CHAPTER XVII
A RELIC FROM THE ALAMEDA
EAGER for the captain's story every scout was on hand promptly at two-thirty. The captain dusted off the wooden settee, and pulled out all his chairs, for the True Treds were meeting as if in council.
"It's about Kitty," he began. "Of course, you have guessed that. But what set me on this course was the way you have made friends with that heedless one. Seems to me you would stick by her in a pinch."
"We surely would, Captain," spoke up Grace, and her voice had in it the ring of the familiar "Aye, aye, sir."
"Well, you see," went on the captain, "she's so queer, no one makes friends with her. But from the furst I was a'watchin' you 'uns, as they say at Old Point, and I was curious to see if she was going to scare you off, as she had done to all the others."
"I guess she tried," Louise could not refrain from interrupting, for the memory of Kitty's throw of the paste board box was still vivid.
"Yes, she tried, and she has told me how she plagued you, but accordin' to Kitty you wouldn't quit."