"Same as you fellers, I reckon," grinned Matt.
"He means he wants to stick along with us, boys," remarked Red.
"Just like his impudence!" snarled Chatz, unable to bring himself to believe there was an atom of good in this hulking Fairfield leader, who had many a time started a fight when the boys of the rival towns tried to compete on the diamond, the gridiron, or at hockey on the ice of the Sweetwater River.
Matt heard these remarks, which were none too complimentary. He seemed to have made up his mind not to pay any attention to them, much as they must have set his fighting blood to coursing hotly through his veins.
His eyes were fastened on Elmer alone, as though he recognized the fact of his leadership, and that what he said was apt to go.
Elmer made up his mind immediately. He considered that this was too good an opportunity to be lost. Matt, the rough and ready fighter of the neighboring town, was at the crossroads. A very little thing would turn him one way or the other. He might be said to be groping in the dark. And what scout worthy of the name would forget his vows, and turn a cold shoulder upon a seeker after light?
So he turned toward Matt a face that was filled with encouragement; and even before the leader of the Wolf Patrol had spoken a single word Matt realized that his case was as good as won.
"Would you mind telling us, Matt," said Elmer, pleasantly, "just why you want to go along with us now?"
"Sure not," came the ready answer. "I said, didn't I, that when I saw what blundering fools them jay cops were, I believed there was a heap more chance of Elmer trackin' Dolph Gruber? Well, that's one reason why I want to go along; 'cause I reckon you're just goin' to get that critter, while the police are waitin' for him to show up in Cramertown, where he never meant to go at all."
"But, Matt, there is another reason?" persisted Elmer.