s
deserted. No one had observed Chippy, for the latter was a scout
without knowing it, and had kept himself carefully hidden. He didn't
know they were boy scouts, and on their honour to treat him and
everyone else fairly; he only knew them as 'chaps we've slugged with,'
as he put it to himself.

'Wot's the game, I wonder?' muttered Chippy to himself, as the last
scout vanished behind a hazel thicket. 'Jolly good fun they're havin'.
I should just like to know wot it all comes to.'

He slid down the side of the sandpit to examine the place where the
scouts had built their fires, and soon was on the road to find out what
it all meant. His sharp eyes, running over every mark the boys had
left, saw something white in a long tuft of dried grass. He pounced
upon it and picked it up. It was a book with a picture on the cover.

'Wot's this?' thought Chippy. 'A kid watchin' a ship round a rock.
Wot for? "Scouting for Boys." Wot's inside?' He opened it at page
42, and at once recognized the scouts' uniform. 'Why, these chaps 'ad
all got togs on like this,' said Chippy to himself. 'I'll bet this
book's all about the game.'

He began to read, and was fascinated at once. Chippy talked badly
because he had been brought up among people who talked badly, but he
could read as well as any Grammar School boy, and had plenty of
intelligence behind his freckled face to grasp what he read. He was
deep in the little volume, when he heard the patter of running feet
behind him. He turned, and saw Dick Elliott coming up to him. They
knew each other at once.

'Hallo!' said Dick. 'It looks as if you'd found my book. I felt sure
I had dropped it here.'

'Yus, I found it,' replied Chippy. 'It wor' in that 'ere patch o'
stuff, an' I picked it up. I've bin a-lookin' at it.'

'That's all right,' said Dick cheerfully. 'You won't hurt it.'

Chippy had rather expected that Dick would take a scornful tone to him,
as most of the Grammar School boys did to the wharf-rats. He did not
know that Dick was in honour bound to obey Scout Law No. 5, and be
courteous to all whom he met. But Dick's friendly voice encouraged
Chippy to speak out something which he had on his mind.

'Look 'ere,' said Chippy, 'I ain't in wi' that crowd as tried to chuck
yer into the mud t'other day. That ain't playin' the game.'

'Well, you certainly didn't help 'em,' replied Dick, with a merry grin.

'No,' agreed Chippy. 'I was outed that time, proper