't help? He was none the worse a scout because he had not yet saved up enough money for that coveted suit of khaki. Nor was it his fault that he had lacked the time to go home and brush up thoroughly for the meeting. He smiled back a little at Mr. Curtis, and then, with shoulders square and head erect, he obeyed the leader's silent summons. There was a faint stir and a sense of curious, shifting eyes when he appeared around the end of the line of waiting scouts. As he passed Sherman Ward's patrol some one even whispered an airy greeting, "Aye, Tommy." Though Dale did not glance that way, he knew it to be the irrepressible Courtlandt, now returned to his position as assistant patrol-leader. Court was the only one who ever called him that, and the boy's heart warmed at this touch of friendliness. Then he paused before the scoutmaster and promptly, though perhaps a little awkwardly, returned the man's salute. "I'm glad to see you, Dale," the scoutmaster said, in a tone which robbed the words of any trace of the perfunctory. "I'd begun to think something was keeping you away to-night." The boy flushed a little. "I--I was delayed, sir," he explained briefly. "I--I--it won't happen again, sir." "Good!" The scoutmaster nodded approval, his glance sweeping meditatively over the three patrols. He was slim and dark, with eyes set wide apart, and a humorous, rather sensitive mouth. The boys liked him without exactly knowing why, for he was not the popular athletic type of scoutmaster, nor yet the sort of man who dominates by sheer force of personality and commands immense respect if nothing more.