Jerry knocked shakily upon the door. At the call of “Come in!” the two culprits entered the office and stood waiting for judgment.
They could not read the look on the Chief’s face as he stood regarding them quizzically. “We-ell!” he said slowly, and paused.
“We—we’re sorry, Chief!” blurted out Jerry. “We didn’t think about making a lot of trouble for you and our leaders. We just wanted to help—— But I guess it’s no use trying to tell how we felt about it.”
“Do you think you did right in leaving Lenape without telling anybody?”
“I’m sorry too, Chief. We thought we were helping Burk, but maybe we were wrong. When you put it up to us that way, it makes us feel as if we—we——”
The man nodded. “I could talk to you for an hour about camp discipline, and it wouldn’t mean as much to you as those words of yours mean, boys. Your own consciences are better judges than I could ever hope to be. And I won’t say that you didn’t have some excuse. As things have turned out, no harm has been done, luckily for you.”
The Chief tapped with a pencil on his desk for an instant, and then began speaking softly, almost to himself.
“I talked with the warden last night after you went to bed, Jake. And he said several things about you boys which I won’t repeat; but he made me see that Lenape hasn’t done all it might do for you two. From now on, I shall expect you to use all your extra energy in being better campers. You both have lots of pep, and in Burk’s case your efforts turned out to be of great value. Keep on putting that pep to work to help the other fellow at Lenape! You know how to do it.”
He rose with a smile, and held out his hand. The twins straightened, and looked their leader full in the eyes. “Thanks, Chief,” said Jerry huskily. “We’ll try.”
Silently the Chief took their hands, and gave each a hearty grip.
“Oh, by the way, boys,” he said, as they turned to go, “I have some news for you. Last night the warden told me some things about this fellow Burk that interested me a lot. When he’s free again, as he should be if the warden means what he says, I shouldn’t be surprised if I could find a job around camp where Burk might be of use.”
Jake and Jerry Utway held back their feelings until they were almost out on the porch. Then they broke loose.