wild cat, for instance. It is significant that they would have been
quite ready to believe him, whatever he had said.

But Mr. Warren knew, as his troop did not, of Hervey's saying that he
wasn't so stuck on eagles, and he was satisfied from the talk that he
had had with him that Hervey's erratic and fickle nature had asserted
itself in the very moment of high responsibility. He could not help
liking Hervey, but he would never again allow the cherished hopes of the
troop to rest upon such shaky foundation.

Whatever lingering hopes the troop might have had of a last minute
triumph were rudely dispelled when Hervey came sauntering into camp at
about four o'clock twirling his hat on the end of a stick in an
annoyingly care-free manner. Tom Slade saw him passing Council Shack
intent upon his acrobatic enterprise of tossing the hat into the air and
catching it on his head, as if this clownish feat were the chief concern
of his young life.

"You going to be on hand at five?" Tom queried in his usual off-hand
manner.

"What's the use?" Hervey asked. "There's nothing in it for me."

Tom leaned against the railing of the porch, with his stolid, half
interested air.

"Nothing in it for me," Hervey repeated, twirling his hat on the stick
in fine bravado.

"So you've decided to be a quitter," Tom said, quietly.