ht
in, though I could see it was hard for him to say it. He said, "My pal
had quite a little sum of money in his jacket, which we can't seem to
find now. It was buttoned into a flap pocket. He thought, or rather _I_
thought, that perhaps it had been taken from him and laid away for safe
keeping. Or perhaps it may have fallen into the water and gone down.
There's a lot of valuable stuff under the water these days." I think he
said that just so's to kind of make a joke about what he was saying, so
as maybe it wouldn't seem so serious like. Anyway, he was awfully
trice. "It seems pretty contemptible to be talking about money," he
said, "after my pal's life was saved by you folks, but it's just
because the money has to be paid out pretty soon that he's worrying
about it. He didn't want me to come over and ask, but I told him I was
going to, anyway. No harm in that, I guess."

"None whatever," Mr. Ellsworth said; "how much money was there?"

The fellow said a little over two hundred, but they weren't sure
exactly how much.

Mr. Ellsworth raised his eyebrows in that way he has and said, "Isn't
that a good deal of money for two young fellows to take camping?"

The camper said, "Yes, I guess it is, but we're pretty punk campers, I
suppose, any way you look at it."

Mr. Ellsworth said, "Just wait a minute," and he went away.

The camping fellow started to say how it made him feel mean and
contemptible to come over and ask about the money, and he guessed it
was probably in Davy Jones' locker, anyway.

Pretty soon Mr. Ellsworth came back and said, "I'm very sorry, my young
friend, but no sum of money was found on your companion. If it had
been, it would either have been restored to him or held by the camp
authorities through oversight. I have just made inquiries of them. The
boy who saved your friend is not in camp at present, but I think I can
answer for him, that he did not find it. To make sure, I will ask him
when he returns and one of the boys will row over and let you know."

I could see the fellow seemed kind of disappointed, but anyway, he was
mighty nice about it.

CHAPTER XX

TELLS ABOUT THE LOSS OF SOME MONEY

Mr. Ellsworth asked me to come back and get some letters to put in the
mail box, so after I saw the gold dust twin start off I went back to
the tepee, and just as I was going inside I saw Connie Bennett and Bert
McAlpin and Hunt Ward and Stut Moran and Skinny coming down the hill in
back of the t