The Chairman, Mr. Miller, and Mr. Wentworth then consulted together, and finally asked Jack Perkins to join them. The whole company was impressed by the solemnity of the incident. The Chairman explained to the boys that the question of awarding an honor to Gray under the present circumstances must be reconsidered in the light of his confession.
“But,” said he, “I can assure you of one thing: however wrong Gray has been in the past, I respect him for his straight-forwardness to-day. Let me warn you boys against treating this matter in any way that might appear to be mean or disrespectful to a fellow scout. It would be a base and brutal thing to treat lightly such humiliation as this.”
Judging from the faces of the boys as they separated when they were dismissed, it seemed as if the warning of the Chairman were hardly necessary. They were all sorry for Dick and greatly surprised, but owing to his frank and public confession, they had a feeling of confidence that everything would turn out right in the end.
CHAPTER XII
Another Meeting of the Club
During the evening recreation hour, when everybody was on deck, Tom, Chippie, and Dick had a quiet talk below, sitting on Tom’s locker. Each one of the three felt the urgent need of their getting together and talking over, with the utmost frankness, everything that had happened since the morning of the baseball game at Hull; but now that they were sitting alone face to face, there did not seem so very much to say after all, because of their talk on the way back from Salem and Dick’s manly confession before all the boys.
“I’m glad you came out with it all, this morning, Dick,” said Tom. “It must have hurt to have all the fellows know about it, and there was nothing to force you to tell except your honor.”
“Yes,” chimed in Chippie, “you might have covered it up and taken the commendation, and no one would have been any the wiser!”
“Yep,” retorted Dick, with a grim look, “but how do you think I would have felt? Don’t you suppose that dirty trick I played at Hull would have gnawed inside of me? I don’t suppose you fellows know how much it hurts—when you have a right to know better. If it hadn’t been for our talk on the way back from Salem, and the cat, and all that they brought up to me about honor and the scout law, maybe I might have forgotten the Hull business—for the time, anyway; but I’m mighty glad I didn’t. Say, boys,” said he, with a sudden gleam of animation, “it’s like when you’ve eaten something that goes against you; you can’t get right till you’ve thrown it up!”
“To-morrow is Sunday,” said Tom, “and we expect to drop anchor in Northbridge to-night. All hands are going ashore to church in the morning, and there’s liberty in the afternoon. What do you fellows say to a meeting of the Club on Duck Island?”
“A-1!” answered Dick.