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diff --git a/19815-h/19815-h.htm b/19815-h/19815-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e46738 --- /dev/null +++ b/19815-h/19815-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5018 @@ +<!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, Pathfinder, 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; } + .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.lgl { } + div.lgr { } + div.lgc p { text-align:center; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; } + div.lgl p { text-indent: -17px; margin-left:17px; 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.tbk { border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; width:30%; margin-left:35%; margin-right:35%; } + 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; } + div.blockquote0r9 { margin:1em 2em; } + p.caption { text-align:center; margin:0 auto; width:100%; } + p.credit { text-align:right; margin:0 auto; width: 100%; } + + div.blockquote0r9 p { font-size: 0.9em } + 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; } + .break-before { page-break-before: always; } + 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:451px; } + #i002 { max-width:452px; } + #i003 { max-width:452px; } + #i004 { max-width:452px; } + + + p.pg { text-align: left; } + h1.pg { font-weight: bold; + font-size: 190%; + clear: both; } + h2.pg { font-weight:bold; + page-break-before: avoid; + 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> +<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, Roy Blakeley, Pathfinder, by Percy Keese +Fitzhugh</h1> +<p>eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States +and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no +restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it +under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this +eBook or online at <a +href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you are not +located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this ebook.</p> +<p>Title: Roy Blakeley, Pathfinder</p> +<p>Author: Percy Keese Fitzhugh</p> +<p>Release Date: November 14, 2006 [eBook #19815]<br /> +Most recently updated: September 21, 2019</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: UTF-8</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROY BLAKELEY, PATHFINDER***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by James Eager<br /> + and revised by Roger Frank<br /> + from page images generously made available by<br /> + Internet Archive<br /> + (<a href="https://archive.org">https://archive.org</a>)</h4> +<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/royblakeleypathf00fitz"> + https://archive.org/details/royblakeleypathf00fitz</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>ROY BLAKELEY, PATHFINDER</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 GAVE THEM THE SCOUT SALUTE.”</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:1.7em;'>PATHFINDER</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<div class='lgc' style='margin-top:1em;'> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line'>By</p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line'><span style='font-size:larger'>PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH</span></p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line'><span class='sc'>Author of</span></p> +<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>TOM SLADE, BOY SCOUT, TOM SLADE</p> +<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>WITH THE COLORS, TOM SLADE ON</p> +<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>THE RIVER, ETC.</p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line' style='margin-top:1em;font-size:0.8em;font-style:italic;'>ILLUSTRATED</p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line' style='margin-top:1em;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:1em;font-size:1.2em;'>GROSSET & DUNLAP</p> +<p class='line'><span style='font-size:smaller'>PUBLISHERS : : NEW YORK</span></p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line' style='font-size:0.8em;'>Made in the United States of America</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;'>CONTENTS</p> + +<table id='tab1' summary='' class='center'> +<colgroup> +<col span='1' style='width: 3.5em;'/> +<col span='1' style='width: 21em;'/> +</colgroup> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>I</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_I'><span class='sc'>Hello, Here I Am Again</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>II</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_II'><span class='sc'>An Awful Wilderness</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>III</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_III'><span class='sc'>Undaunted!</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>IV</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_IV'><span class='sc'>Go!</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>V</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_V'><span class='sc'>I Go on an Errand</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>VI</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_VI'><span class='sc'>I Discover Some Tracks</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>VII</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_VII'><span class='sc'>I Meet the Stranger</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>VIII</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_VIII'><span class='sc'>Up a Tree</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>IX</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_IX'><span class='sc'>Awful Sticky</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>X</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_X'><span class='sc'>I Make a Promise</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XI</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XI'><span class='sc'>Seeing Is Believing</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XII</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XII'><span class='sc'>Marshal Foch</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XIII</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XIII'><span class='sc'>Around The Camp-Fire</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XIV</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XIV'><span class='sc'>But I Didn’t Write It</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XV</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XV'><span class='sc'>No! No! No! Go On! Go On!</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XVI</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XVI'><span class='sc'>The Mystery</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XVII</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XVII'><span class='sc'>Appalling! Wonderful! Magnificent!</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XVIII</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XVIII'><span class='sc'>On to Glory</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XIX</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XIX'><span class='sc'>Jib Jab, Is He Human?</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XX</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XX'><span class='sc'>The Parade</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXI</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXI'><span class='sc'>We Visit The Side Show</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXII</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXII'><span class='sc'>Brent Gaylong</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXIII</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXIII'><span class='sc'>Brent’s Story</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXIV</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXIV'><span class='sc'>The Light In The Woods</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXV</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXV'><span class='sc'>In The Dark</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXVI</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXVI'><span class='sc'>Dorry And I And The Cricket</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXVII</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXVII'><span class='sc'>We Take Harry Into Our Confidence</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXVIII</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXVIII'><span class='sc'>In The Woods</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXIX</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXIX'><span class='sc'>Jib Jab And Harry</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXX</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXX'><span class='sc'>Jib Jab Is Surprised</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXXI</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXXI'><span class='sc'>Jib Jab’s Story</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXXII</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXXII'><span class='sc'>Jib Jab Turns Out To Be Human</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXXIII</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXXIII'><span class='sc'>We Part Company</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXXIV</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXXIV'><span class='sc'>A Good Idea</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXXV</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXXV'><span class='sc'>What I Heard On The Telephone</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXXVI</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXXVI'><span class='sc'>Up The Trail</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXXVII</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXXVII'><span class='sc'>A Voice</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXXVIII</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXXVIII'><span class='sc'>We Fight And Run Away</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XXXIX</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XXXIX'><span class='sc'>Welcome Home</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>XL</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'><a href='#ch_XL'><span class='sc'>Mmm-Mm-M-M!</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, PATHFINDER</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<div><h2 id='ch_I'>CHAPTER I<br/> <span class='sub-head'>HELLO, HERE I AM AGAIN</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>This story is all about a hike. It starts on Bridge Street and ends on +Bridge Street. Maybe you’ll think it’s just a street story. But that’s +where you’ll get left. It starts at the soda fountain in Warner’s Drug +Store on Bridge Street in Catskill, New York, and it ends at the soda +fountain in Bennett’s Candy Store on Bridge Street in Bridgeboro, New +Jersey. That’s where I live; not in Bennett’s, but in Bridgeboro. But +I’m in Bennett’s a lot.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Believe <span class='it'>me</span>, that hike was over a hundred miles long. If you rolled it +up in a circle it would go around Black Lake twenty times. Black Lake +would be just a spool—<span class='it'>good night!</span> In one place it was tied in a +bowline knot, but we didn’t count that. It was a good thing Westy Martin +knew all about bowline knots or we’d have been lost.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle said it would be all right for me to say that we hiked +all the way, except in one place where we were carried away by the +scenery. Gee, that fellow had us laughing all the time. I told him that +if the story wasn’t about anything except just a hike, maybe it would be +slow, but he said it couldn’t be slow if we went a hundred miles in one +book. He said more likely the book would be arrested for speeding. I +should worry. “Forty miles are as many as it’s safe to go in one book,” +he said, “and here we are rolling up a hundred. We’ll bunk right into +the back cover of the book, that’s what we’ll do.” Oh boy, you would +laugh if you heard that fellow talk. He’s a big fellow; he’s about +twenty-five years old, I guess.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Believe <span class='it'>me</span>, I hope the book will have a good strong cover,” I told +him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Will Dawson (he’s the only one of us that has any sense), he said, +“If there are two hundred pages in the book, that means you’ve got to go +two miles on every page.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Suppose a fellow should skip,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Then that wouldn’t be hiking, would it?” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Maybe I’ll write it scout pace.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I often skip when I read a book, but I never go scout pace,” Charlie +Seabury said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well,” I told him, “this is a different kind of a book.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I often heard about how a story runs,” Harry Donnelle said, “but I +never heard of one going scout pace.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You leave it to me,” I said, “this story is going to have action.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Will Dawson had to start shouting again. Cracky, that fellow’s a +fiend on arithmetic. He said, “If there are two hundred pages and thirty +lines on a page, that means we’ve got to go more than one-sixteenth of a +mile for every line.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Righto,” I told him, “action in every word. The only place a fellow can +get a chance to rest, is at the illustrations.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Dorry Benton said, “I wish you luck.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The pleasure is mine,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway, who ever told you, you could write a book?” he asked me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Nobody <span class='it'>had</span> to tell me; I admit I can,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How about a plot?” he began shouting.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There’s going to be a plot forty-eight by a hundred feet,” I came back +at him, “with a twenty foot frontage. I should worry about plots.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle said he guessed maybe it would be better not to have any +plot at all, because a plot would be kind of heavy to carry on a hundred +mile hike.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Couldn’t we carry it in a wheelbarrow?” Will wanted to know.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We’d look nice,” I told him, “hiking through a book with the plot in a +wheelbarrow.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes, and it would get heavier too,” Westy Martin said, “because plots +grow thicker all the time.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Let’s not bother with a plot,” I said; “there’s lots of books without +plots.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure, look at the dictionary,” Harry Donnelle said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And the telephone book,” I told him, “It’s popular too; everybody reads +it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We should worry about a plot,” I said.</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>By now I guess you can see that we’re all crazy in our patrol. Even +Harry Donnelle, he’s crazy, and he isn’t in our patrol at all. I guess +it’s catching, hey? And, oh boy, the worst is yet to come.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So now I guess I’d better begin and tell you how it all happened. The +story will unfold itself or unwrap itself or untie itself or whatever +you call it. This is going to be the worst story I ever wrote and it’s +going to be the best, too. This chapter isn’t a part of the hike, so +really the story doesn’t begin till you get to Warner’s Drug Store. +You’ll know it by the red sign. This chapter is just about our past +lives. When I say, “go” then you’ll know the story has started. And when +I finish the pineapple soda in Bennett’s, you’ll know that’s the end. So +don’t stop reading till I get to the end of the soda. The story ends way +down in the bottom of the glass.