Don slowly returned the bandages to the first aid kit. "He was trying tonight."
"Sure he was—tonight. Why didn't he try at the other meetings and cut out his fooling?"
Don closed the kit and pushed it aside. "If he practiced a couple of times this week—"
"How are you going to get him to practice?" Andy demanded.
"Ask him."
"Mackerel! Ask him to do extra work? Can't you imagine what he'll tell you?"
Don could imagine it without much trouble. But he remembered how his last appeal, when everything seemed lost, had stopped the Danger Mountain hike. It cost nothing to try. He had no love for the job of intimating to Tim that his work was not satisfactory. And yet was it fair for him to keep silent? Was it fair to those scouts who had labored with a will?
He went out to the porch and lifted his voice. "Tim! O Tim!"
An answering cry came faintly.
"Now for the fireworks," said Andy.