Then I said, “I don’t see what it’s got to do with us, anyway, because the fire didn’t happen till two or three hours after——”
Then I stopped.
“After what, Roy?” my father said.
“After the time he said we were in there,” I kind of blurted out.
My father said, “That hasn’t anything to do with it. The point is that you weren’t there at all. There’s the beginning and the end of it. This man thinks you boys did the only thing you could do to get his old shop out of the way. He doesn’t know anything about scouts. There was a motive. That’s enough for him. And he thinks a couple of you sneaked into his place after dark and set fire to it. Now you didn’t, did you?”
“No, we didn’t,” I said, good and loud.
“Well, then,” my father said, “that’s all there is to it.”
CHAPTER XVII—SUSPENSE
That was the worst morning I ever spent. I didn’t know what to do or what to say. But one thing I was sure of, and that was that I wasn’t going to break my word no matter what happened. Because what’s the use of having any law one if it doesn’t mean what it says?
I kept wishing that those men would hurry up and come so the thing would be over with. I went out and sat on the steps of our garage and talked with James; he’s our chauffeur. And all the while I kept looking off down the road to see if those men were coming. I felt awful funny. No matter what I did I couldn’t stick to it. I felt kind of the same way as I feel just before examinations in school. I started picking dandelions on the lawn just so as to keep busy. Then I went around to the porch and sat in the swing seat and tried to read, but I couldn’t.