"I always said there was only one Elmer Chenowith," murmured Jasper, throwing up both hands, as though convinced.
"Why, there was nothing queer about that," laughed the acting scout-master. "As I told you just now, it grows to be second nature, after you've practiced the thing for a while. But did I prove my point, fellows?"
"You certainly did!" declared Jack Armitage.
"And do any of you still have any doubt about who it was hiding away on that rotten old shelf up there, and listening to all we did?" continued Elmer.
"I don't think you'd find any scout here willing to say a contrary word, after the way you clinched things," remarked Matty Eggleston.
"And you believe that was our old enemy, Matt Tubbs?" Elmer went on.
"No other fellow could have made so quick a get-away," remarked Red Huggins, as he shook his fiery head in a convincing way. "Mebbe I haven't seen him spin down from first base many a time, and get there at second long ahead of the ball. He can run some, that Matt Tubbs can. Even Lil Artha will admit that."
"But whatever made him hide here?" queried Chatz Maxfield.
"Why, that's as plain as the nose on your face, Chatz," broke out Larry.
"I'd thank you, suh, to make no personal allusions to my features," the hot-tempered Southern lad broke in.