In the morning when he and young Smith arose, the latter said to him in some surprise:
"Why, Billy, what is the matter, what have you been doing? You have got the blackest eye I ever saw on a boy."
"Me?" cried Billy. "Are you sure? Isn't it dirt? Where should
I have been to get a black eye?"
"I am sure I don't know, but that's what it is all right. Look at it yourself, Billy, and see if it is not."
There was a little looking glass in the tent, and Billy now surveyed himself in this, finding that young Smith was right, and that he did have one beautiful black eye, the other being only slightly discolored.
He knew where he had obtained it, but did not think it necessary to explain the matter to young Smith.
"I'll wait and see who has the most to say about it," he thought, "and then I will know who it was that I followed last night, who it was that gave me this lovely decoration."
When he met the boys, however, all of them had something to say, and
Harry said with a laugh:
"You must have got that when you stumbled over the tent rope last night, Billy."
"Yes, I guess I did," said Billy, but to himself he remarked that now there was very little chance of learning the truth.