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diff --git a/10552-h/10552-h.htm b/10552-h/10552-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..96c5efb --- /dev/null +++ b/10552-h/10552-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4919 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Roy Blakeley, by Percy Keese Fitzhugh</title> + <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg"/> + <style type="text/css"> + .footnote-id { + text-indent:1.5em; + vertical-align:super; + font-size:smaller; + } + body { margin-left:8%;margin-right:10%; } + h1 { text-align: center; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1.4em; } + h2 { text-align: center; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1.2em; } + .it { font-style:italic; } + .sc { font-variant:small-caps; } + p { text-indent:0; margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom:0.5em; + text-align: justify; } + div.lgc { } + div.lgr { } + div.lgc p { text-align:center; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; } + div.lgr p { text-align:right; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; } + h2 { + text-align:center; + font-weight:normal; + page-break-before: always; + font-size:1.2em; margin:2em auto 1em auto + } + + .sub-head { font-size: smaller; } + hr.pbk { border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; + width:100%; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em } + @media handheld { hr.pbk { display: none; } } + hr.footnotemark { + border:none; + border-bottom:1px solid silver; + width:10%; + margin:1em auto 1em 0; + page-break-after: avoid; + } + .figcenter { + text-align:center; + margin:1em auto; + page-break-inside: avoid; + } + + div.blockquote { margin:1em 2em; text-align:justify; } + p.caption { text-align:center; margin:0 auto; width:100%; } + p.credit { text-align:right; margin:0 auto; width: 100%; } + + div.footnote { margin:0 .5em; } + p.footnote { text-indent:1.5em; } + p.line { text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; } + table { page-break-inside: avoid; } + table.center { margin:0.5em auto; border-collapse: collapse; padding:3px; } + table.flushleft { margin:0.5em 0em; border-collapse: collapse; padding:3px; } + table.left { margin:0.5em 1.2em; border-collapse: collapse; padding:3px; } + .tab1c1 { } + .tab1c2 { } + .tdStyle0 { + padding: 2px 5px; text-align:right; vertical-align:top; + } + .tdStyle1 { + padding: 2px 5px; text-align:left; vertical-align:top; + } + .pindent { margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-indent:1.5em; } + .noindent { margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-indent:0; } + .hang { padding-left:1.5em; text-indent:-1.5em; } + .literal-container { text-align:center; margin:0 0; } + .literal { display:inline-block; text-align:left; } + </style> + <style type="text/css"> + p { margin-top:0em; margin-bottom:0em; text-align:justify; } + .caption { font-size: smaller; padding:1em 0; text-align:center; } + .figcenter { margin:1em auto; } + #i001 { max-width:460px; } + #i002 { max-width:474px; } + #i003 { max-width:457px; } + #i004 { max-width:455px; } + #i004 { max-width:460px; } + .break-before { page-break-before: always; } + + + h1.pg { font-weight: bold; + font-size: 190%; + clear: both; } + h2.pg { font-weight: bold; + font-size: 135%; + clear: both; } + h3,h4 { text-align: center; + clear: both; } + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10552 ***</div> +<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, Roy Blakeley, by Percy Keese Fitzhugh, +Illustrated by Howard L. Hastings</h1> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + <a href="https://archive.org/details/royblakeleyhiss00fitz"> + https://archive.org/details/royblakeleyhiss00fitz</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>ROY BLAKELEY</h1> + +<hr class='pbk'/> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width:80%'> +<img src='images/i001.jpg' alt='' id='i001' style='width:100%;height:auto;'/> +<p class='caption'>I BEGAN SINKING AS LOW AS MY WAIST.</p> +</div> + +<hr class='pbk'/> + +<div class='lgc' style=''> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line' style='font-size:1.7em;'>ROY BLAKELEY</p> +<p class='line' style='font-size:1.5em;'>HIS STORY</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<div class='blockquote'> + +<p class='noindent'>Being the true narrative of his adventures and those of his troop on +land and sea and in the mud—particularly in the mud. Taken from the +Troop Book of the 1st Bridgeboro Troop B. S. A. and arranged by himself +with the assistance of Pee-wee Harris and</p> + +</div> + +<div class='lgc' style=''> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line'><span style='font-size:larger'>PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH</span></p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line'><span class='it'>Author of</span></p> +<p class='line'>TOM SLADE, BOY SCOUT, TOM SLADE AT</p> +<p class='line'>TEMPLE CAMP, ETC.</p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line' style='margin-top:2em;font-size:0.8em;'>ILLUSTRATED BY</p> +<p class='line'>HOWARD L. HASTINGS</p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line' style='margin-top:2em;font-size:0.8em;'>Published with the approval of</p> +<p class='line'><span style='font-size:smaller'>THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA</span></p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line' style='margin-top:2em;font-size:1.2em;'>GROSSET & DUNLAP</p> +<p class='line'><span style='font-size:smaller'>PUBLISHERS : : NEW YORK</span></p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<hr class='pbk'/> + +<div class='lgc' style=''> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line break-before'><span class='sc'>Copyright, 1920, by</span></p> +<p class='line'>GROSSET & DUNLAP</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<hr class='pbk'/> + +<p class='line break-before' style='text-align:center;'>TABLE OF CONTENTS</p> + +<table id='tab1' summary='' class='center'> +<colgroup> +<col span='1' style='width: 3.5em;'/> +<col span='1' style='width: 22.5em;'/> +</colgroup> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>I.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_I'><span class='sc'>Troubles of My Own—the Big Conclave</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>II.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_II'><span class='sc'>Swatting the Spy</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>III.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_III'><span class='sc'>Swatting the Spy—Continued</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>IV.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_IV'><span class='sc'>The Plot Grows Thinner—or Else Thicker</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>V.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_V'><span class='sc'>Lost</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>VI.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_VI'><span class='sc'>The Tight Place</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>VII.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_VII'><span class='sc'>Weetonka, the Terrible Chief</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>VIII.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_VIII'><span class='sc'>Resopekitwaftenly</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>IX.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_IX'><span class='sc'>The Lost Letter</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>X.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_X'><span class='sc'>The Ravens</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XI.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XI'><span class='sc'>Lost</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XII.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XII'><span class='sc'>Artie’s Adventure</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XIII.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XIII'><span class='sc'>Tracking</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XIV.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XIV'><span class='sc'>The Slacker</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XV.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XV'><span class='sc'>During Noon Hour</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XVI.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XVI'><span class='sc'>Noble Rags</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XVII.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XVII'><span class='sc'>The Two Crosses</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XVIII.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XVIII'><span class='sc'>Scout Law Number Three</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XIX.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XIX'><span class='sc'>The End of the Meeting</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XX.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XX'><span class='sc'>Mostly About Skinny</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXI.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXI'><span class='sc'>Something Missing</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXII.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXII'><span class='sc'>Shows You Where I Do the Talking</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXIII.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXIII'><span class='sc'>In the Woods</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXIV.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXIV'><span class='sc'>Treasure Island</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXV.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXV'><span class='sc'>The Short Cut</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXVI.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXVI'><span class='sc'>In My Own Camp</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXVII.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXVII'><span class='sc'>The Gentle Breeze</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXVIII.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXVIII'><span class='sc'>Jollying Pee-Wee</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXIX.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXIX'><span class='sc'>Jimmy, the Bridge-Tender</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXX.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXX'><span class='sc'>Gone</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXXI.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXXI'><span class='sc'>The Captain’s Orders</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXXII.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXXII'><span class='sc'>I Make a Dandy Friend</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXXIII.</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXXIII'><span class='sc'>So Long—See You Later</span></a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class='pbk'/> + +<div class='lgc' style=''> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line break-before' style='font-size:1.2em;'>ROY BLAKELEY</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<div><h2 id='ch_I'>CHAPTER I<br/> <span class='sub-head'>TROUBLES OF MY OWN—THE BIG CONCLAVE</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, here I am at last, ready to tell you the adventures of our young +lives. Right away I have trouble with Pee-wee Harris. He’s about as easy +to keep down as a balloon full of gas. We call him the young dirigible +because he’s always going up in the air. Even at the start he must stick +in his chapter heading about a conclave.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Hanged if I know what a conclave is. It’s some kind of a meeting I +guess. He said it was something like a peace conference, but believe me, +the meeting I’m going to tell you about wasn’t much like a peace +conference. I told him I’d use my own heading and his too, just to keep +him quiet. I think he’s got his pockets stuffed full of chapter headings +and that he’ll be shooting them at me all the way through—like a +machine-gun.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess I might as well tell you about Pee-wee, before I tell you about +the conclave or whatever you call it. He’s Doctor Harris’s son and he’s +a member of the Raven Patrol. He’s a member in good standing, only he +doesn’t stand very high. Honest, you can hardly see him without a +magnifying glass. But for voice—<span class='it'>good night</span>!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He sings in the Methodist Church choir and they say he can throw his +voice anywhere. I wish he’d throw it in the ash barrel, I know that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He always wears his belt-axe to troop meetings, in case the Germans +should invade Bridgeboro, I suppose. He’s the troop mascot and if you +walk around him three times and ruffle up his beautiful curly hair, you +can change your luck.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, now I’ll tell you about the meeting. We had a big special meeting +to decide about two things, and believe me, those two things had +momentous consequences. <span class='it'>Momentous</span>—that’s a good word, hey?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>One thing, we wanted to decide about our campaign for collecting books +for soldiers, and another thing, we wanted to decide how we could all go +up to Temple Camp in our cabin launch, the <span class='it'>Good Turn</span>.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>This large and what-do-you-call-it launch—I mean commodious launch—is +a dandy boat, except for one thing—the bow is too near the stern. If we +were sardines instead of boy scouts, it would be all right, but you see +there’s twenty-four of us altogether, not counting Captain Kidd, our +mascot—he’s a parrot.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So I got up and said, “How are we going to crowd twenty-four growing +boys and a parrot into a twenty foot launch?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It can’t be did,” Doc Carson shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Then some of us will have to hike it on our dear little feet,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Or else we’ll have to get a barge or something or other and tow it,” +Artie Van Arlen said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What, with a three horsepower engine?” somebody else shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You can bet I won’t be one of the ones to hike it,” Pee-wee yelled; +“I’ll dope out some scheme or other.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And <span class='it'>believe me</span>, he did.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, after we’d been talking about an hour or so on how we’d manage it, +Mr. Ellsworth, our scoutmaster, up and said there was plenty of time for +that as long as we were not going to camp for a couple of weeks anyway, +and that we’d better begin thinking of how we were going to start about +collecting books for soldiers.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while I had something very important to say, and I was kind of +trembling, as you might say, for I thought maybe Mr. Ellsworth wouldn’t +like the idea. Anyway I got up and began:</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The author that wrote all about ‘Tom Slade’s Adventures in the World +War’,” I said, “told me it would be a good idea for me to write up our +troop’s adventures and he’d help me to get them published.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then up jumped Pee-wee Harris like a jack-in-the-box.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What are you talking about?” he shouted; “don’t you know you have to +have a command of language to write books? You’re crazy!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I should worry about a command of language,” I told him. “Haven’t I got +command of the Silver Fox Patrol? Anybody who can command the Silver Fox +Patrol ought to be able to command a few languages and things. I could +command a whole regiment even,” I kept up, for I saw that Pee-wee was +getting worked up, as usual, and all the fellows were laughing, even Mr. +Ellsworth.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“If you could command a division,” Westy Martin said, in that sober way +of his, “you ought to be able to command English all right.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I can command any kind of a division,” I shouted, all the while winking +at Westy. “I can command a long division or a short division or a +multiplication or a subtraction or a plain addition.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What are you talking about?” Pee-wee yelled. “You’re crazy!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I can command anything except Pee-wee Harris’s temper,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, you ought to have seen Pee-wee. Even Mr. Ellsworth had to laugh.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How can a fellow your age write books?” he fairly screamed. “You have +to have sunsets and twilights and gurgling brooks and——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You leave the gurgling brooks to me,” I said; “I’ll make them gurgle +all right. There’s going to be plenty of action in these books. And +Pee-wee Harris is going to be the village cut-up.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Are you going to have girls?” he shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure I’m going to have girls—gold haired girls—all kinds—take your +pick.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Good night!</span>” Pee-wee shouted, “I see your finish.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, pretty soon everybody was shouting at the same time and Pee-wee +was dancing around, saying we were all crazy. Most of the Raven Patrol +were with him and they ought to be called the Raving Patrol, believe +<span class='it'>me</span>.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Mr. Ellsworth held up his hand in that quiet way he has. “This +sounds like the Western Front or a Bolsheviki meeting,” he said, “and +I’m afraid our young Raven, Mr. Pee-wee Harris, will presently explode +and that would be an unpleasant episode for any book.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Good night!” I said. “Don’t want any of my books to end with an +explosion.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he said how it would be a good idea for me to write up our +adventures and how he’d help me whenever I got stuck and how he guessed +the author of Tom Slade would put in fancy touches for me, because he +lives in our town and he’s a whole lot interested in our troop. He said +that breezes and distant views and twilights and things aren’t so hard +when you get used to them and even storms and hurricanes are easy if you +only know how. He said girls aren’t so easy to manage though.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’ll help you out with the girls,” Pee-wee said; “I know all about +girls. And I’ll help you with the names of the chapters, too.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All right,” Mr. Ellsworth said, “I think Pee-wee will prove a valuable +collaborator.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“A which?” Pee-wee said, kind of frightened.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So then we all laughed and Mr. Ellsworth said it was getting late and +we’d better settle about collecting books for the soldiers.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We decided that after we got to camp I’d begin writing up our adventures +on the trip, but we couldn’t decide how we’d all go in our boat, and +that was the thing that troubled us a lot, because the fellows in our +troop always hang together and we didn’t like the idea of being +separated.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, I guess that’s all there is to tell you about the meeting, and in +the next chapter I’m going to tell you all about how we collected the +books for the fellows in camp, and how the mystery about the boat was +solved. Those are Pee-wee’s words about the <span class='it'>mystery of the boat</span>. I +can’t see that there was any mystery about it, but there was another +kind of a mystery, believe me, and that kid was the cause of it. I guess +maybe you’ll like the next chapter better than this one.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So long.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_II'>CHAPTER II<br/> <span class='sub-head'>SWATTING THE SPY</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Now I’m going to tell you about how we collected books for soldiers and +especially about Pee-wee’s big stunt.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The next morning we started out and by night we had over five hundred +books. Mr. Ellsworth said they were mostly light literature, but if he +had only had to carry fifty of them on his shoulder like I did, he’d +have thought they were pretty heavy literature, believe <span class='it'>me</span>.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>This is the way we fixed it. The Raving Patrol (that’s Pee-wee’s patrol, +you know) used Doctor Harris’s five-passenger Fraud car. It didn’t go +very good and Pumpkin Odell (Raven) said he guessed it was because the +wheels were tired—that’s a joke. They held up all the houses in Little +Valley. That’s about sumpty-seven miles or so from Bridgeboro. They’ve +got two stores there and a sign that says “Welcome to Automobilists” and +how they’ll be arrested if they don’t obey the speed laws. Welcome to +jail—good night!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The Elk Patrol (that’s our new patrol, you know) went over to East +Bridgeboro with Pinky Dawson’s express wagon (one horsepower) and +<span class='it'>some</span> horse—I wish you could see him. The Elks were a pretty lively +bunch, I’ll say that, and they cleaned out all the private libraries in +East Bridgeboro. They even got cook-books and arithmetics and books +about geometry—pity the poor soldiers.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The Silver Fox Patrol took care of Bridgeboro. That’s the best patrol of +the whole three. I’m leader of the Silver Foxes. The Ravens call us the +Silver-plated Foxes, but that’s because we call them the Raving Patrol +and the reason we call them the Raving Patrol is on account of Pee-wee.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Let’s see, where was I? Oh yes, the Silver Foxes took care of +Bridgeboro. Brick Warner (he’s red-headed) has a Complex car or a +Simplex, or whatever you call it—I should worry. I mean his father has +it. He’s got a dandy father; he gave Brick five dollars so that we could +have a blow-out at lunch time. Oh, boy, we had two blowouts and a +puncture.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We got over two hundred books that day—light literature, dark +literature, all colors. I could tell you a lot of things that happened +that day, because we did a lot of good turns, and one bad turn, when we +grazed a telegraph pole. What cared we? But you’ll care more about +hearing of Pee-wee and the raving Ravens and how they made out.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, I guess I might as well tell you now about the scouts in my +patrol. Don’t ever borrow trouble, but get to be a patrol leader, and +you’ll have troubles of your own. Then you can pick out the one you want +and I’ll drown the rest. After that I’ll tell you about the grand drive +in Little Valley.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>First in the Silver Fox Patrol comes Roy Blakeley—that’s me. I’m patrol +leader and I’ve got eleven merit badges. I’ve got two sisters too. One +of them is crazy about the movies.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I’ve got seven scouts to look after and Captain Kidd, the parrot—he’s +our mascot. Our patrol color is green and he’s green with a yellow neck. +He’s got one merit badge—for music. <span class='it'>Good night</span>! Then comes Westy +Martin, and Dorry Benton and Huntley Manners and Sleuth Seabury, because +he’s a good detective, and Will Dawson and Brick Warner and Slick Warner +and that’s all.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now I’ll tell you about the raving Ravens. Of course, I can’t tell you +all that happened in Little Valley that day, because I wasn’t there. Doc +Carson said they had trouble with the motor and Pee-wee. He said that +Pee-wee kept running wild all day. But anyway they brought back a lot of +books with them, I’ll say that much.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, when the day’s drive was over, we all took our books to the troop +room and piled them up on the table, and waited for Mr. Ellsworth to +come. He usually comes home from the city on the Woolworth Special. We +call it the Woolworth Special because it gets to Bridgeboro at five ten. +Along about six o’clock he showed up, and we began sorting out the +books. The biggest pile was brought in by the Ravens, and when he +noticed a pile of about twenty or thirty books tied with a brown cord, +he asked where those came from. Then up jumped Pee-wee, very excited, +and said:</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’ll tell you about those.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Do tell,” said Elmer Sawyer, winking at me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Good night! Pee-wee’s got the floor,” shouted Westy.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Floor!” shouted Dorry Benton. “He’s got the walls and the ceiling and +the mantelpiece and everything.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Will you pay a little attention?” Pee-wee screamed.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We’re paying as little as possible,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You’re the worst of the lot,” he yelled; “that pile of books, the ones +with the brown cord, were given to us by a kindly old gentleman; he——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“A which?” Doc Carson said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t you know a kindly old gentleman when you see one?” Pee-wee fairly +screamed.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Let’s see one,” Artie shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And that’s the way it went on till Mr. Ellsworth came to Pee-wee’s +rescue like he always does. He said we should let Pee-wee have the +chair.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Here’s a couple of chairs for him,” we shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He can have the table too, if he wants it,” I said; anything to keep +him quiet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I don’t want to be quiet,” Pee-wee screamed.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Good night, that was some meeting. Well, pretty soon Mr. Ellsworth got +us all throttled down and Pee-wee started to tell us about his visit to +the kindly old gentleman. It seemed that was one of the houses that +Pee-wee called at alone and the kindly old gentleman fell for him like +grown up people mostly do. I don’t know what it is but everybody seems +to like Pee-wee. You know just because you jolly a fellow, it’s not a +sign you don’t like him. Pee-wee is one bully little scout, I’ll say +that much.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Do you want to hear about it?” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Proceed with your narrative,” I told him; “begin at the beginning, go +on till you come to the end, then stop.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Be sure to stop,” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, then Pee-wee went on to tell us about the kindly old gentleman. He +lived in a big white house, he said, with grounds around it and a big +flag pole on the lawn, with a flag flying from it. He said that the old +gentleman didn’t talk very good English and he thought maybe he was a +German or French or something or other. He guessed maybe he was a +professor or something like that. Anyway, he took Pee-wee through his +library, picking out the books he didn’t want, till he had given him +about twenty or thirty. Then they tied them up in a brown cord and +Pee-wee took them out to the Fraud car.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well that’s about all there was to it, and I guess nothing more would +have happened, if I hadn’t untied the cord and picked up the book that +lay on top. It was a book about German history, princes and all that +stuff, and I guess it wouldn’t interest soldiers much. Just as I was +running through it, I happened to notice a piece of paper between the +leaves, which I guess the old gentleman put there for a book-mark. As +soon as I picked it up and read it, I said, “Good night! Look at this,” +and I handed it to Mr. Ellsworth. It said something about getting +information to Hindenburg, and about how a certain German spy was in one +of the American camps in France.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mr. Ellsworth read it through two or three times, and then said, “Boys, +this looks like a very serious matter. You said the old gentleman spoke +broken English, Walter?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>That’s the name he always called Pee-wee.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Cracky,” I said, “Pee-wee’s kindly old gentleman is a German spy.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure he is,” said Westy Martin, “and he’s only flying the American flag +for a bluff, he’s a deep dyed villain.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He can’t be dyed very deep,” said Doc Carson, in that sober way of his; +“because we haven’t any German dyes to dye him with.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I was just going to say something to kid Pee-wee along, when I noticed +that Mr. Ellsworth was very serious, and Pee-wee was staring like a +ghost.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Boys,” Mr. Ellsworth said, “I have no idea of the full meaning of this +paper.” Then he said how maybe in collecting books we had caught a spy +in our net. He said that he was going to take the paper anyway and show +it to the Federal Commissioner, down in the Post Office Building.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“If he’s a spy, we’ll swat him all right,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We’ll more than swat him,” Mr. Ellsworth said, and I could see by the +look in his eye that he meant business.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_III'>CHAPTER III<br/> <span class='sub-head'>SWATTING THE SPY—CONTINUED</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>We didn’t swat him in that chapter because I had to go to supper, but +we’ll surely swat him in this one. Positively guaranteed.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pee-wee was proud that he made such a hit with the old gentleman and +especially because he got so many books from him. But when he realized +that the paper I found in one of the books had something to do with +spying, it was all Mr. Ellsworth could do to keep him quiet. He told us +all not to say anything, because maybe, the old man might find out that +he was going to be nabbed and go away. I guess Pee-wee felt pretty +important. Anyway I know he was frightened, because all the next morning +he kept asking me if he’d have to go to court and things like that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The only court you’ll go to, is the tennis court,” I told him; so we +made up a set with my two sisters, Ruth and Marjorie, and the girls beat +us three games. While we were playing, along came Mr. Ellsworth and +Commissioner Terry with two strange men, and I could see Pee-wee was +very nervous. They sent the girls away and then began to ask Pee-wee +questions. I could see that they thought the discovery we made was +pretty serious.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Are you the boy that found the paper in the book?” they asked me. Then +they wanted to know what kind of a book it was, and I told them it was a +book about German history and they screwed up their faces and looked +very suspicious.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You say that the man spoke broken English?” one of them asked Pee-wee.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pee-wee was kind of nervous, I could see. “It—it—well it wasn’t +exactly broken,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Just a little bent,” I said, and oh, you ought to have seen the frown +Mr. Ellsworth gave me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It was kind of—just a little——” Pee-wee began.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We understand,” one of the men said. Then the other one spoke to us. He +said, “Boys, we want you to go over with us and we want this youngster +to identify the man. You needn’t be afraid, Uncle Sam is with you.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But, cracky, I didn’t like it and I guess Pee-wee didn’t either. I’ve +read stories about boys that had men arrested and all that, and I always +thought I’d like to be one of those regular heroes. But when it came to +really doing it, I knew then that I didn’t like to help arrest anybody, +and I bet most real fellows feel the same way. I felt funny, kind of. +That’s why I have no use for young detectives in stories, because I know +you’ve got to be a grown-up man to feel that way and do things like +that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>They had an automobile right near the tennis courts and we all got in +and Pee-wee and I sat in back with our scoutmaster. Cracky, I was glad +our scoutmaster was along, that’s one sure thing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon we got to Little Valley and Pee-wee pointed out the big +white house with the lawn and the flag flying there. Jiminy, but it +looked good and I wished we were up at Temple Camp, raising our colors +near the boat landing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>While we were going up the gravel path, the old gentleman came out on +his porch and looked at us and I felt kind of ashamed and I could see +Pee-wee did too. But, cracky, I’ve got no use for spies, that’s one sure +thing. Pee-wee and I kind of hung behind and I guess he felt funny, sort +of, when the old gentleman waved his hand to him, as if they were old +friends.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I can’t remember all they said but the two men who I knew were +detectives showed the old gentleman the paper and asked him what it +meant. First he seemed kind of flustered and angry and I know Pee-wee’s +heart was thumping—anyway it would have been thumping, except that it +was up in his throat.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then the men said that they’d have to search the house to see if there +was a wireless and then the old gentleman got angry; then all of a +sudden he sat down in one of the wicker chairs on the porch and began to +laugh and laugh and laugh. Then he looked at Pee-wee and said,</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I suppose this is the young gentleman who succeeded in trapping me. I +must take off my hat to the Boy Scouts,” and he smiled with an awful +pleasant kind of a smile and held out his hand to Pee-wee.