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Maybe you don’t know who Harry Donnelle is, so I’ll tell you. He was a +lieutenant, but he’s mustered out now. He got a wound on his arm. His +hair is kind of red, too. That’s how he got the wound—having red hair. +The Germans shot at the fellow with red hair, but one good thing, they +didn’t hit him in the head.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He came up to Temple Camp where our troop was staying and paid us a +visit and if you want to know why he came, it’s in another story. But, +anyway, I’ll tell you this much. Our three patrols went up to camp in +his father’s house-boat. His father told us we could use the house-boat +for the summer. Those patrols are the Ravens and the Elks and the Solid +Silver Foxes. I’m head of the Silver Foxes.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The reason he came to camp was to get something belonging to him that +was in one of the lockers of the house-boat. I wrote to him and told him +about it being there and so he came up. He liked me and he called me +Skeezeks. Most everybody that’s grown up calls me by a nickname. As long +as he was there he decided to stay a few days, because he was stuck on +Temple Camp. All the fellows were crazy about him. At camp-fire he told +us about his adventures in France. He said you can’t get gum drops in +France.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee, I wouldn’t want to live there.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_II'>CHAPTER II<br/> <span class='sub-head'>AN AWFUL WILDERNESS</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>After he’d been at camp three or four days, Harry Donnelle said to me, +“Skeezeks, are you game for a real hike—you and your patrol?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Real hikes are our specialties—we eat ’em alive.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I don’t mean just a little stroll down to the village or even over as +far as the Hudson,” he said; “but a hike that <span class='it'>is</span> a hike. Do you think +you could roll up a hundred miles?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“As easy as rolling up my sleeves,” I told him. “We’re so game that a +ball game isn’t anything compared with us. Speak out and tell us the +worst.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Well, I was thinking of a little jaunt back home.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Good night</span>,” I told him, “I thought maybe you meant as far as Kingston +or Poughkeepsie, But Bridgeboro! Oh boy!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Of course, we wouldn’t get very far from the Hudson,” he said, “and we +could jump on a West Shore train most anywhere, if you kids got tired.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The only thing we’ll jump on will be <span class='it'>you</span>—if you talk like that,” I +said; “Silver Foxes don’t jump on trains. But how about the other +fellows—the Elks and the raving Ravens? United we stand, divided we +sprawl.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Let them rave; I’m not going to head a whole kindergarten. +Eight of you are enough. Who do you think I am, General Pershing?” And +then he ruffled up my beautiful curly hair and he gave me a shove—same +way as he always did. “This is not a grand drive,” he said, “it’s a +hike. Just a few shock troops will do.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We’ll shock you all right,” I said, “but first you’d better speak to +Mr. Ellsworth (he’s our scoutmaster), and get the first shock out of the +way.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I think I have Mr. Ellsworth eating out of my hand,” he said; “you +leave that to me. I just wanted to sound you and find out if you were +game or whether you’re just tin horn scouts—parlor scouts.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, do I sound all right?” I said. “Believe <span class='it'>me</span>, there are only two +things that keep us from hiking around the world, and those are the +Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Think you could climb over the Equator?” he said, laughing all the +while. And he gave me another one of those shoves—<span class='it'>you</span> know.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he said, “Well then, Skeezeks, I’ll tell you what you do. You call +a meeting of the Foxes and lay this matter on the table——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Why should I lay it on the table?” I said; “you’d think it was a plate +of soup. <span class='it'>I’ll stand</span> on the table and address them, that’s what I’ll +do.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “All right, you just picture the hardships to them. Tell them +that for whole hours at a time, we may have to go without ice cream +sodas. Tell them that we’ll have to penetrate a wilderness where there +is no peanut brittle. Tell them that we’ll have to enter a jungle where +gum drops are unknown. Tell them that we may have to live on +grasshoppers. Tell them about the vast morass near Kingston, where you +can’t even get a piece of chocolate cake; miles and miles of barren +waste where the foot of white man has never trod upon a marshmallow——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure you can find marshmallows in the marshes,” I said. “We should +worry.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You ask Willie and Tommy and Dorrie and the others if they are prepared +to make the sacrifice—and I’ll do the rest. I’ll speak to Mr. Ellsworth. +But remember about the heartless desert with its burning sands just +above Newburgh. Now go chase yourself and round them up. I guess you +know how to do it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So I got all the Silver Foxes into our patrol cabin and gave them a +spooch. I guess I might as well tell you who they all are. First there’s +me—I mean <span class='it'>I</span>. Correct, be seated. You learn that in the primary grade. +I’m patrol leader and it’s <span class='it'>some</span> job. Then comes Westy Martin; he’s my +special chum. My sister says he has dandy hair. Then comes Dorry +Benton—he’s got a wart on his wrist. Then comes Huntley +Manners—Badleigh, that’s his middle name. Sometimes we call him Bad +Manners. Then comes Charlie Seabury and then comes Will Dawson and then +come Tom Warner and Ralph Warner—they’re twins. They’re both better +looking than each other—that’s what Pee-wee Harris said. He’s a +scream—he’s in the raving Raven patrol. Thank goodness he isn’t in this +story—not much anyway. Ralph says Tom is crazy and Tom says Ralph is +crazy and Will Dawson says they’re both right. I guess we’re all crazy. +Anyway, Ralph and Tom came from Maine, so they’re both maniacs, hey?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>This is the speech I spooched:</p> + +<div class='blockquote0r9'> + +<p class='noindent'>Fellow Foxes:</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Shut up and give me a chance to talk. Sit down, Bad Manners. I’ve +got something to tell you and don’t all shout at once——</p> + +</div> + +<p class='pindent'><span class='it'>Good night!</span> They all began shouting separately. Then I said:</p> + +<div class='blockquote0r9'> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle says he’s going to hike it all the way home to +Bridgeboro. He says we can go with him if we want to. Our time is +up Saturday, but we’ll have to start three or four days sooner.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said for me to sound you fellows, but believe me, there’s so +much sound that I can’t. I suppose the other patrols will go back +down the Hudson in the house-boat. Every fellow that’s in favor of +hiking it home with Mr. Harry Donnelle, will say <span class='it'>aye</span>—but don’t +say it yet. He said to tell you that we take our lives in our +hands——</p> + +</div> + +<p class='pindent'>“Why can’t we put them in our duffel bags?” Westy shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Did you think we’d take them in our feet?” Dorry yelled.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then they all began shouting, “<span class='it'>Aye, aye, aye!</span>” even before I told them +about the forests and morasses and jungles and deserts and things. +Honest, you can’t do anything with that bunch.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_III'>CHAPTER III<br/> <span class='sub-head'>UNDAUNTED! (THAT’S PEE-WEE’S HEADING)</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>One thing about Harry Donnelle, he was a dandy fixer. When he fixed the +camouflage for us so we could watch a chipmunk, I knew he was a good +fixer. He said he learned how in France. He fixed the chimney on the +cooking shack, too. That fellow could fix anything.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But a scoutmaster isn’t so easy to fix. Lots of times I tried to fix it +with Mr. Ellsworth and I just couldn’t. He’d make me think that I wanted +to do his way. He’s awful funny, he can just make you think that there’s +more fun doing things his way. And I was trembling in my shoes—I mean I +was trembling in my bare feet—for fear Harry Donnelle wouldn’t be able +to fix it with him. But that fellow could fix it with the sun to +shine—that’s what Mr. Burroughs said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon he came strolling down to the spring-board where a lot of us +were having a dip in the lake.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All right,” he said, “how about you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Did you fix it?” I asked him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All cut and dried,” he said; “are you ready for the big adventure?”</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>That afternoon we had a special troop meeting, to find out how the +fellows felt about splitting the troop for the journey home. Because you +see our three patrols always hung together. Mr. Ellsworth made a speech +and said how Harry Donnelle had offered to lead the fierce and fiery +Silver Foxes through the perilous wilds of New York State. He said that +the journey would be filled with interest and data of scientific value +(that’s just the way he talked) and how we hoped to cross the Ashokan +Reservoir and visit other wild places. He said that we planned to enter +the heart of the Artists Colony at Woodstock and see the artists in +their native state and stalk some authors and poets, maybe, and study +their habits.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh boy, you ought to have seen Harry Donnelle. He just sat there on the +edge of Council Rock (that’s where we have important meetings at Temple +Camp) and laughed and laughed and laughed.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mr. Ellsworth said, “It is hoped that these brave scouts may succeed in +capturing a poet and bringing him home as a specimen, and that they may +find other fossils of interest. Meanwhile, the Ravens and the Elks and +myself will drift down in our house-boat and endeavor to find someone to +tow us from Poughkeepsie to New York and up our own dear river to +Bridgeboro. The Ravens and the Elks wish me to offer the brave explorer, +Mr. Harry Donnelle, a vote of thinks for taking the Silver Foxes away. +They appreciate that he does this for the sake, not of the Silver Foxes, +but as a good turn to the Ravens and the Elks. The Ravens and the Elks +hope to have a little peace meanwhile. They thank him. In the familiar +words of one of our famous patrol leaders, ‘<span class='it'>we should worry.</span>’ And we +wish you all good luck in your daring enterprise.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I could see that he winked at Harry Donnelle and Harry Donnelle was +laughing so hard that he couldn’t make a speech. So I climbed up on +Council Rock and shouted, “Hear, hear!” Then I made a speech and this is +it, because afterwards I wrote it out in our troop book.</p> + +<div class='blockquote0r9'> + +<p class='pindent'>The Silver Foxes thank the Ravens and the Elks for their kind +wishes. I bequeath all my extra helpings of dessert to Pee-wee +Harris of the Ravens—up to three helpings. After that it reverts to +Vic Norris of the Elks. Reverts means <span class='it'>goes to</span>. Who ever reaches +Bridgeboro, New Jersey, first will send out a searching part for +the others. The searching party will bring their own eats. If we’re +never heard of again, that’s a sign you won’t hear from us. If we +get to Bridgeboro and don’t find you, that’ll be a sign that you’re +not there. If you are there it won’t be our fault. We should worry. +We go forth for the sake of prosperity—I mean posterity. So please +tell posterity in case we don’t reach home safely. If our friends +and parents are anxious, tell them to wait at Bennett’s on Bridge +Street, because that’ll be the first place we go to.</p> + +</div> + +<p class='pindent'>The next day was Wednesday and we started early in the morning. The +others were going to start down in the house-boat on Saturday. I think +the Ravens and the Elks must have sat up all night making crazy signs on +cardboard just so as to guy us. And Mr. Ellsworth helped them, too. They +had the whole camp with them—even Uncle Jeb; he’s manager. He used to be +a trapper.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When we got out onto the main road, we saw signs tacked up on all the +trees and I guess every scout in camp was there. One of the signs read, +<span class='it'>Olive oil, but not good-bye</span>. Another one read <span class='it'>Day-day to the brave +explorers</span>. Another one read, <span class='it'>Don’t forget to wear rubbers going +through the Newburgh morass</span>. Another one read, <span class='it'>Beware of the +treacherous Ashokan Reservoir</span>. A lot we cared. Didn’t people even make +fun of Christopher Columbus?</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_IV'>CHAPTER IV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>GO!</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>But remember, I told you that the hike didn’t really begin till we got +to Catskill. The reason I don’t count the hike from Temple Camp to +Catskill is because we were all the time hiking down there. It wasn’t a +hike, it was a habit. I wouldn’t be particular about three or four +miles. Besides, I wouldn’t ask you to take them, because they’ve been +used before. I wouldn’t give you any second hand miles.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When we got to Catskill we bought some egg powder and bacon (gee, I love +bacon) and coffee and sugar and camera films and mosquito dope and beans +and flour and chocolate. You can make a dandy sandwich putting a slice +of bacon between two slabs of chocolate. Mm-um! We had a pretty good +bivouac outfit, because the Warner twins have a balloon silk shelter +that rolls up so small you can almost put it in a fountain pen—that’s +what Harry Donnelle said. Dorry Benton had his aluminum cooking set +along, saucepans, cups, dishes, coffee pot—everything fits inside of +everything else. One thing, we wouldn’t starve, that was sure, because +we had enough stuff to make coffee and flapjacks for more than a week, +counting six flapjacks to every fellow and fourteen to Hunt Manners; oh +boy, but that fellow has some appetite! We had plenty of beans, too. +Don’t you worry about our having plenty to eat.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When we got through shopping, we went to Warner’s Drug Store for sodas. +Harry Donnelle said he’d treat us all, because maybe, those would be the +last sodas that we’d ever have. As we came along we saw Mr. Warner +standing in the doorway and he was smiling with a regular scout smile.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There’s something wrong,” I said; “there’s some reason for him smiling +like that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Have a smile for everyone you meet,” Will Dawson began singing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But, believe me, I know all the different kinds of smiles and there was +something funny about Mr. Warner’s smile. When we got inside we saw a +big sign hanging on the soda fountain. It read:</p> + +<div class='lgc' style='margin-top:0.7em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line'>A LAST FAREWELL</p> +<p class='line'>TO THE SILVER PLATED FOXES</p> +<p class='line'>BEFORE THEY ENTER THE JUNGLE</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<p class='pindent'>By that I knew that some of the fellows up at camp had been down to +Warner’s the night before and put it there, because they knew that would +be the last store we’d go to.