th him?"

"Well, what do you think those twins did? You have three guesses. They
bought a tent in Catskill and a lot of canned stuff. One of them
telegraphed his father for more stuff--and money, I guess. And we're
camping out in a nice little grove right near the Hudson. Good fishing
and a row across whenever you want an ice cream soda. Ought to appeal
to _you_, hey? You notice I say we? That's us. Camp McCord is the name
of the place and--"

"But how about rescuing Skinny?" I asked him; "how did you get him to
Catskill? How about--"

"Shut up!" he said. "Camp McCord is the name of the place and there
Skinny's going to stay till the Elk Patrol of the Bridgeboro Troop
marches down in a body and hands him the gold cross. Those are the Gold
Dust Twins' orders."

"But Bert," I said, "that isn't the way they present the cross. You
have to have a special meeting and the scoutmaster--"

"Scoutmaster be hanged," he said; "the Elk Patrol is going to march
down to Camp McCord and hand the gold cross to Skinny. We're just
waiting for a letter. Scout Bennett is going to do the handing. We
haven't made up our minds yet whether we'll have him kneel down or
not."

CHAPTER XXXVI

TELLS ABOUT WHAT BERT TOLD ME

He seemed different from the way he was before. He was all excited when
he talked, and I could see he was just crazy about those new plans.

I said, "But tell us how you rescued Skinny."

"Don't bother your head about trifles," he said. "The passage came out
in the old creek bed in the high land east of the flood; I'll tell you
about it later. Listen, do you know what those fellows were doing? They
may be rotten scouts, Blakeley, but they're A-1 sports. They're having
a pennant made in Catskill. They're going to fly it over the tent. It
says Camp McCord."

"I don't see how you did all this so soon," I told him; "I wish you'd
tell me about the rescue."

"Row quicker," he said, "I've got to see my patrol and get some duds
and beat it back by the road. They'll understand. It'll only be a few
days."

"Bert," I said, "I'm going with you; Westy and I are--"

He said, "Now don't begin that. We've had one flood already; isn't that
enough? Do you want everybody leaving camp? The trustees won't stand
for that. I can speak to my scoutmaster, but _you_ can't because yours
is away. Now don't spoil everything, _please_. Come down and see us
to-morrow, both of you, and we'll give you a couple of home-made
doughnuts."