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, you should have seen Pee-wee. It was as good as a three-ringed +circus. He stood there as if he was posing for animal crackers. And even +the detectives looked kind of puzzled, but all the while suspicious.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Are you the spy-catcher?” the old gentleman said to Pee-wee, but +Pee-wee looked all flabbergasted and only shifted from one foot to the +other.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I hope you don’t mean to kill me with that belt-axe?” the old gentleman +asked. But Pee-wee just couldn’t speak.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He must be a telephone girl—he doesn’t answer,” I blurted out, and +even the detectives had to laugh.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Gentlemen, if you will step inside, I’ll make full confession and then +give myself up,” the old man said; “for I see there is no use in trying +to escape the Boy Scouts. It was I who wrote that treasonable memorandum +and I may as well tell you that I have a wireless. I will give you my +whole history. I see that my young friend here is a most capable secret +service agent.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We’re only small boys—we belong to the infantry,” I said, for I just +couldn’t help blurting it out.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, we all went inside and I could see that the Commissioner and the +detectives kept very near the old gentleman as if they didn’t have much +use for his laughing and his pleasant talk. I guess maybe they were used +to that kind of thing, and he couldn’t fool them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When we got into his library I saw books all around on the shelves, +hundreds of them I guess, and the desk was covered with papers and there +was a picture of Mark Twain with “Best regards to Mr. Donnelle,” written +on it. Gee whittaker, I thought when I looked around; maybe Mr. +Donnelle is a deep-dyed spy all right, but he’s sure a high-brow.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You’d have to take an elevator to get up to him,” I whispered to +Pee-wee.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Shhh,” Pee-wee said, “maybe he isn’t dyed so very deep—there’s +different shades of dyes.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Maybe he’s only dyed a light gray or a pale blue,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Mr. Donnelle got out a big fat red book that said on it “Who’s Who +in America” and, jiminy, I’m glad I never had to study it, because it +had about a million pages. I hate biography anyway—biography and +arithmetic. Then he turned to a certain page.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Now, gentlemen,” he said, “if you will just read this I will then +consent to go with you,” and he smiled all over his face.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The four men leaned over and began reading, but Pee-wee and I didn’t +because they didn’t ask us and Boy Scouts don’t butt in.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I bet it tells all about German spies and everything, and now he’s +going to make a full confession,” Pee-wee said; “maybe our names will be +in the New York papers, hey?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“They’ll be more likely to be in the fly-paper,” I said; “there’s +something funny about this.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I bet he was going to blow up some ships,” Pee-wee said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I bet he’ll blow <span class='it'>us</span> up in a minute,” I told him; because I could see +that he was saying something to the men while they all looked at the +book, and that the whole four of them were laughing—especially Mr. +Ellsworth.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It was the elder boy who discovered it,” I heard him say, smiling all +the while.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Good night!</span>” I said to Pee-wee, “I thought we had a German in +custody, but instead of that, we’re in Dutch!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Will they send us to jail?” he whispered.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I think we’ll get about ten merit badges for this—not,” I said; “he’s +no spy.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, the men didn’t pay much attention to us, only strolled over to one +side of the room and began chatting together, and Mr. Donnelle got a box +of cigars and they each took one.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I wouldn’t smoke one of those cigars,” Pee-wee said, “they might be +bombs. The Germans are pretty tricky—safety first.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Mr. Ellsworth came over to us, smiling all over his face. “Well, +boys,” he said, “I’m glad to say that our spy quest has gone up in +smoke. Mr. Donnelle is one of the best known authors of America. He is +writing a story of the war and our <span class='it'>dark</span> memorandum is just a little +literary note of his about a spy among the American forces. I think we +shall find it a most interesting story when it is finished. It is full +of German intrigue and you will be glad to know that the imaginary spy +is caught and court-martialled. You have done a fine thing by your +discovery, for Mr. Donnelle has become greatly interested in the Scouts, +and especially in our young scout author.” Then he gave me a funny look. +“So you see our <span class='it'>dark</span> memorandum was not so dark after all.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“G-o-o-d night!” I said; “it was a kind of a pale white.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And I dare say,” Mr. Ellsworth said, all the while slapping me on the +shoulder, “that our deep-dyed villain is going to prove a very good +friend.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Even if you’re deep-dyed,” said Pee-wee, “sometimes the colors will run +and you won’t be so deep-dyed after all. My sister had a skirt and she +dyed it a deep——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Honest, that kid is a scream.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_IV'>CHAPTER IV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>THE PLOT GROWS THINNER—OR ELSE THICKER</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Pee-wee says it grows thicker and I say it grows thinner, so I put it +both ways. I told him things would begin to stir up in this chapter and +he said a thing always gets thicker when you stir it. I should worry.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Suppose we should go boating or something like that where there’s a lot +of water,” I told him; “that would thin it some if you added water, +wouldn’t it?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You’re crazy,” he shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Westy Martin wanted to name it The Deep Dyed Villain—so you can call it +that if you want to—I don’t care.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now I’ll start off. You remember about Mr. Donnelle saying that he had a +wireless. Well, pretty soon after what I’ve been telling you about, the +men went away and they were all laughing and good-natured about it. I +heard one of them say that the Boy Scouts were a wide-awake lot. Believe +me, they wouldn’t say that if they saw us sleeping after a day’s hike at +Temple Camp, If you heard Vic Norris snore, you’d think it was the West +Front in France.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well anyway, Mr. Donnelle wanted Pee-wee and me to stay at his house a +little while, because he said he was kind of interested in us. He would +listen to Pee-wee very sober like and then begin to laugh. And whenever +Pee-wee tried to explain, it only made him laugh more.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway, I could see you weren’t a very bad kind of a spy,” Pee-wee +said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jiminety! I had to laugh.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, Mr. Donnelle asked us all about the Scouts and we told him all +about them—Pee-wee mostly did that. He’s a scout propaganderlet—that’s +a small sized propagandist. We told him how we didn’t know how we are +going to manage to get up to Temple Camp in our launch, because it would +only hold about seven or eight boys and we had twenty-four, not counting +Captain Kidd, the parrot.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, now I have a little scheme,” he said, smiling all the while, “and +perhaps we can hit some sort of a plan. If I can only get you boys out +of the way, away up at camp, I’ll be able to carry on my German +propaganda work.” Then he winked at me and I knew he was kidding +Pee-wee.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, believe me, we hit a plan all right; we more than hit it, we gave +it a knockout blow.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while we were talking, he was taking us across the lawn till +pretty soon we came to a little patch of woods and as soon as I got a +whiff of those trees, good night, I felt as if I was up at Temple Camp +already. That’s a funny thing about trees—you get to know them and like +them sort of.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then pretty soon we came to a creek that ran through the woods and I +could see it was deep and all shaded by the trees. Oh, jiminy, it was +fine. And you could hear it ripple too, just like the water of Black +Lake up near Temple Camp. If I was a grown-up author I could write some +dandy stuff about it, because it was all dark and spooky as you might +say, and you could see the trees reflected in it and casting their +something or other—you know what I mean.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Can you follow a trail?” Mr. Donnelle asked us.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Trails are our middle names,” I told him, “and I can follow one——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Whitherso’er——” Pee-wee began.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Whither so which?” I said. Because he was trying to talk high brow just +because he knew Mr. Donnelle was an author.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So he led us along a trail that ran along the shore all in and out +through trees, and he said it was all his property. Pretty soon I could +see part of a house through the trees and I thought I’d like to live +there, it was so lonely.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You mean secluded,” Pee-wee said. Mr. Donnelle smiled and I told him +Pee-wee was a young dictionary—pocket size.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon we reached the house and, <span class='it'>good night</span>, it wasn’t any house +at all; it was a house-boat. And I could see the fixtures for a wireless +on it, only the wires had been taken down.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Mr. Donnelle said, “Boys,” he said, “this is my old workshop and I +have spent many happy hours in it. But I don’t use it any more and if +you boys think you could all pile into it, why you are welcome to it for +the summer. It has no power, but perhaps you could tow it behind your +launch. Anyway you may charter it for the large sum of nothing at all, +as a reward for foiling a spy.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I—I kind of knew you were not a spy all the time,” said Pee-wee.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, I was so flabbergasted that I just couldn’t speak and even Pee-wee +was struck dumb. We just gaped like a couple of idiots, and after a +while I said, “Cracky, it’s too good to be true.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“So you see what comes from collecting books for soldiers and for +keeping your eyes open,” Mr. Donnelle said; “you have caught a bigger +fish than you thought. Now suppose I show you through the inside.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now here is the place where the plot begins to get thicker and, believe +me, in four or five chapters it will be as thick as mud. We were just +coming up to the house-boat to go aboard it, when suddenly the door flew +open and a fellow scampered across the deck and ran away.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I could see that he had pretty shabby clothes and a peaked cap and I +guess he was startled to hear us coming. In just a few seconds he was +gone in the woods and we all stood gaping there while the boat bobbed up +and down, on account of him jumping from it. But I got a squint at his +face all right, and I noticed the color of his cap and how he ran, and +I’m mighty glad I did, because that fellow was going to come into our +young lives again and cause us a lot of trouble, you can bet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mr. Donnelle said he was probably just a tramp that had been sleeping in +the boat and he didn’t seem to mind much, only he said it would be +better to keep the door locked.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Maybe he might have been a——” Pee-wee began.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“No siree,” I said. “We’ve had enough of deep-dyed villains for one day, +if that’s what you were going to say.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Maybe we’d better track him,” said Pee-wee, very serious.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Nix on the tracking,” I said, “I’ve retired from the detective +business, and now I’m going to be cook on a house-boat.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We’ll have a good anchor anyway if you make biscuits,” Pee-wee said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“They’ll weigh more than you do anyway,” I fired back. And Mr. Donnelle +began to laugh.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, we didn’t bother our heads any more about the tramp, but I could +see that Pee-wee would have been happier if we’d have thought it was the +Kaiser or Villa, instead of just a plain ordinary tramp, looking for a +place to sleep. But oh, crinkums, you’ll be surprised when you hear all +about that fellow and who he was and I suppose you’d like me to tell you +now, wouldn’t you? But I won’t.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I’ve got to go to camp meeting now, so goodbye, see you later.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_V'>CHAPTER V<br/> <span class='sub-head'>LOST</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Now I’m going to write until my sister begins playing the piano. Music +and literature don’t mix, believe me. There are two cruises in this +book, a big one and a little one. You can take your pick. The little one +is full of mud and the big one is full of pep. Anyway you get your +money’s worth, that’s one sure thing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>This chapter is about the little cruise. But first I have to tell you +about the house-boat, because it turned out to be our home sweet home +for a couple of weeks. It didn’t only turn out, but it turned in and it +turned sideways and every which way. But I’m not going to knock it. It +got knocks enough going through the creek and up Bridgeboro River. It +knocked into two bridges and goodness knows what all. But what cared we, +yo ho? We cared nit—I mean naught.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>First Mr. Donnelle showed us through it and it was dandy, only in very +poor shape. Its shape was square. But I wouldn’t laugh at it because we +had a lot of fun on it. Inside it had two rooms and a little kitchen and +the roof had a railing around it and there was lots of room there. There +was lots of room on the deck too. And there was a kind of little +guard-house, too, to put Pee-wee in if he didn’t behave. Some of the +windows were broken, but I knew we could fix them easily. All we needed +to do was eat some green apples and then we’d have plenty of panes. +There were some lockers too, only one of them was locked and we couldn’t +get into it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess the tramp didn’t take anything, because there was nothing +missing. I guess all he took was a look around. There were some cushions +piled on one of the lockers and they looked as if someone had been +sleeping on them. Pee-wee said he could see the oil stove had been used +by the smell—he’s got such sharp eyes that he can see a smell. I told +him he had a classy eye because there was a pupil in it, and you ought +to have seen Mr. Donnelle laugh. I guess he thought we were crazy.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well we should worry about the tramp,” I said, “especially now that we +have a boat like this. The next thing to do is to bring the whole troop +and get her fixed up.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>One thing was easy anyway. Just below Bridgeboro, where we live, there +is a kind of a branch flowing into the Bridgeboro River. We always +called it the creek. Now we found out from Mr. Donnelle that it started +along up above Little Valley. Over there they call it Dutch Creek. He +said that at high tide we could float the houseboat right down into +Bridgeboro River and then wait for the up tide or else tow it up to +Bridgeboro. Cracky, I could see it would be a cinch and I was glad +because we fellows didn’t have money enough to have the boat carted by +land. But, <span class='it'>good night</span>, this way was easy.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The next morning I sent a birch bark call to all the fellows in our +troop. I sent them each a little piece of birch bark by courier. Connie +Bennett, he’s our courier. And that meant come to Special Meeting—W. S. +W. S. means without scoutmaster. So pretty soon they began coming up to +Camp Solitaire. That’s the name I gave the tent I have on our lawn. When +they were all there, I told them about Mr. Donnelle and the houseboat, +and we decided that we’d hike over to Little Valley and pile right in +and get it ready instead of bringing it to Bridgeboro first. We decided +that if we worked on it for about three days, it would be ready.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So we all started to hike it along the road to Little Valley. We had an +adventure before we got there, and I guess I’d better tell you about it. +I made a map too, so you can see the way everything was. It’s about five +miles to Little Valley by the road.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, we were all hiking it along, sometimes going scout-pace and most +of the time jollying Pee-wee, when all of a sudden I noticed a mark on a +rock that I was sure was a scout mark. It was an arrow and it was marked +with a piece of slate. Underneath the arrow was another mark like a +pail, so I knew the sign meant that there was water in that direction.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I didn’t know any scouts around our way that could be camping there, but +whenever a scout sees a scout sign he usually likes to follow it up. So +I told the fellows I was going to follow if there was any time. They +said it was an old last year’s mark, but go ahead if I wanted to, and I +told them I’d meet them at Little Valley later.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So now comes the adventure. As soon as I left the fellows, I hit the +trail into the woods just like you’ll see on the map I made. It wasn’t +much of a trail and I guess a fellow couldn’t follow it if he wasn’t a +scout. It was all thick woods like a jungle kind of, and I could see +where branches had been broken by somebody that passed there. Pretty +soon it began to get swampy and there wasn’t any more trail at all.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width:80%'> +<img src='images/i002.jpg' alt='' id='i002' style='width:100%;height:auto;'/> +</div> + +<p class='pindent'>As long as there’s any sign of a trail you can’t get me rattled, but +cracky, I don’t like marshes. You can get lost in a marsh easier than in +any other place. Pretty soon I was plodding around deeper than my knees +and it gave me a strain every time I dragged my leg out of the swamp. +Maybe you’ll wonder why I didn’t go back, but if you do, that’s because +you don’t know much about marshes. All of a sudden I was right in the +middle of it, as you might say, and there were no landmarks at all.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon I was in waist deep and then I was scared, you can bet. If +there’s one thing that gets me scared it’s quicksand. As long as I could +get my legs out I was all right, but when I began sinking as low as my +waist and had to drag myself out by squirming and catching hold of +bushes and things, then I lost my nerve—I have to admit it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I saw I was a fool ever to go into that pesky place, but it was too late +and I knew that pretty soon I’d be in too deep to get out. Oh, jiminies, +I was scared. Once, after I scrambled out I tried lying flat on the +marsh with the reeds laid over sideways underneath me. But they didn’t +hold me up and anyway I knew I couldn’t lie that way forever. I wondered +how a scout had ever gone through here.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Before I knew how to swim I came mighty near to getting drowned and I +got lost in the woods, too, when I was a tenderfoot. But this was worse +than anything I ever knew before. Once I sank down almost to my +shoulders and I guess I would have been a goner, only my feet struck +something hard and flat and I stood on that until I got rested a little.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while I looked around to see if I could decide where the land +might be a little harder, but I guess I must have been in the worst part +of it. I decided that the safest thing I could do was to stand just +where I was. I didn’t know what it was I was standing on, but anyway it +didn’t seem to sink any, so I was kind of safe there, as you might say. +But I knew I could never raise myself out of that place and I’d have to +just stand there till I got so tired and hungry, that I’d drop down and +be sucked into the marsh.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So anyway, I’d have to die, I was sure of that, only I didn’t want to +die any sooner than I had to. Two or three times I shouted as loud as I +could, but I knew it wasn’t any use, because I was two or three miles +away from any house. Even if anybody knew, I didn’t see how they could +get to me and it was only by good luck that I wasn’t dead already on +account of the hard thing I was standing on. Every once in a while +bubbles would come up and I thought it was because that thing I was +standing on was sinking lower. The marsh was just about even with my +shoulders and I kept looking sideways at my shoulders all the time, so +as to see if I was going down any and sometimes I thought I was. But I +guess I wasn’t.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The weeds stood up all around me so I couldn’t see, except up in the air +and it was like being in a grave with just my head out. Gee, I thought +about the fellows hiking it to Little Valley and beginning work on the +house-boat and waiting for me to come, and I could just kind of hear +them jollying Pee-wee, and oh, I wished I was there. I was wondering who +the Silver Foxes would elect for their patrol leader and then I got to +thinking how nobody, not even my mother and father, would ever know what +became of me, because you can’t drag a marsh like you can a river. And +it seemed kind of funny like, to die without anybody ever knowing what +became of you.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon my legs began getting very tired like a fellow’s legs always +do when he keeps standing in water. Only this was worse than water. I +wondered how it would feel when my knees gave out and I sank down.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I happened to think about having my hike-book with me. It was all +wet and the pencil was wet too, but I held it up high out of the marsh +and wrote this on one of the pages. After I wrote it I stuck it up high +on one of the marsh weeds.</p> + +<div class='blockquote'> + +<p class='pindent'>This is where Roy Blakeley, patrol leader, Silver Fox Patrol, Bridgeboro +Troop, B. S. A., was sucked down into the marsh, after he couldn’t stand +up any more. I was standing on something that was hard and maybe you’ll +find my body lying on that. In my desk is something I was going to give +my mother for a birthday present. I send her a lot of love too. My +father too. And I hope my Patrol gets along all right and that the troop +has a lot of fun this summer. I hope somebody will find this.</p> + +</div> + +<div><h2 id='ch_VI'>CHAPTER VI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>THE TIGHT PLACE</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>After that I made up my mind I wouldn’t think any more about living and +then I was satisfied, kind of. ’Cause as long as you know you’ve got to +die, what’s the difference. They could get another fellow to lead the +patrol, that’s one sure thing. Mostly I cared about my mother on account +of not being able to say good-bye to her.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All of a sudden it seemed as if there was more water around me than +before. Up to that time it was mushy, kind of, but not much water. But +now it was more like water all around me and I noticed a little bunch of +net moss near me. Maybe you don’t know what net moss is. It’s moss that +grows in swamps. Well, what do you think I saw lying on that clump of +net moss? Cracky, you’d hardly believe it, but it was a spark plug. And +it looked funny to see it there.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>If you’re not a scout maybe you don’t know anything about camping, but +it’s one of our rules not to defile the woods with rubbish and Mr. +Ellsworth always told us a tomato can didn’t look right in the woods. +Well, jiminety, that spark plug sure did look funny lying on that piece +of net moss. It floated right near my shoulder and I lifted it off and, +oh, crinkums, but it made me think of Bridgeboro.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was almost the same as if it was a fellow come to rescue me, as you +might say. It was just because it didn’t belong there, I guess. Of +course, I knew it couldn’t rescue me, but it reminded me of people and +that kind of cheered me up a little.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I began to think about it. I remembered what our scoutmaster said +about a fellow that’s drowning—that he can think as long as his head is +out of water. And this was like drowning, only slower. I was wondering +how that spark plug got there. It’s funny how you’ll think about little +things like that even when you’re dying.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>One thing sure, no automobile ever went through there, and no motorcycle +either. Maybe a fellow in an airplane might have dropped it, or maybe—</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then, all of a sudden I began to laugh. And while I was laughing some +water flowed into my mouth. But I didn’t care, I was feeling so good. I +knew all about the whole thing now, and I felt like kicking myself only +my feet were down in all that tangle of marsh. But what cared I, yo +ho—and a couple of yee hees.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, I was some wise little boy scout then, and I had a scout smile long +enough to tie in a couple of bow knots. That spark plug was thrown out +of a motor boat. I could see that the spark points were bad and somebody +threw it away because it wouldn’t work and then put in a new one. And I +knew that already the tide was beginning to come up and that pretty soon +there would be a creek here and that I could swim in it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Cracky, you can’t scare me when it’s a question of swimming, for I +wasn’t brought up in a bath tub. Many’s the time I swam across Black +Lake. Water’s all right, but swamps—<span class='it'>good night</span>!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Maybe if you don’t live near meadow lands you won’t understand how it +was. But when the tide rises twice every twenty-four hours (you learn +that in the Fourth Grade), it makes creeks through the meadows and +marshes. Some of them are deep enough for small motor boats even, only +you’ve got to be careful not to stay up one of them too long or you’ll +get stuck till the next day. One time that happened to Ed Sanders that +owned the <span class='it'>Rascal</span> and he was there all night, and he almost died from +poison of the mosquitoes. Anyway I would have been dead before night +when the mosquitoes come out—that’s one good thing. I don’t mean it’s +one good thing, but anyway you know what I mean.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon I could push the swamp grass out of the way and swim a +little. Oh, cracky, I was thankful for that tide! I knew it would keep +on coming when it once started ’cause the tide never goes back on you. +Of course it goes back, but you know what I mean. Sometimes if you’re on +a hike and telling time by the sun it’ll go under a cloud, or sometimes +if you’re lost and following the stars, it’ll cloud up and you can’t see +them any more. And crinkums, a trail will go back on you sometimes. But +the tide is sure. It’s <span class='it'>got</span> to come up, and so I knew it was coming up +to rescue me and I knew I was all right as soon as I saw that spark plug.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pee-wee wanted to name this chapter “<span class='it'>Saved By A Spark Plug</span>” or “<span class='it'>The +Hero Plug</span>” but I said it sounded silly. Any way I’ll never say another +word against the tide. Often when I saw motor boats stuck on the flats I +could hear the men in them saying things about the tide—oh, gee, you +ought to have heard some of the things they said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But I’ll never say anything, anyway. It seemed kind of, you know, like +an army coming to rescue me, slow but sure, and pretty soon I was +swimming around, and oh, didn’t I feel good!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All of a sudden like, there was a little river there and it kept getting +deeper and wider and I knew it began away out in the ocean and it seemed +as if it was picking its way all the way up into these marshes, to give +me a chance to do what every scout knows how to do—swim.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Of course I was saved, but I didn’t know how far I’d have to swim, only +I was pretty sure I wouldn’t have to die now.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess now you’d better look at the map I made, and then you’ll see how +the creek came in the marshes and about where I was, when it began to +rise.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Of course I didn’t know where it came from or where it went, but I +decided to swim against the tide for two reasons. First I was afraid to +go the other way because it might just peter out, like most of those +meadow creeks do, and then I’d be in the marsh again. Oh, boy, safety +first. I’d had enough of marshes. Besides if I swam the other way it +would be deeper and wider and I’d be more likely to find a board or a +log or something and pretty soon I might come to solid shores.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But before I started I had another adventure. I took off my shoes and +stockings and everything except my underclothes. But of course, that +wasn’t the adventure. It was a dandy adventure, but you have to wait, +and if it rains to-morrow so we can’t go trailing, I’ll write some more. +I think it’ll rain to-morrow.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_VII'>CHAPTER VII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>WEETONKA, THE TERRIBLE CHIEF</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Of course you can tell when you look at the map where the creek came +from. It came from Dutch Creek and Dutch Creek flows into the Bridgeboro +River, and Bridgeboro River rises in the northern part of some place or +other and takes a—some kind of a course—and flows into New York Bay. +Once I got kept in, in school, for not knowing that. But how should I +know where this creek went? It <span class='it'>came</span>—that was enough for me. I should +worry where it went.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Before I started to swim I decided I’d go under and try to find out what +it was that I’d been standing on. Because I had to thank it. A boy scout +is supposed to be grateful. So I ducked and groped around in the marshy +bottom and I felt something hard with a point to it. I had to come up +for air, then I ducked again and felt around over it and under it. I +joggled it with both my hands and it budged—not much but a little. Then +I came up for air and went down and gave a good tug at it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess it was just kind of caught in the mud and weeds for after I +pulled some of these away a lot of bubbles came up, and then I got hold +of one end of the thing and it stuck up slantingways out of the water +like an alligator’s mouth. Oh, gee, it was all slimy and had moss +growing to it and it was black and hard. I was crazy to find out what it +was and I swam around the end of it, bobbing it up and down. Then I sat +on it and rocked it and it joggled. When I straddled it, it went down +with me and when I jerked it, it seemed to get loose a little. The end +that was sticking up wasn’t very big around, only it was terribly +slippery. Anyway, I sat on it and tightened my legs around it just like +a fellow does with a balky horse, and then I began jouncing up and down +like on a seesaw.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon the other end came up and, oh, boy, didn’t I get dumped off +into the water. It looked like a slimy old log floating. I gave it a +turn and then—<span class='it'>g-o-o-d night</span>—what do you think it was? It was a +regular Indian dug-out.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess maybe it was a hundred years old and you can see it now, if you +ever come to Bridgeboro, because it’s in the Museum of our Public +Library and you’ll know it because it’s got “Presented by 1st Bridgeboro +Troop, B. S. A.,” on it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess maybe it was about fifteen feet long and as soon as I cut into +it with my scout knife, I saw that it was made of cedar and it wasn’t +rotten—not so much, anyway. Jiminies, that’s one good thing about +cedar; it lasts forever under water.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, boy, wasn’t I excited. I swam around it washing it off with my scout +jacket, then I bailed the little dug out part out with my scout hat. It +wasn’t so black when I got it all cleaned off. It was kind of chocolate +color and I knew it must be very old, because cedar turns that color +after a long time. You learn that in Woodcraft.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was all made out of one piece and the place where you sit was just +hollowed out—about big enough for one person.