Without even turning, Townsend raised his hand, caught it, dipped it in
the mud at his feet, and walking briskly back, smeared the face and
head of the big ungainly bully, leaving him furious and dripping.
Keekie Joe trembled at this rash exploit of his new friend and waited
in fearful suspense for the sequel. It was not long in coming. With a
roar of obscene invectives, Slats Corbett rushed upon the smiling,
slim, quiet stranger, and then in the space of two seconds, there was
Slats Corbett lying flat in the mud. In a kind of trance Keekie Joe
heard a brisk, pleasant voice.
"Any of the rest of you want any? All right, come along, Joe."
And that really was the ceremony that made Keekie Joe a scout. It is
true that they had a kind of formal initiation under the apple tree on
Merry-go-round Island and gave him a badge and had him take the oath
and so on and so on. And had him hold up his hand--you know how. But
it was not when his hand went up that he became a scout. It was when
Slats Corbett went down. That was the clincher.
CHAPTER XXVII
SETTLED AT LAST
And now the wandering career of Merry-go-round Island seemed at last to
have ended and it roamed no more over the face of the waters. On the
contrary, it settled down to a life of respectable retirement on
Waring's reef.
Waring's reef was dry land at low tide, and even at high tide was close
enough to the surface to support the trusty foundation of the fugitive
isle.
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