oll of bills into Jib Jab's lap.

"Here's your two hundred, Jib," he said; "and here's part of the letter.
Let's have a squint at that ring, will you?"

Gee whiz, I guess you could have knocked Jib Jab down with a feather.

CHAPTER XXXI

JIB JAB'S STORY

Then Harry told him all about his adventure cut on the ocean and how he
found the dead man in the boat, and the money.

"Funny thing, too," he said; "but we were trying to dope out the meaning of
that letter, all sitting around the camp-fire. We even thought we could see
the old gent. Old veteran, isn't he? Huh, that's just what we thought.
Blamed funny thing, a camp-fire."

Jib Jab didn't say anything, only just looked straight ahead of him. Harry
just kept smoking and swinging his legs.

"Guess we hit it about right, hey?" he said.

Jib Jab just kept looking straight ahead of him.

"Pretty near," he said. He sounded kind of strange. Even still he didn't
put the money in his pocket, or the water-soaked letter either, but they
just stayed where Harry threw them, on the bathrobe.

"Pretty tough, being broke," Harry said.

"Bet the old gent'll be proud to see you. Under Grant, I suppose?"

"Sherman," Jib Jab said, very quiet.

Then neither of them spoke for about a couple of minutes, only Harry asked
him for a light.

"Ever get mixed up with the boy scouts, Jib?" Harry asked him.

Jib Jab just shook his head.

"Well, listen here," Harry said; "and here's the test of whether you're
really human."

"I guess I'm pretty human," Jib Jab said, very low.

Then Harry said, "We ran into a party of scouts, Jib, who went up to Elm
Center to see if a fellow they saw in a moving picture was you. I guess it
was all right. They had an idea of winning that reward; you know about the
offer, of course?"

"Yes, I knew," Jib Jab said.

"How about this old gent you're named after? Friend of your father's? I
thought as much. Pretty rich, I suppose? Good. Now, Jib, you and I know
what it is to go broke. I've gone broke forty-eleven times. And we're both
keen for adventure; that's our trouble, I guess. There's a fellow over
where we're camping, a young fellow, with a bunch of little tenderfoot
scouts. They came up to hunt for you and to get that reward. They're broke.
They need some mazuma to start in with. They need a hundred. Do they get
it?"

Jib Jab said, "What do you mean?"

"Well, first you're willing to go home?"

"Do you have to ask me that?"

"All ri