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I got inside and it was crankier than a racing shell. You had to +sit up straight like a little tin soldier to keep it from tipping—it +was one tippicanoe, you can bet. I fell out and had to roll it over and +bail it out two or three times. At last I got the hang of it and I +pushed it in the marshes a little way so it wouldn’t drift up stream. +There was a regular creek there now, good and wide and deep, and the +water was coming up like a parade.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I pulled a lot of reeds and bound them together with swamp grass. +That was a funny kind of a paddle I guess, but it was better than +nothing and anyway I decided to wait till the tide was at flood and then +paddle back with it. That would be a cinch.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So then I sat in the dug-out and just waited for the tide to come up. +The dug-out stayed where it was on account of being pushed in among the +reeds and oh, jiminety, it was nice sitting there. I thought maybe the +creek would empty out again into Bridgeboro River and I could tie up +there and go home. But I had a big surprise waiting for me, you can bet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was about nine o’clock in the morning when I started on that crazy +trail and it was about five o’clock in the afternoon when the tide began +to turn and go back. All the while I was sitting there waiting I thought +about the Indian that owned that canoe. Maybe his bones were down +underneath there, I thought. Ugh! I’d like to see them. No, I wouldn’t. +Maybe he was on his way to a pow-wow, hey?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, after a while when the tide turned I started paddling down. A +little water came through a couple of deep cracks, but not much and I +sopped it up with my hat. But oh, jingoes, I never had to sit up so +straight in school (not even when the principal came through the +class-room) as I did in that cranky old log with a hole in it. And oh, +you would have chucked a couple of chuckles if you’d seen me guiding my +Indian bark with a bunch of reeds. Honest, they looked like a street +sweeper’s broom.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After a while the creek began to get wider and then I could see far +ahead of me the roof of a house. Then, all of a sudden, I heard somebody +shout.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t bother to plug the hole up, leave it the way it is, so if the +water comes in, it can get out again.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I heard a voice shout, “You’re crazy!” and I knew it was the +fellows jollying Pee-wee Harris and they were talking about a hole in +the boat, because that was the roof I saw. So then I knew I was coming +out into Dutch Creek right where it passes Little Valley.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, boy! Wasn’t I excited? Pretty soon I could see the boat and some of +the fellows on it working away, sawing and hammering and jollying each other, the way the fellows in our troop are always doing. You +can see by the map just how I got to where they were. I guess I must +have been as near as fifty feet before Connie Bennett threw down his +hammer and shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Look who’s here!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Westy Martin was sitting on the edge of the deck dangling his feet and +eating a sandwich. Well, you ought to have seen them all stare.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What in the dickens do you call this?” Wig Weigand hollered.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But I didn’t say a word till I got right close to them, then I gave +Westy a good swat with my reed paddle.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I am <span class='it'>Weetonka</span>, the famous Indian chief!” I shouted, “and I haven’t +had anything to eat since eight o’clock. Give me that sandwich or I’ll +<span class='it'>scalp</span> you!”</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_VIII'>CHAPTER VIII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>RESOPEKITWAFTENLY</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>This chapter and the next one are mostly about Wigley Weigand, but we +usually call him Wig-Wag Weigand, because he’s a cracker-jack on wig-wag +signalling. He’s good on all the different kinds of signalling. He’s a +Raven, but he can’t help that, because there wasn’t any Silver Fox +Patrol when the Raving Ravens started.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The Ravens were the—what do you call it—you know what I +mean—<span class='it'>nucleus</span> of the troop. That’s how it started. There are about +half a million scouts in America and <span class='it'>all</span> of them can’t be Silver +Foxes, even if they’d like to.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Wig has the crossed flags—that’s the signalling badge; and the fellows +say he can make the sky talk. Believe me, he can make it shout. He isn’t +so bad considering that he’s a Raven and there’s one good thing about +him anyway—and that’s that his mother always gives us cookies and +things when we go on a hike. I got a dandy mother, too, and maybe you’ll +see how much I think about her, kind of, in the next chapter. Anyway I +have to thank Wig Weigand, that’s one sure thing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now maybe you think I did a good stunt in that marsh, but a scout +doesn’t get credit unless he uses his brains and does everything all +right. And that’s where I fell down, and it came near making a lot of +trouble, believe me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Many’s the time Tom Slade (he’s in the war now) told me never to leave a +scout sign after it wasn’t any more use. “Scratch ’em out,” he said, +“because even if it means something now, it might not mean anything six +months from now.” Jiminy, that fellow has some brains. He said, “Never +forget to take down a sign when it’s no use any more.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, when I found I wasn’t going to die a <span class='it'>terrible death</span> (that’s +what Pee-wee called it) I didn’t have sense enough to take away that +note that I stuck on the reeds. When I stuck it there I reached up as +high as I could, so even when the tide was high up there, I guess it +didn’t reach it. I was so excited to find I could get away that I never +thought anything about it. And when I sailed into Little Valley in my +Indian canoe, gee, I had forgotten all about it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I found that the troop had done a good day’s work caulking the hull up +and slapping a couple of coats of copper paint on it, while the tide was +out. So then we decided that as long as the tide was going down, we’d +float her down with it to the Bridgeboro River and then wait for the up +tide to float her upstream to Bridgeboro. We decided that we’d rather +fix her up in Bridgeboro. So you see that this chapter is about the +tide, too. Mr. Ellsworth and Mr. Donnelle both told me that I must have +plenty of movement in my story, so I guess the tide’s a good character +for a story, because it’s always moving.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, you ought to have seen those fellows when I sailed in shouting +that I was <span class='it'>Weetonka</span>, the famous Indian chief. Doc Carson dropped his +paint brush on Connie Bennett and he was splashed all over with copper +paint—good night!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Where did you get that thing,” Pee-wee shouted, “it looks like a +horse’s trough.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You have to part your hair in the middle to ride in it, I can tell you +that,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Where were you all the time?” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I was captured by a band of Apaches,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What kind of a band?” Pee-wee yelled.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“A brass band,” I told him; “a brass band of Apaches.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You make me sick!” he said, kind of disgusted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“They took me to their village and were going to burn me at the stake, +only the butcher didn’t bring it, then they decided they’d chop me to +pieces only the butcher didn’t bring the chops——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, boy! you should have seen that kid. He fired a wet bailing sponge at +me and I dodged it and it hit one of his own patrol—kerflop!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess you’ll think all us fellows are crazy, especially me. I should +worry. I told them I escaped in the canoe and all that kind of stuff, +but at last I told them the real story and you can bet they were glad I +was saved. They all said I had a narrow escape, and I admit it was only +about an inch wide.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now, I have to tell you about how we floated the house-boat down to +Bridgeboro River, and maybe you’d better look at the map, hey? Oh, but +first I want to tell you about the name we gave it. Some name! We +christened it with a bottle of mosquito dope. Its regular name was all +rubbed off, so we decided we’d vote on a new name.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>This is the way we fixed it. Each patrol thought of a name and then we +mixed the three names up and made one name out of them. Then you just +add a little sugar and serve.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The Ravens voted the name <span class='it'>Sprite</span>, the Elks voted the name <span class='it'>Fly</span> and +the Silver Foxes voted the name <span class='it'>Weetonka</span>, on account of me. Then we +wrote all these letters down and mixed them all up and arranged them +every which way, till we got this name:</p> + +<div class='lgc' style='margin-top:0.7em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line'>RESOPEKITWAFTENLY</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, boy, some laugh we had over that name. We were all sitting around in +the two cabin rooms and believe me, it was some giggling match.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It sounds like a Bolsheviki name,” Westy Martin said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You wait till the infernal revenue people get that name,” I said, +“it’ll knock ’em out.” Because, of course, I knew we’d have to send the +name to the infernal revenue people—I mean internal or eternal or +whatever you call it—because you have to do that to get your license +number.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s a good name,” I said, “you don’t see it every day.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Thank goodness for that,” Doc Carson said, “it’s as long as a spelling +lesson or Pee-wee’s tongue.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’ll be a pretty expensive name; it’ll take a lot of paint,” Brick +Warner said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We should worry,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So then I made some coffee, because I’m the troop cook, and we thought +it was best to eat before we started. That bunch is always hungry. They +said it was punk coffee, but that was because they didn’t bring enough +to go around.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t laugh at the coffee,” I told them, “you may be old and weak +yourselves some day.” I made some flapjacks, too, and then we started.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We didn’t have to do much work because the ebb was running good and +strong, and we just sat around the deck with our feet dangling over, and +pushed her off with our scout staffs whenever she ran against the +shores. She didn’t keep head on, but that was no matter as long as she +went, and pretty soon (I guess it must have been about seven o’clock) we +went waltzing into Bridgeboro River.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And then was when we made a crazy mistake. Just for a minute we forgot +that the tide would be running down the river instead of up. If we had +only remembered that, three or four of us could have gone ashore with a +rope and tied her in the channel, which ran along the near shore. Then +all we would have had to do would have been to sit around and wait for +it to turn, so we could drift up to Bridgeboro with it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But just when we were floating out of the creek, we forgot all about +what the tide would do to us, unless we were on the job and sure enough +it caught us and sent us whirling around and away over on to the flats.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Good night!” I said when I heard her scrape.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We should have had sense enough to know the tide is stronger here than +in the creek,” they all said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What’s the difference?” Dorry Benton said, “we’re stuck on the flats, +that’s all. Now we don’t have to bother to tie her. When the tide +changes, we’ll float off and go on upstream all right. We’re just as +well off as if we were tied up in the channel.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, I guess he was right except for what happened pretty soon. So we +settled down to wait for the tide to go down and change. After a while +we began to see the flats all around us and there wasn’t any water near +us at all—only the water in the channel away over near the west shore. +We were high and dry and there wasn’t any way for a fellow to get away +from where we were, because he couldn’t swim and he’d only sink in the +mud, if he tried to walk it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, while we were sitting around trying to figure out how long it +would be before the water would go down and then come up enough to carry +us off, Doc Carson said, “Listen!” and we heard the chug of a motor boat +quite a long way off. It was getting dark good and fast now, and there +was a pretty wide stretch of flats between us and the channel. Pretty +soon we could hear voices—all thin, sort of, as if they came from a +long way off. That’s the way it is on the water.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“She’s coming down Dutch Creek,” one of the fellows said. After a while +another fellow said he thought it was Jake Holden. Then another one said +it wasn’t.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure it is,” Connie Bennett said, “listen.” Then as plain as day I +could hear the words “crab running,” and then in a minute something +about “bad news.” Pretty soon, through the steady chugging I could hear +a voice say very plain, “I’m glad it doesn’t have to be me to tell her.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We couldn’t make them out because it was getting too dark, but it was +Jake Holden, the fisherman, all right. Pretty soon the engine began +chugging double, sort of, and I knew they were going around the corner +into Bridgeboro River, because there’s a steep shore there, and it made +an echo.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I was a chump not to realize what they were talking about, but they had +chugged around into Bridgeboro River and were heading upstream before it +popped into my thick head. And even then it was on account of something +else they said, as the chugging grew fainter all the time. It seemed as +if I heard it while I was dreaming, as you might say. I knew they were +pretty far upstream by now, but the voice was awful clear, like voices +always sound across the water, especially in the night.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He was a nice little fellow,” that’s what it said, “but he had a right +to keep out of that place.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then, all of a sudden, I knew. They were talking about me. They must +have been up that creek fishing and found that note of mine. And they +were going to tell my people as soon as they got home.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Holler to them, fellows!” I said; “quick—all together.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess the fellows must have thought I was crazy, but they hollered for +all they were worth. But it was no use, for nobody answered. I guess the +wind must have been blowing our way or something—anyway, they didn’t +pay any attention. Then pretty soon I couldn’t hear the chugging any +more at all.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, jiminies, but I felt bad. Maybe you think that as long as I escaped +and would get home all right I ought to be satisfied. But that’s because +you don’t know anything about my mother. When my brother died I saw how +she acted and the doctor said she had to stay in bed two or three days +on account of her heart being not just right. Maybe he thought it would +stop, I guess. And, gee, I didn’t want her to hear any bad news, even if +it wasn’t true. ’Cause I knew just how she’d act—I could just see her, +sort of. I guess I was kind of thinking about it and how it would be +when Jake Holden went to the house, and how she’d have to wait five or +six hours, maybe till morning, before she saw me, when all of a sudden I +heard Will Dawson of my patrol say, “What’s the matter, Blakey?”—he +always calls me Blakey.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But I didn’t pay any attention to him, because I couldn’t +speak—exactly. I didn’t seem to see any of the troop, I only just saw +my mother standing, maybe kind of unsteady like, and listening to Jake +Holden.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then all of a sudden I walked straight over to where the Ravens were all +sitting on the cabin roof. And I spoke to Wigley Wig-wag Weigand. I +said—this is just what I said—I said, “Wig, I always claimed Ralph +Warner was the best signaller in the troop and maybe you’ll remember I +was mad when you got the badge. But now I ain’t mad, and I ain’t +jealous, only I don’t want those men to go and tell my mother I’m +dead—I—I don’t. I forgot to take the note away and they’re going to +tell her and she—she has—her heart isn’t very strong like. There’s +only one fellow in the troop can do it—it’s you. You can do it. You can +do anything, signalling. I’ve got to admit it now, when I need you. +You’re a Raven, but I want you to signal, quick. They’ll see it in town. +You’re the only fellow can do it—you are. I got to admit it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He didn’t say much because he isn’t much on talking. He’s always +studying the Handbook. But he jumped down and he just said, “I’ll fix +it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And I knew he would.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_IX'>CHAPTER IX<br/> <span class='sub-head'>THE LAST LETTER</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Elmer Sawyer (he’s a Raven) came up to me and said, “He’ll do it, +Roy; don’t worry. And they’ll get it too, because everybody in town is +out these nights looking at the searchlights down the Hudson.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>That was one lucky thing. A lot of cruisers and torpedo boats were down +in the harbor and up the Hudson, and we could see their searchlights +even in Bridgeboro.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Wig looked all around the cabin as if he was hunting for something and +then he said, “No searchlight, I suppose.” If we had only had a +searchlight it would have been easy, but there wasn’t any on board.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t you care,” Pee-wee said to me, “he’ll think of a way.” Oh, +jiminy, but he was proud of Wig. I could see that Wig was thinking and +for just a few seconds it seemed as if he couldn’t make up his mind what +to do.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Can you smudge it?” Connie Bennett asked.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Guess so,” he said, “you fellows rip open the ends of these cushions, +but don’t tear the covering any, and somebody get the stove cleared out; +see if there’s a damper in the pipe, and see if there’s any bilge under +the flooring. It’ll take those fellows about twenty minutes to chug up +to Bridgeboro.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, in two seconds he had us all flying every which way, Elks, Silver +Foxes and all.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We didn’t have to open more than one of the seat cushions and, lucky +thing, we found it full of excelsior. That makes a good smudge.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Only you’ve got to treat it,” Wig said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Treat it!” I said; “I’ll treat it to all the ice cream it can eat, if +it’ll only help you to send the message.” I was feeling good now.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Take it down in the bilge and treat it,” he said, very sober like, to +one of his patrol.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t let it spend a cent,” I called after him. But I didn’t go because +I could see he would rather have Ravens help him. You can’t blame him +for that. In about half a minute they came upstairs and they had a lot +of the excelsior all damp, but not exactly wet, and I don’t know how +they got it that way, except I know there was bilge water down under the +flooring. They’re a lot of cracker-jacks on signalling, I’ll say that +much for them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was a stove in the main cabin with a stovepipe going straight up +through the roof like a smoke stack and there was a damper in it right +near the stove.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Get a handbook or a pocket code,” somebody said, “so he’ll have the +signs right near him.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He doesn’t need any signs,” Pee-wee shouted, disgusted like.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, this is the way Wig did it, and after he got started, most of us +went up on the roof to see if we could read it. But that’s mighty hard +to do when you’re right underneath it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>By the time the fellows came upstairs with the damp excelsior (that’s +what they call the smudge) Wig had a good fire started in the stove.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Lay that stuff down here,” he said; then he said to me, “What do you +want to say?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Just say I’m safe, Wig,” I told him. “Say for them not to pay any +attention to what they hear.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I only waited long enough for him to get started, just so as to see how +he did it, then I went up on the roof and watched the long black smoke +column. Cracky, I was glad it was moonlight, that’s one sure thing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>As soon as he had a good fire started he stuffed some of the damp +excelsior in and shut the door, and told Artie Van Arlen (he’s their +patrol leader) to hold a rag over the crack in the door, because the +black smoke was pouring out that way, especially because the damper in +the pipe was shut.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I didn’t stay there long, because the smoke was too thick for me and +when I saw Artie bind a wet rag over Wig’s eyes and mouth, I knew then +it was going to be mighty bad in that little cabin.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Have another ready,” I heard him say; “better have three or four of +them.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he put his hand on the damper in the pipe and turned it and then +the smoke in the cabin wasn’t so bad. He just turned it around quick and +kept turning it around and that let little puffs of smoke through, and I +heard the fellows up on the roof shouting, “Hurrah!” so I knew it was +working all right. He sent up a lot of little puffs like that, just so +as to draw attention, and he kept doing it so long I got impatient.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“No use talking till you know somebody’s listening,” he said, kind of +pleasant like to me. I guess maybe he never liked me very much, because +I didn’t want that badge to get into their patrol, and anyway he’s kind +of sober, sort of, and maybe he thought I had too much nonsense. But, +oh, boy, I was strong for him now. And I could see how he began to cough +and I was worried.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he groped around to get hold of the damper, for he was blindfolded +and the smoke in there was getting thicker and thicker. Then he gave it +a quick turn, then waited a few seconds, then held it lengthwise with +the pipe for about twenty seconds.</p> + +<p class='pindent'><span class='it'>R</span> I said to myself.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he opened the damper three times, each about twenty seconds, and I +could hear the fellows up on the roof shouting.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“O! It’s a good O! Bully for Wig Weigand!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Give me another towel, quick,” he said to Artie. “Is the window open? +You better go up, Kid.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was the first time he ever called me kid and he had to cough when he +said it. But I just couldn’t move. There was something in my throat and +my eyes that wasn’t smoke, and I said, “I can stand it if you can—Wig.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Go on up, kid,” he said, “we’ve—got—got—her—talking—now,” and he +coughed and choked.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Go on up, Roy,” Artie Van Arlen said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Up on the roof all the fellows were sitting around the edge with their +legs over, watching the black column in the sky, and shouting when they +read the letters. But I was thinking about those fellows down in that +cabin filled with smoke and how they were doing that all on account of +me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Pretty smoky down there,” one of the Elks said to me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You said something,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He’s marking up the sky all right, if he can only stick it out,” +another fellow said. “Who’s down there with him?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Artie,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“They’ll stick it out, all right,” Westy Martin said; “it’s easier for +Artie, he can stay near the window.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Bully for you, Wig, old boy!” somebody shouted, just as the E in <span class='it'>SAFE</span> +shot up. And I knew what it meant—it meant that the words <span class='it'>Roy is safe</span> +had been printed in great big black letters across the sky.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then it came faster and faster and it seemed as if he must be turning +that damper like a telegraph operator moves his key. “Don’t worry,” it +said, “reports false,” “Roy Blakeley safe,” “Roy safe,” “Blakeley +alive.” He said it all kinds of different ways.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Once Artie came up coughing and choking and watched a few seconds to see +if the wind was blowing the smoke away as fast as the signs were made, +because that was important.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s lucky we have that wind,” he said, and then went down again in a +hurry.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon we could see some searchlights far away and I guess they +were on the ships. But ours was different and nearer to Bridgeboro, and +people would be sure to see it, only maybe they wouldn’t understand it +and that’s what made me worry. I’m good on reading smudge signals, even +though I never sent many and I never have to have the <span class='it'>Handbook</span> when I +read the code, that’s one thing. And I didn’t pay much attention to all +the talking and yelling, only kept my eyes up in the sky, watching that +long smoky column. It beat any searchlight <span class='it'>you</span> ever saw. “Roy +alive”—“Roy alive” it kept saying and sometimes “don’t worry.” I didn’t +see how any fellow could manage a smudge and send it so fast and keep +his spaces. The last word before it stopped was <span class='it'>SAFE</span>, or that’s what +it was meant to be, only the short flash for E didn’t come. The fellows +all began shouting when there wasn’t any more, and I heard Pee-wee shout +downstairs, “Aren’t you going to put the name of the boat?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Do you want him to crack the sky open?” I heard a fellow say, and they +all laughed.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But I remembered how that last E didn’t come and I started down the +ladder for all I was worth. I scrambled around the narrow part of the +deck to the window and called, but nobody answered. The smoke was coming +out thick.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Wig,” I said, “are you there? Are you all right? Artie, where are you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I had to turn away my face on account of the smoke. I pulled off my +scout scarf and tied it over my mouth, so that it covered my ears too. +Then I looked in and down low, because I knew that the smoke wouldn’t be +so thick near the floor. And I saw Wig Weigand lying there right under +the stove pipe and his hand was reaching up holding the damper, and his +hand was all white like and his eyes were wide open and staring. Then I +shouted for all I was worth.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Doc! come down—hurry! Send Doc Carson down, Wig Weigand is dead—he’s +suffocated.”</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_X'>CHAPTER X<br/> <span class='sub-head'>THE RAVENS</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Doc Carson is a Raven and he’s our First Aid Scout. He always has some +things with him, because that’s our rule. But you can bet I didn’t wait +for him. And I didn’t care if I was killed or not, I didn’t, if Wig +Weigand was killed.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So I jumped right through the window and the smoke got into my eyes and +made my ears ring, but I didn’t care. I could taste it all thick, too, +but I didn’t care. That was the smoke that had to do what Wigley Weigand +told it to, and he scribbled all over the sky with it, that’s what he +did, and now it had turned around and killed him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I knew that up to six or seven inches from the floor there is never much +smoke and I knew he must have lain down low when he was almost +unconscious and worked that damper. And those fellows up there had been +laughing and cheering all the while, when he was lying there like that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I didn’t see Artie anywhere and there wasn’t any sound. I lay down flat +and crawled over to Wig and you bet I worked quick. I tied his hands +together with my scout scarf—it was the Silver Fox scarf—and I tied +the scarf around my neck.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Wig,” I said, but he didn’t speak and his legs and his neck hung loose, +sort of, and it kind of scared me. Then I crawled to the window, because +I couldn’t see the door, dragging him after me. Then I did something I +never thought I could do, but maybe you’ve noticed you can do most +anything when you have to. I just stood up, then fell down again, +coughing and choking, and my ears were buzzing all the time. But I +didn’t care, I just stood up again with him hanging to me, and I grabbed +the window sill and dragged him half way across it and with his head +outside, and then I staggered and tried to grab something and my eyes +were stinging and, oh, I don’t know, all of a sudden my head knocked and +I didn’t know any more.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mr. Ellsworth says that Doc ought to write the rest of this chapter, but +he wouldn’t, and it’s just like him. The next thing I knew I was sitting +on the lowest step and Connie Bennett was holding my head. “You’re all +right,” he said, “but you got a good bump. You were only there a few +seconds.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Did you pull me out?” I said. “Where’s Wig?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Doc brought him around,” he said, “he got him breathing, then it was +easy. We can’t find Artie.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Maybe it was funny, but just then I didn’t seem to be thinking about +Artie. I felt my head and found I had a big bump on it. “I should worry +about that,” I said. “Where’s Wig?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I got up and went around the cabin to the forward deck and there +were all the fellows and Wig sitting up and Doc Carson holding him and +moving him, so as to keep him breathing—scout fashion.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All righto, kid,” Doc said, kind of pleasant, “you’re a brick.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I always thought that I was as big as he was, but he called me kid, and +I didn’t care. Anyway, I couldn’t see him very good, I admit that. +Because—oh, well, maybe you can understand.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Artie’s missing,” he said. “You didn’t see anything of him in there?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I couldn’t see at all, hardly,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Wig turned his head and looked at me and he was all white and weak +looking, especially when he smiled. And he had the remains of my Silver +Fox scarf, all torn, around his neck.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All right?” he said very low.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But I just couldn’t speak to him. I don’t know what made me do it, but I +went up to him and he looked at the bump on my forehead and said, +“Hurt?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You should worry about that,” I told him. Then I kind of fixed the +Silver Fox scarf better, so that it was around his neck and I tied it in +the Silver Fox knot. “Your fellows won’t mind if you wear it a little +while,” I said, and then I unfastened his own scarf, yellow and brown, +and tied it around my neck. “There’s no fellow can get this away from me +to-night,” I said, “I’m going to wear the Raven scarf—I am.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then, all of a sudden, I noticed that Doc had gone away and I was +holding his head up alone. So I let it down on the cushion very easy and +I saw we were all alone. Maybe you won’t understand and it’s hard to +tell you. But I didn’t say anything; I just stayed there and rubbed his +forehead.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We told her,” he said, kind of as if he was weak and tired.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yop,” I said, “you told her.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Somebody’ll get it—maybe,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I ain’t thinking about that,” I said, “I’m only thinking about how you +did it. I—I don’t want the signalling badge in my patrol now, honest I +don’t, Wig. I want it to stay where it belongs. And I want there to be +only just the one in the troop. I got mad first. That’s because I’m +always getting mad, I guess. But there will never be any signalling +badge in my patrol, Wig. That’s going to be the rule.