"What did Bob have to tell?" asked the patrol leader.
"He met his little cousin, all right, just as they had arranged," Allan went on to say. "And she must have told him something that has made our chum wild with delight, for he says the trip paid him twenty times over. Just what it was he didn't try to tell me, saying it would have to keep till he got to camp."
"Well, we can give a pretty good guess what it must be," Thad observed.
"You mean that Bertha has looked, and made a discovery among the papers in her guardian's safe; is that it, Thad?"
"Just about; but we'll have to quit guessing, and just wait till he comes in," said the scoutmaster, who knew just how to take a grip upon himself, and appear patient, where some of the other boys would have fretted, and worried greatly.
"He oughtn't to be more'n an hour, at the most," suggested Allan.
"Not unless something happens to him, which we hope it won't," replied Thad.
"You don't think now, do you," demanded the other, "that Old Phin might take a notion to waylay him, just to have a look at the eighth scout?"
"I've thought of that, but made up my mind that so far the moonshiner can have no suspicion who Bob is. And that being the case, Allan, you can see he wouldn't be apt to bother himself to lie in wait for him. I hope not, anyhow. It'd sure upset some of the plans we're trying so hard to fix. And it might spell trouble with a big T for Bob."
"He's a good fellow, all right," remarked Allan, not in the least jealous because his particular chum seemed drawn more than ever toward the Southern boy.