. Lor! my 'ead
sung for 'alf a day! But it was Carrots as put 'em up to that mud
game, an' I've booted 'im out o' the crowd. As long as I'm a-runnin'
the show, I'll slug wi' anybody ye like, but I'll slug fair. Here's
yer book.'

There was a touch of reluctance in Chippy's manner, which did not
escape Dick's quick eye.

'Have you read some of it?' asked Dick.

'Yus; I read quite a bit,' replied Chippy.

'How did you like it?'

'Oh, it's pross!' returned Chippy in his deepest, hoarsest note.

'All right,' laughed Dick. 'Take the book and keep it.'

'D'yer mean it?' cried Chippy eagerly.

'Of course I do,' answered Dick. 'Tuck it into your pocket. I can
easily get another. Well, I must be on, or I shall never catch our
fellows up. Good afternoon!' And away he went, leaving Chippy to
growl hearty thanks after him.

Chippy walked slowly home, his eyes glued to page after page. The
little book went straight to Chippy's heart. The wharf-rat felt all
the delightful romance attached to being a boy scout as keenly as any
member of the Wolf Patrol, and his mind was made up swiftly.

'This 'ere's a long sight ahead o' sluggin',' he reflected. 'It's
chock-full o' good fun all the time. I'll turn my crowd into a patrol,
blest if I don't!'

He made a beginning that night. He begged a candle-end from his
mother, and gathered his followers into a corner of an old deserted
storehouse on the quay, and read and explained, and so filled them with
his own enthusiasm that each was resolved to become a boy scout, or
perish in the attempt.

CHAPTER IV

THE NEW SCOUT

Three weeks later the Wolf Patrol, again on a Saturday afternoon, were
busy in their beloved headquarters. They had flattened out a tracking
patch fifteen yards square. Dick had brought his bicycle, and the
Wolves were studying walking, running, and cycling tracks across their
patch, when they were joined by a stranger.

The first to see the new-comer was Billy Seton; the rest were bending
over the tracks which Dick's bicycle had just made. The new-comer
promptly gave Billy the half-salute, and Billy returned it, and put out
his left hand, which the stranger shook in grave fashion.

Billy had done this because the new-comer made the secret sign which
showed that he was a brother scout; but, at the same time, Billy was
full of astonishment at the odd figure before him. It was Chippy, and
Chippy had been doing his best to provide himsel