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There’ll be a Gold Cross though,” he said. And then he shut his eyes.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But I stayed right there—just because—oh, I don’t know, just because I +wanted to stay right there. You can’t always tell why you want to do a +thing.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XI'>CHAPTER XI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>LOST</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Now when Wig said that about the Gold Cross I thought it was just +because he was weak and didn’t know what he was saying. Because, maybe +you know as well as I do, that the Gold Cross isn’t so easy to get. Only +one fellow in our troop ever got it, and that was Tom Slade. Maybe I +took a chance when I went into all that smoke, I’m not saying I didn’t, +but if I got anything at all, it would be the Bronze Medal, I guess, but +nix on the Gold Cross. You don’t find gold crosses growing around on +every bush, you can bet. Anyway, I didn’t want any honor medal because I +knew Wig wouldn’t get one (because they’re only for lifesaving) and, +gee, if he didn’t deserve one, I’m sure I didn’t.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway this wasn’t any time to be thinking about medals, because Artie +Van Arlen was missing and that was the principal thing we had to think +about. He wasn’t on the house-boat, that was one sure thing, because we +looked everywhere and couldn’t find him. Wig said he remembered somebody +speaking to him when he was lying there, and he guessed it must have +been Artie. He didn’t know what he said though.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The fellows were all excited about it, especially because the boat was +just beginning to float, and we didn’t know whether we’d better anchor +there and wait to see if he turned up. Two of the fellows climbed down +and swam around and the rest kept calling. It wasn’t very deep yet and +they could even feel around the flats, but they couldn’t find him +anywhere.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I went around and looked at the window and even then the cabin was +filled with smoke, but not so thick. Believe me, I wished that Tom Slade +was there then, because he’s great on deducing and finding clues and all +like that. That’s why we always called him Sherlock Nobody Holmes. +Anyway, I couldn’t make out what happened. Artie might have staggered up +against the window to get air, but I didn’t see how he could fall out, +and if he was able to climb out then why didn’t he come up where the +rest of us were?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I couldn’t make anything out of it; all I knew was he was gone. I knew +he must have been drowned and his body been carried up by the tide, +which was running up strong now.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, you can bet we didn’t have any fun drifting up. Nobody said +anything much; we just sat around the edge of the deck with our staffs +and pushed her off, whenever she ran against the shore.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Charlie Seabury sat next to me and after a while he said, “Who’s going +to tell his people?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I am,” I told him, “because I’m to blame for the whole business.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Nobody’s to blame,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I am,” I said, “they just did it on account of me.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That’s because all the fellows like you,” he said, “and they like to do +anything for you.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, it wasn’t so necessary, I see that now, and it’s just the same +as if I killed him. Gee, I wish it was I that got killed, I know that. +Cracky, I deserved to after being such a fool.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After that, nobody spoke for a long time, then Hunt Ward, who’s in the +Elk Patrol, said, “It’s the first fellow in our troop that died. I guess +we won’t go up to camp now.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Not in this boat, anyway,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then after a while I said, “We’ll send his name in and they’ll print it +in <span class='it'>Boys Life</span>.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I know,” Hunt said, “with a black line around it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Yet we kind of kept hoping all the time, even though we knew there +wasn’t any sense in it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>You</span> thought <span class='it'>you</span> were a goner,” Hunt said, “and you came back all +right.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now I was a big fool that it didn’t put a certain idea in my head when +he said that, but I only said, “Yes, but that was different.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Dorry Benton, who was two or three fellows away from me, said, “One +thing is sure, he went through the window and into the water. Maybe he +was half conscious and didn’t remember there was only a narrow strip of +deck there. And he must have tumbled right off it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know,” I said, “only if he isn’t in the boat then he must be in +the water and if he fell in the water and couldn’t swim or shout either, +then he must be drowned.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then nobody said anything and we just sat there keeping her off shore +and watching her drift up. When we got around Bentley’s turn we could +see the lights in Bridgeboro and then was when I began to realize and I +hated to get home. I wished the tide wouldn’t take us so fast. Some of +the fellows walked around on the roof, but none of them said anything. I +wished it was me instead of Artie, I know that. I ought to have been +satisfied to escape without getting the Ravens to do that—I mean send +that message for me. Anyway, I made up my mind I’d be the one to tell +Mr. Ellsworth about it, and Artie’s people too, and I’d take all the +blame.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess nobody said anything more all the way up, until we came near the +Field Club landing. The shore is like low cliffs here and after we got +her over against it, a couple of the fellows got out and towed her along +with ropes, till we came to the long float.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Are we going to tie her at the float?” Connie Bennett asked, very sober +like. Gee, it sounded funny to hear someone speak. Doc Carson said, +“Yes.” He was kind of like head of the three patrols now, because he has +the most sense of all of us, I guess, and Tom Slade, who is head of the +Elks, is away and I decided, all of a sudden, that I wasn’t much of a +patrol leader, and Artie—he was—he wasn’t there.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Look out for that canoe,” somebody said, just as we were coming +alongside the float.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“They shouldn’t have left it there,” Connie said; “that’s no place for a +canoe.” I guess we were all kind of nervous and cranky like.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I saw that there was a black figure sitting on the lowest step of +the boathouse. I was just going to call “Who’s there?” when Doc said, +“Pull that canoe out of the way before we smash it in.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So I jumped off onto the float and grabbed the canoe, and g-o-o-d night! +it was my Indian dugout.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XII'>CHAPTER XII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>ARTIE’S ADVENTURE</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I heard one of the fellows shouting, “<span class='it'>Look who’s here!</span>” and I saw +the fellow who had been sitting on the steps coming toward the float, +and I could tell it was Artie Van Arlen. Then I could hear Pee-wee +dancing on the cabin roof and screaming, “The plot grows thicker! The +plot grows thicker!”—good night, the kid was almost having a fit.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble,” I said to Artie, “would you please +relate your adventures. I see that you’re not dead.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, not so you’d notice it,” he said, “but I guess I came pretty near +it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I could see he was all in and must have had a pretty hard time of +it, but I couldn’t help kidding him, because I was feeling so good to +know he was safe. Believe me, that fellow had some adventure.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It was lucky for me,” he said, “that you tied this crazy canoe or +whatever you call it——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That is an Indian dugout, if anyone should ask you,” I said, “and if I +wanted to sell it to an antiquary——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“A what?” Pee-wee shouted down from the cabin roof.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“An antiquary,” I said; “comes from the Latin word <span class='it'>aunt</span> and the +Chinese word <span class='it'>query</span>, meaning to <span class='it'>ask questions</span>—otherwise the same as +Pee-wee. As I was saying, if I wanted to sell it to an antiquary I could +get a large check for it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How large?” Pee-wee shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“About eight inches by two and a half inches; now, shut up!” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Cracky, you should have heard those fellows laugh.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, whatever it is,” said Artie, “it’s lucky for me that you tied it +just under the cabin window, because I fell into it—I fell in good and +hard.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I think you fell in soft,” I said; “it shows how thoughtful I am. A +scout is foresighted——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You make me sick!” Pee-wee shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Tell Doc Carson to give you some medicine,” I answered.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Laugh! Because, you see, we were all feeling so good about Artie being +saved that we’d laugh at nothing, like a lot of girls. But girls are all +right, I have to admit that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Let’s see, where was I? Oh, yes, I was telling you about Artie. You see +when I first arrived with that canoe I tied it just under the cabin +window and then scrambled up through the window. So there it was all the +time. Lucky thing, too. Only the funny thing was we never missed it—we +were punk scouts, that’s sure.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Artie told us how it was. “After the smoke got so thick that I was +dizzy and couldn’t see, I got scared and groped around for Wig. I +couldn’t find him anywhere and he didn’t answer. I didn’t know whether +all of the signal had been sent or not, but anyway I knew I couldn’t +stand it in there any longer. I thought Wig must have climbed out of the +window. So I decided I would do the same thing. Oh, but didn’t I have +some job finding it! I lay down flat, I knew enough to do that anyway, +and then I crawled around with one hand up feeling for the window sill. +When I found it I was so dizzy I just hung to it and I thought I was a +goner sure.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I know how you felt,” I said, “because I was in the same trouble +myself.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he said how he dragged himself up to the window sill and tried to +shout, but couldn’t. Then he fell across it and kind of wriggled out. He +didn’t have his senses, but he knew enough to know that there was a +narrow part of the deck, just a passageway sort of, outside, and he +thought he’d fall on that. But it was lucky he didn’t. He fell past it +right into the water and that brought him to his senses, kind of. So he +sputtered and groped around till he happened to clutch the Indian dugout +and it rolled over with him and the anchor that we had laid in it with a +rope to hold it fast to the houseboat, the anchor rolled out, and the +first thing he knew he was drifting up the river, hanging onto the +dugout for dear life.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He was feeling so weak and sputtering so on account of his lungs being +all filled with smoke, that he couldn’t shout and after a while he +drifted up on the bar near Second Bend. Then he got the dugout set right +side up on the mud while he bailed it out by splashing in it with his +hands and afterwards making them into a cup.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After that it was easy drifting up stream and when he got to about a +quarter of a mile below the boathouse, he managed to paddle over to the +shore and then he pulled himself along by holding on to the weeds and +things.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You had a pretty narrow escape,” Pee-wee said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It was a narrow boat, why shouldn’t he have a narrow escape,” I said; +“I had a good wide escape, anyway.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Didn’t you have your hat with you to bail with?” somebody asked Artie.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All I had was my copy of <span class='it'>Initiation Drill</span>,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Why didn’t you drill a hole in the boat then,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What for?” Pee-wee shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“So the water could get out as fast as it came in.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What are you talking about? You’re crazy!” he yelled.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There should be two holes in every boat,” Connie Bennett said, in that +slow way he has; “one for the water to come in and the other so it can +get out.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'><span class='it'>Gee-williger!</span> You should have seen Pee-wee.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, I suppose you think by this time that we’re all crazy. I should +worry.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XIII'>CHAPTER XIII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>TRACKING</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, you can bet I didn’t stay there long, because I wanted to find +out if Wig’s signal had been received. Maybe you won’t understand, but +down the river it seemed all right and I was sure somebody must have +caught it. But after we landed and I started up home, it seemed as if it +was just kind of playing, after all, because that’s the way some people +think about the scouts, so I hurried as fast as I could so that my +mother and father wouldn’t be worrying. I felt awfully funny, kind of, +as I went up the lawn because I knew that if no one had come and told +them about the signal, they’d think I was dead.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>They were sitting on the porch waiting for me and I knew from the way my +mother put her arms around me that they had been worrying. She asked we +what had kept me so late and my father said that I ought to send them +some word when I was going to stay out as late as midnight. I have to +admit he was right, too.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But anyway, I knew that they hadn’t received any word about me from +anybody, and I was all up in the air about that. I could see that Jake +Holden hadn’t been there at all and that nobody had come and told them +about the signal, either. I didn’t exactly ask them, but I could tell it +all the same. So I told them all about everything that happened, about +how I got caught in the marsh and all that, and especially about Wig +being such a hero. Then she cried a little, kind of, and I said there +was no use crying because I was home all right. But anyway, she cried +just the same, and hugged me awful tight just as if everything hadn’t +ended all right. That’s a funny thing about mothers.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So then I went to bed and I lay awake thinking about everything that +happened. What I thought about most was why Jake Holden hadn’t come and +told my mother and father like I heard him say he was going to do. You +remember how I heard him say that. So that was a mystery—that’s what +Pee-wee would call it. And I was wondering why he hadn’t come to the +house to give them that note he had found. Because I knew Jake Holden +(he always called me “Scouty”) and he liked me, too, and I knew he would +sure have come to the house if something hadn’t happened.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now that I was all calmed down, as you might say, I wasn’t surprised any +more about no one reading the signal, because maybe it didn’t show very +plain in Bridgeboro and anyway, most grown people seem to think that +signalling and all that kind of thing are lots of fun for scouts, but +not much use except when grown people, and especially the navy, do it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, I should worry about grown people, because we have plenty of +fun.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, boy, didn’t I sleep that night! When I got up I made up my mind that +I’d go to Jake Holden’s shanty, just for the fun of it, and find out why +he didn’t come and tell my family that I was dead. Because, if I was +dead, he sure ought to have come and told them. Of course, I knew I +<span class='it'>wasn’t</span> dead, but anyway, how did he know that?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After breakfast I did my good turn—I turned my sister Ruth’s bed around +for her so as it faced the bay window. I was going to turn it twice and +call it two good turns, but she said that wouldn’t be fair—that that +wouldn’t be two good turns. I said it would be just as fair as Pee-wee +turning the ice-cream freezer till the cream was all frozen and then +saying he did a hundred good turns. Then she threw a tennis ball at me, +but it missed me. That’s one thing about girls, they can’t throw a ball. +They can’t whistle, either.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now comes another adventure. After breakfast I went to Marshtown (that’s +a few houses down near the river) to Jake Holden’s shanty. It’s a funny +kind of a place made out of barrel staves and part of a boat all jumbled +up together, and it looks kind of like a chicken coop. He lives all +alone and kind of camps out. He’s a nice man, you can bet, only you have +to get on the right side of him. If you don’t get on the right side of +him the safest place is behind him. He catches fish and crabs and goes +around town selling them. He taught me how to cook.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When I got to his shanty I saw it was locked up and he wasn’t anywhere +around. I guess he went down the bay crabbing. Anyway, I ran as fast as +I could to Marshtown landing to see if he had gone yet, but there wasn’t +any sign of his boat there. Maybe you think I wasn’t disappointed. +Anyway, I began looking around like a scout is supposed to do, to see if +there were any signs to show me whether he’d be back soon, because maybe +he only went up to the Club landing for gasoline. But there weren’t any +signs and he didn’t show up.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now, if I hadn’t been a scout I would have gone home and played tennis +or followed the shore up to the Club landing and waited for the troop to +come and go to work on the houseboat. But instead of that, I kept +looking around and pretty soon what do you think I saw? I saw a +footprint. Some Robinson Crusoe, hey?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was a funny kind of a footprint. It wasn’t Jake’s, I knew that, +because he always wore fisherman’s boots. It was in the soft earth near +the landing and I could see it plain. I guess maybe it was made by a +good shoe, because it was pointed, but it was all worn out, that was one +sure thing, because there was a place that was made by a stocking or a +bare foot, where there wasn’t any sole at all.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Maybe you don’t know much about deduction, but that’s one thing scouts +learn about, and I tried to make out what it meant, but it had me +guessing. Because the shoe was pointed and had the remains of a rubber +heel—I could tell that by the big screw holes. And that meant good +shoes. And I thought it was funny anybody who could wear good shoes +would let them wear out like that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, it was none of my business, only there was one mighty funny +thing about that footprint. There was an Indian’s head stamped right in +the mud. It wasn’t very plain, but I could see it was an Indian’s head +all right. It was something like the Indian’s head on a cent.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, boy, I was all up in the air then, because I didn’t understand how +that could be there. Maybe you’ll say that it was stamped there to show +what make of shoes they were, but that’s where you’re wrong, because +most of the sole was all worn away and the mark would be worn away, too. +Somebody must have cut it there lately, that was one sure thing, and I +couldn’t understand why anybody would want to cut that on an old +worn-out shoe.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So I sat down on the edge of the float to think about it and then I saw +two or three more just like it, and even more, too, only not all of them +were so plain. Believe me, I didn’t know what to think. Then all of a +sudden I happened to remember that the Indian’s head is the design of +the scout pathfinder badge.</p> + +<p class='pindent'><span class='it'>Jiminety</span>, but didn’t I get down on my knees and study those some +more. Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with the scouts, but maybe it +did.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And even if it did I couldn’t make out what it meant, because that shoe +was no scout shoe. I know a scout shoe when I see one, you can bet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, I made up my mind I was going to follow that track as far as I +could. Maybe it would peter out on a street or something and then—good +night!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>You’ll see what happened in the next chapter. Oh, boy, it’s going to be +a <span class='it'>peacherino</span>!</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XIV'>CHAPTER XIV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>THE SLACKER</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>One thing, I wished Tom Slade was there, because he was the best tracker +we ever had. He could track an airplane—that’s what the fellows used to +say. But he was over in France and the only other fellow in our troop +who is a cracker-jack at tracking, is Westy Martin. I don’t say that +just because he’s a Silver Fox, because I have to admit that Artie Van +Arlen and Wig Weigand are heroes, and they’re not Silver Foxes. But, +honest, Westy is a winner when it comes to tracking, and you’ve got to +remember that, because now I’m going to tell you some other things about +him and maybe you won’t know just what to think. But I’m going to tell +you straight just what happened.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, I decided that I’d rather have another fellow with me, because +that’s a good rule in tracking and anyway two fellows are better than +one. And anyway, I knew he could hold a track longer than I could. He +got the pathfinder’s badge for one of the best tracking stunts that was +ever done up at Temple Camp and he’s done enough tracking stunts to win +it two or three times over. He’s a fiend on tracking.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>By now I knew that the fellows would all be coming down to the boat club +landing to work on the houseboat, because we had it fixed that they +would all be there by nine o’clock. I wasn’t going to flunk on that, you +can bet, but I thought if I told them about the footprint they’d let +Westy and me off for a little while, because if a scout is after a merit +badge he can usually get leave all right. Anyway, that’s the way it is +in our troop. And all the fellows knew I had the tracking bee, all +right.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee, I hate to tell you about this, but I have to. Now, the way you get +from Marshtown landing up to the boat club landing is to follow the +shore and its only about a quarter of a mile. After I’d hiked it a +little way, I could hear the fellows talking and sawing and hammering, +and I knew they were all busy working.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When I got there they were all over the houseboat like flies, painting +and varnishing and fixing up the flagpole, and I could hear Pee-wee as +usual, shouting away. Jiminy, but it sounded good. Then I could hear +somebody say, “Well, well, better late than never,” and I saw it was our +scoutmaster, Mr. Ellsworth. He took a day off to help the fellows.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’m only six minutes late,” I said; “Silver Foxes always show up.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, let us hope so,” Mr. Ellsworth said. And I kind of saw that +something was wrong. “Westy isn’t here,” somebody shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He’ll be here in a minute,” I said; “get to work; you should worry +about Westy.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But just the same I felt sort of uncomfortable because one thing Mr. +Ellsworth is a stickler about is us being on time. Whenever a scout +comes late for campfire up at Temple Camp or at a troop meeting either, +he always gets a look from T. E. At camp we have breakfast at 7:42 and +lunch at 1:23 and supper at 7:13, just to teach the fellows to go by +minutes.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, I started working with my patrol, who were painting the deck. I +stuck right to it, but all the time I was wishing that Westy would show +up. Every time I heard a sound I looked up. Because maybe you don’t know +that a patrol leader is responsible for his patrol and if one of them +falls down, it’s just the same as if <span class='it'>he</span> fell down. First the fellows +kidded us about it, especially me, and spoke about the Tardy Foxes, and +the Sleepy Foxes, but pretty soon Mr. Ellsworth came to me and said he +guessed I’d better go into the club house and telephone to Westy and +find out what was the matter.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Find out if he’s awake yet,” somebody said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Maybe we’d better send a taxi for him,” another fellow shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You think you’re very funny, don’t you?” I said, “Maybe you raving +Ravens won’t rave so much when you find out he’s sick in bed.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So I went in and telephoned, and oh, jiminy, that was the first time in +my life that I ever really wished a fellow was sick. But his mother told +me he hadn’t been home since about half-past seven and that when he went +out he had a catching-mit and a baseball with him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jiminies, I don’t often get scared, but I could feel my heart up in my +mouth, kind of, and I didn’t know what to tell the fellows and Mr. +Ellsworth. It was like a disgrace to my patrol and it disgraced me, too, +you can bet. He would go off and play ball and let us fellows do all the +work on the boat and then he’d go in it up to Temple Camp. Gee, that’s +one thing a scout never is—mean. We had it all fixed up to work and +then he flunked and let us do it all.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>First I thought maybe I’d kind of not tell Mr. Ellsworth all about that +’phone call and say I couldn’t hear very plain, and all like that. But I +saw if I did that, I’d be worse than Westy. It was bad enough having a +slacker in my patrol without having a liar.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>No, siree!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So I just went up to him and I said, “Mr. Ellsworth, he’s out playing +ball somewheres and I guess he didn’t intend to come. I admit it +disgraces my patrol and it disgraces the whole troop. I was going to ask +you if you thought maybe I could go away for an hour or so to follow a +track I found, but I won’t now; I’ll just stay here and work twice as +hard so as to make up for him. And the other fellows in my patrol will +too. Maybe that will make it seem not quite so bad.”</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XV'>CHAPTER XV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>DURING NOON HOUR</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>One of the things that made me feel especially bad was that Wig Weigand +and Artie Van Arlen were there working, even after being nearly killed +the night before, and Artie was kind of lame, too, from straining his +ankle when he fell. Gee, I had to hand it to those fellows. And even +Pee-wee was working away with the rest of the Ravens and running to buy +nails and everything. Both of the other patrols were all there except +Tom Slade in the Elks, but they kept his place open for memory, sort of.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After a little while Mr. Ellsworth strolled over to where I was working +and said to me—gee, he was awful nice the way he said it—he said, +“Roy, if you want to follow up that trail you may as well go ahead and +come back after lunch. We’re going to hit the eats pretty soon now.” +That’s the way he always says it, “hit the eats.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I was expecting Westy to go with me,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, no matter,” he said; “go alone and don’t worry any more about +Westy. It wasn’t because Westy or any other single scout was needed here +for we have plenty of scouts on the job, but it was just that he didn’t +show up when we all planned to be here, that’s all. I don’t like to +think of any of my scouts falling down.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s the same about my patrol,” I said, “and I’m ashamed, that’s one +sure thing.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said I shouldn’t feel that way and that he guessed playing baseball +was good exercise anyway. But he only said that so I wouldn’t feel bad.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway as long as they were going to eat I thought I might as well go +ahead and see if I could do that tracking if it didn’t take me too far. +On the way down to the other landing I thought what I’d say to Westy. I +knew he’d get a troop reprimand, but I decided he’d get a patrol +reprimand too, you bet. And I was feeling pretty bad about it too, +because none of the Silver Foxes ever got a troop reprimand. They got +patrol reprimands but not troop reprimands. And Westy had gone and +spoiled it all and, gee, that’s one word I don’t like—<span class='it'>slacker</span>.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When I got to the other landing I started following that trail. If you +think Westy had anything to do with it, you’re mighty mistaken, because +he didn’t. He always wore scout shoes, I knew that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, believe me, that trail was a cinch and I could follow it as easy +as a clothes line. It went right up through River Lane where there isn’t +any pavement and every footprint was plain. I was afraid it would go +through Daws Place, because that’s the easiest way to get to Main +Street, and I’d lose it there on account of the pavement. But it didn’t, +and, oh, boy, wasn’t I glad!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Instead of going that way the tracks went right up across the ball +field, just as plain as print. That’s another way to get to Main Street, +and it brings you out at Harvey’s candy store, but don’t ever go there +for ice cream cones, because you get bigger ones down at Jack’s.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I lost the trail on account of the pavements. Gee, that’s one thing +I don’t like about pavements. So there’s where I did some deducing. +Maybe you don’t know what <span class='it'>bridging a trail-gap</span> means. You have only +yourselves to blame for not being scouts. Bridging a trail-gap means +stopping to think when you lose a trail. You have to decide where it +most likely starts again. That’s what grown-up scouts call mental +tracking.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So I sat down on Ridgeway’s carriage step and thinked a couple of +thinks. That’s right on Main Street, you know, and I had to decide if +that person went up or down Main Street or across the street. Right +across the street is the big bank building. I’ve got forty-two dollars +and eighteen cents interest in that bank. Mr. Temple is the head of it, +and he’s awful rich—he owns railroads and things. He started Temple +Camp. He calls me “Curly” because my hair curls. I should worry.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Right down alongside of the bank runs Barrel Alley. It reminds you of +Fifth Avenue, it’s so different. That’s where Tom Slade was born, down +there. Most every day somebody dies down there, but anyway there are +paving-stones there now, that’s one good thing. Except for tracking. So +you see how it was; that person, who ever he was, could have gone up +Main Street or down Main Street, or over the stone crossing into Barrel +Alley.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I decided that he went across into Barrel Alley for several reasons. One +was that he went across the ball field, and that meant that he’d have to +get down and crawl under the fence, so I decided it was not a grown-up +person, because most of them have stiff backs and they’d rather walk a +mile than crawl under a fence. They’re all the time saying they’re not +as young as they used to be. And if it was a boy he’d be most likely to +go into Barrel Alley because, believe me, they have boys down there by +the dozens, especially the kind that wear worn-out shoes that rich +people give them. So that accounts for the good shoes all worn out.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Smart boy, hey?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So you see that’s the way I bridged that trail, though I couldn’t be +sure I was right, I have to admit that. Anyway I went across the street +and I saw by the clock in the bank that it was half past twelve. I knew +I couldn’t go much farther because I wanted to get back to the +house-boat by one.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I started down Barrel Alley, watching the mud along the edge of the +sidewalk, so I could tell if the fellow left the sidewalk to go into one +of the houses. Barrel Alley is a blind alley—that means it has an end +to it and you can’t go any further. It runs plunk into the end of Shad +Row. Norris Row is the right name, but old man Norris is named Shadley +Norris, so us fellows call it Shad Row. You can get through the end of +Barrel Alley if you climb over old man Norris’ back fence, so it isn’t +exactly a blind alley. It’s just a little near-sighted, kind of.