He was anxious to know what time it
was. You see, Joe was not a regular full-fledged scout and he could
not tell time by the sun nor by forty-eleven other ingenious means
known to Scout Harris.
His whole standing capital now was a knowledge of how to swim, and a
dawning consciousness that scouting meant helping people and all that
sort of thing. Thanks to a long course of disobedience to his poor
mother, he had learned to swim like a water rat. He had had somewhat
the advantage of other boys in this respect for he had gone swimming
Mondays when they were in school.
But he could not determine even approximately what time it was and he
had no watch. He knew that it was early, but he also knew that a mile
was a long distance, especially against the tide.
Then it occurred to him that he might steal ever so cautiously into the
tent and carefully, _ever so carefully_, pull Townsend's watch out from
under his rough pillow and find out just what time it was. Keekie Joe
had heard some wonderful stories about stalking; from all accounts
rendered by Pee-wee that scout of scouts had hoodwinked every creature
in the animal kingdom, stealing up behind them unawares, and subjecting
every variety of bird to nervous prostration.
But Keekie Joe decided not to try his skill at this kind of stalking.
For one thing, he had never touched a gold watch before and the thought
of it awed him. And for another thing, if Townsend should awake and
catch him in the act he would think that his protege was trying to
steal his watch .
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