deny that I was kind of sore at you when you spoke to
me down at the lake, and I can't tell whether I like you or not,
because I can never make out what you really think. You've got to know
what a fellow thinks before you know whether you like him or not, don't
you?"

He said you sure did, and then he said, "Well, I know whether I like
_you_ or not, so it's all right."

"I don't care much whether you like _me_" I said, "it's Skinny I'm
thinking about. I know I like _him_, you can bet."

"And that's one reason I like you," he said; "because you like _him_.
Ever notice how the cedar shingles shrink in a dry spell?"

I said I didn't know they were cedar.

"You can always tell cedar by the smell," he said, "and the S warp."
Gee, I didn't even know what an S warp was.

Then I said right out--I said, "You told me that you tracked Skinny.
Would you mind telling me where he went?"

For a minute he just kept moving the stick around and then he said,
"What would be the use of telling you?"

"Because I've got a reason and I want to know," I said. Then all of a
sudden I knew why he climbed up there. It was partly so he could see
all around and be sure no one was coming.

"Well, why do you want to know?" he said.

"Because I'm a friend of Skinny's, that's why," I said. Then I just
blurted out, "I might as well tell you because, anyway, you're smarter
than I am. They found a key on Skinny."

He just said, "When?"

"To-day," I said, "and it's probably a key to one of the lockers in our
house-boat. Besides, that fellow who nearly got drowned had about a
couple of hundred dollars on him."

"Humph, I thought so," Winton said.

I said, "Why?"

"Oh, just because," he said. "The day he came over to try to buy a
fishing-pole he had a roll as big as a cobblestone with him. I
suspected he'd lose it some day and that somebody would get blamed."

"Nobody is getting blamed," I said.

"No, but somebody is being suspected," he shot back.

"Well, he _did_ lose it, I have to admit that much," I said.

"And that's all you're ever going to admit, hey?" he said, all the
while moving the stick around on the roof.

"_You_--_bet_--_your_--_sweet_--_life_, that's all I'm ever going to
admit," I said.

"Bully for you," he said; "you're about the best little scout I ever
knew--next to Skinny."

"I can stick up for a friend, that's one thing," I said.

"Through thick and thin?" he asked me; "in spite of circumstantial
evidence?"