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle said, “All right, line up.” So we all sat in a row and +some summer people who were in there began to laugh. What did we care? +One girl said she wished she was a boy; girls are always saying that. So +that proves we have plenty of fun. I could see Harry Donnelle wink at +Mr. Warner while the latter (that means Mr. Warner) was getting the +sodas ready. Then all of a sudden Harry said:</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Attention! Present spoons. Go!</span>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So then we all started at once and that was the beginning of the big +hike. Just as I told you, it started at the top of the glasses in +Warner’s and ended in the bottom of the glasses at Bennett’s. +When you hear me say <span class='it'>M-mm-that’s good</span> in Bennett’s, you’ll know the +hike is over.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_V'>CHAPTER V<br/> <span class='sub-head'>I GO ON AN ERRAND</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>“Now to skirt the lonesome Catskills,” Harry said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Now to what them?” Dorry Benton asked him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Skirt them,” he said, “that’s Latin for hiking around the edge of them. +We don’t want to be all the time stumbling over mountains.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Believe <span class='it'>me</span>, if I see one in the road, I’ll tell you,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And we don’t want to get mixed up with panthers and wild cats either,” +Harry said. And he gave me a wink.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There aren’t any wild animals in the Catskills,” Charlie Seabury said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There are wild flowers,” I said, “but they won’t hurt anybody.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How about poison ivy?” Westy Martin said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while as we hiked along the road toward Saugerties, we kept +joking about the wild animals in the Catskills. Harry Donnelle said +there used to be lots of wild cats and foxes, but not any more. He said +there were some foxes, though.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Westy said, “I bet there are some bears; once Uncle Jeb saw a bear; he +said there weren’t any foxes any more.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I guess there are some grey ones and maybe a few silver,” Harry +Donnelle said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Silver?” I shouted. “Oh boy!” Then I asked him what they fed on mostly.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Mostly on ice cream sodas,” he said; “they’re very dangerous after a +half dozen raspberry sodas.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We didn’t go near Saugerties, because we wanted to keep in the country, +so we hit down southwest along the road that goes to Woodstock. Then we +were going to hike it south past West Hurley so we’d bunk our noses +right into the Ashokan Reservoir. And the next day we were going to +spend trying to keep out of Kingston.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When it got to be about five o’clock in the afternoon, we hit in from +the road to find a good place to camp. Maybe you think that’s easy, but +you have to find a place where the drainage is good and where there’s +good drinking water.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon we found a dandy place about a quarter of a mile off the +road, and we put up our tent there.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle said, “There’s one kind of wild animal that I forgot to +mention and I guess we’ll be hunting them all right; that’s mosquitoes. +I guess one or two of you kids had better hit the trail for the nearest +village and complete our shopping before we get any further. What do you +say? We’re a little short on mosquito dope and we ought to have some +crackers, and let’s see, a little meat would go good. I’m hungry.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When we turned into the woods from the road, we knew that we were coming +to a village and I guess that’s what put the idea into Harry’s head to +have somebody go there and get two or three things that we hadn’t been +able to get in Catskill. I told him that I’d go, because the rest would +be busy getting in fire wood and I said it would be good if two or three +of them tried to catch some fish in the brook.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh boy, I had hardly said that, when Ralph Warner shouted that he had a +perch and that the brook was full of them. Harry Donnelle went over and +saw for himself how it was, and then he came back and said to me that as +long as there seemed to be plenty of fish I needn’t bother about meat, +but that I’d better go and see if I could scare up some more mosquito +dope and some sinkers for fishing and a trowel to dig bait with, because +if we liked the place we might stay there till noon the next day. That’s +the best way on a long hike—take it easy.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How about Charlie Seabury?” I said; “he doesn’t like fish.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All right, get him a couple of chops, then,” Harry said; “now can you +remember all the things you’re going to get? Mosquito dope, fishing +sinkers, a writing pad and some stamps, and let’s see——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Some crackers,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Righto,” he shouted after me.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_VI'>CHAPTER VI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>I DISCOVER SOME TRACKS</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>I went back through the woods and when I got to the road I noticed how +it curved, and just then I saw a very narrow path on the opposite side +of the road that led into the woods. I decided it must be a short cut to +the village. So I started along that path.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon the woods grew very thick and it wasn’t so easy to follow +the trail, because it was all overgrown with bushes. But I managed to +keep hold of it all right, and after about fifteen minutes I came to a +little stone house with the windows all boarded up and the door standing +a little open. There was a staple on the door with an old padlock +hanging on it, but I guess the padlock wasn’t any good. One thing sure, +nobody lived there. I went and peeked inside and saw that it wasn’t +meant for people at all, because there wasn’t any floor and it was all +dark and damp and there were lots of spider webs around. Even there was +one across the doorway, so by that I knew that nobody had been there +lately.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Right in the middle, inside, were a couple of rocks and water was +trickling up from under them. That’s what made me think that the place +was just a spring house. Anyway, I didn’t wait because I was in a hurry. +When I came out I pushed the door open a little and then I closed it all +but about a foot or so. Inside of an hour I was mighty sorry that I +hadn’t left it wide open, and you’ll see why.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess I had gone about a hundred yards further when I noticed +something in the trail that started me guessing. It was the print of an +animal; or anyway, if it wasn’t, I didn’t know what else it was. There +were six prints, something like a cat’s, only the paw that made them had +five toes. The other mark was the paw mark. It was the biggest print +that I ever saw.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The first animal I thought about was a wild cat. But of course, I knew +there weren’t any wild cats right there. Even if there were any in that +part of the country, they wouldn’t be roaming around near villages. +Anyway, the five toe prints had me guessing, because a wild cat has only +four. I could see that the animal must have been crossing the path, +because the print was sideways and the bushes alongside of the path were +kind of trampled down.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>You can bet I took a good look in those bushes for hairs, but I couldn’t +find any and I kept wondering what kind of an animal had a paw as big as +a man’s hand and five toes.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After I had gone a little further, I came plunk on a whole line of them +along the path. I wasn’t exactly scared, but anyway, they made me feel +sort of funny, because they were so big and printed so plain. The animal +that made those tracks must have been a pretty big animal, I knew that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then, all of a sudden, I discovered something else. Some of the prints +had five toe marks and some of them only four. Maybe that means the +animal was lame, I said to myself, and doesn’t make a full print with +one of its feet. But in a minute I had sense enough to see that wasn’t +the way it was, because there were always two of one kind pretty close +together and then two of the other kind pretty close together. This is +the way it was; there was a five toe print then another one about a foot +in back of it, then about three or four feet in back of that a couple +more about a foot apart with only four toe marks.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Good night! I They had me all flabbergasted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon they left the path altogether and I looked in the bushes for +hairs, but I couldn’t find a single one.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway,” I said to myself, “one thing sure, that animal has five toes +on his front feet and only four on his hind feet and I never saw any +tracks like that before or even pictures of them.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I wasn’t exactly scared, but just the same I was kind of glad when I got +to the village.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_VII'>CHAPTER VII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>I MEET THE STRANGER</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, that was the smallest village I ever saw to have such big tracks +right near it. All I could see was two houses and the post office, and +the post office was so small that you could almost put your arm down the +chimney and open the front door. But, one thing sure, you could buy +everything you wanted in that post office. You could buy a plough or a +lollypop or anything. It smelled kind of like corn inside.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I got some lead sinkers and some crackers and a couple of chops for +Charlie Seabury, because it makes him thirsty to eat fish—that’s what he +says. The man didn’t have any mosquito dope, but there were some boxes +of fly paper on the counter and I just happened to think that if we +stayed in our bivouac camp the next morning, it might be good to have +some on account of the flies at dinner time. So I bought a box full.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I said to the man, “I guess there are wild animals around here.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Wall, I reckon thar daon’t be many no more. Yer ain’t +expectin’ ter catch ’em with fly paper, be yer?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Just the same,” I told him, “I saw the tracks of one that must be big +enough to eat this whole village. You’d better put the village in the +safe before you go home. Safety first.” You can bet I know how to jolly +if it comes to jollying. “I want to get some rope, too,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He just leaned back and pushed his great big straw hat to the back of +his head and looked over his spectacles and began to grin. He kept his +spectacles ’way down near the end of his nose.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Ye’re one of them scaouts, hey?” he said. “Yer ain’t thinkin’ to lead +any elephants home with that thar rope naow, be yer?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “No, I’m going to use the rope to lasso mosquitoes as long as +you haven’t got any mosquito dope.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Wall naow, ye’re quite a comic be’nt yer?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I told him I was a little cut up and my mother and father couldn’t do +anything with me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“’N what else can I do fer yer?” he said, laughing all the while. “Them +tracks wuz caow tracks, youngster, so daon’t yer be sceered of ’em.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I told him I wasn’t scared of any tracks, not even a railroad track and +that I’d buy the village for seventy-five cents, if he’d send it C. O. +D. He just stood there laughing. Anyway, it makes me mad when grown up +people jolly scouts about tracking and signaling and all that, just as +if it was only play. Because what do <span class='it'>they</span> know about tracks? Who ever +heard of a cow with feet like a cat? <span class='it'>Good night!</span> And, besides, often +it turns out that scouts are right. You wait and see.</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>Now the things I bought I had in a kind of a flat bundle and I hung it +over my back, because I like to have my hands free. What’s the use of +wasting your hands? You’ll never find anything out with your back; all +your back is good for, is bundles.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I didn’t have any adventures on the way back till I got to that spring +house in the woods. I was in such a hurry that I didn’t even notice the +tracks again. That’s how much I was afraid of them. When I got to the +spring house, I went in for a drink of water, and believe <span class='it'>me</span>, it was +good. I squeezed in, instead of opening the door wide, because it +scraped so hard on the ground that it was easier to do that than to open +it; and I did the same coming out.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I was just going to start along the path again, when I got a good idea. +That’s just the way you get them, sudden like. I decided to shinny up a +tree that was there and see if I couldn’t squint our camp over in the +west, because if I could once see it, maybe I’d be able to get to it by +a shorter way than by the path. I did that because it was getting late.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When I got up to the second branch I looked off to the west, but all I +could see was a little smoke curling up into the sky, and I wasn’t sure +whether it was from our camp or from some house. The sun was going down +over that way and all the clouds were kind of red on the edges and the +sky looked dandy. At Temple Camp they’d be just about washing up for +supper then. I thought I could tell about where the road was, but I +couldn’t decide about the camp and I was just going to shinny down and +hit the trail when I heard a kind of a sound like leaves rustling and +then a funny sort of growl, different from anything I had ever heard +before. I looked around and then I saw, coming through the woods, an +animal with big spots on it and a long tail. I guess it was almost as +big as a tiger; anyway, it was a good deal bigger than a wild cat. It +was making a noise as if it was grumbling to itself, then all of a +sudden, it opened its mouth wide, as if it was going to roar, but it +didn’t. It came almost up to the tree and stood still and its tail hung +on the ground and wriggled like a snake.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I have to admit that I was good and scared. I just held onto the tree +and didn’t make a move; I guess I hardly breathed. Then, all of a +sudden, the branch I was standing on cracked.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_VIII'>CHAPTER VIII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>UP A TREE</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Good night!