od run for it, even if you didn't get
it. He said you came near it."

Hervey just sat on the rail swinging his legs. "I came pretty near the
eagle, that's right," he said; "and if I'd got a little nearer I'd have
choked his life out. That's how much I think of the eagle."

Skinny looked as if he did not understand.

"Did you see that bird that Tom Slade got? He got the nest and all. It's
hanging in the elm tree near the pavilion. There's an oriole in that
nest."

"Get out!"

"Didn't you see it yet?"

"Nope."

"All the fellows saw it. That bird has got a name like the one you
called me."

"Asbestos?"

"Something like that. Why did you call me that name--Asbestos?"

"Well, because you're more important than an eagle. See?"

"That's no good of a reason."

"Well, then, because you're going to be a second-hand scout."

"You mean second-_class_," Skinny said; "that's no good of a reason,
either."

"Well, I guess I'm not much good on reasons. I'd never win the reason
badge, hey?"

"Do you know who is the smartest fellow in this camp?" Skinny asked,
jumping from one thing to another in his erratic fashion. "Tom Slade. He
knows everything. I like him but I like you better. He promised to clap
when I go on the platform, too. Will you ask your troop to clap?"

"I'm afraid they don't care anything about doing me a favor, Alf. Maybe
they won't feel like clapping. But your troop will clap."

"Pee-wee Harris, he's in my troop; he said he'd shout."

"Good night!" Hervey laughed. "What more do you want?"

CHAPTER XVIII

THE DAY BEFORE

So it seemed that Tom Slade had brought the rescued oriole, bag and
baggage, back to camp, and had said nothing of the circumstance of his
finding it. He was indeed a queer, uncommunicative fellow.

Surely, thought Hervey, this scout supreme could have no thought of
personal triumphs, for he was out of the game where such things were
concerned, being already the hero of scout heroes, living among them
with a kind of romantic halo about his head.

Hervey was a little puzzled as to why Tom had not given him credit for
finding that little stranger who was now a sort of mascot in the camp.
For the whole scout family had taken very kindly to Orestes.

In the loneliness of the shadow under which he spent those two days,
Hervey would have welcomed the slight glory which a word or two from Tom
Slade might have brought him. But Tom Slade said nothing. And it was not
in Herv