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway I started through it and I knew if my quarry (that means the +fellow you’re tracking) went down there, he most likely went into one of +the tenement houses and I’d see that footprint as soon as he turned off +from the sidewalk.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, pretty soon I did see it right alongside the sidewalk just where +he started to go into one of the houses. And oh, wasn’t I tickled! If it +hadn’t been for Westy Martin and the way he’d acted I would have felt as +grand as the Grand Central Station. But that was the thing I was +thinking most about and when you’re thinking about something like that, +you don’t have very much fun—I know I don’t anyway.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But as long as I was there, I might as well find out who it was I had +tracked and solve the mystery about the Indian head. That’s the way +Pee-wee would have said it, “<span class='it'>solve the mystery</span>.” He gets that kind of +talk out of books. The next chapter is going to be a dandy and I +promised to let him give it a name, so don’t blame me whatever it is.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So long.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XVI'>CHAPTER XVI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>NOBLE RAGS</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>“Good night!” I said to Pee-wee, “what kind of rags do you call those?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Didn’t you ever hear of noble rags?” he yelled; “that shows how much +you know about story writing.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Are they any relation to a dish rag?” I asked him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You think you’re smart, don’t you,” he said; “do you know what a hero +is—a ragged hero?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure, a hero is a male shero,” I told him; “you learn that in the third +grade. Just the same as a cowardice is a female coward.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You make me sick!” he yelled.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’ve heard of gasoline rags and dish rags and wash rags,” I kept up, +“but I never saw any noble ones. Have your own way. I should worry.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s a good name for a chapter,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I wouldn’t know a noble rag if I met one in the street,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So that’s how this chapter got its name, and I don’t know what it means +any more than you do. I suppose the next one will be called “Trash +Paper,” or something like that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, anyway, I stood on that doorstep for a few minutes, because I +didn’t know what to do next. I was sure the fellow went in there, but I +didn’t know where he went and anyway, I didn’t have any excuse to hunt +him out because I was only tracking him for a stunt. Anyway I went in +and when I got upstairs one flight I saw just a sign of that print in +the hall just in front of a door. The hall was all dirty and greasy +like.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So by that I was pretty sure he had gone in there and you see how I +tracked him all the way from Marshtown landing. Then I made up my mind +that he sure wouldn’t be mad if he knew I did it just for a stunt and +I’d tell him I was scouting. For just a minute I was scared, then I gave +a rap on the door.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, but it was dark and it smelled bad in that hall. I guess they ought +to tear down that row of tenements. Pretty soon I rapped again, and I +felt kind of funny, because I didn’t know what I ought to +say—especially if a woman opened it. All of a sudden it opened very +soft, and, good night! who should be standing there but—who do you +think?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Westy Martin.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jiminety, but wasn’t I flabbergasted! Even as surprised as I was, I +looked down at his feet and sure enough he had on scout shoes, almost +new. Talk about plots growing thicker! This one was getting so thick +you couldn’t drive a nail into it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well—what—are—you—doing—here?” I gasped out just like that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Shh,” he said, “keep quiet; come in, but keep quiet.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So I went in, all flabbergasted and there was a room with the paper all +falling off the walls and no carpet on the floor, but anyway the windows +were wide open, that was one good thing. And over in the corner was an +old cot without any sheets or anything and, oh, gee, it looked bad +because I’ve got a dandy bed up in my den—all brass and filigree +work—you know.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But, crinkums, I didn’t notice the cot much because there was a fellow +on it and as soon as I looked at him I knew who it was, even though he +looked worse than he most always did. It was Skinny McCord.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You waked him up by knocking,” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It isn’t the first knocking I did to-day,” I said, “but I guess I can +see how it is now—I guess I can.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s only a good turn,” he said; “he did you a good turn, and so I had +to do one for him, that’s all. It’s for the scouts too, and I don’t care +what they say.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I happened to notice a catching mit and a baseball over on a table +near Skinny, where there was some medicine too. And then, all of a +sudden, everything seemed to glisten like, especially when I blinked my +eyes. Gee, I know how easy it is for girls to cry, but a +fellow—anyway—when I saw Westy sit down on the edge of that cot and +not pay any attention to me, only to Skinny, I couldn’t speak at all. I +only just happened to think to do something and I’m glad I thought about +it. I just raised my hand and made Westy Martin the full scout salute. +Patrol leaders don’t do that mostly to the fellows in their patrols, but +I should worry about rules and things like that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You’re taking care of him?” I said as soon as I could, and I felt all +foolish sort of. “I tracked him, but I never thought”—and I just +couldn’t say any more.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But even still Westy didn’t speak to me, only he said to Skinny, +“Here’s a real patrol leader come to see you—that’s a big honor, that +is, and he just made you the full salute. You remember it in the Scout +Handbook?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I made that salute to <span class='it'>you</span>,” I said to Westy, all choking, I have to +admit it, “and I meant it too.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You’re a great tracker,” he said; “wouldn’t you like to be as good a +tracker as he is, Skinny?” And I could see that all he cared about was +amusing Skinny.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t talk about <span class='it'>me</span>,” I said; “I’m a big fool, that’s what I am, but +tell me all about it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There isn’t anything to tell,” said Westy, “except that Skinny always +wanted to be a scout, but he didn’t have any money and all like that. +But anyway, he got the Handbook and studied it all up and it got him.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Same as it gets any fellow that looks inside of it,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And the part that interested him most of all was tracking and +signalling. You see how he carved the tracking emblem on one of his +shoes——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You needn’t show it to me,” I said, “I saw it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Last night,” Westy said, “he read that smudge signal, because he +learned the Morse Code out of the Handbook, and he knew that somebody +might be coming up the river with the false report. He didn’t know just +what he ought to do and I guess he was scared to go up to your house +because he didn’t have any good clothes. So he ran down through the +marshes and waited at the landing, because he knew Jake Holden would be +coming up stream. Jake’s one good friend to him, and he often took him +out and he wasn’t afraid of Jake.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Pretty soon he heard Jake’s boat coming up the river and saw the light +and he just waited there and when Jake come up alongside the float, the +first thing Skinny heard him say was, ‘<span class='it'>Roy Blakeley is dead</span>’—didn’t +you, Skinny?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But I could see that Skinny’s eyes were shut now and he didn’t hear. “Go +on,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“So Skinny told him it wasn’t true, and told him about the signal. Jake +didn’t pay much attention because he thought Skinny was just a little +crazy on account of being so poor and hungry and all that and not having +a good home. So he was going up to your house anyway and Skinny cried +and hung onto him, and begged him not to. I guess he went on kind of +crazy, but he said he was sure because he knew the Morse Code. Anyway, +just to humor him, I guess, Jake promised him he’d wait till early in +the morning, and meanwhile you came home. Do you see?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Honest, I couldn’t answer him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Skinny was the one who did it,” he said. “That accounts for his tracks, +don’t you see?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I shook my head to show him I understood. But I couldn’t say it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And that’s how tracking and signalling have brought the three of us +together—see?” Westy said. “It’s funny, isn’t it, how it brings the +three of us together here in this tenement house.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How did <span class='it'>you</span> come here?” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I was just starting for the house-boat this morning early, when I met +Skinny’s mother. She was going to do her day’s washing. And she told me +how she had to leave him sick in bed, and she asked me if I’d go and +stay with him till she got back. I went back and got the ball and mit +because I thought maybe he’d like them. She said he got a bad cold in +the marshes and he was all excited and kind of crazy from the way he’d +hung onto Jake and begged him not to go up to your house—what did the +fellows think when I didn’t show up?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You—you should worry,” I just blurted out.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway I don’t care so much about the troop or Mr. Ellsworth either,” +he said, “and even if I cared about Skinny it wouldn’t do much good, +because he’s going to die—the doctor says so. But I care a lot about +you and he did you a good turn. I was afraid he might die before you had +a chance to pay him back. So I just sort of tried to pay him back for +you——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while he was talking I could hardly hear what he was saying and +there was one word ringing through my head.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was the word <span class='it'>slacker</span>.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XVII'>CHAPTER XVII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>THE TWO CROSSES</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>I GUESS maybe I’d better tell you about Skinny now, so you’ll know all +about who he is. Before I was a scout I used to call him Wash-board, +because he was so skinny you could have used his ribs for a wash-board. +I guess I used to think that was funny, but, gee, when you get to be a +scout you find out what real fun is and you don’t call names like that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He always lived down in Barrel Alley and his mother goes out washing. +Once Skinny’s father hit him on the head and it made him queer like. But +he got better mostly. Only he was always afraid of people after that. +His father went away and got killed. Sometimes Skinny sold papers at the +station, but he was always scared of people, especially rich fellows. +How should I know he was interested in Scouts? He didn’t have much to +eat, I guess. Anyway Jake Holden was a good friend to him and he wasn’t +scared of Jake. I guess maybe he had consumption.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He didn’t wake up again then, anyway he didn’t open his eyes, and as +soon as his mother came home from her work Westy and I went home. I +wasn’t thinking anything about the house-boat now. I was only thinking +about Skinny and I had my mind all made up, too. I didn’t say anything +to Westy, but on the way home I decided what I was going to do.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was the scout trail that took me to that tenement house and if you +follow a scout trail you’re safe. That scout trail knew what it was +doing all right. There wasn’t any trail leading to the houseboat. Stick +to your trail. That’s the rule. And you can bet your life I was going to +stick to that trail now. If that trail was going to lead to the +cemetery, all right—that’s what I said. But I had picked up Skinny +McCord’s trail and I made up my little old mind that I was going to hang +on to it and follow it like a blood-hound.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>That night we were going to have a special troop meeting to decide about +chipping in money for our cruise up to camp, because we didn’t have much +left on account of spending so much for paint and lumber and different +things.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I knew how the fellows and Mr. Ellsworth would be feeling about me not +coming back and Westy not showing up, and I knew how the Silver Foxes +would feel, especially. But anyway, I had my mind all made up. After +supper my sister Ruth played a game of tennis with Westy and while they +were playing I went up to my room and got out the Scout Handbook. Then I +read the scout laws over, but anyway I knew them. After I had read them +all I made two crosses with a lead pencil, one alongside of one law and +one alongside another. Then I put the Handbook in my pocket and went +downstairs.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was time to go to the meeting now and so we started off.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You seem awful funny,” Westy said; “what’s the matter?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s patrol business,” I said; “it’s about——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Is it about me?” he asked me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s about my patrol,” I said; “it’s about the Silver Foxes. Did you +ever hear that a Silver Fox never makes a mistake about a trail?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“No,” he said, kind of puzzled.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You want to read up natural history,” I told him. “A silver fox knows +the tracks of all the different kinds of animals and if he could talk he +could tell you about them.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Too bad he can’t talk,” Westy said, sort of jollying me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>I</span> can talk,” I said. Then after a minute I said, “It’s about the Elk +patrol, too.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He didn’t say any more and pretty soon we got to the troop-room—that’s +in the Public Library. We were a little late, but I wanted it that way, +so we wouldn’t have any talk with anyone before the meeting started. +Everyone said “hello” to us, but they were the coldest “helloes” <span class='it'>you</span> +ever saw.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“If I’d known it was going to be as cold as this, I’d have worn my +sweater,” I told Westy. Even my own patrol didn’t say anything to us, +and they all looked kind of glum. I heard Will Dawson say something +about our patrol being “in bad,” but I didn’t pay any attention—I +should worry.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now the way we sit at the beginning of troop meetings is in three rows +and each patrol is one row. The patrol leader always sits at the right +hand end of the row and Mr. Ellsworth sits in front. If there are any +local councilmen they sit in front with him. But it doesn’t look much +like that after things get started, I can tell you that. That night Mr. +Bennett was there, too. He’s on the Local Council.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When Westy and I went up to our row to sit down, nobody said anything to +us at all, not even the fellows in our own patrol. Ralph Warner was +sitting in my seat at the end, and he said, kind of cold like, “Do you +want to sit down here?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Of course I want to sit down there,” I told him; “I’m the leader of +this patrol. Where <span class='it'>should</span> I sit?” So he moved over kind of glum and I +sat down in my chair at the end, right beside the Silver Fox emblem that +stands in a rack on the floor. Maybe they had an idea of electing a new +patrol leader, hey? I should worry.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>As soon as we were all ready Mr. Ellsworth called the roll and Westy and +I were marked late. Then Mr. Ellsworth read a couple of notices and said +the special meeting was called for several purposes. He said one was to +draft a letter of gratitude to Mr. Donnelle for loaning us the boat, and +one was to decide (he always says determine, but decide is easier) how +much each scout could chip in for the expenses of our cruise up the +Hudson to Catskill Landing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he looked very serious and said one of the patrols had all signed a +petition (all except two absentees, he said) asking him to order an +election in that patrol for a new patrol leader.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I have been asked,” that’s just what he said, “I have been asked to +administer a troop reprimand to a member of the patrol of the Silver +Foxes for absenting himself throughout the day from urgent troop duties +with no better excuse than a desire to play baseball. This I shall have +to do. The new election is asked for in order that a patrol leader may +be found who will not leave his patrol and his duties on a mere pretext +and not return. I authorize this election. Meanwhile Wesleigh Martin +will please stand up.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I could see that Westy’s face was kind of white and his lips were tight +together and I knew he didn’t intend to say anything.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XVIII'>CHAPTER XVIII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>SCOUT LAW NUMBER THREE</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Now, I can tell you just exactly what Mr. Ellsworth said, because I +remembered it and I wrote it down right afterwards. First I was afraid +Westy would say something and I didn’t want him to, because—well, +you’ll see. So now I’ll copy what Mr. Ellsworth said. Oh, jiminy, you +could hear a pin drop, everyone was so quiet. He said:</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Wesleigh (that’s Westy, you know), I have been asked by your own patrol +to give you this public reproof, and I speak for the whole troop as +well, when I remind you that your action to-day in absenting yourself +and thereby avoiding your share of the work we had undertaken to do, was +unscoutlike and unworthy of you, and unworthy of the patrol whose fine +traditions you were bound to guard and support. You knew that to be +entitled to your share of the pleasure of this purposed cruise, you +would have to do your share of the work. You knew that to-day was set +apart for concerted effort by the whole troop to make this boat ready +for starting next Saturday. You knew that at the urgent request of some +of you boys I arranged to spend the day helping you. You were one of the +boys who asked me to do this. You remember?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We meet here to-night after a hard day’s work, pleasant as work always +is, but hard nevertheless. You will have the satisfaction of knowing +that you will occupy a bunk which your companions have made ready for +you, and that you did not yourself hammer so much as a single nail. +Arthur Van Arlen and Wigley Weigand, both weary and one lame, after a +frightful experience, were here and helped to make the boat safe and +comfortable for <span class='it'>you</span>. They were loyal to the Raven Patrol. I hope you +may be moved to appreciate the interest and spirit which they displayed +while you were playing ball.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“When you have an opportunity, Wesleigh, I would like to have you read +the scout laws again and bear in mind particularly your obligation of +loyalty to your scoutmaster, which of course, means to your scout +duties—your troop and your patrol. I kept my word with you to-day and +you did not keep your word with me. The house-boat is ready for our +cruise, and I hope that you, along with all the members of the troop +will find the trip enjoyable. That is all, Wesleigh, unless you have +something to say.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, gee, you should have heard the silence—I don’t mean <span class='it'>heard</span> it—but +there wasn’t a sound.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Westy said, “I haven’t got anything to say.” And then he sat down.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I knew that it was time then for me to do what I wanted to do, but I +couldn’t get up because I felt all shaky. I was holding to the pole of +the Silver Fox emblem that was right beside me, and, oh, cracky, I felt +funny. All of a sudden I heard Mr. Ellsworth say that he wouldn’t say +anything to Roy Blakeley because the patrol was going to have an +election and then I heard Will Dawson, of my patrol, say under his +breath, sort of, that there’d be only one fellow to vote for me, and I +knew he meant Westy Martin. Gee, I’m glad I heard him say that because +it gave me a kind of an idea what to say and it made me mad, and when +you’re mad you have courage—you know what I mean, you can get up and +talk. Jiminy, I knew I couldn’t make a speech like Mr. Ellsworth with +all long words, and besides I had to be careful that it didn’t seem as +if I was just answering him back.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So then I grabbed tight hold of the emblem pole because, I don’t know, +it seemed to give me courage kind of, and it was <span class='it'>my</span> emblem and <span class='it'>my</span> +patrol for a few minutes yet, anyway. But oh, didn’t my hand tremble. +Anyway I could see that Mr. Bennett was sort of listening and I wasn’t +so much scared after I got up.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>This is what I said, only I didn’t say it as well as it sounds here on +account of being nervous, but I should worry as long as I knew I was +right, hey?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I heard a fellow in my patrol say just now” that’s the way I began, +“that there is only one Silver Fox would vote for me because I went away +and didn’t come back. I know he meant Westy and he’s the one fellow I’d +want to vote for me, anyway, you can bet. I don’t care what happens, I +don’t, if Westy will only vote for me. Because he’s one real scout and +none of the rest of you know anything about scouting alongside of +him—you don’t. And anyway I don’t care so much if I’m not leader any +more, if I could only be sure you’d elect <span class='it'>him</span> leader——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He stands a tall chance,” I heard a fellow say.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“About as tall as Pee-wee,” another fellow said. He was trying to be +smart.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Maybe he’ll have a tall chance, as tall as the Woolworth Building,” I +said; “you’d better keep still. I want to ask Mr. Ellsworth if I can say +something—while I’m still Silver Fox leader, that’s all.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Surely you may, Roy,” he said, kind of pleasant.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Because there’s one more thing I’m going to say for my patrol. I—I +started that patrol and——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, gee, then I broke right down, not exactly crying, but you know, +there was something in my throat and I just couldn’t talk for a minute.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Go on, Roy,” Mr. Ellsworth said, and he was awfully nice, I have to +admit that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So I said how I started that patrol and did the best I could and always +told the fellows to be loyal and how disgrace spills all over just like +Mr. Ellsworth himself told us.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway, Mr. Ellsworth,” I said, “I can’t say it as good as I’d like to, +because—you know——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Take your time, Roy,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway, you remember how you spoke about the laws.” I was holding tight +to the Silver Fox standard and it kind of helped me to speak, and I +guess pretty soon my voice didn’t shake. “I know all the laws,” I said, +“and I think more about them than I do about stunts and adventures and +things——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How about baseball?” a fellow said, but I didn’t pay any attention to +him, and Mr. Ellsworth frowned at him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And only to-night I looked at them,” I said, “and I made marks next to +two of them.” Then I fumbled in my pocket and got out the Handbook, and +I reminded myself of a lawyer. Anyway I could see Mr. Bennett smile at +Mr. Ellsworth. “Gee, I wouldn’t say anything against the laws, that’s +one sure thing,” I said, “because they’re all dandy laws, you can bet. +But maybe a fellow might not know which one to obey because he can’t +obey them all at once, can he?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mr. Ellsworth said he didn’t know about that and he looked kind of +surprised. I should worry, I wasn’t scared now. “Suppose he’s on his way +to obey Law 8 and keep his word and be loyal to his troop and his +scoutmaster,” I said. “That’s Law 8, isn’t it?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mr. Ellsworth looked surprised and said, “Yes.” And Mr. Bennett was +smiling with an awful funny kind of a smile.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And suppose while he’s on his way he runs plunk into another law. <span class='it'>Good +night!</span> What’s he going to do? Maybe you don’t know which law I mean by +another one. It’s number 3, and I can say it without even looking at the +book. Even if they elect——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess Mr. Ellsworth could see my voice was trembling, because he said, +“Take your time, Roy, you have us interested.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I have to admit I was feeling bad, but anyway I said the law right off +without looking at the book.</p> + +<div class='blockquote'> + +<p class='noindent'>3. A SCOUT IS HELPFUL.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He must be prepared at any time to save life, help injured persons, and +share the home duties. He must <span class='it'>do at least one good turn to somebody +every day</span>.</p> + +</div> + +<p class='pindent'>“Maybe you never noticed that the part about good turns is printed in +italics. You know what italics mean—you learn that in the Second Grade. +It means that that special thing is emphasized, see?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mr. Ellsworth was smiling a little, but anyway he was listening and so +was Mr. Bennett. Gee, I didn’t see anything to smile at.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now I have to admit that I got kind of excited and I didn’t know much +what I was saying.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Sometimes I had to stop on account of that lump being in my throat. But +anyway, I kept on and I held on tight to my emblem—the Silver Fox +emblem.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“So that’s what I mean,” I said, “and this morning Westy was on his way +to help on the house-boat and he met” (oh, jiminies, I guess I didn’t +know how I was talking now, I was so excited) “and he met Skinny +McCord’s mother and she told him about Skinny being sick on account of a +good turn he did for me—keeping Jake Holden from going to my house—and +she asked him to go up and stay with him and he didn’t think any more +about the house-boat, and I’m glad he didn’t, and I told him that, and +I’m his patrol leader yet, anyway. I tell him that, I do! And he went +home and got his baseball and his catching mit and it cost a dollar and +seventy-five cents, and he took them to Skinny just so as he’d kind of +forgot being sick. Westy saved up to get that mit and I know all about +it. And he stayed all day with Skinny and the doctor says, he says +Skinny has got to die, but anyway Westy stayed all day with him—that’s +what he did. And I’m glad you fellows are going to elect a new leader if +you want him to reprimand Westy, because you’d never get <span class='it'>me</span> to do it, I +can tell you that!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, crinkums, there wasn’t a sound. It had to stop because I was gulping +and all excited, but I started again, you can bet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And there’s only one thing more I’ve got to say,” I told them. “I got +on the trail—I mean Skinny’s trail. And it took me to his house in +Barrel Alley. I picked up his trail down at Little Landing and it had +the scout’s pathfinder sign printed in the mud. And I—I’m—I’m a scout, +I am, I don’t care what you say, and I followed it. And maybe, for all +you know, it was put there for me to follow—maybe. It took me to where +a fellow was sick, it did, and it showed me one of my own—one of the +Silver Foxes, doing a good turn to pay Skinny back for the good turn he +did for me. And I stayed there to help and I forgot all about the +house-boat, and I’m glad I did. And I hope that whoever these fellows +elect, he won’t let them chip in for the cruise, but I hope he’ll have +them chip in to send Skinny up to the country—I don’t care what the +doctor says. Once a doctor said that—he said that my father——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And that’s all I had a chance to say. Gee, I couldn’t tell you what +happened next. All I know is, I heard my Scout Handbook go kerflop on +the floor and Vic Norris of the Ravens grabbed the Silver Fox emblem +right out of my hand and began waving it. All of a sudden I saw Westy +and he didn’t say anything only put his arm around my shoulder and he +started to say something and, oh, I don’t know, he just couldn’t. Then I +heard a fellow asking him what was the matter, because he was husky, +kind of, and his eyes shiny—you know. And he said he had a cold. Oh, +boy!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He caught cold from drinking out of a damp glass,” Doc Carson shouted. +Honest, you couldn’t hear yourself think. And Pee-wee—g-o-o-d night!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Mr. Ellsworth held up his hand and we all quieted down.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Before we go any further,” he said, “and while our lungs are working +overtime I want every member of the Raven Patrol and every member of the +Elk Patrol to give three cheers for the Silver Foxes, scouts, <span class='it'>real</span> +scouts, every one of them, and for their leader, Roy Blakeley. After +that you can hold your election.”</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XIX'>CHAPTER XIX<br/> <span class='sub-head'>THE END OF THE MEETING</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, boy, some excitement! “Excuse me while I blush,” I said. For they +were all shouting and Pee-wee was on top of the table dancing and +yelling, “<span class='it'>Hurrah for the Solid Silver Foxes! Three cheers for the +Sterling Silver Foxes!</span>” Believe me, that kid is self-starting, but he +isn’t self stopping.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I told them that I had something more to say, and they shouted it +was their turn to do the saying, and believe me, they did—with +something left over. At last Mr. Ellsworth got us throttled down and he +told me to say what I had to say, because Mr. Bennett had a word or two +for us.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So I told them my idea that I’d had in my head all the time, and you +just wait and see how many adventures it led to. That’s one good thing +about good turns; they most always start something. Already Pee-wee was +started.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I told them I thought instead of keeping Tom Slade’s place open, kind of +in memory of him, it would be better to put Skinny McCord in that vacant +place and take him up to Temple Camp and help him to get well. Then I +told them how he read the Handbook, and how he was crazy about scouting, +only he was scared of the fellows because he was so poor. And then I +said that findings is keepings and that Skinny belonged to the Silver +Foxes, and they would make a present of him to the Elks on account of +Tom Slade. “Anyway,” I said, “when Tom gets back he’ll be old enough for +assistant scoutmaster, so it’s all right.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Mr. Ellsworth said, “Very good,” and that Councilman Bennett had +something to say. This is what he said, because Mr. Ellsworth wrote it +out for me, and he remembered almost just how it was. Oh, but he’s one +fine man—Mr. Bennett—he’s on some kind of a board and he helped build +the hospital and he likes the scouts and he wishes he could shin up a +tree—he said so. So this is what he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“My young friends, I have listened with a good deal of something or +other (it’s too much bother to spell it out) to our young leader of the +Silver Foxes, and I must say that the Silver Foxes are solid fourteen +karat gold. I am a lawyer myself and I wish to express my professional +admiration of the way Leader Blakeley presented his case.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The pleasure is mine,” I said under my breath, because I just couldn’t +help it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he said like this—he said, “If Skinny McCord wishes to cast his +lot with such boys as these, he shall not find the means lacking. I will +furnish his suit and such sundries as he needs. I agree with Leader +Blakeley that doctors are sometimes mistaken. Let us hope it may be the +case in this instance. The cruise to camp must be made; let nothing +interfere with that. If some of you boys wish to go into the city in the +morning you may have the pleasure of purchasing Skinny’s outfit. I would +suggest that the Silver Foxes do this in order that their gift may go +complete to their comrades of the Elks. I think I have your +scoutmaster’s permission to do this.