"There's a little matter I want to speak about, Mr. Ellsworth, and it isn't easy. My friend didn't want me to speak about it at all, for he was afraid you might misunderstand us."
Mr. Ellsworth said, awful friendly like, "I will try not to."
Then he said, kind of smiling, "I suppose we can trust this good little scout not to repeat out talk to anyone."
Mr. Ellsworth began to laugh, then he said, "Oh, yes, indeed; all good little scouts are to be trusted. That's what Roy, here, would say is their middle name. Am I right, Roy?"
I guess that made it kind of easy for the fellow, for he started right in, though I could see it was hard for him to say it. He said, "My pal had quite a little sum of money in his jacket, which we can't seem to find now. It was buttoned into a flap pocket. He thought, or rather I thought, that perhaps it had been taken from him and laid away for safe keeping. Or perhaps it may have fallen into the water and gone down. There's a lot of valuable stuff under the water these days." I think he said that just so's to kind of make a joke about what he was saying, so as maybe it wouldn't seem so serious like. Anyway, he was awfully trice. "It seems pretty contemptible to be talking about money," he said, "after my pal's life was saved by you folks, but it's just because the money has to be paid out pretty soon that he's worrying about it. He didn't want me to come over and ask, but I told him I was going to, anyway. No harm in that, I guess."
"None whatever," Mr. Ellsworth said; "how much money was there?"
The fellow said a little over two hundred, but they weren't sure exactly how much.
Mr. Ellsworth raised his eyebrows in that way he has and said, "Isn't that a good deal of money for two young fellows to take camping?"
The camper said, "Yes, I guess it is, but we're pretty punk campers, I suppose, any way you look at it."
Mr. Ellsworth said, "Just wait a minute," and he went away.