"Oh, no," he said, all the while sort of sneering at me; "I suppose you didn't bring him in here so you could be where nobody else heard you. Maybe you think you own the galley."
"Sure I brought him in here so we could be alone," I said. .
"Sure you did," he said, "just so you could start him after the stalker's badge. We heard you make him promise to go after that and not think about anything else. He's easy, that kid is."
"Why should I—" I began.
"You know well enough why," he said; "who started the rule about not having two of the same merit badges in a patrol?"
"I did," I told him.
"Yes," he said, "and now you're trying to rush this kid through just so you can get even with Vic. What have you got to do with our patrol anyway? Don't you think we're old enough to take care of our new members? All because you and Vic were on the outs last summer."
Jingo, that made me mad. "I forgot all about that," I said; "didn't Vic treat me to a soda only last week? It wasn't a quarrel anyway. I should worry about who has the stalker's badge in your patrol. I didn't even know Vic was after it. You know yourself the kid hasn't begun his second-class