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure you have!” Pee-wee shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We’ll go in on the 9 A. M. train,” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What time does the 9 A. M. train leave?” Pee-wee shouted. “Oh, but it’s +great!” He was half crazy.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The nine o’clock train leave at 8.60,” I told him, “and you have to get +a transfer——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“To what line?” he shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“To the clothesline,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You make me sick!” he yelled, “You haven’t got any +what-do-you-call-it—hero—something or other——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That talk will have to be strained through a sieve,” I said. “Don’t +mind him, Mr. Bennett, somebody’s been feeding him meat. He goes to the +movies too much. He’s known as the human megaphone. All step up and +listen to the Raving Raven rave—only a dime, ten cents, ladies and +gentlemen!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Even Mr. Bennett had to laugh.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Now all we’ve got to have is a girl,” Pee-wee shouted, “because we’ve +got a poor lad—I mean—you know what I mean—noble poverty and a boat +and heroes doing good turns——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And Ravens turning somersaults,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And all that,” he kept up, “and Roy foiled his prosecuters—I mean +persecuters——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You mean executers,” Doc said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And all we need now is a heroine,” Pee-wee said, while he danced up and +down. “A poor girl—I mean a maiden—with gold hair—if we could only +rescue one—oh, wouldn’t it be great.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Even if her hair was only gold-filled it would be something,” Connie +Bennett said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You’re crazy!” Pee-wee shouted, “it shows none of you know anything +about stories.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, jiminy, I can’t tell all the stuff we shouted. You see, it was just +because we were feeling so good. And Mr. Ellsworth didn’t try to stop +us.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The next chapter is about two dollars. I don’t mean it’s worth that +much. I don’t know what I’ll name it yet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Olive oil<a id='r1'/><a href='#f1' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[1]</span></sup></a>—that’s the French way to say, “So long.” Anyway, it’s +something like that. I should worry.</p> + +<hr class='footnotemark'/> + +<div class='footnote'> +<p class='footnote'> +<span class='footnote-id' id='f1'><a href='#r1'>[1]</a></span> + +<span class='it'>Au revoir</span> is probably what he meant.</p> + +</div> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XX'>CHAPTER XX<br/> <span class='sub-head'>MOSTLY ABOUT SKINNY</span></h2></div> + +<div class='literal-container' style='margin-top:0.7em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line'>This chapter I am going to fill</p> +<p class='line'>With some stuff about a two dollar bill.</p> +</div></div> <!-- end rend --> + +<p class='pindent'>That isn’t so bad for poetry, is it? I got that idea out of a story by +Sir Walter Scott—putting poetry at the top of the chapters. Mr. +Ellsworth says sometimes a fellow might get killed for writing poetry. I +should worry—a scout is brave.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>You can bet that if Pee-wee had his way we’d have all gone into the city +that very night and broken into a store to get Skinny’s outfit. But nix +on that hurry up business when it comes to Mr. Ellsworth. “Scouts are +not made in a day,” he said to Pee-wee, “and the outfit doesn’t make the +scout anyway, remember that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Any more than a merry-go-round makes a good turn,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So Mr. Ellsworth went to see Skinny and his mother, and then he went to +see the doctor, and he found out that Skinny wasn’t going to die right +then, but that something was the matter with his lungs, and that he’d +keep getting sick all the time probably and wouldn’t grow up. Oh, boy, +when Mr. Ellsworth once gets on your trail, <span class='it'>good night</span>! That’s just +the way he hauled Tom Slade into the troop, head over heels. And look at +Connie Bennett, too. Mr. Ellsworth had to hypnotize Connie’s mother and +now Connie’s a first class scout.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After two or three nights he brought Skinny to meeting, and oh, cracky, +but that kid looked bad. He just sat and watched us do our stunts and he +was scared when anybody spoke to him, except Mr. Ellsworth. And he was +coughing a lot, too.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After the meeting Westy and I and Mr. Ellsworth took him home, and just +when we left him he asked us if maybe he’d live long enough to get the +pathfinder’s badge. And oh, gee, it made me feel good the way Mr. +Ellsworth answered him. He said,</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, I can’t exactly promise that because I don’t know how long it +will take you to win that badge, but if you think you can win it inside +of forty or fifty years, I think you’ll be there to grab it when it +comes.” Oh, jingoes, but we’ve got one dandy scoutmaster. I don’t care +what you say, he’s the best one in America. And when he said that, +Skinny kind of smiled and then you could see how thin he was, because +the wrinkles came all around his mouth.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, on Saturday Westy and Dorry Benton and Ralph Warner (they’re all +in my patrol) went into the city to get Skinny’s outfit, so we could +give him a surprise at the meeting on Monday night. I didn’t go because +I wanted Westy to have the say, and I didn’t want him to think I was +butting in, because Skinny belonged to him, as you might say. Besides I +had to cut the grass so my sisters could play tennis with Johnny +Wade—honest, that fellow is there all the time. He’s got a machine, but +I never saw it. I guess maybe it’s a sewing machine, hey?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now I didn’t know how much money Mr. Bennett gave Mr. Ellsworth. All I +know is that when the fellows came back they had everything for Skinny, +or most everything. Because they came up to Camp Solitaire (that’s the +tent I have on our lawn) and we opened the whole business. Pee-wee was +there and the first thing we knew he was shouting that there wasn’t any +belt-axe.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We used all the money we had,” Westy said, “and it isn’t worth while +asking Mr. Bennett for any more, even if there’s one or two things +missing.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, jiminy, Pee-wee went up in the air. “Why didn’t you get a belt-axe,” +he shouted; “don’t you know a belt-axe is the most important thing of +all? It’s the sign of the scout! It’s more important than the uniform.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He’d look nice going down Main Street with a belt-axe and no uniform,” +I said; “you’re crazy on the subject of belt-axes. What’s the matter, +are you afraid Hindenburg is going to invade Bridgeboro? You should +worry about a belt-axe. Wait till he’s a tenderfoot.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That shows how much you know about scouting,” he yelled; “the belt-axe +is the emblem of the woods.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The which?” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The emblem of the woods,” he hollered at the top of his voice. “You +have to have a belt-axe first of all. It’s more important than the +Handbook. It means woodcraft and—and—and all that sort of stuff!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, first I just laughed at him and jollied him along, because I know +how crazy he is about things like that—he’d wear every badge in the +Handbook on his chest if he had the chance. And he’s always getting new +suits and things, because his father is rich. Pee-wee’s all right only +he’s daffy about all the scout stuff that you see in the pictures and he +always has his belt-axe dragging on his belt, even when he’s home, as if +he expected to chop down all the telegraph poles on Main Street.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You have belt-axes on the brain,” Westy told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He’s got them on the belt anyway,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You ask Mr. Ellsworth about it and see what he says,” Ralph Warner +said. “He’ll tell you it’s better for Skinny to wait till he can earn a +little money and then buy a belt-axe. There’s time enough.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure he would,” I said, because I know just how Mr. Ellsworth feels +about things like that. And for all I know, maybe he didn’t want Skinny +to have everything at the start, just so as he would be able to get some +things all by himself later. Because Mr. Ellsworth thinks that’s the +best way.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Of course, we always jollied Pee-wee about his belt-axe and about +wearing his scout-knife and his drinking cup hanging from his belt right +home in Bridgeboro, as if he was in South Africa, and Mr. Ellsworth +always said he was the typical scout—that’s the word he used—typical.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But now I began to think maybe it would cause some trouble and I hoped +he wouldn’t be giving Skinny any of that kind of talk. But he did just +the same, and it made a lot of trouble. Pee-wee’s all right, but I don’t +care if he knows what I said, because it’s true.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>On Monday we had it fixed for Skinny to come up to Camp Solitaire, and +Westy and I would teach him some stuff out of the Handbook. Then we were +going to give him the new stuff so he could put it on, because we wanted +him to feel good—you know what I mean—when he went to meeting. We +didn’t want him to feel different from the other fellows. But usually we +don’t do that until a fellow takes the oath first.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, boy, but wasn’t he proud when we put the khaki suit on him, and +fixed the hat on his head. He smiled in that funny way he had that +always made me feel kind of bad, because it made his face look all thin. +And he was awful bashful and scared, but anyway, he was proud, I could +see that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So then I opened the Handbook to page 59, where there’s a picture of a +scout standing straight, making the full salute, and I told him he +should stand straight and try to look just like that. He said, “I ain’t +fat enough,” but I told him not to mind, but just to look at that +picture and he’d know how he looked as a boy scout.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How soon will I be one?” he said. And I told him pretty soon.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now I thought about that picture early in the morning and I made up my +mind I would show it to him when he got dressed up. You can bet he +didn’t look very much like it but a lot I cared about that, as long as +it made him feel good. So early in the morning before he came, I took my +two dollar bill (that’s my allowance my father always gives me Monday +morning) and put it in the Handbook at page 59, so that I could find the +place all right.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After I showed the picture to Skinny I shut the Handbook because I +wouldn’t need it any more and I laid the two dollar bill down on the +table in a hurry, because I wanted to straighten Skinny’s belt and fix +his collar right and make him look as good as I could. Anyway I laid an +oar-lock on the bill so it wouldn’t blow away. I’ve got two +nickel-plated oar-locks that my patrol gave me on troop birthday, and I +keep them in my tent except when I go to camp.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Westy was telling Skinny how fine he looked and, oh, gee, Skinny was +happy, you could see that. Of course, he didn’t look very good, I have +to admit it, but he had a smile a mile long.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You’re all right,” I told him, “all you have to do is to stand up +straight and think about scouting and the oath and the laws, and then +you’ll look like one.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he said, “I have to have one of those axes, don’t I?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You should worry about an axe,” I said; “you didn’t see one in the +picture did you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Wasn’t it because the boy in the picture was facing me, and you wear +the axe in back, don’t you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t you worry,” I told him, “I know that fellow in the picture and he +hasn’t got one on.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“One of your scout fellows says you have to have one,” he said, kind of +timid.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Good night!” I said to Westy, “Pee-wee’s been at it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He knows, too,” Skinny said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You mean that little fellow?” I said. “Has he been talking to you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Forget it,” I told him; “if that kid had his picture taken he’d stand +with his back to the camera so as to show his belt-axe. If he had the +Gold Cross he’d pin it on the end of his nose, so everybody’d see it. +The principal thing to wear is the scout smile, you take it from me. +When you see Mr. Ellsworth to-night you ask him about the belt-axe and +go by what he says. That’s the one to go to—your scoutmaster.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“But anyway it’s in the book about the axe,” he said, and oh, gee, I +could see how he fell for that axe. I don’t know, it was something about +it, I suppose. “It’s all right for a tree to fall for an axe, but don’t +<span class='it'>you</span>,” I said. That was a joke.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You got to have one when you go chopping trees, haven’t you?” he asked +me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You forget it,” I said, and I decided I’d give Pee-wee a good bawling +out after the meeting.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I started straightening Skinny’s suit and telling him how swell he +looked and how he must always take off his hat to ladies. He was +interested all right, but I could see how the belt-axe kind of had him, +and I suppose it was because it was bright and shiny and a weapon, sort +of. That’s the way it is with lots of fellows when they start being +scouts.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We tried to get him to go in the house to supper with us and then go to +the meeting, but he was kind of scared and wouldn’t. I guess it was +because I live in a big house and because my father is rich—but anyway, +he never acts that way, that’s one sure thing. And, gee, nobody can say +Ruth and Marjorie wouldn’t have been nice to him too.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So we left him in the tent and told him to read the Handbook, but to be +sure to go home and get his supper in time to be at the meeting that +evening. We made him the full salute just for fun, and oh, didn’t he +smile and look proud. I bet he was proud going up Main Street too.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’d like to get my hands on that kid,” I said to Westy, as we went +across the lawn; “he makes me sick with his heroes and his noble rags +and his belt-axes. He’s got that poor kid’s brain full of fancy stuff +before he’s even a scout.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That’s just like him,” Westy said, “but he’ll get over it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Emblem of the woods!</span>” I said. “Did you hear that?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I guess he told Skinny we were going to chop down some saplings +to-morrow for stanchions on the boat,” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Goodness knows what he didn’t tell him,” I said, “Skinny will be +chopping down all the fence rails in Barrel Alley if Pee-wee has his +way.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, boy, we had huckleberry pie for supper, and didn’t Westy and I have +two helpings! “There’s only one thing scouts like about huckleberry +pie,” my father said, “and that’s the taste of it.”</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXI'>CHAPTER XXI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>SOMETHING MISSING</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>After supper Westy and I started for troop meeting. It was getting dark +fast and we went scout-pace down the hill, because after all that had +happened you bet we didn’t want to be late. No, siree.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while we were talking about just what I ought to say when I +presented Skinny to the Elks, because that’s what we were going to do +that night. And I was the one to do it, because I was patrol leader. +Westy had a blue ribbon, because that’s the Elks’ color, and he was +going to pin it on Skinny with an express tag that he got that day. He +had it all written nice and neat on the tag.</p> + +<div class='literal-container' style='margin-top:0.7em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line'>From the Silver Foxes to the Elks.</p> +<p class='line'>Handle with Care.</p> +</div></div> <!-- end rend --> + +<p class='pindent'>I told him to put prepaid on it, too, and then he said it would be a +good idea to put some thrift stamps on Skinny’s face. Jiminy, that +fellow Westy has some crazy ideas.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Believe me, it’ll be great,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The Elks will have some training to do, that’s one thing,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He’ll learn soon enough, all right,” Westy answered.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I guess it would be a good stunt to have a flag sticking up out of his +collar,” I said; “he won’t mind, he’ll just smile. He doesn’t get mad, +that’s one good thing about him.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I like to see that smile, don’t you?” Westy said, “it’s kind of bashful +like.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He’s going to pan out all right,” I said, “you take it from me.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then we said how it might be good to put him in a barrel and mark it “<span class='it'>A +gift from Barrel Alley</span>,” but we decided not to because it might make +him feel so kind of bashful and scared—you know what I mean.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while I knew what I was going to say, and this was it:</p> + +<div class='blockquote'> + +<p class='pindent'>Scouts of the Elk Patrol, we present you with this testimonial (my +sister said that was a good word to use) of our steam—I mean esteem. +You get fifty green trading stamps besides. This youth is positively +guaranteed to grow, if kept in the sun and to win the pathfinder’s badge +before the summer is out. He is made of fast colors and will not +run—except when he’s tracking. He should be kept away from explosives +such as Pee-wee Harris.</p> + +<div class='lgr' style='margin-top:0.7em;'> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line' style='text-align:right;margin-right:4em;'>With love and kisses from the</p> +<p class='line' style='text-align:right;margin-right:1em;'>Silver Foxes.</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +</div> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh, it will be great!” Westy said, “we’ll do it before Mr. Ellsworth +takes up the collection for the cruise, hey?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“G-o-o-d night!” I said and I stopped short.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What’s the matter?” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’m glad you said that,” I told him; “I forgot my two bucks.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’ll go back,” Westy said; “you wait here.” There wasn’t any time to +stop him and anyway, he can beat me running, I have to admit that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Where did you leave it?” he called back.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I laid it right on the table,” I shouted, “and I laid an oar-lock on it +to keep it from blowing away. Feel around and you’ll get it. Hurry up.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I saw him going back up the hill for all he was worth and then I sat +down beside the road to wait for him. I got to thinking about the +house-boat and the fun we’d have cruising up the Hudson and how Skinny +would get fat and eat a lot, and especially how he’d stare when he saw +Jeb Rushmore. He’s our camp manager, and just wait till you see him, +that’s all <span class='it'>I</span> say.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But mostly I was thinking about the fun we’d have presenting Skinny to +the Elks, and, oh, boy, I could just see Mr. Ellsworth laugh with that +funny laugh he has—trying not to. And you can bet I was glad we had +Skinny started. Because when a fellow once gets on the trail, he’s a +goner. Oh, bibbie, that was going to be some meeting!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon Westy came running back down the hill.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Did you get it?” I asked him, but, of course, I knew he did. He was so +much out of breath that he couldn’t answer and even after he stopped he +had to pant it out, kind of.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It wasn’t there,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Wasn’t there?</span>” I said; “you’re crazy. Sure it was there. Where did +you look?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I looked just where you said,” Westy panted, “and all around besides. +First, I felt all around with my hand and I lifted the oar-lock and it +wasn’t underneath it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Maybe you got the wrong oar-lock,” I said, all excited; “there are two +of them.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The other one was hanging up,” he said; “I found your flashlight on the +duffel-bag and poked the light all around and I saw the other oar-lock +hanging up. I threw the light on the ground, too, because there’s a +pretty strong breeze up there.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How could the breeze blow it away when it was under the oar-lock?” I +said. “It was a new two dollar bill.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, it wasn’t there, anyway,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then for a minute we both stood there and neither one of us said +anything. I know what I was thinking, but I didn’t want to say it. I +guess Westy was thinking the same thing, too. We both sat down beside +the road and after a couple of minutes, he said: “Maybe a tramp took it, +hey?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Jerry wouldn’t let anyone on the grounds,” I said. Jerry’s our +gardener. “And besides Don wouldn’t, either.” He’s our dog—he’s a +collie.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, it isn’t there, anyway,” Westy said; “I lifted the oar-lock and +felt underneath and I laid it down again, right where it was—on a book +or something. When I flashed the light it wasn’t there. Come on, we’ll +be late. I’d let you have two bucks if I had that much extra, but I’ve +only got two myself. You can chip in yours to-morrow, it’ll be all +right.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I got up and I felt awful funny.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway, there’s no use being late,” he said; because I kind of just +couldn’t start.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It isn’t that I’m thinking about,” I told him, “It’s——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I know,” he said, “I thought about that, too, but we’ve got to hustle.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So we started down the hill and neither of us said anything. Of course, +we were both thinking about Skinny, but neither one of us would say it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Pee-wee’s to blame in a way,” Westy said, after a while; “it’s the +belt-axe the poor kid was thinking about.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“No, he isn’t to blame, either,” I said; “he didn’t mean anything—he +didn’t mean for Skinny to do anything like that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He should have kept his mouth shut,” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway,” I said, “I’m not going to make that speech; I just can’t. I’m +not going to say anything to Skinny about it. Maybe I’ll tell Mr. +Ellsworth sometime—I don’t know. But anyway, I can’t present him to the +Elks that way, I can’t. I just can’t. Poor kid, I don’t suppose he ever +saw as much as two dollars before.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You shouldn’t have left it out like that,” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After that I guess neither of us said anything. Gee, I can’t tell you +how I felt. I know if a fellow is low down and fires stones and calls +names and all like that, even still he can get to be a scout. But if he +steals—jiminy, I’ve got no use for a fellow that steals. A plaguy lot I +care about two bucks, but, oh, boy, I was looking forward to that +meeting and how we were going to have Skinny all decorated and present +him to the Elks. And now we couldn’t do it. Honest, I didn’t even want +to see him. I didn’t feel sore at him, but I didn’t want to see him. +Because he’d spoiled all the fun for me, that’s all.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXII'>CHAPTER XXII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>SHOWS YOU WHERE I DO THE TALKING</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Westy said we shouldn’t say anything to Mr. Ellsworth, but wait until +Skinny had taken the oath and knew all the laws and all about scouting, +and then maybe say something to him, how we thought maybe he had made a +mistake sometime and would like to fix it right. Westy said we’d call it +just getting off the trail. Westy’s a mighty nice fellow, you bet, and +he’s a good scout.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But anyway, it knocked all the fun out of that meeting for us, and I +don’t know what the other fellows thought.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Skinny was there in his new suit and he showed how proud he was to have +it. He was always smiling in that bashful kind of a way, as if he was +kind of scared but happy at the same time. Mr. Ellsworth told him to sit +with us and he came over and sat in an extra chair right next to me. I +guess he kind of liked to be near me—anyway, it seemed like that. I was +nice to him all right, but I don’t know, it didn’t seem like it did +before. But no fellow could get mad at him—he looked so poor, and his +suit didn’t fit him very good and he looked all strange and nervous.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon I said to him, kind of half interested, you know, I said, +“That’s where you’re going to sit, in that vacant chair where the Elks +are. They’re a good patrol, the Elks, and the fellow who used to sit +there with them was Tom Slade. You have to try to be a good scout just +like he was.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I know all the laws, every one,” he said in a whisper.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Do you know law one?” I asked him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yop, it’s the best of the lot,” he said; “it teaches you about honor. +Do you know the two things about scouts I like best?” he asked me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“No, I don’t,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s that first law and the belt-axe that they wear.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Never you mind about the belt-axe,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes, but you want me to tell you honest, don’t you?” he blurted out. +And he looked straight at me and his eyes were all kind of hollow and +excited like. Gee, he was a queer kid. “You can make fun of me all you +want,” he said, “I don’t care. Will I be a scout to-night?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Not to-night,” I told him, “we’re going to turn you over to the Elks +to-night. And then they’ll teach you things and get you ready.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon it came time to present him, but I didn’t feel like making +any fun about it. Gee, I don’t know what my patrol thought about me. But +anyway, Westy knew. So I just said how we found Alfred McCord and how he +wanted to be a scout and we thought it was a good idea to give him to +the Elk Patrol, to fill the place of Tom Slade. Cracky, there wasn’t any +pep to it at all.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then afterwards Mr. Ellsworth took up the collection of one dollar and +seventy cents from each fellow, to buy the eats and pay the expenses of +the cruise. I had to say that I wasn’t ready with it, and I guess he was +surprised, because I never miss a chipping in, but anyway, I said I’d +have it next day. I should worry about that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>On the way out I met Pee-wee shouting away like a machine gun. “Come on +up the street with me,” I said; “I want to tell you something.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When we were about a block off I said, “You listen here, kiddo. I don’t +want you to be shouting about belt-axes and jack-knives and things like +that in front of Skinny McCord. I’m telling you that and I want you to +remember it. And I’ve got good reasons, too. Scouts aren’t made out of +belt-axes and jack-knives and badges. They’re made out of ideas, as you +might say. You just remember what I tell you and don’t be springing this +stuff about the emblem of the woods and all that. A belt-axe costs two +dollars—haven’t you got sense enough to know that. And do you know how +much it costs to take the scout oath? Not one blooming cent!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jiminy crinkums, he just listened and didn’t say a single word. For two +blocks he didn’t say a word.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was the biggest stunt he ever did.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXIII'>CHAPTER XXIII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>IN THE WOODS</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Now I have to go backward—that’s one good thing about this story, it +has a reverse gear; you can go backward.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The first night we had the house-boat, Mr. Ellsworth went to see Mr. +Darren, who is superintendent of Northside Woods (that’s owned by the +Northside estate) and he asked Mr. Darren if we could chop down some +saplings to use on the boat. Because we wanted to make some stanchions +for the awning, and another flagpole, and some bumper sticks. He thought +that was a good idea, because lumber costs so much. Connie said the +reason it was high is because they’re building tall houses. So Mr. +Darren marked some saplings with chalk and said we could take those.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The next afternoon after that last meeting, we all hiked over to +Northside Woods to chop down the saplings. You have to go across the +bridge to get to Northside Woods and then you go up the road toward +Little Valley.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Westy didn’t go with the rest of us because he wanted to get a book out +of the library, for he thought the library might be closed when we got +back.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Have a heart,” I said, “and don’t be late whatever you do, because +there’s been enough of that kind of thing in our patrol lately.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’ll be Johnny-on-the-spot, don’t you fear,” he said. And I knew he +would, only he’s one of those fellows that’s always trying to do too +much. He isn’t late much, I’ll say that for him, but he always comes +running in at the last minute.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, don’t get us in Dutch,” I told him, “that’s all I care about.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We had a dandy hike over to the woods. My patrol got there first and +pretty soon the Ravens came along and Doc Carson had his First Aid +kit—you’d think somebody was going to fight a duel, honest. “Why don’t +you start a base hospital and be done with it?” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon the Elks came along and Skinny was with them. As soon as I +looked at him I felt kind of bad like, for I saw I was right about the +two dollars. I knew I was right all the time, but now I saw it, and +jingoes, it spoiled all my fun. Because he had a belt-axe on and I could +see he was very proud of it. He came up to me and smiled that funny kind +of a smile he had, and he said, “I got one; see, I got one.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was a new one all right, but not a regular scout-axe, and I guessed +he must have bought it in the hardware store. It was what they call a +camp axe—just the same only different. His belt was loose anyway, on +account of him being so thin, but the axe dragged it way down and made +him look awful funny, but he had on the scout smile and that’s the +principal thing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s a good one, ain’t it?” he asked me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s all right,” I said, but I just couldn’t take it and look at it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’ll cut, too,” he said; “and I’m going to chop down a lot of trees. +And it’s my very own, isn’t it?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jiminy, I didn’t know how to answer that, so I didn’t say anything, only +I told him not to chop down many because he wasn’t strong yet. And I +told him not to chop any that didn’t have chalk marks. I told him to ask +Connie Bennett, and to stay near him, because Connie is the Elks’ leader +ever since Tom Slade went away. “You do what Connie tells you,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, the way that kid started you’d think he was going to chop the +North Pole in half. “He’d be able to chop through the equator in a +couple of hours at that rate,” I told Connie. But anyway, he was getting +fresh air and a whole lot of fun.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Some of the fellows chopped and some of them cut off the branches and +tied the saplings together, three or four each, because we were going to +haul them as far as the bridge and then float them down to the landing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Every little while I looked at Skinny and he was chopping away at one +sapling for dear life. He had it all full of nicks and every nick had a +place all to itself.