"Don't you hear what I say, come here!" roared the colonel.
"He hears you all right, but he feels quite satisfied to stay where he is," said Thad, in a cool tone.
The other turned those blazing eyes on the speaker.
"Who asked you to put your finger in my business?" he demanded, harshly.
"I'm not. It's you who keeps on meddling with things that concern this boy and his mother only. I suppose you are Colonel Kracker?" Thad went on.
"That's my name, and anybody who knows me would tell you that you're doing the most foolish thing in all your life, when you try to interfere with any affair on which I've set my heart. I want that boy to come to me!" and he shook his fat finger threateningly toward Aleck as he said this.
"Then you'll have to take it out in wanting, let me tell you;" replied the patrol leader, "for he belongs in this camp of Boy Scouts; and we're going to stand back of him."
If Thad was excited he certainly did not seem to be so; in fact Giraffe wondered how in the world he could command his voice so well, and speak so calmly, when on his part he was fairly shivering with the nervous tension.
"What's that you say?" shouted the big man, bristling all over with rage until he seemed to swell up larger than ever. "Why, you little imp, d'ye know what I've a good notion to do with you for this insulting talk?"
"I don't know, and neither do I care," replied Thad, "but there's one thing I do think you ought to know."