He said, “A lot of good that does you when you’re all tangled up in a rope. If you want to know what I was doing, I was bobbing for eels. I stood up to throw the anchor out in another spot and my foot got caught in the rope and in I went.”
“You’re in all right,” I said. “You’re in bad. Do you know who you saved, Dub? It’s Will Dawson—that’s the one I was telling you about.”
“How’s he in bad?” Dub asked.
“Oh no! He’s not in bad,” I said. “He’ll go home to Bridgeboro to-morrow morning, that’s how bad he’s in. He’ll get his all right—and you’ll get yours.”
“He’ll get the Gold Medal I suppose,” Will said.
“You suppose!” I shot back at him. “You know blamed well he will—he won it with bells on. Didn’t he go down under the water after you and untangle a lot of rope? The Gold Medal? It’s lucky for you he was here. He’s got twenty merits besides and I bet you they’ll give him his Eagle badge too without going through the test. Jiminy crinkums, wasn’t this test enough? So now you know who you were saved by while you were breaking the rules and getting the whole patrol in Dutch after we made a lot of plans for the end of the season. You were saved by an Eagle Scout that gets the Gold Medal for risking his life on account of you. You suppose! Go-o-d night! You ought to be proud to be saved by a Scout like that!”
“Here you go, Dub,” I said, “here’s one of your shoes. I’ll look for the other. Come ahead into the woods and we’ll start a fire and get dry.” Even while I was holding his shoe I could feel how it was all kind of worn through on the sole. My finger went all the way through it.
CHAPTER XXIV
SAFE
We went up the hill a little ways into the woods and then down into a hollow. I knew about it because I had been there before. It was lucky I had some matches because those two fellows were soaking.
“What’s the idea?” Will Dawson asked me.