“Yeah!” said Jake scornfully. “I wouldn’t have got very far if you hadn’t seen us in the gypsy flivver, and hadn’t thrown away the keys to the warden’s car. And it was your idea for us to go to Canoe Mountain in the first place.”
“That wasn’t anything. But I call it real smart of you to figure out that Burk had stowed away those pearls in his mattress!”
“Listen, Jerry Utway!” said Jake, and there was a glint in his bright blue eyes. “We found Burk together, and we never could have put it across if we hadn’t been working together all the time. Sherlock here helped a lot, too, although he didn’t know it. Now, for goodness sake, nail up that trap of yours until you can say something with some sense to it!”
“I will not!” answered Jerry stoutly. “You’re a hero, that’s what you are—a bloomin’ hero!”
“I’m not! Don’t call me names! Take that back!”
“You are, too! I won’t take it back. You’re a bloomin’ hero!”
Jake seized a heavy hot-water bottle that lay at the foot of Sherlock’s bed, and wielded it threateningly. The circle of boys widened about the two brothers, and laughing campers nudged each other and winked. For almost a week now, the Utway twins had been strangely peaceable. They had been driven by the mystery that had surrounded Camp Lenape to join forces and forget their brotherly strife in a common cause and in the face of a common danger. But now that they were back home again at Lenape, a friendly little battle might clear the air, make them feel themselves once more.
“That’s the boy, Jake!” urged Chink Towner. “Give him the works!”
“Key down, you Chinaman!” cried Jake. “I know what I’m doing.” Again he wielded the hot-water bottle menacingly, hefting it as if on the point of hurling it full at his brother. “Now, Jerry, you take that back!”
“You’re a hero, a bloomin’ hero!” chanted Jerry, tauntingly.