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That isn’t chopping, it’s what you call woodcarving,” Dorry Benton +said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He’s a good butcher, anyway,” Artie said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Every time Skinny hit, he hit in a different place and he would never +get the sapling down, I saw that, but he was having the time of his +life, just the same.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width:80%'> +<img src='images/i003.jpg' alt='' id='i003' style='width:100%;height:auto;'/> +<p class='caption'>“EVERY TIME SKINNY HIT, HE HIT IN A DIFFERENT PLACE.”</p> +</div> + +<p class='pindent'>“Some Daniel Boone,” Will Dawson said. But I told them not to make fun +of him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while I kept wondering if Skinny really thought that axe was his +very own like he said. And it seemed sort of funny that he could be +getting so much fun out of it. Oftentimes he would get tired and begin +to cough and Connie would make him sit down and rest. Then he would show +his axe to the fellows and match it to theirs and say he liked his best. +I don’t know, maybe there was something wrong about Skinny. Maybe he was +more crazy about weapons than he was about scouting. He didn’t seem to +think about anything except cutting down that sapling, and the more of a +botch he made out of it, the harder he worked. I remembered something +Mr. Ellsworth said to Tom Slade about not caring more for his gun than +he did for his country. But, gee, when I thought about what Skinny said +about the two things he liked most, the axe and the law about honor, +<span class='it'>good night</span>, I couldn’t understand him at all.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon I began worrying about Westy, because something is always +delaying that fellow, and I even hoped that he wouldn’t stumble over any +more good turns, until this day’s work was over. If Westy fell out of a +ten-story building, he’d do a good turn on the way down—that’s the way +he is.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, pretty soon I heard him coming through the woods on the dead run. +We all stopped working and laughed, because he was coming along like a +marathon runner. All except Skinny—he went right on chopping away and +the sapling looked as if a cow had been chewing it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I don’t know, but something or other made me feel kind of mad at him all +of a sudden, and I didn’t laugh at him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he called over to me and he said, “Look—how I’m chopping it down +with my axe! See?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Who’s axe?” I said, because I just couldn’t help it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Look! See?” he shouted, all excited; “ain’t I a good chopper—ain’t I?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Maybe you won’t understand how it was, because, gee, I can’t tell things +so you’ll see them just right. Anyway, I’m not excusing myself, that’s +one thing. But I just looked over at Skinny and I said:</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I don’t want to look at your axe! Shut up you little——” I was going +to call him a little thief, but I’m mighty glad I didn’t. “Can’t you see +I’m looking at something else?” I said, kind of mad.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You’d be better off if you never thought about the axe; you’re a——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Just then I heard somebody yell, “Look out, Westy, the boards are gone! +You’ll have to climb!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After that, everything seemed to be all jumbled up. I saw Skinny +standing near his sapling just staring at me and he looked as if I had +just hit him and he didn’t understand at all. He didn’t even notice all +the other fellows who were running. Then I looked and I didn’t see +Westy, but all the fellows were heading for the ditch and I knew right +away what had happened. Somebody hollered, “Get your kit, Doc, and hurry +up.” There was a ditch near where the saplings grew and usually there +were a couple of boards across it. But they weren’t there when all of us +fellows went across and we had to go down into the ditch and climb up +the other side. I guess the woodsmen had taken them, maybe.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, when Westy came along the path he was running so hard he didn’t +notice in time that the boards weren’t there, and he went head over +heels into the ditch. I guess I was the last one to get there, and all +the fellows were standing around and Doc was kneeling over Westy, and +feeling his pulse. Westy’s face was all white and there was blood coming +down from his eye and he looked straight up and didn’t notice anybody. +All the fellows were quiet and scared, kind of, and waiting for Doc to +speak. But he wasn’t excited, only he said we’d better get a doctor. “It +isn’t a fracture,” he said; “it’s only a cut, but anyway, we’d better +get the doctor.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I saw some blood on the front of Westy’s khaki shirt. But Doc saw +it first and he said, “Open his shirt, maybe he has something hanging +from his neck that cut him. Feel and see if he has a knife in his breast +pocket. Open his shirt first. Give me the iodine and some bandage, one +of you fellows.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I thought I ought to be the one to open his shirt, because he was in my +patrol and besides we were special friends, as you might say. So I +pushed through past the others and just as I was kneeling down I saw +Skinny standing up on the edge of the ditch and his eyes looked big and +he was all trembling and excited. There were big red spots on his cheeks +and I knew that was the consumption that showed whenever he got excited. +He was all by himself up there and he looked kind of wild—I can’t +exactly tell you.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I opened Westy’s shirt and I saw he had a ring with two keys +hanging there and they must have pressed into his chest and cut him. It +kind of scared me, because there was so much blood, but Doc said, “Give me the iodine—that’s nothing.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And I knew he knew what he was talking about.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>While he was putting iodine in the cut I felt in Westy’s pocket like Doc +told me to do, but there wasn’t any knife there. But there was something +else there and I pulled it out. Oh, gee, I hate to tell you about it. It +was my two dollar bill. I could tell because it was new and because it +had a stain on it in the shape of a half circle.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I always kept oil on those oar-locks, so they wouldn’t get rusty.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXIV'>CHAPTER XXIV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>TREASURE ISLAND</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Nobody noticed me, I guess, and I just scrambled up the ditch and went +away behind a tree and looked at the two dollar bill again. I guess you +sure know the shape of an oar-lock all right—kind of round, but open at +the top. And that was just the shape of the stain on the bill. I could +have laid one of my oar-locks right on that bill and covered up the +stain.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Maybe you think I was glad to get the bill back but I wasn’t. What did I +care about that bill? Gee, a two dollar bill isn’t anything, compared to +a friend, it isn’t. I could have another bill right away if I wanted it, +and anyway, I’d be sure to get one on Monday. It was Westy I was +thinking about, because you know how you heard me say we were special +friends, sort of, Jiminy Christopher! I didn’t care about +anything now. Even once when I lost my bronze medal I didn’t feel so +bad. Then I said I guessed Westy just put it in his pocket to fool me +and that he was going to give it to me. But cracky, there’s no use +trying to kid yourself. Then, all of a sudden I thought how he wanted me +to hurry and run and how he didn’t want to stop and talk much about it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jiminy, I didn’t know what to do and I just felt like going home and +going up to my room and locking the door. I knew if I ever told anybody +it would be either Ruth or Marjorie. It’s funny how when a fellow really +has a lot of trouble he’d rather tell a girl than anybody else. You can +laugh at girls, but that’s true. Maybe they can’t run and all that, but +they kind of know all about it when you have a lot of trouble. Maybe I’d +tell them, too, because they’d wonder if Westy didn’t come to the house +any more.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, I was glad it was me to find the two dollars and none of the +other fellows. I decided that as long as it wasn’t any good to me I’d +put it back in his pocket if I could get a chance. Then maybe it would +be kind of like a memorandum to him and he’d come and give it back when +he had plenty of money sometime, maybe.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But when I went back there wasn’t any chance to do that, because all the +fellows were still crowding around. I stood up on the edge of the ditch +and I heard somebody say that El Sawyer had gone to Bridgeboro. Doc +looked up at me and he said, “It isn’t bad, kiddo, don’t worry.” And I +knew he was right and it made me feel good.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, I don’t know why he called me Kiddo sometimes. Because I’m +leader of the Silver Fox patrol, why should he call me kiddo. But I +guess he felt sorry for me, as you might say.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was funny, but as soon as I knew Westy was going to get better, I +didn’t want to stay there. I was afraid he might look at me and see that +everything wasn’t all right. I was afraid he might see something in my +eyes—<span class='it'>you</span> know. So I walked away, and besides, anyway, I wanted to +think and I just felt I wanted to be alone by myself.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Just as I was going away one of the fellows said, “Here you go, kiddo,” +and chucked a book up at me. “You take care of it; it was in his +pocket,” he said. I guessed it was the book Westy had got out of the +library and I was pretty glad because when you’re all alone and haven’t +got any friends and everybody goes back on you, kind of, it’s dandy to +read a book. Because, anyway, books never go back on you, that’s one +sure thing. And they don’t take—anyway they’re good friends. When I +looked at this one, I saw it was “Treasure Island” and I was glad ’cause +I always liked that one.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>That fellow, Jim Hawkins, he was a fine fellow, anyway. Gee, I said to +myself, I’d like to have him for a friend, that’s sure. Because a fellow +in a book can be a friend to you just like a real one. Even better, +sometimes.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXV'>CHAPTER XXV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>THE SHORT CUT</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>One thing, I hoped they’d all go home soon so I could sit down on a log +and read some more in that book. Only lately I read it, but cracky, that +doesn’t make any difference when it’s a good book, I thought I’d go back +to the ditch pretty soon—as soon as El Sawyer came with the doctor. +But, anyway, I wanted to be alone now.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So I stuffed the book in my pocket and strolled over to where we had +been cutting the saplings. Then I went over close and looked at the one +Skinny had been chopping. I guess I didn’t know what I was doing and +thinking about. Anyway, now that I looked at it, I was sorry I made fun +of him and got mad at him. It wasn’t only because I knew he didn’t take +the two dollars, but anyway, I felt sorry for him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I couldn’t see him anywhere around and he wasn’t in the ditch, I knew +that. If he had been there then, you bet I’d have been all right with +him. It made me feel bad when I looked at that sapling all hacked and +standing up just as strong as ever. He must have chopped away on it for +half an hour and about all the poor little kid did was to get the bark +off. Right close by, I saw his belt-axe lying just where he left it. It +had Skinny marked on it, and I guess he did it himself. It made me feel +kind of sorry for him that he called himself Skinny. It <span class='it'>was</span> his axe, +anyway. And I felt like kicking myself. And I saw how he had been trying +to be a scout just like the other fellows, poor little kid. It wasn’t +any of my business where he got the money. It was <span class='it'>his</span>, anyway.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I began kicking the chips around with my foot and saying, “Poor +kid.” And I said I guessed he’d die before he could ever chop down a +tree. Because, now since I had seen those red spots on his cheeks I knew +how bad he was. I knew he didn’t have any strength at all, and all the +time something he had said kept running in my mind. “<span class='it'>I like the one +about honor.</span>” “Poor little Skinny,” I said. I was feeling bad, anyway.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All of a sudden I heard a sound and saw three or four fellows scrambling +up out of the ditch. So I went over there and just as I got there, I saw +something that I’ll never forget, you can bet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>First I thought it was a ghost, and all the fellows were flabbergasted. +It was Skinny standing right near and clutching hold of a tree, and he +was all trembling and I thought he was going to fall down. Honest, I +never saw anything like the way he looked. His hair was all flying loose +and it made him look wild, because it wasn’t cut. And his eyes were all +like as if they were on fire.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I got him,” he said, “I got him—he’s coming. He’s getting—out of—out +of his automobile. I got him because I’m—I’m a swamp-rat!” That’s just +the way he said it, and he hung onto the tree and his fingers were all +thin like an old man’s and the spots were in his cheeks. “He’s coming!” +he panted out.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Just then I could see Doctor Winters coming through the trees with a +little black bag. He must have left his machine out on the road about a +hundred yards away. And I guess Skinny must have jumped out and run in +ahead to show him the way. And he just kept saying, “I got him, I got +him. Because I’m a swamp-rat—everybody says so—and I know the short +cut—now can I have a badge—maybe—sometime? Maybe am I a scout now?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I just looked at him and it gave me the creeps. Because I knew what he +had done. And I remembered now how people called him a dirty swamp-rat. +Many a time I’d heard them call him that. <span class='it'>Just a dirty little +swamp-rat</span>. And now, he was sort of proud of it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>First, I couldn’t move and I just couldn’t speak. Then I went up to him +and I said—I didn’t care for the doctor or anybody—I said, “Skinny, +there’s one fellow here who knows what the marshes are and that’s me. +Because I came near getting swallowed up by them.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s—it’s—short—cut,” he just panted out. “All I want to tell you +is,” I said, “there’s not another scout in the whole troop could do +it—do you hear! You’re not a swamp-rat, you’re a swamp-<span class='it'>scout</span>,” I +said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I was going to say more, only Skinny seemed as if he was going to +fall and the doctor kind of seemed to want me to move away. Anyway, I +went over and got Skinny’s belt-axe to carry it home for him.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXVI'>CHAPTER XXVI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>IN MY OWN CAMP</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>As soon as the fellows knew for sure that there was nothing much the +matter with Westy, they scrambled out of the ditch and all stood around +Skinny, praising him up and he was so excited that he didn’t talk +straight, but sort of yelled at them. The only ones with Westy were the +real doctor and Doc Carson, and Doc was helping him fix the bandages +better.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When I saw them down there it made me feel as if I’d like to go down and +say something to Westy. His face was all white and the bandage on his +head made him look—oh, I don’t know—sort of as if he might die. And +then I’d be sorry I hadn’t said something to him. Because I had known +Westy an awful long time.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So I went down and pretty soon the doctor went up to see Skinny and Doc +Carson went too. So I was alone with him down there, but his eyes were +shut on account of his being weak from losing so much blood, and he +didn’t notice me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, I slipped that two dollars into his shirt pocket because I +didn’t want it anyway, and I thought maybe it would be a memorandum to +him, like I said. Besides I didn’t have a right to keep money I got out +of another fellow’s pocket.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “It’s me, Westy; the reason I didn’t come around was because all +the other fellows were here. But now you’re alone I want to tell you +that I’m glad you’re not hurt bad.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He just looked at me and he said, “I went—I did it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>First I didn’t know what to say, and then I said, “Never you mind, I +guess you were kind of crazy. We all get crazy sometimes. I was crazy +when I thought Tom Slade was lying once. Never you mind.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I guess I was crazy,” he just said, and then he shut his eyes and I +didn’t bother him any more—only just sat there. I don’t know what made +him tell me, but anyway, I was glad.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon I helped him to Dr. Winters’ automobile because he limped +pretty bad. Skinny went in the automobile, too, and Doc Carson, but they +didn’t ask me. All the fellows went along the road, too, because nobody +felt like hauling the saplings that day, and <span class='it'>I</span> didn’t, that’s sure. I +said I was going back to get Skinny’s axe, and I was glad when I was all +alone in the woods. That’s the best place to be if you’ve got any +troubles and you want to think.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And I kind of didn’t want to think about Westy, so I thought about +Skinny just to keep everything else out of my head. Because I knew it +wouldn’t ever be just the same again with Westy and I didn’t want to +think about it. In the troop it would be all right, and maybe in the +patrol too, but it wouldn’t ever be just the same again with Westy and +me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I was glad that I’d be interested in Skinny and now I could see he was +different from all of us—kind of wonderful—I don’t know how to tell +you. His eyes were so big, and wild, and starey. And he said things in +such a funny way and he got so excited. Up at Temple Camp, afterwards, +Mr. Ellsworth told Jeb Rushmore that Skinny was inspired, but I don’t +know just what he meant. All I knew is we were even scared of him +sometimes. He never called any of us by our names—that was funny.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon I went home. It was all dark in the woods and dandy for +thinking, and I was glad I had one friend, anyway, and that was Jim +Hawkins in the book. I guessed maybe that was the reason that Westy got +the book, because only lately I had read it, and I had told him so much +about it. All the way home I kept thinking about Westy and I wished I +had never found that out.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mostly at night I sit on the porch with my mother and father, but that +night I went to my tent and lit the lantern and sat there. I like a +lantern because it reminds you of camping. Nix on electric lights up at +Temple Camp, that’s what Jeb Rushmore says. Gee, he has no use for +electric lights—electric lights and umbrellas. But, anyway, I’ve got a +wire from our garage to Camp Solitaire (that’s my tent) and a bulb for +when I want to read. Jerry says I ought to pay for tapping the garage +current. I should worry.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I sat down and began reading <span class='it'>Treasure Island</span> all over again. I skipped +a lot because I had only just lately read it, and pretty soon I was +reading about in the middle of it, where they start off in the ship. +That’s the part I like best. All of a sudden I couldn’t see the reading +very good and I noticed there was a stain on the page.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Here’s where I wish that I knew all about writing books like a regular +grown up author, because I have to explain something to you and, cracky, +I wish you could see that book, because then it would be easier. First, I +didn’t think anything about it at all, only I noticed that the stain was +on the left hand page. Then, all of a sudden I noticed something about +that stain that got me all excited.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was in the shape of a <span class='it'>ring</span>, kind of.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Right away I knew what it meant. I picked up one of my oar-locks and +laid it on the stain and it just covered it. So I saw I had damaged the +book when I had it before. That’s one thing you’re not supposed to +do—damage books out of the library. If you keep a book till it’s +overdue, that isn’t so bad, because then you just pay a fine. Connie +says that’s being a good bookkeeper.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But to damage a book—g-o-o-d night!</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXVII'>CHAPTER XXVII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>THE GENTLE BREEZE</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>I was just thinking how funny it was that Westy got this very same book +that I had, but maybe it wasn’t so funny, because that was what put it +into his head to get it—seeing it in my tent. Anyway, I was glad it +came back to me, because now I saw what I had done and I made up my mind +that I’d buy a new book for the library.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I was thinking how I’d have to tell Westy about it, and, oh, I +don’t know, I just didn’t know how to go and speak to him. I wasn’t mad +at him, but anyway, I felt as if I didn’t want to see him—yet. Anyway, +I didn’t have any money yet and books like that cost a lot.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All of a sudden I heard Don start barking and then he stopped. So I knew +somebody was coming that he knew. Then I heard somebody say, “You’re +always suspicious, ain’t you,” and oh, I felt awful funny, because I +knew it was Westy. It seemed as if he might be saying that to me, but I +knew he was saying it to Don—just kind of jollying him. Maybe you think +you can’t jolly a dog but you can. You can Don, anyway.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I didn’t know what I would say to him, because I thought probably he’d +come to give me my two dollars and say he was sorry and must have been +crazy or in a hurry. Jiminy, any excuse would be good enough for me, as +long as he told me straight out about it, like he did in the ditch. And +maybe things would get to be all right after a while. But I couldn’t +understand how he could come up the lawn whistling and jollying Don and +feeling so good. I don’t mean because he was hurt, because I knew that +wasn’t so bad, but I didn’t see how he could be feeling so happy.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon he came in and Don was jumping up all around him and wagging +his tail.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’m glad you’re well enough to come out,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You should worry about me,” he said; “I just have to limp a little, +that’s all. I’m a swell looking Silver Fox, hey?” And then he gave me a +push and rumpled my hair all up and said, “You won’t be ashamed of me on +account of my honorable wounds, will you? I was a punk scout to go and +do that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee, I didn’t know what to think, because it wasn’t anything to be +laughing at, that’s sure.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Do what?” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Run right into that ditch.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Is that what you meant you did—when you told me?” I said, kind of +disappointed.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure it is,” he said, “I’m a swell scout, hey? Going headlong into a +ditch!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I just listened to him and I felt pretty bad, because now I saw that was +what he meant.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he gave me another shove and he said all happy like, “But I’m the +champion boy sleuth all right. Look at this—here’s your two bucks and +Skinny never took it at all.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I—I know he didn’t,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>How</span> did you know,” he shot right at me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Because,” I started to say and then he rumpled my hair up some more and +began talking and never gave me a chance.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Because it was right in that copy of <span class='it'>Treasure Island</span> that’s laying +there,” he shouted, “and I’m <span class='it'>one big gump</span>, that’s what <span class='it'>I</span> am! I got +that copy of <span class='it'>Treasure Island</span> out of the library this morning, because +you were telling me about it, and right there in the middle of it was +your plaguy old two buckarinos!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Just for a minute I looked at him and I knew it was just like he said, +because he was laughing—he was so blamed happy about it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, <span class='it'>boy</span>, didn’t I feel good!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How in the dickens did it get there?” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That’s one puzzle,” I answered him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway, you’ve got your two bucks back.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“A lot I care about that,” I said; “jiminy, I’ve got something better +than two dollars, and that’s friends, you can bet.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I showed him the stain on the page of the book and we both sat +there gaping at it and thinking.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’m hanged if I know,” Westy said; “it would take Tom Slade to dope +that out.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Maybe Skinny was looking at the book and shut it with the two dollar +bill inside,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How about the stain?” Westy asked me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Jingoes, it’s a puzzle,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All of a sudden he laid the book down open and laid the bill on it and +then he laid the oar-lock on the bill. Then he just sat there like as if +he was studying. Pretty soon he said, “We have to get a new copy for the +library, anyway. Do you mind if I make another stain on this one? I’ve +got a sort of an idea.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Go ahead,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So now I’ll tell you just what he did and you’ll see how it solved the +puzzle. And, believe me, you’ll have to admit that Westy’s a pretty +smart fellow. If you have an old book you don’t care anything about, you +can even try it and you don’t even need an oar-lock. Westy turned to a +new place in the book and then he laid the bill down on the right hand +page. Then he laid the oar-lock on the bill. “That’s just exactly what +you did when you laid the bill down in such a hurry that night you were +fixing Skinny up. You laid it on the open book just like that—see?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Maybe I did.” I said, “but what’s the big idea, kind sir?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, then,” he said, “I came up here to get your two bucks for you, +didn’t I? And you remember I told you there was a breeze blowing? Now +what did I do—in the dark?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Search me,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Why, you big galook, I felt around in the dark and lifted the oar-lock +off the bill and then felt there for it, but the breeze was too quick +for me. It blew the page over and I slapped my hand down on—what?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Another page,” I said; “<span class='it'>good night!</span>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Good-bye two dollar bill,” he said, “it was between those two other +pages. That’s why there was a stain on the right page in the book. There +was a stain on the bill made by the oar-lock and when the page and the +bill blew over, the fresh oil on the bill kind of stamped itself on the +left hand page. <span class='it'>You</span> didn’t damage the book. <span class='it'>You</span> only damaged the +bill. It was the <span class='it'>breeze</span> that damaged the book—see?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Believe me! I’ll be responsible,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That breeze was a thief,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’ll come to grief some day,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then we both began to laugh.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And it’s lucky I got that book out of the library,” he said. “There was +your two bucks tucked away all nice and neat between the pages. It was +just where Jim Hawkins was starting away on the ship.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Narrow escape,” I said, “hey? If you hadn’t taken the book out just +when you did, <span class='it'>good night</span>, the ship might have started and good-bye to +my two dollars.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You crazy Indian,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And all the time I was saying Jim Hawkins was honest and a good friend +and all that, and all the time he had my two bucks.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Believe me I wouldn’t trust that fellow with a postage stamp,” Westy +said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Laugh! Oh, boy, I thought I’d die laughing—and Westy, too.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXVIII'>CHAPTER XXVIII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>JOLLYING PEE-WEE</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>That’s the reason I’ll never trust a gentle breeze. In books you find +all kinds of nice things about gentle breezes, but look out for them, +that’s what I say. Whenever I leave my bathing suit on the grass to dry, +I lay a good big rock on it, you can bet. I’d trust Skinny with a +hundred dollars, I would, and Westy too, but gentle breezes—Nix. +They’re so plaguy sly and sneaky like.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Westy and I went and bought a dandy copy of <span class='it'>Treasure Island</span> for the +library. It cost us a quarter more than my two dollars, but we should +worry.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now I have to tell you one other thing that happened before we got +started on our cruise, especially because it has a lot to do with our +cruise.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The next morning we all went back to Northside Woods to tie up the +saplings and drag them over to the river. Then we were going to use a +rowboat and tow them down and maybe float some of them down. I told you +about our old launch, but it’s too shallow to use a launch up as far as +Northside Woods.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width:80%'> +<img src='images/i004.jpg' alt='' id='i004' style='width:100%;height:auto;'/> +<p class='caption'>“WE TOWED THE SAPLINGS AND STARTED DOWN STREAM.”</p> +</div> + +<p class='pindent'>All the fellows were there except Skinny, because the doctor made him +stay home on account of being all played out. I bet that doctor had some +scrap with him. One thing sure, Westy and I stuck together. By noontime +we had all the stuff hauled over to the river and some odds and ends of +kindling wood besides, to take in the house-boat.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We filled the rowboat with the small stuff and towed the saplings and +started downstream that way. The tide was running up and it was almost +full and we had some job bucking it. Some of the fellows wanted to wait +till it turned and come down with it. But I said that would be an hour +maybe and that if the tide didn’t want to turn and go with us, we should +worry.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now that there wasn’t anything left to do, but tow the stuff down, all +the fellows except Westy and I and Pee-wee started to hike it home. We +said we’d take him with us in the boat so that he could bail, because +that boat is built like a sieve.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“If it keeps on leaking like that,” I said, “there won’t be any water +left in the river—it’ll all be in the boat.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s pretty hard bucking the tide,” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And we’re going up hill besides, too,” I told him; “remember that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, you should have seen Pee-wee. “What are you talking about—up +hill!” he shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“When we begin going down hill,” I said, all the while winking at Westy, +“she’ll go easier, thank goodness.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We’ll have to put on the brakes,” Westy said. “Do you know why they +talk about <span class='it'>towing</span> lumber?” I asked Pee-wee; “because it’s measured by +the <span class='it'>foot</span>.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You’re crazy!” he shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Just the same as when they use it for back fences, it’s measured by the +<span class='it'>yard</span>,” Westy said, all sober like.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure—back—yard,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You think you can jolly me, don’t you?” Pee-wee shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You just keep on bailing,” I said, “and don’t stop. When the tide +begins turning you won’t have to bail so fast.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jiminy, Pee-wee didn’t know what to think—whether I was kidding him or +not. “Why won’t I?” he wanted to know.