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>First I thought I was going to fall, but I reached up and got hold of +the branch above and scrambled up to it. The animal was crouching on the +ground, looking up, and its eyes were just like fire. Its tail was +wriggling just like a snake. <span class='it'>Oh boy</span>, I was scared.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But anyway, I wasn’t rattled. There’s a difference between being scared +and rattled. That’s one thing scouts don’t get—rattled. I looked down +and saw him there and I knew I was in a mighty dangerous fix, but that +only made me think harder. It seemed to me that that animal must be a +leopard because he had spots, but of course, I knew there weren’t any +leopards in America. Africa is where <span class='it'>they</span> hang out. But you can bet I +didn’t think much about how he happened to be there. He was there, and +that was enough for me. Gee, I like natural history all right, but not +when there’s a wild animal just below me. Nix! He was crouching and he +looked just as if he was going to make a spring for the tree. Mr. +Ellsworth says that most fights are won by quick thinking, so I knew +that if I could only think of something to do quicker than that animal +could spring, I’d be all right.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>First I thought I’d just shinny down and run and maybe he wouldn’t +follow me. That was a punk think. All of a sudden he opened his mouth +wide and kind of hissed at me and came just about two or three inches +closer to the tree.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then, all in a jiffy I had a—you know—what do you call those things? <span class='it'>An +inspiration.</span> I pulled the bundle around from my back and tore it open +and tore open the paper that the two chops were in. Charlie Seabury says +he ought to have the gold cross because he saved my life, but I don’t +see it. Do you? Just because I was bringing the chops to him. He says he +made a sacrifice. I should worry.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Even the sound of the paper crunching made the animal move a little +nearer and hiss louder and paw the ground with one of its fore feet. I +guess in a couple more seconds he would have had me, but I just threw +one of the chops right at him and he pounced on it.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width:80%'> +<img src='images/i002.jpg' alt='' id='i002' style='width:100%;height:auto;'/> +<p class='caption'>THE ANIMAL WAS CROUCHING ON THE GROUND, LOOKING UP.</p> +</div> + +<p class='pindent'>That gave me two or three seconds to think. Because you can see for +yourself that if an animal is ready to eat a boy scout it wouldn’t take +him very long to eat a chop. Maybe you’ll say it wasn’t good to give him +raw meat, but how about me. Wasn’t I raw meat? It was better to give him +the chop and have a few seconds to think than to let him do the thinking +and get me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>That was the time when I did some thinking in four or five seconds. Gee +whiz, you have to think quick at school exams, but cracky, leopards are +worse than school principals, I should hope. Anyway, they’re just as +bad.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now was the time I wished that I had left the door of the spring house +open a little wider, because I had a dandy idea. As long as the animal +knew what it was I was throwing, he’d go after the other chop when I +threw it. Because chops were his favorite food, I could see that. So if +I could only just throw the other chop into the doorway he’d go in there +after it, and while he was eating it I’d shinny down in a hurry and shut +the door and wedge a board against it. I said to myself that I could do +that quicker than he could eat the chop, and one thing sure, he wouldn’t +bother with me while he was doing it. An animal can never think about +two things at once and he thinks about food most of all. Maybe scouts +think about food a lot, too, but anyway, they can think about two things +at once. That’s the difference between scouts and wild animals.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, if I had only left that door wide open! Then I could have thrown the +other chop right through the opening and ’way into the house. But now I +had to throw it down and almost around a corner, as you might say; and +even if the meat went in at all, it wouldn’t go in far. But if I could +only throw it in far enough so that I could slam the door shut, that +would be enough.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, I saw that if I didn’t throw it quick I’d be worse off than +before, because the animal had had a taste of raw meat and he’d be on +the war path. I could see he was looking up at me and his eyes were +blazing and he was making a sound that gave me the shudders. It seemed +as if he was giving me notice that he was going to spring for the tree. +I guess he would have done it that very second, too, only he noticed a +leaf stuck to his paw and I guess it bothered him, because he raised his +paw just as a cat does when she washes her face, and rubbed it off.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh boy, that made me think of something, but you can bet there wasn’t +any time to stop and think then. I guess I felt as nervous as William +Tell when he was going to shoot the apple off his son’s head. Only I +had the chop in my hand instead of a bow and arrow. Oh, didn’t I watch +that open space and take a good aim! My heart was just pounding and my +wrist hurt, because my pulse was going so fast. Because, suppose I +should miss? <span class='it'>I’d</span> be the third chop, I knew that. I just couldn’t throw +the chop for fear I’d miss. You can see for yourself that was the only +chance I had. All of a sudden I happened to think about tearing the chop +in half and that would give me two chances. But if one of the pieces +landed inside maybe it wouldn’t be big enough to keep him busy two or +three seconds. So I decided to take a good careful aim and throw the +whole chop. If it went in, all right; maybe I’d have time enough. If it +didn’t——</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All of a sudden, I heard the animal give a kind of a hissing growl and I +just closed one eye and braced myself against the tree and took a good, +long, careful aim and threw the chop.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It struck the edge of the door and fell outside the little stone house. +Almost before I saw where it landed, the animal had it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I just crouched there in that tree shuddering and waiting for what would +happen next. First I thought I’d take a chance and drop down and run. +Then I decided I wouldn’t. I didn’t exactly <span class='it'>decide</span>. I stayed where I +was, because I was too scared to move. I didn’t even dare to climb +higher for fear the animal would hear me and give a spring. I could even +feel my teeth chattering.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_IX'>CHAPTER IX<br/> <span class='sub-head'>AWFUL STICKY</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Now that it was too late, I could see that if I had only landed that +meat inside the house, it would have been easy to get away. And the +animal would have been a prisoner, too, because he could never have got +out of that house. The windows were boarded on the inside and the door +was good and heavy. But what was the good of thinking about that when it +was too late?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I have to admit that for about half a minute I wasn’t a good scout. I +was just scared and excited and I didn’t do anything. Then I saw the +animal prowling around the tree and looking up and heard him making that +noise. Oh boy, it was terrible!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then, <span class='it'>bang</span>, just like that, I remembered about him wiping the leaf off +his paw by rubbing it on his face. It was lucky for me he did that, +because it put into my head something I had read, about the way the +natives in India catch tigers. I read it in a natural history book. +There’s a kind of a tree in India named the prauss tree; anyway, it’s +something like that. And it has big flat leaves. So the natives spread +gum on those leaves. They get the gum from the trees, too. Then they put +the leaves in the path and when the tiger comes along he steps on them +and rubs his paws over his face, so as to get the leaves off. But that +only makes it worse for him, because they stick to his face and over his +eyes and everywhere. He gets just plastered up with them. Then he gets +excited—gee whiz, you can’t blame him. And he rolls around on the +ground and can’t see and just rolls and rolls and bangs against trees +and gets all played out and then he lies still just like a horse does +when he falls down. And that’s when the natives come and get him. And +it’s easy, too, because he can’t see and all the fight is knocked out of +him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh boy, wasn’t I glad I remembered that! I just tore out that box of fly +paper and pulled the sheets apart and dropped them on the ground. Some +of them fell upside down. I should worry. I tried to drop them so they’d +fall around the foot of the tree and a lot of them did. More than half +of them fell right side up. A couple of them stuck to the trunk, but I +didn’t care. Maybe that would be good, I thought. Believe me, in about +ten seconds I had the ground around the tree covered with fly paper. +He’d have to do a fancy two-step if he wanted to get between them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while he was crouching and watching me with those two eyes that +were just like fire. Pretty soon a sheet of fly paper drifted down right +near him and he pawed it. Maybe he thought it was a chop, hey? It just +caught his paw and he tried to wipe it off against his face. Good night! +There he was with one of his eyes and the whole top of his head +plastered flat. He looked as if he had been in a fight.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he came closer to the trunk, pawing at his head all the time and +stepped, kerflop, right on another sheet—plunked his foot right down in +the middle of it. Oh bibbie, then you should have seen him! He tried to +rub it off against his head and it stuck there and then there was a +circus. He rolled over on the ground and caught another sheet against +his side. In another second he had one flopping on the end of his tail +and he kept going around after it until pretty soon it got stuck to one +of his legs. Jiminetty! But you should have heard him howl. I bet he was +mad clean through.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But safety first—oh boy! I dropped another one and it landed right on +his nose; lucky shot.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>By now he was acting just like a cat having a fit and howling like mad. +I guess he couldn’t see at all, because he went, kerplunk, up against a +tree and then rolled away and went banging against the spring house. He +had two sheets on his face and another one on his paw and the whole +front of him was all mucked up with gum and the grass and dirt were +sticking to him. Believe me, he was a sight. He didn’t look much like a +lord of the jungle; he looked more as if he was on his way home from the +hospital.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>You can talk about tanks and machine guns and poison gas and hand +grenades, and all the other new fangled weapons, but tanglefoot for +mine; that’s what <span class='it'>I</span> say. If the Allies had used tanglefoot, the war +would have been over three years ago. And if they had spread it all +along the banks of the Marne, the Germans would never have gotten +across, that’s one sure thing.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_X'>CHAPTER X<br/> <span class='sub-head'>I MAKE A PROMISE</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Honestly, inside of five minutes that wild animal was a wreck. Every +time he tried to claw the paper from his head he howled, because it +pulled his hair and hurt him. I don’t say I was glad to sit up there and +watch him, because there isn’t much fun in seeing animals suffer. Maybe +he wasn’t suffering, but anyway, he was half crazy. But how about me? +Safety first.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon he kind of half rolled and half staggered over against the +trunk of my tree and I knew he couldn’t see at all. Then he lay there +with his back up against it trying to rub the sheet off his back, and +all the while he kept pawing his head and making it worse for himself. I +guess even if he had gotten the paper off, he’d still be blind, because +the gum would keep his eyes shut.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>By that time I knew I was safe, because he was even more helpless than +he would have been if I had shot him and not killed him. It was mostly +because he couldn’t see, and that got him rattled, and you’re no good +when you’re rattled. All I wanted was for him to get away from the tree +so I wouldn’t have to be too near him, and then I’d shinny down and hit +the trail for camp.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But just then I had another thought. Maybe you won’t believe me, but I +felt sorry for that wild animal. I knew how <span class='it'>I’d</span> feel if I was in such +a fix as that. If I had only had a pistol I would have shot him, but boy +scouts don’t carry pistols—only in crazy story books. We never shoot +anything, except the chutes in Coney Island, and you can’t call that +cruelty to animals.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And if I just went off and left him there, maybe he’d stagger around in +the woods and claw at himself and tear himself all to pieces and get all +bloody and just die. That wouldn’t be much fun, would it? As soon as I +wasn’t scared any more I felt sorry for him—that’s the honest truth. I +saw how he was beaten and I felt sorry for him. I knew he was really +stronger than I was, and that it wasn’t a fair fight. I don’t care what +he intended to do, it wasn’t a fair fight. Even if I had shot him he +might have looked brave and noble, kind of. But with all that stuff on +him and the dirt and grass sticking to his fur, I just sort of felt as +if nobody has a right to make an animal look like that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So I took the rope and made a lasso knot in it and let myself down the +trunk as far as I dared. I have to admit I was sort of scared, but you +have to be decent when you win. You have to be, even if it’s only a wild +animal.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I tried two or three times to get the noose over his head, but I +couldn’t, because he wasn’t still enough. But after a couple of minutes +I managed it and then I tied the other end of the rope to the tree. +After that, I climbed away out to the end of the lowest branch and it +bent down with me and I dropped to the ground.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>First I thought I’d go over and touch him to see how he felt, but I just +didn’t dare to. I was scared of him even then. So I just started off +along the path, going scout pace, and when I got a little way off so I +<span class='it'>knew</span> I was safe, I looked back and said, “You stay where you are and +don’t get excited, and I’ll fix it for you.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Because anyway, I hadn’t done my good turn yet and it was pretty near +dark.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XI'>CHAPTER XI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>SEEING IS BELIEVING</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>The fellows were just thinking about sending a couple of scouts to hunt +for me when I went running pell-mell into camp, shouting that I had +captured a leopard.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“A what?” Westy asked.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“A leopard,” I shouted, “as sure as I stand here. Come and see for +yourselves. He’s tied by a rope; he’s got fly paper all over him!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How many sodas did you have?” Harry Donnelle asked me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “That’s all right, you just come and see. It’s a leopard; you +can see it for yourself.