"You've struck something new about that boat business, that's what, Tubby!" he cried, pointing his finger at the other.
"Oh! say, that is hardly fair," grumbled Tubby. "I expected to have you all up in the air guessing; and here Rob goes and hits the facts the very first pop."
"Then you've made a discovery, is that it, Tubby?" asked Merritt.
"I should say I had, and in the most remarkable way ever heard of," the stout scout declared. "Talk about your luck—but then, if I hadn't been prepared and kept my eyes open, it wouldn't have happened, that's what. Yes, sir, it pays to have eyes in your head, and some gray matter in your brain, if I do say it myself that oughtn't. Remember that, Andy Bowles, and don't think you're doing your whole duty as a scout when you just blow that bugle of yours now and then."
"Oh! come, tell us what's happened, Tubby, and never mind about me," suggested Andy with a broad grin. For it was like putting the cart before the horse to have clumsy, good-natured, but careless Tubby tell another boy how to prove himself worthy of bearing the name of scout.
"All right, I won't keep you wondering too long," Tubby continued, being in reality just wild to relate his story. "You all remember how, when I picked up that little curled shaving floating on the water that was in Rob's sailboat, and noticed how it had a queer raised ridge running all along, I said that the bit that had been used to bore that round hole must have a good-sized nick in each of the two cutting edges? Well, I was right; it has!"
"Then you prowled around, and poked into everybody's tool-chest till you found such a bit, did you?" demanded Andy.
"I meant to," admitted Tubby, "but so many things have kept coming up since our getting back from Mexico that it just seemed as though I couldn't make a start. But only this very morning I told myself I'd get busy, and see if I couldn't wipe that old mystery off the slate. Then that wonderful streak of good luck ran slap up against me, and I took advantage of my opportunity. Every true scout has to grab a golden chance when it comes along, Andy; you know that?"
"Oh! go on, and quit your preaching," grunted the other scout.
"Well, I was walking along the main street of Hampton just half an hour ago, and all at once I happened to spy just such an object as I had in my mind right then. It was a carpenter's brace, and was carried under the arm of a man I immediately recognized as Jacob Ramsay."