"I never touched him. What's the matter with you?" protested Chunky indignantly.
"No quarreling, boys," warned the professor.
"Well, he doesn't want to be poking my pony!"
"Well, he doesn't want to be accusing me of poking his old bundle of bones."
"Pretty lively critter for a bundle of bones, I should say," answered the captain grimly.
"Nobody trailing," announced the scouts returning a few minutes later. The captain may have had a suspicion, but if so he kept it to himself, making no reply to the report of his two scouts.
For reasons best known to himself Stacy did not give his rattlesnake imitation again. But every little while a broad grin would grow on his countenance, which the fat boy would suppress as quickly as possible.
"This is too good a thing to be nipped in the bud," he muttered. "No, sir, I don't give my secrets away yet awhile. Mebby I never shall."
Stacy well knew that swift punishment would be meted out to him if the others caught him at his new trick, so the fat boy kept silent, looking the picture of innocence.