“And think of the cost of the ink,” I said. “Anyway it was good exercise for his wrist.”
Mr. Dawson slapped me on the shoulder and he said, “Same old Roy.” Then he said, “Well, Billy, what’s the matter?”
I looked up the platform to where Dub was sitting all alone swinging his legs from the baggage truck. He didn’t look like a Scout at all.
CHAPTER XXXI
HELD
Will just put his arms around his father’s waist and stood in front of him to prevent him from walking. He was all excited, he said, “Listen, Dad, quick, because in a couple of minutes the south bound train will be here and then it will be too late. You keep still, Roy.” Jiminy crinkums, people are always telling me to keep still. Anyway Mr. Dawson winked at me.
Will just said—gee, but he was anxious and excited—“Listen Dad, I broke the rule and took a boat out at night, and—do you see that fellow up there? The one sitting on the truck? He’s a Scout—”
Mabel Dawson said, “He doesn’t look like one.”
“Never you mind, he is one,” Will said. He kept shaking his father so he’d listen in a hurry. He said, “That Scout saved my life—I’ll tell you all about it afterward how I got tangled up with a rope in the water. Listen—listen quick! He ought to have the Gold Medal for that. But he wouldn’t let us tell because then I would have been sent home for breaking the rule—do you see? I had to promise him I wouldn’t tell anybody at camp. But I could tell you because you weren’t at camp—that isn’t breaking my word. Now he’s going home because he hasn’t got money enough to stay any longer—his train—listen—his train is coming any minute. Listen—you said maybe I’d get a big radio on Christmas and I know what you mean when you say maybe—”
“He don’t mean maybe,” I said.
“Will you keep still!” Will shot at me. “Listen Dad,” he said. “Instead of getting that radio I want that fel—Scout—I want him to stay up here till the camp closes. So will you do that? You have to answer quick because the train is whistling—I hear it—so will you do that? He saved my life and kept still so I could stay up here. I’ll go home if I have to but he’s got to stay up here—he’s got to—listen, there’s the train—will you answer me!” Gee, I never saw Will so excited in all his life. He was right about the south bound train, it was whistling up the line. The train the Dawsons came on started off. I could see the smoke of the other one over the trees way up the river.