“So you see how it is,” he said; “and it’s got me good and worried. I didn’t eat any breakfast and I didn’t eat any dinner. I was going up to see you fellows, but then I thought I wouldn’t, because your folks don’t like me and it might make them suspicious. Everybody’s against me.”
He looked out of the window as if he were afraid some of the fellows would come over. Honest, I felt sorry for him; I just couldn’t help it.
I said, “Don’t worry. I know that bunch. They won’t stop till they get the whole street looking like Spotless Town.”
He said, “So there it is. My father knows I need money. A tall chance I’d have of getting any from him; you’d have to chloroform him before he’d give up a postage stamp. That’s him. You know what an old grouch he is. Once I shouted some crazy nonsense about burning the place down; I was just mad, that’s all. But you see how it is.”
It seemed funny to me, because at my house we never had any fights or anything, and I saw how my mother and sister were right because those Slausens were different kind of people from us.
He said, “All you kids have to do to cook my goose for me is to shout out that you left me here last night. If they don’t send me to jail I’ll have to beat it out west. You kept your mouths shut so far, and I’ve got to hand it to you, because you’re a couple of A-1 little scouts. But the question is, can you stand the strain? We’re the only three that know anything. Are you game? Will you stick? Or do I have to beat it to-night? It all hangs on you. If you say I was here when you left—you won’t tell them that, will you? You won’t let anybody force it out of you? Judge, lawyers, scoutleaders——”
“You mean scoutmaster,” Westy said.
“You won’t tell anybody—in the court or anywhere?”
Gee, I felt sorry for him, because I could see he was terribly worried. I knew nobody had any use for him, and I thought that maybe already Mr. Ellsworth had some suspicions about him.
“Give me your promise,” he said, “both of you. Nobody can force you to talk if you don’t want to—can they? All you fellows came here to-day to help clear up. That shows you’ve got the right stuff in you. Won’t you help a friend out? I’m not asking you to do anything but just keep your mouths shut. You’re not afraid of O’Day and that bunch, are you? Now’s the time to show if you’re really scouts.”