Anyway, the day passed soon enough, even if we didn’t have much to do, and after supper, Harry said very innocent sort of, “Roy, suppose you and Dorry hike into Kingston with me and carry home some stuff. The rest of you start a fire.”

Little Willie Wide-awake piped up, “I’ll go with you.” But Harry just ruffled up his hair, the same as he was always doing with me and said, “You just sit here and watch the fire. See what you can find in the fire. The other night we were seeing all sorts of things in the fire—pictures and things. You can find all kinds of pictures in fires, can’t you, Brent?”

Brent Gaylong said, “That’s the idea.”

So then Harry gave the little fellow a kind of a push so he went sprawling right down all over the other fellows. Gee, I bet those kids liked him. I don’t know, but he had a way about him that everybody liked. After we started I told him he ought to be a scoutmaster, and he said he would only he had a date in Labrador. He said he had a date to go hunting seals. Another time he told us he had a date to kill a man in Australia. He had a lot of dates.

On the way to Kingston he said to us, “Did you give that newspaper article back to Gaylong?” And I told him, “Yes.”

“All right,” he said; “we don’t want that in our possession. We have nothing to do with this business; see?”

Dorry said, “Sure, we understand.”

Then Harry said, “Now I don’t want you kids to be disappointed if this wild man of Borneo turns out not to be wandering Horace at all; see?”

“I can’t be mistaken,” I told him.

He said, “Well, Columbus was mistaken when he thought he’d reached India, and he was smarter than you.”

“Gee whiz,” I said, “I don’t deny he was smarter than I am. But anyway, I know we’re not mistaken.”

“All right,” he said; “but I want you to let me do the talking. All I know about this savage beast is the twinkle in his eye. Twinkles are good things; you can usually bank on a twinkle. But you kids leave it to me; understand?”

I said, “It’ll be so still you’ll be able to hear the silence.”

“Because this is a pretty delicate business,” Harry said. “Even if Jib comes across all right, there’s still Gaylong. Our fingers mustn’t be seen in this pie. We’re going to try to make something happen, that’s all. If he knows that we had anything to do with it, he wouldn’t touch the reward. Gaylong is as white as a snowstorm.”

I said, “Take it from me a snowstorm is dark brown compared to him. I know that fellow.”

“Well, if we can just handle this wild what-is-it, we’ll put one over on Gaylong all right,” Harry said. “We’ll buy that cane for what’s-his-name and we’ll build that scout meeting-place. I’m getting kind of interested myself now. I haven’t been so worked up since I sold a phonograph to a king over there in the Cannibal Islands. As soon as he heard it talk, he wanted to eat it. Come on, get a hustle.”

When we got to Costello’s Mammoth Show, the people were crowding out. Harry went up to the wagon where they sold tickets and said, “Hello, Mr. Costello, how’s business?”

“Marvellous, magnificent!” he said in that big voice of his. “The town is spellbound by our sumptuous show. How are the young scouts?”

Harry told him we were all well, and asked him if I might go in and say good-bye to my friends.

“They will be proud to receive the young hero and his companions,” he said. And he waved his whip toward the door of the small tent. I kind of liked that man. You can like a person, even if he’s a kind of a faker.

In the side show tent, Lemuel Long was playing checkers with Judge Dot. Over in the corner, Jib Jab sat with his feet up on one of the platforms, smoking a cigarette. He had his bathrobe on and his face was all clean. I guess he was tired after pulling at that chain all day. He turned his head and said, “Hello, Scouty, glad to see you.”

I said, “Jib Jab, this is the fellow who’s looking after us on our hike; it’s Mr. Donnelle. I thought I’d come and see you before we go away and I brought him, too. He wouldn’t tell anybody about you being human.”

Harry Donnelle put out his hand in that nice off-hand way he had, to shake hands with him, and Jib Jab started to reach out too. Then, all of a sudden he stood up and raised his arm and saluted.

“How are you, Lieutenant?” he said; “I see you’re mustered out, but I salute you just the same, because you saved my life in France. I know you even if you don’t know me, Lieutenant.”

Just then Dorry whispered in my ear, “Did you notice his hand when he saluted. There’s a cameo ring on it. Look close and see if that’s Abraham Lincoln’s head carved on it. It’s awful old and clumsy looking.”

Just then Jib Jab took my hand and I had a good look at that ring. Oh boy, you can bet I was excited. And you can bet a scout knows Abraham Lincoln’s head when he sees it. But even if I was flabbergasted, I could seem to just hear those words, “saved my life.”

I bet that fellow Harry Donnelle had hundreds and hundreds of adventures that he never told us about. I guess he didn’t even notice the ring. That’s one thing about a scout, he’s observant.