It would have been hard to say how Tom felt or what he thought.

At all events he had not been jostled out of his stolid calm.
"Did you ever hear any one say that there is more than one way to kill a cat ?" he finally inquired, pausing to notice some bird or squirrel among the trees.
"I don't want to kill a cat," Hervey said.

"I want to find some tracks, I----" "You want to be an Eagle Scout," Tom concluded; "and you've got your mind set on it.

That it ?" "That's it; but it's for the sake of my troop, too." Still again, they strolled on in silence.

A little twig cracked under Tom's foot, the crackle sounding clear in the solemn stillness.