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Because it will be going the other way,” I said, “see? It’ll be flowing +away from the boat.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, boy! Pee-wee just emptied the bailing can down my neck.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And that’s the way it was all the way down. Cracky, but we had Pee-wee +so crazy that he’d bail up a can of water out of one end of the boat and +empty it in the other end.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What’s the difference whether it’s inside or outside?” Westy said, “as +long as it’s there. I bet there’s a lot of canned salmon in this river.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Canned what?” Pee-wee shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Keep on bailing,” I said; “canned salmon is what he said, but I think +there are more pickled herrings. There’s lots of pickled herrings in the +Hudson, I know that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You mean smoked herring,” Westy said, all the while rowing and looking +around very sober like at me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, boy, didn’t Pee-wee open his eyes and stare! He didn’t know whether +to take it for a joke or not—we were so serious.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I suppose it’s on account of the smoke from the big Hudson River +boats,” I said, “just the same as Oyster Bay.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What about Oyster Bay?” Pee-wee shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“When the water gets all stewed up in rough weather, they get stewed +oysters.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Not always,” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“No, but most of the time,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh, sure,” Westy said, “but I’ve seen lots of red lobsters that didn’t +come from Red Bank——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s boiling makes them red; you big galook!” Pee-wee yelled.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh, sure,” I said, not paying any attention to him, but all the while +rowing hard and looking around very sober like at Westy, “because I know +there are lots of bluefish caught near Greenland and you’d think by +rights they ought to be green.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure,” Westy said, “just the same as the fish caught in American River +out west, are red, white and blue.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And stars,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure the river’s full of starfish and striped mackerel—stars and +stripes. That’s why you have to stand up in the boat if you’re rowing on +that river.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh, sure,” Westy said, “that’s why so many boats get upset.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Good night! you should have seen Pee-wee.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Keep on bailing, kiddo,” I said, “keep plenty of water in the river.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Maybe it would be better to let a little more come into the boat,” +Westy said, “so as to lower the water in the river, so we can get under +the bridge.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The both of you make me tired!” Pee-wee yelled; “do you think I believe +all that stuff?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Good night, some circus! It’s always that way when Westy and I get out +with Pee-wee.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon we heard a loud whistling and we wondered what it was, +because it didn’t sound like a train and it sure wasn’t on a motor-boat.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Westy began asking what we were going to do about power after we +got our stanchions and bumper-sticks and all that fixed. I said we’d +have to get Jake Holden to tow us down around into the Hudson and then +get somebody to tow us up. Westy said Mr. Ellsworth thought it would be +cheaper to take our little three horsepower engine out of our launch +and install it in the houseboat.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “That would be all right, only it would kick us along so slow +that we’d spend all our vacation on the trip and wouldn’t have any time +at camp.” Cracky, I didn’t want to start back as soon as we got there.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, then, there’s only one thing to do,” Westy said, “and that’s for +us to get towed and that costs a lot of money.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while the whistling kept up and it was awful loud and shrill, +sort of, as if it was mad—you know how I mean.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I know what it is,” I said; “it’s somebody waiting for the bridge to be +opened.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Good night, they stand a tall chance,” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s a tug, that’s what it is,” Pee-wee said; “I can see the smoke. +It’s going up in a big column.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s more than a column, its a whole volume,” Westy said, looking +around. “There must be books on that boat; the smoke is coming out in +volumes.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while we were getting nearer to the bridge and it was easier +rowing, because the tide was on the turn.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now maybe if you fellows that read this don’t live in the country where +there’s a river, you won’t understand about tides and bridges and all +that. So I’ll tell you how it is, because, gee, we’re used to all that, +us fellows.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jimmy Van Dorian, he lives right near the bridge in a little shanty and +he’s lame and he’s a bridge tender. You don’t get much for being a +bridge tender and mostly old veterans are bridge tenders. Anyway, they +don’t get much out our way, because big boats don’t come up and they +don’t have to open the bridge often.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When we got down to the bridge we saw that the tide was right up so we +even had to duck our heads to get under, and right on the other side of +the bridge was a tugboat standing facing upstream and its whistle was +screeching and screeching just like a dog stands and barks when he’s +mad. It seemed awful funny because it was a small tug and it made so +much noise.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It ought to be named the Pee-wee,” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Nobody’s paying much attention to it,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Just as we came under the bridge we could see a big fat man, oh, +Christopher, wasn’t he fat, standing up in the pilot house pulling and +pulling the whistle rope, for the bridge to open. Sometimes he’d pull it +very fast, just like you do with the receiver on the telephone when +you’re good and mad because Central don’t answer. And it was pretty near +as bad as the telephone, too, because he went on tooting and tooting and +tooting and nobody paid any attention to him.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXIX'>CHAPTER XXIX<br/> <span class='sub-head'>JIMMY, THE BRIDGE-TENDER</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon the big fat man stuck his head out of the window and he +shouted, “What’s the matter, is everybody deaf around here? Here, you +boys, where’s the bridgeman?” Honest, you’d think I had the bridgeman in +my pocket. I told him I didn’t know where the bridgeman was. Oh, but he +looked mad. He had an awful red face and white whiskers and I guess he +must have been used to ordering people around—anyway, he looked that +way.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Here I am on the down tide, the water going out every minute +and got to run up to North Bridgeboro yet. It’s a ——” he said what kind +of an outrage it was, but I wouldn’t tell you. Oh, he was hopping mad. +“I’ll get stuck hard and fast in the consarned mud,” he said, “if I +ain’t back and past this here Sleepy Hollow in forty minutes—that’s +what I will!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I hollered up to him that I’d row across to Jimmy’s house and see if he +was asleep.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Asleep!</span>” that’s just the way he shouted. “Do bridgeman sleep on full +tide up this way? Don’t he know the harbor and waterway laws? I’ll make +it hot for ’im—I will.” And then he began pulling the whistle faster +and faster.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Somebody must have been feeding him meat,” Westy whispered to me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He’s good and mad, that’s sure,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Even while we rowed across to Jimmy’s shanty I could hear him shouting +between the whistlings and saying he’d have the bridgeman up for +deserting on flood tide and putting him in the mud. And jiminy, I have +to admit that he was up against it, because the tide was running down +and by the time he got up to North Bridgeboro and back, it would maybe +be too low in the channel. One thing, Jimmy had a right to be there, +especially at flood tide, I knew that. But I guess the reason he wasn’t +was because nothing but little motor boats ever came up our river and +they can always crawl under.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jimmy lives all by himself on account of being old and his people are +all dead. I said to Westy that maybe he was just asleep, so we knocked +and knocked, but nobody came to the door. Then I knew he wasn’t there at +all or else maybe he was dead.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway, we’d better find out,” I said, “because it’s mighty funny him +not being there, seeing that he never goes away anywhere.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the time we could hear that old grouch shouting about Bridgeboro and +our river and saying it was Sleepy Hollow and Dopeville, and the river +was a mud hole. But it isn’t and don’t you believe it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway, I’m going to climb in through the shed window,” I said, “and +see if maybe Jimmy is sick or dead.” I could see that Pee-wee was—not +exactly scared but sort of anxious, and I was too, I have to admit it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Westy and I got the shed window open, all right, because Jimmy wasn’t +careful about it, on account of not having anything worth stealing, I +suppose. I was kind of shaky when we went into the first room, because +that was where he slept and I thought maybe he’d be lying there dead. +But he wasn’t there at all. Just the same we stood there looking at each +other, and we were both kind of nervous, because Jimmy’s clothes were +lying all around on the bed and on the floor, and a chair was knocked +over, and it looked just as if somebody had been rummaging in the room +in a big hurry. The door into the other room was closed and, I have to +admit, I didn’t feel like opening it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I bet somebody’s robbed him and killed him,” Westy said, kind of low.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That’s just what <span class='it'>I’m</span> thinking,” I said, “and when we open that door +we’ll see him lying on the floor dead, hey?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway, we have to open it,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’ll open it if you don’t want to,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But, anyway, neither of us opened it. We just stood there and I felt +awful funny. It was all still and spooky and I could hear the clock +ticking, and I counted the ticks. It sounded spooky, going tick, tick, +tick.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Westy said, “Shall I open it?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure,” I said, “we’ve got to sometime.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So he opened it just a little bit and then, all of a sudden, he pushed +it wide open and we looked into that other room.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXX'>CHAPTER XXX<br/> <span class='sub-head'>GONE</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>In the middle of the room was a table Jimmy always ate his meals at, and +on that table was a big square piece of paper and there was a big +envelope on the floor. But there wasn’t any sign of Jimmy. Oh, boy, +didn’t I feel good on account of that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Westy read the paper out loud and it was something about a convention of +the Grand Army, or something like that. It said how all the members of +some post or other were asked to go to Saratoga on account of that big +convention and it was addressed to “Comrade James Van Dorian.” Gee, I +felt awful sorry for him, sort of, because I knew how it was with him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He just couldn’t help it,” Westy said, “he got ready in a hurry and +went. I guess he took all the money he had saved up—poor old Jimmy.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He’ll lose his job, that’s sure,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Even while we were standing there I could kind of see him getting +dressed up in a hurry in that old blue coat he had, with the buttons all +falling off it, and starting off with his crutch. Maybe he just got his +pension money, hey?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while the whistle on the tug was blowing and I was afraid people +would come around and maybe they’d all be on the side of the tugboat man +and be mad at Uncle Jimmy.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jiminy, I wasn’t mad at him, anyway.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And I could hear that old man shouting about all the things he was going +to do and about the bridgeman deserting and leaving him in the mud.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Hurry up,” Westy said, “let’s find the key-bar and we’ll open it for +him; we can do it all right.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So we looked all around in a hurry, but we couldn’t find it anywhere. +The key-bar is what you open the bridge with, you know. It’s kind of +like a crow-bar and you stick it in a certain place and walk around +pushing it. It isn’t so hard when you get started on account of the +bridge being balanced right and it’s geared up, too. But what’s the use +if you can’t find the key-bar?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It must be somewheres around,” Westy said, all excited.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, didn’t we turn things inside out! But it wasn’t any use—we couldn’t +find it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t let’s bother,” I said, “I’ve got an idea; come ahead—quick!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I didn’t even stop to tell him what I was thinking about, but I +hustled back into the boat, with Pee-wee after us, wanting to know what +we found inside.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“A couple of mysteries,” I panted out.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How many?” he wanted to know.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And a couple of ghosts thrown in,” I said. “Hurry up.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>On the way across I told the fellows to please let me talk to the old +man, because I had something particular to say to him. I was panting and +rowing so hard, that I couldn’t tell the fellows then. Anyway, I guess +Pee-wee had that house haunted and filled with German spies and Uncle +Jimmy murdered and goodness knows what all.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We pulled up right alongside the tug-boat and I called out to the old +man that I wanted to tell him something and to please let me come up. I +was all trembling, but anyway, I said it right out and I didn’t wait for +him to say yes, because he was too busy saying other things to say it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Westy and Pee-wee stayed in the rowboat and I went right up into the +little house where the old man was. Oh, boy, wasn’t everything polished +all nice and shiny! Gee, it was nice up in there. The wheel looked +awfully big and the compass, you could just see your face in it. And it +smelled kind of oily and nice up there. Wouldn’t I like to live in a +place like that!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The old man was smoking a pipe and he blew out a lot of smoke—it was +kind of like a barrage. Then he said very stern and gruff,</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, sir?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, boy, wasn’t I shaky! But I started right in, and when you once get +started it’s easy, that’s one sure thing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Maybe you’ll only be more mad when I tell you but I heard you +say something about Uncle Jimmy <span class='it'>deserting</span>. Twice you said that. And I +thought maybe you might be a veteran, hey? Maybe that’s a crazy thing to +think, hey?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All he said was, “Well, sir,” and he blew a lot of tobacco smoke at me +and looked at me with a frown, all fierce, but I wasn’t scared.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I only kind of deduced that,” I said, “and anyway I’ve got to admit +you’ve got reason to be mad.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Even still, all he said was, “Well, sir,” and he held his pipe so I +thought maybe he was going to chuck it at me—good night!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway, if you <span class='it'>were</span> a soldier, maybe you’ll understand, that’s all. +Uncle Jimmy, that’s what we call him, he went away to the Grand Army +Convention—that’s where he went. I’m not saying he had a right to go, +but one thing, big boats like yours never come up this way, so the +bridge doesn’t have to be opened very often—sometimes not all summer. +It’s kind of just bad luck for him, that’s all. But, one thing sure, I +know how it is to be away when I ought not to be, I do. And I’m no +better than he is, that’s one sure thing. I’m a boy scout,” I told him, +“and my scoutmaster says you have no right to make bargains about things +that are wrong. But anyway, maybe you wouldn’t think this would be +trying to make a bargain with you and sticking up for somebody that did +wrong. So I thought I’d ask you if you’ll please promise not to write to +the government people, and I’ll promise you to open the bridge for you +in ten minutes. He’s lame, Uncle Jimmy is, and he got that way in some +battle, and he has to use a crutch. And that’s the reason they gave him +a job. I see your tug is named <span class='it'>General U. S. Grant</span>, and maybe he was +fighting with General Grant, hey? You can’t tell.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We can’t find the key-bar, but about a month ago, the old key-bar fell +in the river, and I know where it is. Maybe you think I’m crazy, but +I’ll dive and get it for you, if you’ll only promise not to tell on +Uncle Jimmy, because he couldn’t help going. Maybe you don’t understand, +but he <span class='it'>just couldn’t</span>. I’ve got the swimming badge and that’s for +diving too. All you have to do is to give me some rope, so I can take +one end of it down and then you can haul it up and the key-bar will be +tied to it. You can be dead sure. Because what a fellow has to do, he +can do. Only you have to make me the promise first ’cause that’ll help +me to do it.”</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXXI'>CHAPTER XXXI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>THE CAPTAIN’S ORDERS</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Maybe it wasn’t a very good speech, but anyway, he was nicer than he was +before and he had an awful funny twinkle in his eye.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he said, “So you know how to dive, huh, sonny? Can you keep your +mouth shut?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure, you have to keep your mouth shut when you dive,” Pee-wee yelled +up from the rowboat, and then the old man just had to laugh.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I mean when you’re on land, sonny,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure I can,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, then,” he said, “if any of you scout kids goes about sayin’ as how +Uncle Jimmy went away to the convention, and I ever meet you in your old +skiff, by the Big Dipper I’ll run you down and cut you in half, that’s +what I’ll do! Do you hear?” he shouted. “If you ever run afoul o’ the +<span class='it'>Gineral Grant</span> in the bay or anywheres else, by thunder, I’m Cap’n +Savage, I am, and onct upon a time I was Major Savage, and I should be +at that there convention myself, instead of standing here blowing away +at a better soldier than me!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t you care, we’ll forgive you,” Pee-wee shouted up.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Keep him quiet, will you?” I called down to Westy.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Ask me something easy,” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And so you think you can dive,” old Captain Savage said, “or is that +just boy scout talk? Do I stand a chance of getting upstream and down +ag’in to-night, or not. Where do you say that key-bar is?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>You can bet I knew just exactly where it was. It was under the east span +of the bridge and just underneath about the fifth or sixth plank from +the centre. I knew it was hard bottom down there, too. So Captain Savage +and the other man he had gave me a thin rope and we fastened one end on +the deck. I tied the other end of it around my waist in a loose French +sailor’s knot, so I could pull it off without any trouble under water.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I dived. I had to come up a couple of times without it, but the +third time I got hold of it lying on the rocks, and quick as a flash I +loosened the rope from my waist and tied it onto the key-bar. Then I +came up, sputtering.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width:80%'> +<img src='images/i005.jpg' alt='' id='i005' style='width:100%;height:auto;'/> +<p class='caption'>ROY DIVED AFTER THE KEY-BAR</p> +</div> + +<p class='pindent'>“Pull,” I sputtered, “you’ve got it; only pull easy.” Then I scrambled +up on the deck.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Believe me in less than a minute the tug-man and Westy and Pee-wee were +on the bridge and had the key-bar fixed in its socket. Then we started +to push and around she went—slow at first, then faster.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, boy, wasn’t I glad to see old <span class='it'>General Grant</span> march through. Just as +I was going to get in the rowboat, Captain Savage stuck his head out of +the window and shouted, “Here you, youngster; you come in here. We have +to overhaul accounts.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Scouts don’t accept anything for a service,” Westy shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I ain’t a-talking to you,” Captain Savage shouted; “you other feller, +scramble aboard and come up here! Don’t they learn you nothin’ about +obedience in them thar scouts—huh? You scramble up on board here +like I tell you!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, boy, I knew he meant me.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXXII'>CHAPTER XXXII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>I MAKE A DANDY FRIEND</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>That was the first time I ever rode in a tugboat, and believe me, it was +great. I stood right beside the wheel in that little house and pointed +out the channel to Captain Savage all the way up to North Bridgeboro. +That’s one thing I sure know—the channel. Anyway, if you don’t know it, +follow the abrupt shore. But with a tug-boat, good night, you have to be +careful because a tug draws so much water. He was going up there after a +lumber barge, he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>First, he didn’t say anything, only smoked, and it was like a fog in +there. Pretty soon he said:</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“So you youngsters don’t take nuthin’ fer services, huh?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We have to do a good turn if we see a chance,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he wanted to know all about the scouts, how they were divided into +troops and patrols and everything, and after I told him all that, we got +to talking about our vacation and about Temple Camp, and especially +about the house-boat. I asked him if he thought a three horsepower +engine would drive the house-boat up the Hudson, so we could get as far +as Catskill Landing in a couple of weeks.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “It would be more like a couple of years, I reckon.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Good night!” I said, “if it takes us two years to get there and we have +to be home inside of a month, I see <span class='it'>our</span> finish. I suppose it costs a +lot of money to get towed.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Wall now, whin I bring in a Cunarder and back her into her +stall, it stands them in a few pennies.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You said something,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“’N I don’t suppose your troop has got as much money as the Cunard +Line,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Gee, we’ve only got about four dollars now,” I told him; “I suppose we +couldn’t get towed as much as a mile for that, hey?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Wall, four dollars don’t go as far as it used ter,” he said; “maybe it +would go a half a mile.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he didn’t say anything, only puffed and puffed and puffed on his +pipe, and kept looking straight ahead of him, and turning the wheel ever +so little. After a while he said there wasn’t water enough in our river +to drown a gold fish, and he didn’t know why we called it a river at +all. He said he couldn’t imagine what the tide was thinking about to +waste its time coming up such a river. He said if a bird took a drink in +the river while he was upstream, it would leave him on the flats. He was +awful funny, but he never smiled.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When we got up to the mill at North Bridgeboro, he got the barge and +started downstream with the barge alongside. All the while he kept +asking me about the scouts, and I told him about Skinny, and how we were +going to take him up to Temple Camp with us, so he could get better, +maybe.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then for quite a while he didn’t say anything, only puffed away and +pretty soon we could see the bridge and I knew we’d have to open it +again. But anyway, I could see a lot of fellows there and I knew they +were all from our troop and that they were waiting to open the bridge +for <span class='it'>General Grant</span>.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon Captain Savage took his pipe out of his mouth and began +speaking, only he didn’t notice me only kept looking straight ahead.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You know how to port a helm?” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I told him no—not on a big boat like that anyway.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he said, “Wall, there’s lots o’ things you got to learn, youngster. +And there’s one thing about tug cap’ns that you got to learn, see?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I told him that was what I wanted to do—learn.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Wall, then, I’ll tell you,” he said—this is just what he said—“I’ll +tell you, you are in a mighty ticklish place ’n I don’t just see how +you’re going to get out of it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>For a minute I was kind of scared.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I ain’t sayin’ you’re not a brisk lot, you youngsters, because you are, +and no denyin’. All I’m sayin’ is you’re in a peck of trouble—that’s +all.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he didn’t say anything only looked straight ahead out of the window +and kept on smoking. Gee, I felt awful funny.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I said if we did anything that wasn’t right, cracky, we didn’t mean +it anyway, that was sure, and we’d do whatever he said. And I said I +knew it wasn’t right for us to break into Uncle Jimmy’s shanty, because +I couldn’t think of anything else we’d done that was wrong.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he said, “’Tain’t so much wrong, as ’tis a conflict of rules, as +the feller says. Yer see, the trouble is tug-boat captains are a pretty +pesky, ugly lot, as yer can see from me, and when it comes ter services, +it’s give or take. Now I was thinkin’, that if you youngsters don’t let +me tow you up as far as Poughkeepsie next week, I’ll just have to write +and notify the authorities about Uncle Jimmy and make a complaint. I +kinder don’t like to do it by reason of him being an old veteran, but +it’s up to you youngsters. Either scratch out that rule of yours, or +else see Uncle Jimmy lose his job. Take your choice, it’s all the same +to me.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>G-o-o-d night! Jiminy, I didn’t know what to say to him. I guess I just +stood there staring and he looked straight ahead out of the window and +smoked his pipe, as if he didn’t care either way.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon he said, “I’m going up to Poughkeepsie next Saturday with a +barge, and I’ll give you youngsters till Friday to decide. You can send +me a line to the barge office or the Pilots’ Association, or else you +can leave me and old Uncle Jimmy fight it out between our two selves and +Uncle Sam.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The fellows opened the bridge for <span class='it'>General Grant</span> to go through and +Captain Savage let me out on one of the cross-beams, without even +stopping. He didn’t even look at the fellows as the tug went through, +only looked straight ahead of him and puffed away on his pipe, as if he +didn’t even know that there were such things as scouts. We just stood +there watching the tug churning up the water, as she went faster and +faster until she was gone around the bend.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He’s a kind of an old grouch,” Pee-wee said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s good you happened to think about how he used that word <span class='it'>desert</span>,” +Doc said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Connie said he wouldn’t want to be his son and Artie said he +wouldn’t want to be around the house with him on a rainy Sunday, and I +let them go on knocking him, until they got good and tired and then I +said,</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Do you know what he wants to do?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I bet he wants us to go and be witnesses against Uncle Jimmy,” Pee-wee +said; “he’ll never get me to be a witness, you can bet.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Wrong the first time, as usual,” I said; “he wants to tow the +house-boat up as far as Poughkeepsie for us next week.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, you should have seen those fellows.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What did you tell him?” Pee-wee yelled.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I told him that I was sorry, but that scouts couldn’t accept anything +for a service—not even favors.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You’re crazy!” Pee-wee shouted; “did you tell him that?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure I did,” I said, very sober, “and he got so mad he’s going to have +old Uncle Jimmy sent to jail—just because I told him we couldn’t let +him tow us to Poughkeepsie.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You make me tired!” Pee-wee screamed, “do you mean to say that if a +fellow does a good turn to another—an old man—and it turns out to be a +good turn on somebody else, and he says—the other one that has a +boat—that he’ll make a lot of trouble for the other one we did a +service for—do you mean to tell me that the other one has a right to +say he’ll make trouble for him, and if he does we haven’t got a right to +let him do a good turn to us, so that the other one we did a good turn +for can get under a bridge—it’s a good turn to let <span class='it'>him</span> do <span class='it'>us</span> a good +turn, isn’t it? Let’s hear you deny that?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You’re talking in chunks,” Doc said; “pick up the words you spilled and +straighten ’em out.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Hold him or he’ll fall off the bridge,” Artie said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Do you mean to tell me that we haven’t got to let him pay us back so as +to save Uncle Jimmy?” Pee-wee fairly screeched. Oh, boy, you should have +seen him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There is yet time,” I said, just like an actor, sort of. I said, “There +is yet time to fool him—I mean foil him. We have till Friday to accept +his offer.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Who’s got a pencil?” Pee-wee shouted.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXXIII'>CHAPTER XXXIII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>SO LONG-SEE YOU LATER</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>So that’s about all I can tell you now, but pretty soon I’ll tell you +about our cruise up the Hudson and all about the fun we had on the +house-boat and on Captain Savage’s tug. Oh, boy, he turned out to be one +fine man. And I’m going to tell you all about Skinny too, and about the +fix we got into about that tramp that slept in the house-boat. You +remember that fellow, don’t you. Some scare we had, believe me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And you’ll hear about Temple Camp and Jeb Rushmore, and you’ll get to +know us fellows a lot better. Gee, I hope you’ll like us. Mr. Ellsworth +says I’m a pretty good author, only I took such a long run there wasn’t +any space left to jump in. I should worry. Some authors don’t run at +all, they only walk. Believe me, you have to drag some of them with a +rope.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, we’ve got acquainted now and that’s something. In the next story +there’s going to be some girls—and some snakes, too. Especially one +snake. Gee, but girls hate snakes—snakes and mice. Anyway, Mr. +Ellsworth told me to write just the same as I talked, so if it’s no +good, maybe that’s the reason. You should worry. Maybe you’ll like the +next one better, hey?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, you’ll like Temple Camp, that’s one sure thing.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10552 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + |