“How do you suppose I found out?” Hervey said. “I didn’t want to ’phone, I’ll tell you that much. I didn’t care so much.”
“Don’t, Hervey,” Brent said in a low tone.
“I should bother,” Hervey said.
“Bother about whether you tell the truth or not? That what you mean?” Mr. Arnoldson asked him. Then he said, “Any of you fellows see him ’phone?”
“No, we waited outside,” Brent said.
“Ah, yes,” Mr. Arnoldson said with a kind of a smile. “Well now,” he said, and he clapped his hand down on the table, “there was no ’phone message received at this camp from any of you boys this evening.”
“You sure of that?” Brent asked.
“Absolutely,” Mr. Arnoldson said. “And there is no scout or anybody else at this camp by the name of Wilkins. I’m sorry for you four boys, Harris and Blakeley and Hollister and Gaylong, you were duped. It’s all right, go to bed and forget it. Willetts, you’re a liar and we don’t want any liars at this camp. You not only try to fool the management and disobey rules, but you fool your comrades. You thought we’d call you in if you ’phoned. And you knew these boys wouldn’t stay out without ’phoning. So you put one over on them; you lied to them. I was going to give you all a good calling down and then turn in because I’m sleepy. A good calling down wouldn’t have killed you.”
“Gee whiz, it wouldn’t kill me,” Pee-wee said.
“Now you four turn in and forget it,” Mr. Arnoldson said. “And you, Willetts, had better go up where your troop bunks, if you know where that is, and pack up your stuff and get out of here in the morning. And don’t ever show your face in Temple Camp again. Don’t talk back, and cut out the bravado; there’s the door, get out of my sight.”