Roy lifted himself up on the coping and swung his legs from it and felt at home.
“It’s about Tom Slade, Mr. Temple. I know you don’t like him and haven’t much use for any of us scouts, and I was afraid if Mr. Ellsworth came to see you there might be an argument or something like that, but there couldn’t be one with me because I’m only a kid and I don’t know how to argue. But there’s another reason too; I stood for Tom—brought him into the troop—and he’s my friend and whatever is done for him I want to do it. I’ll tell you what he did—you know, he’s changed an awful lot since you knew him. I don’t say a fellow would always change so much but he’s changed an awful lot. You’d hardly believe what I’m going to tell you if you didn’t know about his changing. It was his own father, Mr. Temple, that took Mary’s pin—it wasn’t Tom. I’m dead sure of it, and I’ll tell you how I know.
“Sometimes a fellow is afraid of a girl.”
“I think he went out of the room where the rest of us were that day because he was afraid he might see you—ashamed, you know—kind of. I’d have felt the same way if I had thrown stones at you. Well, he went around the house—I don’t know just why he did that—but anyway, he found tracks there and he found a paint smudge on the window-ledge where the burglar climbed out. There’s another smudge on the fence where the burglar got over. Tom tracked him and found it was his own father and he got the pin from him, but I suppose maybe he was afraid to come and give it to Mary. You know, sometimes a fellow is afraid of a girl—”
John Temple smiled slightly.
“And he was afraid of you, too, I suppose, and that’s where he fell down, keeping the pin in his pocket. I know it was his father because-here. I’ll show you, Mr. Temple. Here’s his membership card in a union with his name on it, and this is what I think. He stopped in the woods and tore this up so there wouldn’t be anything on him to show his name and that was just when Tom found him. Tom wouldn’t tell about it because it’s one of our laws that a scout must be loyal. So I want to give this pin to Mary and then I want Tom to go back with me because it’s our troop birthday pretty soon—we’ve been going two years and—”
“Come around and show me your smudge and your tracks,” said Mr. Temple. “If what you say is true you can go down in the car with me and I’ll withdraw the complaint and do what I can to have the matter expedited. You might let me have the pin.”
“Couldn’t I give it to Mary?”
“Yes, if she’s about.”