“Well, I’ll be with you as far as the Springs,” said the stranger, “so if you don’t make connections all right I’ll get things fixed up for you. How the dickens did you three kids happen to beat it out here anyway?”
“If we told you, you’d only laugh,” said Ed Carlisle. “We did some stunts, that’s how. We——”
“Don’t you tell him unless he tells us what he’s doing out here,” Warde said.
“All right, that’s a go,” laughed the stranger.
“I bet you’re just selling things to tourists,” said Westy. “I bet you’re bringing a lot of souvenirs of Yellowstone Park from New York to sell out here.”
“Yes, and how about you?” the stranger asked.
“We’re sent by the Rotary Club,” said Warde, “because we did three things to win the award.” The traveling man cocked his head sideways and listened in a humorously skeptical way which was very annoying. “You found somebody who was lost in the woods?” he queried.
“No, we didn’t find somebody who was lost in the woods,” Warde said somewhat testily.
“No? Well then they sent you because you’re the only three boy scouts that haven’t done that. I congratulate you, here’s my hand.”
“This fellow, Westy Martin,” said Warde, “killed a deer that somebody else had shot because he wanted to put it out of its suffering and he let people think he was the one that shot it; he did that so they wouldn’t punish the other person. But it was found out so they gave him the good turn award. This other fellow put out a forest fire and I took a long hike and got a job for somebody. So now what are you doing out here? You didn’t even tell us your name.”