r voice seemed merely to goad the
irate patrol-leader to increased frenzy.

"That's just it--a common newsboy! He'll be an ornament to the troop,
won't he? He'll make a fine-looking scout, he will! I can just see what a
rotten mess he'll make of the line if we should have to march in public.
Mr. Curtis must be crazy to take in such riffraff, and I've half a mind
to tell him--"

The rest of the remark was indistinguishable, for the speakers were
moving away from the church in the direction of the better class,
residential section. Presently, even the rising and falling murmur
of voices ceased, but still the figure in the shadow of the church
tower did not stir. When at last he moved slowly forward into the circle
of an electric light, something of the hard grayness of the stone
might almost have come into his face.

"'A scout is a friend to all and a brother to every other scout,'" he
said, half aloud, as he turned in an opposite direction to that taken
by Phelps and his companion.

Then he laughed. It wasn't exactly a pleasant sound. There was no mirth
in it; only scorn, derision, and, under all the rest, a note of pain that
could not quite be hidden.

CHAPTER III

THE SILVER LINING

"Say, fellows, did you hear about Jimmy Warren's kid brother?" eagerly
inquired Court Parker, skipping up to a group gathered about the school
steps next morning.

From force of habit, expectant grins wreathed several faces. "Huh!"
grunted Bob Gibson, suspiciously. "What's the joke?"

"Joke!" repeated the latest comer, indignantly. "There isn't any joke.
What gave you that idea? It came pretty near being serious, I can tell
you. One of the electric feed-wires got loose in the storm yesterday,
and hung down in front of Jimmy's house on Pine Street. Before anybody
else saw it, that crazy kid Georgie had to go out and grab hold of it
with both hands."

He paused an instant for breath, and a concerted exclamation went up from
the crowd that had gathered swiftly about him. "Gee!" exclaimed stout
Harry Vedder. "And the current still on, I s'pose?"

"Of course it was! Dad told me how many volts. I forget. Anyhow, Georgie
got hold and couldn't let go. They said he yelled to beat the band, and
then went clean out. A crowd got around right away, but nobody seemed to
know what to do. One man ran in and started 'phoning for 'em to turn off
the current; and while he was gone, what do you think happened? A kid
with a bunch of paper