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “Sit down, Kiddo, and rest and have a cup of coffee. Guess +you fell asleep by the wayside, hey? Tell us all about your dream. +Here’s a plate of beans. Did you see any mermaids?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Never you mind about beans and mermaids,” I told him; “one man told me +already that they were cow tracks I saw. I guess he wouldn’t want to go +through what I’ve been through since then. The animal had five toes on +his fore feet and four on his hind feet—that’s a leopard, I’m pretty +sure. Anyway, he’s got spots. You come and see.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You don’t think it could have been a spotted calf, do you, Kid?” Harry +said in that nice easy way he has of jollying. “I don’t know much about +calves’ toes, but I’ve eaten calves’ feet.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Even after I had told them all about it, they all said I must have been +seeing things and that probably the animal was a raccoon or maybe +<span class='it'>possibly</span> a wildcat. Anyway, Harry Donnelle said they’d all go back +with me to the place, because they thought maybe we’d get in trouble on +account of plastering some honest, hard working calf with fly paper. But +just the same he took his rifle, I noticed that. I carried the lantern.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the way through the woods they were jollying me and calling me <span class='it'>Roy +the Leopard Killer</span>, and Harry Donnelle said I must have been carried +off on the magic carpet to India, just like the people in the Arabian +Nights. All the while I didn’t say anything and when we came to the tree +and the spring house, I went ahead and saw that the animal was lying +close to the tree, as if he were asleep. I guess he was all exhausted. +The rope was fast around his body just behind his fore legs where it +couldn’t choke him and where he couldn’t get free of it. He started up +when I went near him, but didn’t seem to get excited.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I just held the lantern and said, “You see what a fine calf this is. He +ought to win a prize at the County Fair. He’s disguised as a leopard, +but he can’t fool us—I mean you fellows. You can bet boy scouts know a +calf when they see one.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>They just stood there about fifteen or twenty feet off, staring. Even +Harry Donnelle stood stark still, staring. “What’s the matter?” I said. +“Are you afraid of a poor calf? Come down in the front row; I won’t let +him hurt you.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Harry came nearer, but the other fellows stood over near the spring +house, so they could scoot inside, I suppose. The Safety First Patrol!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle just looked and then he said, “By—the—great—horn—spoon! +It’s a <span class='it'>leopard</span>.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I thought maybe it was a nanny goat,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He just shook his head and looked at the animal all over and said, +“Jumping Christopher! That’s a <span class='it'>leopard</span>, as sure as you live.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, if you insist,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I never heard of a leopard on the North American Continent,” he said, +shaking his head.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I guess he swam over, hey?” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Jingoes, I hate to shoot him,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>By now all the bold, brave, heroic Silver Foxes began coming closer to +get a good pike at the leopard. Every time the animal stirred, they’d +back away again. Once the leopard stood up and pulled against the rope +and rubbed his paw over his face, and gee whiz, you should have seen +that bunch scatter. Dorry Benton went scooting into the well house.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But pretty soon they all saw that there wasn’t any fight left in that +wild beast. He wasn’t suffering, but he was blind and all exhausted. +Even still none of us exactly liked to touch him and we didn’t get too +near; even I didn’t, I have to admit it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle held the lantern over toward the animal and looked at him +ever so long, as if he just couldn’t believe his eyes. “He’s a +magnificent specimen,” he said; “I’d give a good deal to know how he +happened in these parts.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh,” I said, “the woods are full of them, they were prowling all around +here when I came through. One of them was about twice as big as that.” +Oh boy, you should have seen those fellows look around through the +woods. Will Dawson went into the spring house to get a drink of water; +he was thirsty all of a sudden.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while Harry Donnelle was kind of pondering and then he said, “A +couple of you kids go into the village and get a wheelbarrow or a cart +or something. I don’t think this fellow is in pain; I’m going to take +him alive. I can’t put a bullet into him. I never saw such a magnificent +specimen.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Suppose we should meet some more,” Hunt Manners said, just as he and +Westy were starting along the path.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Take some fly paper with you,” I said, “and think of your brave patrol +leader.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You won’t meet any more,” Harry Donnelle said; “this fellow must have +strayed down out of the mountains. There is a species of leopard found +in America, but I never knew they grew to such a size as this, or had +spots either. Trot along and get back as soon as you can.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>While the two fellows were gone, Harry tied the leopard’s fore feet and +then his hind feet together with rope. He wound it around good and +plenty and tied it fast, you can bet, and then we just sat around +waiting.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon along came the whole village, postmaster and all, and Hunt +and Westy with a wheelbarrow. Some escort! You’d think Westy and Hunt +were General Pershing getting home from France. I should think they +would have been afraid someone would steal the village while they were +gone. Because you know yourself that there are lots of robberies and +hold-ups and thefts and things since the war.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XII'>CHAPTER XII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>MARSHAL FOCH</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>I was sitting up on a branch of a tree when they came along and I heard +the postmaster saying that Cy Berry had lost his heifer and he guessed +maybe now it was found.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I shouted, “You have one more guess. I think the leopard ate his heifer; +he was terribly hungry.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, you should have heard them as soon as they had a look at the +animal. One of them said, “I haint seed no leo-pods around these +parts—<span class='it'>neverrr</span>. And I been livin’ here nigh on to forty year.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle said, “Well, the animal is a leopard just the same. +Either you’ve been staying home most of the time or else he has.” I had +to laugh, it was so funny the way he said it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Another one said, “There be’nt no leopards in the Catskills, that’s +sartin.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, maybe he was just spending the summer here then,” Harry said; +“but here he is, anyway, and I’d like to get him away from here.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yer be’nt goin’ ter try to keep him, be yer?” the man asked.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “Yes, I’m just that reckless. I think he’s worth more alive +than dead, if I can spruce him up a bit.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Ye’ll get yer hand bit off,” one of the men said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Harry said that all he wanted was a place to put the animal till +morning, and he’d see if he couldn’t get some kind of medicine to dope +him with, while he tried to get the fly paper off. I guess they didn’t +like the idea very much, but one of the men whose name was Hasbrook, +said we could put the leopard in his barn till morning if we wanted to. +So they got him into the wheelbarrow and it wasn’t hard doing it on +account of his legs being tied. Then we all started back to the village.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>While we were going along Harry said, “I’ve often heard of a man having +an elephant on his hands, but never a leopard. Maybe we’ll have to shoot +him, but I just hate to do it. I have an idea that gasoline will melt +that stuff, only we’ll have to be careful about his eyes. I’d try it +to-night, only I’m afraid to use the gasoline near a lamp. I’m going to +send a line to the Historical Museum people though, to-night, and one of +you kids can drop it at the office. I daresay there’s a train out of +this burg in a few days.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I just couldn’t help saying to him, “I’ll be glad if you don’t shoot +him—I will.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He laughed and gave me a rap on the head and said, “You see I know what +it is to be shot, Kiddo. I was shot twice in France. Maybe I’m not much +use, but I’d be less use if I was shot, wouldn’t I? Nobody’s much good +after they’re shot. Ever think of that?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Maybe I didn’t,” I said, “but anyway, I know you’re right. I guess +you’re always right. Anyway, I think the same as you do.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Shooting is no fun,” he said; “don’t shoot till you have to. What do +you say?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “You’re right, that’s one sure thing and I’m glad I met you, you +bet.” And you bet I was glad, because he was one fine fellow. Maybe he +was kind of wild sort of, but he was one fine fellow. Mr. Ellsworth said +so, and he ought to know.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When we came into the village, there was a Fraud car standing in front +of a house and a man just getting out of it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Whatcher got thar, Cy?” he called.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“A leo-pod,” Cy called back, “an honest ter goodness leo-pod.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Who’s them fellers? The posse?” the man asked.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What posse?” Cy called.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I thought mebbe you’d caught up with that beast from Costello’s. That +you, Hiram? Taint no reg’lar leo-pod is it?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Reg’lar as church goin’; look on ’em yourself.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle just stood there smiling. Then he said, “Have a look; it +won’t cost you a cent.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After the man had looked and Harry had told him all about it, he hauled +out of his overalls a newspaper and said, “Lookee here.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We all crowded around him and Harry held the lantern so we could see the +paper.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Jest fetched it from Kingston,” the man said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Harry began reading out loud. This is what he read, because I +pasted that article in our hike record book:</p> + +<div class='blockquote'> + +<div class='lgc' style='margin-top:0.7em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line'>WILD ANIMAL AT LARGE</p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line'>INFURIATED LEOPARD ESCAPES FROM VISITING</p> +<p class='line'>CIRCUS—ARMED POSSE SEARCHING WOODS</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<p class='pindent'>While transferring one of the leopards from a cage to a parade +wagon at Costello’s Circus yesterday, the animal becoming +frightened at the sudden striking up of the brass band, forced his +way between the two barred enclosures and made its escape from the +circus grounds.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>An attempt to shoot it as it crouched beneath a Roman chariot in +panic fright was unsuccessful, and before its keeper was joined by +others with revolvers, the animal had sped through the adjacent +fields, frightening some boys who were playing ball, and was last +seen at the foot of Merritt’s hill, near the west turnpike road. It +is supposed that the animal entered the woods and made for the +mountains where a party of circus attaches and volunteer citizens, +fully armed, hope to encounter and destroy it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>No serious damage was done by the animal, except the tearing of a +tent which had not yet been raised, as it tore at a rope in which +its leg became entangled.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When seen this morning Mr. Rinaldo Costello, owner of the circus, +said that no fear need be entertained by citizens, as the animal +would undoubtedly avoid human haunts. He added that little hope is +entertained of catching the beast alive, as these animals are +always taken when cubs, and when grown, fight to the death all +efforts to capture them. The escaped animal, a magnificent specimen +of the leopard family, was imported by Mr. Costello at a cost of +more than six thousand dollars. In captivity it was said to be +comparatively docile. The leopard is distinctive among animals of +the cat family, in having five toes on its fore paws and four on +its hind paws, this being its unique characteristic. It is said +that few full grown leopards have ever been captured by man, and +their value is hence greater than that of all other animals save +the giraffe, which is said to be all but extinct. This leopard was +known as Marshall Foch, and was a favorite with all the circus +people.</p> + +</div> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XIII'>CHAPTER XIII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>AROUND THE CAMP-FIRE</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>As soon as we got the leopard into Mr. Hasbrook’s barn, we made a hay +bed in one of the stalls and laid him there. I felt awful sorry for him +now that I knew about his history. And I wished that he had never come +near me, but got away into the mountains. Harry Donnelle held the +lantern into the stall and he looked so helpless lying there, with his +feet tied together and grass and dirt all over him and the fly paper on +his face, that I kind of blamed myself. Anyway, I was glad that his +people liked him and missed him. Maybe he’d be glad to get back, hey?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “Good night, Marshal Foch, and good luck to you. Just have a +little patience.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He was awfully nice, Harry was. That was just the way he talked.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Before we went into the house he said, “Suppose three or four of you +kids go back and bring our stuff here and we’ll camp right here on the +spot till we get through with this business.” So the Warner twins and +Will Dawson went back by the road and the rest of us went in the house +with Harry and Mr. Hasbrook.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When we got in the parlor, Harry looked over the paper and found a big +ad. This is how it read:</p> + +<div class='lgc' style='margin-top:0.7em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line'>COSTELLO’S MAMMOTH SHOW!</p> +<p class='line'>THREE DAYS IN KINGSTON.</p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line'>BEASTS OF THE JUNGLE.</p> +<p class='line'>WORLD’S CONGRESS OF FREAKS.</p> +<p class='line'>DARING ACROBATS.</p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line'>JIB JAB, THE WORLD’S MYSTERY.</p> +<p class='line'>SEE HIM!</p> +<p class='line'>IS HE HUMAN?</p> +<p class='line'>GRAND STREET PARADE TO-MORROW.</p> +<p class='line'>AT THREE P. M. SEE THE ELEPHANTS.</p> +<p class='line'>FREE! FREE! FREE!