CHAPTER IX — An Unwelcome Guest
What may be called a minor mystery was settled within a few minutes after Alvin, Chester and Mike came out of the wood and sat down for a brief while on the porch. Most of the other Boy Scouts had gone inside for the night, though the murmur of voices showed the majority were awake. The laugh of Scout Master Hall was heard in response to some jest, he being, as has been said, as much of a youngster as the most youthful of the troop.
A tall form loomed to view in the starlight, and coming up the steps sat down beside Mike with a greeting to all three. He was recognized as Hoke Butler, a member of the Stag Patrol.
“If you had run a little faster,” he remarked with a loud laugh, “you surely would have overtaken me, Mike.”
“Why didn’t ye slack up and give me the chance? Me legs ain’t as long as yours.”
“I did put on the brakes, but you turned back.”
“I’d come to the belaif that if ye didn’t want me company, I shouldn’t force mine upon ye, so I quit. What were ye doing in the wood behind us?”
“I was strolling behind the bungalow when I heard voices and was stealing up to learn who you were when you heard me, and for the fun of it I darted off as if I was scared half to death.”
“What did ye think of the views of mesilf and Alvin and Chester as regards the nixt Prisident?”
It was a shrewd question and brought the desired answer.