He was still partial to khaki trousers, and these were worn with a strange contraption for a belt; it was a kind of braided fiber of his own manufacture, the material of which was said to have been taken from a string tree.
As he resumed his way through the woods he presently heard a cheery, but rather exhausted, voice behind him.
"Have a heart, Slady, and wait a minute, will you ?" Tom's pursuer called.

"I'm nearly dead climbing up through all this jungle after you.
Old Mother Nature's got herself into a fine mess of a tangle through here, hey?
Don't mind if I come along with you, do you?
Look down there, hey?
Pavilion looks nice.

I've been wondering if I stand any chance of being called up on that platform on Saturday night.

Looks swell with all the bunting over it, doesn't it ?" The speaker, who had been half talking and half shouting, now came stumbling and panting up over the edge of the wooded decline where the thick brush had played havoc with his scout suit but not with his temper.
"Some climb, hey ?" he breathed, laughing, and affecting the stagger of utter exhaustion.

"I bet you knew an easier way up.