</p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line'>TWO PERFORMANCES DAILY.</p> +<p class='line'>COME!</p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line'>GRANDEST COMBINATION OF WONDERS</p> +<p class='line'>EVER GATHERED UNDER CANVAS.</p> +<p class='line'>SUPERB SPECTACLE</p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line'>GORGEOUS! STUPEFYING!</p> +<p class='line'>ASTOUNDING!</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle said, “I rather like Mr. Costello already; he’s so +modest. I bet he’s one of those quiet, retiring little ‘<span class='it'>after you, +please</span>’ men that blushes when you speak to him. We’ll just drop him a +line and one of you kids can hike it over to Saugerties and catch an +early train down to Kingston and hand it to him.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “I’ll go.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But he said, “No, you’ve had adventures enough and if they ever get you +in a circus they’ll keep you there in the <span class='it'>congress of freaks</span>.” So it +was decided that Dorry Benton would go.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>While we were waiting for the fellows to come back with our stuff, Harry +wrote the letter and this is what he said. It’s copied word for word out +of our hike record:</p> + +<div class='blockquote'> + +<div class='lgl' style='margin-top:0.7em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line'>Mr. Rinaldo Costello, Proprietor,</p> +<p class='line'>Costello’s Mammoth Show.</p> +<p class='line'>Kingston, N. Y.</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<p class='noindent'>Dear Sir:</p> + +<p class='pindent'>This is to inform you that your leopard, Marshall Foch, has been +captured by a boy scout and is alive and well, save that he is +suffering from nervous shock and requires to have his face washed.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>You may call in your armed posse. You are greatly mistaken in +supposing that leopards may not be captured alive. It requires only +the proper apparatus.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The bearer of this letter will give you any further information +which you may require, and we shall be glad to see you here, as +soon as it may be convenient for you to call.</p> + +<div class='lgr' style='margin-top:0.7em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line' style='text-align:right;margin-right:4em;'>Respectfully,</p> +<p class='line' style='text-align:right;margin-right:2em;'>HARRY C. DONNELLE,</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<div class='literal-container' style='margin-top:0.7em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line'>In charge of Boy Scouts en route. Silver Fox Patrol,</p> +<p class='line'>Bridgeboro, New Jersey. Stopping on farm of Mr. Silas</p> +<p class='line'>Hasbrook, Bently Centre, N. Y.</p> +</div></div> <!-- end rend --> + +</div> + +<p class='pindent'>After a little while the fellows came back with our stuff and we put up +our tent between a couple of trees in Mr. Hasbrook’s orchard. He said we +could camp in the house if we wanted, but how can anybody camp in a +house, I’d like to know? You might as well talk about going swimming in +a bath tub. No siree, the orchard for us. Mr. Hasbrook said we could eat +all the apples we wanted to, but we didn’t eat many. I ate five—that +isn’t very many.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We gathered some sticks and started a camp-fire and I made coffee and +flapjacks and scrambled eggs with egg powder. Mr. Hasbrook’s daughter +brought us out some pie and <span class='it'>um</span>, <span class='it'>um</span>, +wasn’t it good! Oh boy, it was nice sprawling around there. But anyway, +we turned in early—one o’clock in the morning is early. You couldn’t +turn in much earlier or it would be the night before. I guess we +wouldn’t have turned in then, except that Dorry had to roll out at about +six, so as to catch the train down to Kingston.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle said, “I suppose Mr. Rinaldo Costello will send a +mammoth, astounding, bewildering, astonishing, amazing, stupifying, +extraordinary, remarkable, dazzling, baffling, cavalcade after Marshal +Foch, as soon as he gets our staggering, unbelievable, incredible +letter.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We were all of us just sprawling around the fire and Harry was sitting +on a little three legged milking stool and kind of guying Costello’s +mammoth show, in that funny way he had, and saying that Mr. Costello +would probably say I was a matchless, intrepid, dauntless, fearless hero +and adventurer, when all of a sudden that word adventurer put a thought +into my head.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “When it comes to being a dauntless, fearless adventurer, I +guess nobody has anything on you, that’s one thing sure.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I’ve had a few games of basketball,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I bet you’ve been to lots of places,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Well, I’ve attended one or two pink teas and strawberry +festivals. Once I was usher at a concert in an Old Ladies’ Home. The +wildest time I ever had was umpiring a game of checkers.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You didn’t win that Distinguished Service Cross umpiring a game of +checkers,” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“No, I won that playing hide and seek with Fritzie in No Man’s Land,” he +said. “Chuck a little more wood on the fire, Roy.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “There’s one thing you never told me about, and you promised to +tell it, too. It’s an adventure, but it’s a kind of a mystery, too.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well,” he said, “adventures aren’t so much, but I’ll have to make an +extra charge for mysteries. The high cost of mysteries is something +terrible. I don’t know what the mystery may be, but if you’ll go in the +house and get my cigarette case out of the pocket of my coat that’s +hanging in the sitting room, I’ll let you have any mystery I happen to +have in stock at the wholesale price.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh bibbie, didn’t I scoot in after that cigarette case. He was always +smoking cigarettes, that fellow. He told us never to do it, but he was +always doing it himself. He said he was too old to reform.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When I came back I said, “It’s about that money of yours—that two +hundred dollars that we found in the locker of the house-boat. It made a +lot of trouble in Temple Camp, that’s one sure thing. Don’t you remember +how you said that you’d tell me all about how you got it, some day?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Oh that; that wasn’t an adventure; that was just an episode.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I know what episodes are all right,” I told him; “didn’t my father have +a couple of them. If there’s a narrow escape, that’s a sign it’s not an +episode; it’s an adventure. You can have episodes any day.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, there wasn’t a very narrow escape to that one, anyhow,” he said, +laughing all the while; “it was about six feet wide, I guess. But here +goes, if you want it. Gather closer around the fire, because this +adventure is mighty wet.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That’s a sure sign it’s an adventure,” I told him, “because how can an +episode get wet?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I guess you’re right,” he said; “it might get a little damp, but not +really wet. Anyway, do you think you can keep still for about ten +minutes?”</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XIV'>CHAPTER XIV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>BUT I DIDN’T WRITE IT</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>The reason I said that about the two hundred dollars causing a lot of +trouble at Temple Camp was, because a little fellow there named Skinny +McCord (you’ll see him after a while) was suspected of stealing it. A +lot of fellows thought he took it from a fellow while he was saving the +fellow from drowning and then hid it in the house-boat. They thought +<span class='it'>that</span> just because he went to the house-boat, and because they found +out that he had a key to the locker. But all the while that money +belonged to Harry Donnelle and he came up to Temple Camp and claimed it, +after I wrote and told him all about Skinny. That’s how he happened to +visit Temple Camp and you can bet I’m glad he did. Anyway, that’s all +part of another story, and maybe you read it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now part of the story that Harry Donnelle told us, I knew already, but +the other fellows didn’t, because I never told them how I had met him +before. So this is the story just the way he told it to us that night, +because afterward I got him to write it out for our hike record. And the +reason I put it in here is, because it has something to do with the +story that comes after this. So here it is, and oh boy, didn’t we listen +as we sat around that camp-fire in Mr. Hasbrook’s orchard. That’s where +stories are best—around the camp-fire.</p> + +<div class='lgc' style='margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'> <!-- rend=';sb:2;' --> +<p class='line'>HARRY DONNELLE’S YARN</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, messmates, when my father told you that you could have the old +house-boat for the summer, you never knew he had a son in the army, now, +did you? But just the same, little Harry was trotting around in Camp +Dix, all dolled up in his lieutenant’s uniform, waiting to be mustered +out. Little Harry had just come home from France where he had been mixed +up in the big—<span class='it'>episode</span>.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>One fine day I said to myself, “While I’m waiting here, I guess I’ll go +home.” So I got a short leave and the next that was seen of me I was +stepping off the train in Bridgeboro. That was early in the morning; the +dawn was just breaking. Pretty soon it broke. Just as it was all broken +I saw Jake Holden, the fisherman, standing near the milk train. You’ll +see that this is a fish story. It is a fishing <span class='it'>episode</span>.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>That man persuaded me to go fishing with him. I knew that if I went home +I’d have to meet all my sister’s friends and maybe drink tea and play +tennis. So I decided to go fishing with Jake. I thought I’d be safer. I +was a coward. I was afraid to go home and drink tea and play tennis. So +I went up to the old house-boat where the governor had it tied up in the +creek near home. The scene was dark and gloomy. It was early in the +morning. Even the swamp grass wasn’t up; it was all trampled down. Not a +sound could be heard—except the milkman rattling bottles up near the +house.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I crept into the house-boat, took off my uniform, put it into a locker +that I had the key of, and togged myself out in a set of old rags which +I found there. Many were the times I had fished in those rags. I don’t +know how long I stayed in the house-boat. Jake was to come through the +creek in his motor boat and I was to meet him. But I was foiled—foiled +by the Boy Scouts. I heard voices in the distance and pretty soon I +recognized my father’s voice and the voice of Skeezeks Blakeley and the +uproarious clamor and frantic utterances of Pee-wee Harris. I can hear +it now, it haunts me night and day.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I didn’t wait to meet those unexpected guests. I didn’t know that the +house-boat was to become theirs on an extended loan. I sneaked out and +beat it through the marsh grass for all I was worth.</p> + +<div class='literal-container' style='margin-top:0.7em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line'>I love, I love, I love my home,</p> +<p class='line'>But, oh, you yellow perch!</p> +</div></div> <!-- end rend --> + +<p class='pindent'>So now you know of my miraculous escape from the boy scouts and the +awful peril I averted of drinking tea and playing tennis. I am now +approaching the darkest scenes of that frightful adventure.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After my escape from the boy scouts and my honored parent, I went +fishing off the bleak and barren coast of Coney Island. I was swept by +ocean breezes and the smoke from Jake Holden’s pipe. In the distance we +beheld the wild and rugged scenery of Luna Park. I caught some perch, +some bass, a couple of crabs, an eel, two blue fish and a bad cold. We +landed at the iron pier and sold our catch to a man who keeps a +restaurant and serves shore dinners.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then we went forth again. The wind was starting to blow a gale and the +smoke from Jake Holden’s pipe enveloped me like a fog. The sky grew +dark. Jake wanted to lift anchor and go ashore, but I said, “No, let’s +stay out, because the fish are biting.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>What happened next was my fault, not his. We stayed out there fishing in +a blinding gale, the sea coming in in great rollers. Pretty soon the +Luna Park tower was ’way around the corner. Either they had moved it or +else our anchor was dragging.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Jake,” I said, “we’re tearing the bottom of the ocean all to pieces; +it’s a shame. We’ll be off Rockaway in about ten minutes, if this keeps +up.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The boat’ll be all tore to pieces, you <span class='it'>mean</span>” he said, “and <span class='it'>we’ll</span> be +in the bottom of the ocean if this keeps up. We’re shipping water by the +bucketful. Let’s get out of this.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So we hauled in the anchor and tried to get our power started, but it +was too late. Our plug was short circuiting, the coil was gone plumb +crazy, and most of the Atlantic Ocean seemed to be in the carburetor. +The rest of it was on the floor. Besides all this, the pump was on a +strike—shorter hours, I suppose.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Kids, we were in one dickens of a fix. It was late afternoon and there +we were blowing around the ocean, bailing to keep on top, and with the +land moving farther and farther away all the time. By dusk the shore was +just a misty line, that was all. Every wave that hit us, meant bailing +like mad to keep our gunwale above water. We took off the muffler and +used it to bail with.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>A dozen times we lighted our lantern and a dozen times the wind or the +sea put it out. It was water-soaked, useless. I said, “Jake, it’s all up +with us,” and he said he guessed it was.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Boys, I’ve gone forty-eight hours without sleeping, in France. I’ve gone +three days without food. I’ve seen a shell burst into smithereens ten +feet from me. But I’d rather go through all that again, I’d rather play +tennis and drink tea, even, than to go through another night like that. +All night we couldn’t so much as see each other’s faces. Our arms were +stiff. We just bailed, bailed, bailed and kept her from swamping.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>In the morning the weather eased up a little and if we had only had her +running, she would have taken the seas all right. She’s a filthy little +boat, but game. But an engine is never game; it’s always the boat that’s +game. A gas engine is a natural born coward and a quitter. A hull will +fight to the last. If our engine hadn’t lain down, we could have hit the +sea crossways and we’d have skimmed over it like a car on a scenic +railway. But the swell got us sideways and we swung like a hammock.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyhow, we could ease up a little on the bailing and before the sun was +well up, we were able to use the oar. We had only one, because the other +one was carried away. But we managed to keep that little jitney head-on, +and pretty soon we knew it wasn’t a case of drowning, but more likely a +case of starving. There wasn’t a speck of land in sight. We might have +been half way to Europe for all <span class='it'>I</span> knew.