tealing," he repeated to himself almost fiercely.

But would it be honorable? Could he go back to his companions and tell
them freely and openly what he had done? No. He must keep his deed a
secret, locked in his heart, to be boasted of only among his companions
of the street gang. Once he would have had no qualms whatever. His
conscience would not have been troubled in the least. But that was when
he was Sparrer Muldoon, street gamin and champion scrapper of the gang;
with no higher ethics than the right of might. Now he was Edward Muldoon
Boy Scout, sworn "to keep physically strong, mentally awake, and morally
straight;" to obey the Scout law of which the first commandment is to be
trustworthy and the second to be loyal.

Would he be either mentally awake or morally strong if he yielded to
this temptation? Could he regard himself in the future us trustworthy or
as loyal to his friends? Two selves were battling in one boy.

"It ain't nothin' wrong," insisted Sparrer Muldoon.

"A Scout's honor is to be trusted," whispered Edward Muldoon.

"You bet it is!" Unconsciously the boy spoke aloud. The battle was won.
His face cleared. In that moment he understood many things. He knew now
exactly what he would do. He would take the fox to the cabin and turn
it over to Pat and Alec. He knew that that was what he had intended to
do all along before the Indian had appeared. He knew, too, who this
low-browed, ugly-faced redskin was. He was one of the thieves who had
been stealing fur and who had butchered the deer the day before. It came
over him all in a flash that it was he who had set those traps at the
beaver houses, that he himself had been seen there and followed.
Doubtless the Indian had been in hiding close by all the time and the
killing of the fox had brought him forth because he could not let so
rich a prize slip through his fingers. Yes, everything was clear to
Sparrer now. In his first surprise, his own problem following hard on
the heels of it, he had no chance to think or even to wonder how the man
had happened to appear there at that moment. Now he understood and his
face flushed with anger.

The money was no longer a temptation. He scowled down at it and he
wondered if it had been come by honestly. He could not know that the man
was an outlaw and had been forced to leave a lumber camp between suns
with no chance to spend his accumulated wages. So he regarded the money
with growing suspicion and his anger grew a