"I know," I said, "and you went. Sure, you're a hero." But of course, I knew the fellow never called him at all. Anyway, maybe the wind made it sound that way to him. He just sat there shaking all over and staring wild, "Three times," he panted out, "and that's the last—I—I got my hand in his mouth before—before—he said it—I did. That's the way murderers do—it is. I did it. Even I know how to strangle—I do. I'm a hero!"
I said, "Listen here, Alf, you're a wonder—"
"I—I—I—could kill you if I wanted to!" he screamed; "I can do anything—I can sneak—stalk—I can take things out of your pocket—I can choke people—I—"
That's just the way he went on and I saw he had gone all to pieces, maybe from the strain, and didn't know what he was saying. I just put my arm around him and I could feel that he was shaking all over, but it wasn't anything like a chill.
He kept saying, "I want to be alone by myself now."
I said, "Alf, listen a minute—please. You can go and be alone by yourself. You can go in our patrol cabin and I'll chase all the fellows out. I know how you feel. It was wonderful, Alf. Try to get quieted down now. You saved him."
"I—I can bite," he said.
I said, "Yes, I know; but try to take it easy now, because we're coming to shore. You have to act like a real hero."
But as soon as we came into shallow water he jumped out of the boat and scooted around the edge of the pavilion, like a wild animal. In a couple of seconds everybody in camp was around the boat, waiting to hear what the camp doctor said. As soon as I knew that the fellow was going to be all right, I went away to find Skinny. No one else seemed to miss him.
Pretty soon I heard a voice calling, "What's your hurry, Blakeley?" and
I turned around and saw Bert Winton hurrying to catch up to me.