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, after a while Jake said, “What’s that? Looks like a log floating.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It didn’t look like anything much, but it wasn’t the ocean, that was +sure, and we tried to make it with our oar. The thing was drifting in on +us, so we didn’t have to do all the work—just get in its path. We could +slacken our own drifting with the oar, so pretty soon we were alongside +it and saw it was a swamped life boat. There was one man floating around +in it-dead. That two hundred dollars belonged—or rather was in his +pocket. There were some other things in his pockets too; some things +that started me guessing. I think you kids had better tarn in now; it’s +getting late.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XV'>CHAPTER XV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>NO! NO! NO! GO ON! GO ON!</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>All right, there isn’t much more. We had no guess how long the man had +been in the boat or whether he had starved or what. He might have been +dead several days, I thought. The life boat was awash. There was the +name of some ship or other on the bows, but the boat had been painted +since the name was printed there, and all I could make out was a few +indistinct letters under the fresh paint. I made out an L, then DY, then +NNE. I have a hunch the name was <span class='it'>Lady Anne</span>, but maybe not.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The man must have been a pretty rough character from all I could judge; +a sailor, I daresay. It was out of the question rescuing the body. Every +ounce of weight in our own boat made it worse for us, and we couldn’t +have hauled it over the side without danger. So we did the next best +thing and that was to go through his pockets in the hope of finding +something to identify him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>You getting sleepy? No? Well, we found a weather wallet on him. Know +what that is? It’s a pocket-book made of rubber. You can see them in +ship supply stores all along South street in New York. In there he had +two hundred and seven dollars and a letter. The writing was all smeared +and some of it I couldn’t read at all. I couldn’t make out the address, +but I <span class='it'>think</span> it was signed “Father.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>That was no place to be doping things out, with the seas rolling us +goodness knows where, so I just stuffed the money in my trouser pocket, +because it made too big a wad to go in my wallet. But I dried the letter +as best I could and put it away in this little case I always carry. +Here’s the case and here’s the letter now. And I suppose that if there’s +any mystery, as you call it, why this is <span class='it'>it</span>.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now just wait and don’t get excited and you’ll see the letter. Just let +me finish. We pushed off from the life boat and I think it must have +sunk soon afterward. The sea got pretty calm after a while and late that +afternoon we were picked up by a schooner and set ashore.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jake and I agreed to say nothing about our discovery; I’ll tell you the +reason in a minute. He forgot and blurted out something about our +finding a life boat and it got into the newspapers, but no harm was +done, because after our rescue we gave the names of Mike Corby and Dan +McCann and after we had started home, no one knew who to hunt for, even +if they wanted to.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But the principal reason we gave false names was, because my leave from +camp was already up and I didn’t want anybody, my own folks especially, +to know that I had sidestepped home and mother to go off on a crazy +fishing trip. Get me?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jake went home and I haven’t seen him since. I hustled to Bridgeboro by +train, sneaked over to Little Valley in a big hurry to change my duds +and—the house-boat was gone. The boy scouts had carried away my uniform +and Lieutenant Donnelle was a ragged outcast, a couple of days overdue +at camp.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>How to get my uniform, that was the question. The boy scouts had done me +a bad turn. I traced the fugitive house-boat to St. George, Staten +Island. I lurked near shore till dark, and when a party of you kids +came ashore and one of you mentioned to another that a certain Roy had +remained on board, I said, “Here is my chance.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I rowed over, made his acquaintance, took him into my confidence, +obtained his promise of silence, and changed my clothes. I found him a +bully little scout. The old rags which went by the name of trousers I +put into the locker, forgetting in my hurry, to take the two hundred and +seven dollars. After fastening the locker I took some change out of my +uniform to reward our young friend, but he spurned my offer. I must have +dropped the locker key when I pulled the change out of my pocket. As you +all know, little Skinny found it and got himself suspected of hiding the +money in the locker. So much for that. I returned to camp and got +slapped on the wrist for being late.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But the letter which I had taken from that dead man I had with me, and +here it is now. When I visited Temple Camp upon the urgent plea of my +old pal Skeezeks, I claimed the two hundred and seven dollars, but it +was not mine.</p> + +<p class='pindent'><span class='it'>It wasn’t the dead man’s either.</span></p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now listen to this water-soaked letter, or as much of it as I can make +out:</p> + +<div class='blockquote'> + +<p class='noindent'>—hundred dol—is a good deal of money. — to —be careful. +—such places— are likely —get robbed.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>thought you—glad—get the ring. —wear —on second finger of left hand +—war. —these fifty years. —real cameo—head— +Lincoln. —getting along—to—make two ends meet—to each one who left +our village——</p> + +</div> + +<p class='pindent'>There is quite a lot more, but I can’t make it out.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, kids, I’ve studied that letter like a spelling lesson and this is +what I make out of it. I can kind of see a picture of an old fellow that +fought in the Civil War. I don’t know who he is or where he is. But I +can see him in an old faded blue uniform. I kind of like him. Look in +the fire, every one of you, and keep your eyes fixed on the blaze. See +him? I do. I can see him just as plain—poor old codger. Funny thing, a +camp-fire, isn’t it? I can see him better now than I could before. He’s +got white hair and he’s writing a letter to that kid of his in France +and telling him to be careful of that money. He’s having a hard time +trying to make two ends meet. Poor old fellow, he’s warning that son of +his about places in France where soldiers get robbed. I’ve seen some of +those places, sailors’ hang-outs, in Brest, and I can back him up there.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I have a kind of hunch that the old fellow—put some more wood on, Roy—I +have a kind of a hunch that he sent the kid a ring, a cameo ring, +with the head of President Lincoln on it. I can see old honest Abe +now—right there where the new sticks are blazing up. Huh? Maybe it’s +only a crazy notion; what do you say? But I’ve doped out a kind of a +notion that that old fellow got the ring when he started off to war; +that somebody or other presented one to each fellow that left the +village. I’d give a doughnut to know where that village is.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, the old man wore it on the second finger of his left hand and I +kind of think he wanted that kid of his to do the same—over there in the +trenches.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Maybe I’m just a sort of a day dreamer, but that’s the picture I’ve had +in my mind ever since I was fishing with Jake Holden. And it seems to +all fit together now when I look right there in that blaze. Pretty good +camp-fire yarn, hey? Not so worse? Just look into the fire yourselves +and think about that letter. Nothing but a kind of fancy, hey? Faces in +the blaze and all that sort of stuff. Never saw me get sentimental +before, did you—Skeezeks?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The funny part of the whole thing is that the man we saw in the boat +<span class='it'>didn’t have any second finger on his left hand</span>. It couldn’t have been +his finger the writer of the letter meant.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XVI'>CHAPTER XVI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>THE MYSTERY</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee whiz, I didn’t even know that he had stopped talking. I was just +looking into the blaze and I could see the whole thing right there. +Maybe it wasn’t true at all, but anyway, I could see it. Especially I +could see the old man. That’s just the way it is with camp-fires.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then, all of a sudden Harry Donnelle poked up the fire and began to +laugh. “Funny, hey?” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Do you think the dead man in the boat stole the money and the +letter?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The letter happened to be with the money,” Harry said; “I don’t know +that I think anything in particular. But how did a sailor with the +second finger of his left hand gone, happen to have a letter asking him +to wear a ring on that finger. How about the soldier who is warned +against going where he will get robbed? Maybe he went, after all, and +got robbed. We might start a search for a soldier who happens to have a +second finger on his left hand. But then, quite a few soldiers enjoy +that distinction. So there we are—up a tree. But here is a sailor with +two hundred odd dollars and a letter referring to two hundred dollars. +There is something about him wearing a ring on a certain finger and he +doesn’t happen to have that finger. Funny.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well then, here’s a query—as long as queries don’t cost anything. Might +not the sailor have robbed the soldier of his two hundred and odd +dollars? And just neglected to destroy the letter that was with it? You +see, kids, I just ran plunk into the middle of the thing and I’d like to +get hold of one end or the other. Somebody or other got a ring when he +went away to war fifty years ago. He lived in a village. Who was he? +Whoever he is, he’s having a hard job making two ends meet. If I could +find him I think I’d turn over this money to him. Now at the other end +of the line, somewhere, is a fellow that ran chances of being +robbed—reckless, like your Uncle Dudley. He’s got a ring with President +Lincoln’s face cut on it—a cameo. I’d like to find <span class='it'>him</span>.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“But you see I haven’t any way of finding either of them. The only thing +I’m sure about is that the dead sailor couldn’t have worn the ring. His +finger had been gone many years, that’s sure. So what are we going to do +about it? I guess we’ll go to bed. But that isn’t getting us anywhere, is +it?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Funny, hey? Kind of a mystery after all—Skeezeks.”</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess every one of us lay awake thinking about it that night. Anyway, +I know I did. And most all the time till the day we got home, we kept +talking about it. Harry Donnelle would always laugh and say maybe there +wasn’t anything to it at all and that if he knew who the sailor was, +he’d go and give the money to his people—probably.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said he guessed the camp-fire up at Temple Camp was what started him +seeing pictures. But always he would say how it was funny that a man +without his second finger should have that letter on him. But he said +that as long as there wasn’t any finger, it couldn’t point anywheres, +and we should worry.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But just the same all the way home, whenever we started a camp-fire, +we’d look into it and kind of see an old soldier with white hair and a +blue coat and then we’d see a young fellow, wearing khaki, and a ring +with Lincoln’s head cut on it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>In the fire we made near Orange Lake just before we hit Newburgh, we saw +a soldier in a kind of a restaurant where there were a lot of sailors +and we saw them take something away from him. But that’s always the way +it is with camp-fires. Mostly we saw the old soldier.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle always laughed about it and said the camp-fire was a +regular art gallery and he guessed he’d give that unlucky two hundred +dollars to an orphan asylum, or to the widows and orphans of the poor +garage keepers or to the destitute Standard Oil Company. So it got to be +a kind of a joke, and that’s the way it was till the whole thing was +solved. And I’m going to tell you all about it, too, but I can’t bother +now, because I have to tell you about our hike and the crazy thing that +happened next day.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XVII'>CHAPTER XVII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>APPALLING! WONDERFUL! MAGNIFICENT!</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, there was one person we never saw in the camp-fire blaze and +that was Mr. Costello. If we had, we wouldn’t have seen the blaze. He +was so big that he would have filled the whole fire. Harry Donnelle said +he could even have blown a camp-fire out if he wanted to—even the big +one at Temple Camp.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I wasn’t awake when Dorry started for Kingston in the morning, so I +didn’t hear him go. But I knew when he came back all right. If I hadn’t +known it, it would have been because I was dead.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He got back before noon and the first I saw of him he was sitting on a +big, high fancy seat of a cage wagon, wedged in alongside a great big +man with a high hat on and a cutaway coat and a red vest. The big man +was driving and the two horses had sleigh bells on them and fancy +harness and they made an awful racket. They were dandy white horses, +though. Dorry looked awful scared and little alongside the big man. The +cage wagon was all gold color and fancy on the top and the wheels looked +like Fourth of July pinwheels.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “Mr. Costello doesn’t exactly look as if he had sneaked off, +does he? He’s not ashamed to be seen. What’s that, a searchlight?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “No, it’s a diamond; he’s got diamonds all over him. Somebody +must have sprinkled him with diamonds before he started. He had them +everywhere except on his feet. He had a big long whip in his hand, too. +There was a man in the cage, besides; I guess he was a keeper.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “Get me a pair of smoked glasses, will you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>As soon as the big man got down he took off his high hat and waved it +and said, “How do you do, sir.” He said it in a big round voice, kind +of.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he said, “I am Mr. Rinaldo Costello, proprietor of Costello’s +Mammoth Show.” He talked so loud that he almost scared us.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry just said, “When I saw you coming I thought it was the village +undertaker. We’re glad to welcome you to our temporary camp. We are also +touring the country; this is my mammoth show.” Then he pointed to all of +us fellows who were standing around, and Mr. Costello took off his hat +again and waved it and bowed very low and held his whip so that I +thought he was going to give us a crack with it, only he didn’t. I guess +he was used to cracking that whip. It was awful funny the way Harry sat +on the fence talking to him. I don’t know how it was, but that fellow +could be awful funny.