"Well, it's really a little hard on all of you, Donald as well, to have your holiday changed by the scarlet-fever business, so," Mrs. Vaughan smiled. "I'm glad you all approve. I spoke to Brown, and he was sure Brownie would welcome another. If seems that you're all more of helps than hindrances, he says, to his wife, and I'm glad to hear it. So another Scout will be no trouble to the old folk, I hope. The attic where you boys sleep is so big that another trundle-bed can be rigged up there, if there's a wet night again."
"If! But I hope there won't be," said Peter, as they made their way back to camp. "I say—ripping, isn't it? We don't know him, but——"
"Well, we know that he's a Scout," said Robin.
"So he's sure to be thoroughly decent," said Jan, who adopted her brother's expressions when in need of extra words.
And certainly Donald proved in the opinion of the three to be indeed "thoroughly decent" when, next afternoon, he arrived; a "jolly all-round man and a good Scout" the boys voted him, and Jan was quite as satisfied. Within an hour of his arrival he had been introduced into all the plans of the campers, and the four were seated round the fire roasting potatoes for supper as though they had been boon companions for years. "And you've the Pioneer Badge already?" exclaimed Robin, "as well as the ones we've got. And,—what's this?—Oh! the Signaller's Badge"; the boys were examining the proficiency badges that Donald wore on his right arm.
"Well, Dick's a better signaller than I am," said Donald; "I wish he was here. He's jolly good and quick at flag-wagging; you should see him at it, and——"
"You're both frightfully clever, I expect," said Peter. "Oh, I say, being cousins, you know, and all that, d'you think, Robin, that we could ask him about the mysteries?"
CHAPTER VIII
"Mysteries!" Donald pricked up his ears. "Oh, I say, I'd like to hear them," and before Robin could exactly make up his mind on the matter, the subject was well under way. "There's—well there's a whole heap of mysteries," said Peter eagerly, "little ones and a big one. Brownie's in some of them, at least she certainly knows something about one, and I've an idea that she knows more than she'll own about your noise, Jan, if you ask me. And then there's my noise, and I——"