CHAPTER XX—A PROMISE
The rest of the scouts in the troop were working away, getting the street cleaned, and I guess they didn’t notice us. We went back across the field to our old railroad car, and I said, “Come ahead in; nobody’ll bother us in here.”
It smelled kind of smoky inside, I suppose on account of the fire. One of the doors was open so the smoke that blew in hadn’t gone out. It was kind of dusty and dingy, too. The old plush seats were all full of dust. But, anyway, we didn’t care, because it was our car and we liked it better than a Pullman car. It seemed awful quiet and nice in there; you know how it seems on Sunday afternoons.
Charlie said, “You’ve got it mighty nice in here.”
“This car has caused us a lot of worry and trouble,” Westy said. “But things will be all right when we get it down by the river.”
“You can move it across Willow Place all right now,” Charlie said. “All you need is power.”
“You leave that to us,” I told him. “The engineer on the milk train is a good friend of ours. But, anyway, we’re not thinking about the car now.”
He said, “You boys are aces up.”
“We’ve done the best we could so far,” I told him. “Gee whiz, we don’t want to get anybody in trouble.”
He just said, “You see how it is with me; I’m up against it. Your fathers trust you, but mine doesn’t trust me. I know I’ve done some blamed fool things, but I wouldn’t burn a building down—why, that’s arson. I could be sent up for ten years for that. But the people of this old burg are just waiting to get something on me. If my father knew I was here last night, that would be enough for him. See?”
Westy said, “Well, he knows we were here last night and that seems to be enough for him, too.”
“Yes, but how about to-morrow?” Charlie asked us. “All you kids have to do to clear yourselves is to spill all you know. The flashlight business is bad enough, then on top of that if you say you saw me here and that I was here when you left, that will look bad, won’t it? You remember when I damaged my flivver last year? The old man was sore because he thought I was just trying to stick the insurance company for fifty or so. That’s him all over—suspicious. He’s always looking for trouble. He isn’t like your fathers.”
Gee, I knew that well enough, but I didn’t say so. Because a fellow isn’t to blame on account of the kind of a father he has wished onto him.
“So you see how it is,” he said; “and it’s got me good and worried. I didn’t eat any breakfast and I didn’t eat any dinner. I was going up to see you fellows, but then I thought I wouldn’t, because your folks don’t like me and it might make them suspicious. Everybody’s against me.”
He looked out of the window as if he were afraid some of the fellows would come over. Honest, I felt sorry for him; I just couldn’t help it.
I said, “Don’t worry. I know that bunch. They won’t stop till they get the whole street looking like Spotless Town.”
He said, “So there it is. My father knows I need money. A tall chance I’d have of getting any from him; you’d have to chloroform him before he’d give up a postage stamp. That’s him. You know what an old grouch he is. Once I shouted some crazy nonsense about burning the place down; I was just mad, that’s all. But you see how it is.”
It seemed funny to me, because at my house we never had any fights or anything, and I saw how my mother and sister were right because those Slausens were different kind of people from us.
He said, “All you kids have to do to cook my goose for me is to shout out that you left me here last night. If they don’t send me to jail I’ll have to beat it out west. You kept your mouths shut so far, and I’ve got to hand it to you, because you’re a couple of A-1 little scouts. But the question is, can you stand the strain? We’re the only three that know anything. Are you game? Will you stick? Or do I have to beat it to-night? It all hangs on you. If you say I was here when you left—you won’t tell them that, will you? You won’t let anybody force it out of you? Judge, lawyers, scoutleaders——”
“You mean scoutmaster,” Westy said.
“You won’t tell anybody—in the court or anywhere?”
Gee, I felt sorry for him, because I could see he was terribly worried. I knew nobody had any use for him, and I thought that maybe already Mr. Ellsworth had some suspicions about him.
“Give me your promise,” he said, “both of you. Nobody can force you to talk if you don’t want to—can they? All you fellows came here to-day to help clear up. That shows you’ve got the right stuff in you. Won’t you help a friend out? I’m not asking you to do anything but just keep your mouths shut. You’re not afraid of O’Day and that bunch, are you? Now’s the time to show if you’re really scouts.”
I said, “A scout is supposed to help people in trouble, I don’t deny that. But we don’t know anything about the law. If the judge says we have to tell, I suppose we’ll have to tell. But, anyway, there’s one thing I want to ask you. I know you got caught doing some things—you know what I mean. And I know a lot of people think—but, anyway, I want to ask you this, and I’ll promise not to tell your answer. Did you set fire to the shop or didn’t you?”
He just looked straight at me and he said, “As sure as I’m sitting here in this old car I didn’t. Do you want me to swear? I took your flashlight——”
“I’m not thinking about that,” I told him. “That won’t keep me from believing you. I’m just asking you to tell me honest and true if you did or not.”
“As sure as I’m sitting here, I didn’t,” he said, good and loud.
“Then how do you think it started?” Westy asked him. “Do you think somebody did it?”
“Sure somebody did it,” he said. “Didn’t they find some match ends near the cotton waste that burned up?” he said.
“I didn’t know that,” I told him.
“But what good does that do me?” he wanted to know.
I said, “Well, we’ll help you out.”
“On the level?” he shouted. “You won’t say a word? You’ll be good scouts and keep your mouths shut?”
“That shows how much you know about scouts,” I told him. “They never keep their mouths shut. But, anyway, we’ll do something better than that. We’ll find out who set fire to the shop. That’s the kind of things we’re supposed to do. If you say honest and true that you didn’t, we’ll say honest and true that we’ll find out who did. What do you suppose we care about courts, and judges, and keeping our mouths shut? Gee whiz, there’s not much fun in that. You said last night we were good at tracking. All right, then, you leave it to us.”