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mr. Costello said, “This young gentleman who you were kind enough to +send, has told me a very <span class='it'>thrilling</span> story. If it is all true I must +pay my tribute to the dauntless young scout whose valor in combat is +truly matchless.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Excuse me while I blush,” I said. I just couldn’t help saying it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He is known as Roy the Leopard Catcher,” Harry said. “In the wilds of +Catskill village he is known by the natives as Skeezeks—Skeezeks the +Bold. Allow me to introduce him.” Then he grabbed me by the hair and +shoved me right out in front. Then he said, “Like all true heroes, he is +modest. But perhaps you will wish to see Marshal Foch. We shall be sorry +to part with him.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then they all followed Mr. Costello and Harry to the barn. Mr. Costello +walked as if the whole world was looking at him. He looked awful funny, +all dressed up that way in the country. I bet he was hot. I didn’t go, +because I wanted to look at that cage wagon. It had gold mermaids on the +corners of it, and oh boy, wasn’t it fancy. The mermaids’ tails went all +along the sides. Inside there was hay on the floor. I bet it was fun for +Dorry, riding on that thing. Every time the white horses stamped the +bells would jingle afterward. Harry said it sounded like a junk wagon, +but <span class='it'>I</span> liked them anyway.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I wished I was the man to ride inside of that cage with Marshal Foch. I +guess he knew how to handle leopards all right, hey? Maybe they were +good friends even. Gee whiz, I like hiking better than anything else, +except apple pie, but anyway, I’d like to be in a parade, that’s one +thing. That’s just what I said. I said it out loud to myself.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XVIII'>CHAPTER XVIII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>ON TO GLORY</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>When they came back the keeper was leading Marshal Foch with a rope, and +the fly paper was gone from his head and his body. Harry Donnelle said +they melted the stickum with gasoline and that it didn’t hurt the +leopard much. He said it came off easier than a porous plaster does. You +bet I was glad; because that leopard and I were kind of friends. Anyway +I would have been glad. The keeper had a pistol but I guess it was just +safety first because the animal walked along by him just as meek as +could be and walked right up the slanting board into the wagon. I guess +he knew that keeper all right. His eyes were kind of half shut and all +sticky like, and his nice fur was all stuck up but the men said they +could fix him all right as soon as they had time.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I just couldn’t help saying, “So long, Marshal Foch, I’m sorry I had to +do it; see you later.” He just walked back and forth in the cage, awful +graceful, as if he was looking to see if everything was all right, and +maybe he was glad to get back, hey?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Mr. Costello said in his big loud voice, just as if he was making a +speech, “I am going to give the people of Kingston, <span class='it'>absolutely free</span>, +an opportunity to view for the first time in America, the dauntless +young hero of two continents.” I don’t know why he said two continents, +because I only live on one, and believe me, that’s enough.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But most everything he said had <span class='it'>two continents</span> in it. Harry said it +was a wonder he forgot Mars and the Moon. “The dauntless young hero +scout, pride of two continents,” that’s what he said. Oh boy, didn’t I +blush! And didn’t Harry Donnelle laugh!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“May I ask your name, sir?” Mr. Costello said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I told him, “Roy Blakeley.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I would like you to ride with Marshal Foch in the parade,” he said, +“and later at the performances. I think I will call you <span class='it'>Roy the +Redoubtable</span>; or perhaps <span class='it'>Blakeley the Bold</span> would be better. This is an +opportunity of a lifetime to the people of Kingston. It will rejoice the +scouts of two continents to see their intrepid young hero riding in +triumph with the savage, man eating, beast that he subdued.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “That would be delightful. What do you say, Roy?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “<span class='it'>Good night</span>, I won’t have to ride in the cage with him, will +I? I like him all right, but—but we’re not—kind of, we’re not yet well +acquainted yet.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mr. Costello said, “You will ride on the seat outside, as his triumphant +conqueror. You will outrival the gladiators of ancient Rome. You will +listen to the plaudits of the multitude. Are you able to look fierce? +Just a little fiery? Just a little suggestion of fearless courage and +intrepid power in your eyes? Something like <span class='it'>this</span>.” Oh boy, he gave me +a look that nearly knocked me over.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “Try it, Roy.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I looked as fierce as I could, and all the fellows broke out laughing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That will be fine,” Mr. Costello said; “just a little glance of the eye +to strike terror as you look from left to right. Our advance agent will +do the rest. There is not much time, but he will see that the people are +advised of their opportunity. The boys of Kingston will thrill with +pride and glory. Step up to the seat, my young friend.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “I don’t believe I can look fierce enough, honest I don’t.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle was just sitting there on the fence laughing so hard I +thought he’d fall off. All of the fellows began guying me and saying I +was a fool to be scared and that they wished they had the chance. But +gee whiz, I was never part of a circus before, and I didn’t want to sit +’way up on the top of that fancy wagon and just look fierce. I bet you +wouldn’t, either.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon we were driving away and Mr. Costello looked awful big +sitting there beside me. He kept cracking his whip all the time.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“So long, see you at the parade!” the fellows shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t get nervous,” Harry called.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I should worry,” I called back; “I don’t care what becomes of me now.”</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>They had big red shutters with gold designs to cover up the cage so no +one could see Marshal Foch, and the keeper sat on the step in back. Oh +boy, how that Mr. Costello did drive; and he could crack the whip so it +sounded like a rifle going off.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon we came pell-mell into Kingston and I could see the circus +posters in all the store windows and on the fences. The pictures of Mr. +Costello looked just like him, kind of brave and bold like, and he +always had a whip in his hand. I guess he slept with that whip under his +pillow, hey?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>While we were passing along one of the streets, a half a dozen scouts +shouted to me and I gave them the scout salute.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mr. Costello said, “Those intrepid young gentlemen will be proud of +their young comrade; the whole city will do you honor for your daring +and dauntless deed.” I noticed that whenever he strung together a lot of +words they all began with the same letter. It sounded fine, too.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “I know one thing, and that is I’d like to have a rich, red, +rare, racy, raspberry soda, just now.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You will soon be able to regale your ravenous and rapacious capacity +among the freaks of two continents who will accord you a warm and +wonderful welcome,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee, you couldn’t beat him at it, that was one sure thing.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XIX'>CHAPTER XIX<br/> <span class='sub-head'>JIB JAB, IS HE HUMAN?</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Jiminy crinkums, I may be a nut (that’s what the troop calls me anyway), +but I’m not a freak and, believe me, when I saw who I was going to have +dinner with that day—<span class='it'>good night!</span></p> + +<p class='pindent'>They all sat around a big mess board that stood on horses just like at +Temple Camp. It was in a side tent. Judge Dot sat right next to me; he +was a midget. I guess he was only about three feet high, and he had a +special chair. On the other side of me was Lieutenant Lemuel Long; he +was the thin man. He was about as fat as a clothes pole. He didn’t eat +much, but it wasn’t because he didn’t have any appetite. He said he had +a contract with Mr. Costello not to eat much, because that would make +him fat. He said he had a contract not to weigh more than eighty pounds. +Gee, you’ve got to keep a contract if you make one, that’s one thing.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width:80%'> +<img src='images/i003.jpg' alt='' id='i003' style='width:100%;height:auto;'/> +<p class='caption'>HE TOOK THE FUR RIGHT OFF HIS HEAD.</p> +</div> + +<p class='pindent'>But anyway, Madame Whopper could eat all she wanted to; she was the fat +lady. She was a marvelous mammoth—that’s what it said under the +picture. She ate nine pieces of pie. I ate four, but anyway, she was a +professional. They kept bringing her more pie. Judge Dot said once she +ate eleven pieces. I liked Judge Dot, because he said he was sorry about +Marshal Foch. He gave me his picture with his name on. He said if it was +anyone else but me, it would cost a quarter.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But anyway, the one I liked best was Jib Jab, is he human? He had fur +just like a bear, but a head like a man, only his face was brown and it +had long hair on it. His face didn’t look exactly like a man and it +didn’t look exactly like animal. First I was kind of scared, because in +the pictures he was in a cage and he was grabbing hold of the bars and +glaring awful fierce and wild. And, gee whiz, I didn’t want to eat +dinner with a wild animal. Oh boy, didn’t I have a good scare when I saw +him coming to the table!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He jumped over the board seat and sat down right opposite me and took +the fur right off his head, just as if he was scalping himself and laid +it on the ground. He looked more like a man then.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He looked across and said to me, “Hello, old top, how are they treating +you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “I’m feeling pretty well.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Going into the parade, I hear,” he said. “That was quite a stunt you +pulled. You’d never catch me like that if I once broke loose. Think you +could?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Maybe I couldn’t, but anyway, I guess you’re human, all right.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he began to laugh and said to the thin man, “How goes it, Skinny; +you going to ride?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess he meant the parade. The fat woman said, “I wouldn’ do no ridin’ +fer no proprietor, not me. The public has got to come to <span class='it'>me</span>; I wouldn’ +never go to <span class='it'>them</span>.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jib Jab said, “All in the game.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Judge Dot said, “It’s different with you, Jib; you ain’t human and you +can’t say for yourself. You’re in the menagerie class. You got to ride +in your cage. You ain’t a regular freak. I never heard of no parade work +in a freak contract.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Madame Whopper said, “I wouldn’ do parade work fer no proprietor, ride +or walk, I wouldn’ not even Barnum hisself, I wouldn’.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jib Jab said for me to pass him the butter and then he winked at me and +he said, “You’re too particular, Ma. Parade work is all right. I like +parade work, except I can’t smoke. How about it, Kid?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said I didn’t mind being in a parade, but I wouldn’t want to ride in a +cage like he had to do.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He laughed and said it was all in the game. He said if he ever broke out +of that cage, I’d never capture him until he came back for his money on +Saturday night.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said “Sometimes boy scouts find people; sometimes they hunt for people +that are lost. In our magazine there’s always a notice if a scout is +lost and all the scouts are on the look out for him.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes, but those people are human,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Gee whiz, I can’t deny that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You never hunted for a <span class='it'>what-is-it</span>, did you?” he asked, awful funny +like.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I told him, “No, I never did, but once a troop of scouts found a girl +that was lost on a mountain, and there was another troop that found a +fellow just from seeing his name in the newspapers.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “You’re a wide awake bunch, you kids. They don’t have any boy +scouts in the jungle where I was captured alive. If you ever get on my +trail, I’d give you a run all right.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I asked him where that jungle was where he was captured alive, and he +said it was on Washington Avenue in the Bronx.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He was an awful nice fellow.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XX'>CHAPTER XX<br/> <span class='sub-head'>THE PARADE</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Before we were finished I could hear the band playing outside and when I +went out all the wagons and chariots and things were in a line ready to +start. There were two elephants, a big one and a baby one, and about a +half a dozen cage wagons with animals in them and a steam calliope and a +lot of things, all gold and red. There were some dandy white horses.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>On Marshal Foch’s cage was a big sign that said:</p> + +<div class='lgc' style='margin-top:0.7em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line'>MARSHAL FOCH</p> +<p class='line'>THE RETURNED LEOPARD</p> +<p class='line'>AND</p> +<p class='line'>SCOUT BLAKELEY</p> +<p class='line'>PRIDE OF TWO CONTINENTS!</p> +<p class='line'>HIS DARING AND DAUNTLESS CAPTOR.</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<p class='pindent'>I climbed up to the seat and sat by the driver. He had an awful fancy +hat and kind of tinsel stuff all over him. He had a tassel on his hat +and it kept blowing in my face. I didn’t know what they were waiting +for, but pretty soon Jib Jab came out and he had a chain around his leg. +He looked pretty fierce and savage. A keeper was holding the chain and +Jib Jab pulled and jerked on it, so a lot of people who were standing +around backed away. The wagons were all around in a circle so I could +see him in his cage, and he winked at me while the keeper was fixing the +chain to one of the bars.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh boy, but that was some parade! The streets were all full of people +and the steam calliope made so much noise you’d think you were in a +boiler factory. Oh, didn’t everybody stare at me! I guess my face was as +red as the fancy wagons, but what did I care? On one of the streets I +saw Harry Donnelle and the other fellows coming out of a candy store. +They were all wiping their mouths with their handkerchiefs and Westy was +rubbing his stomach with his hand, as if he had been eating something +good. They just did that to jolly me, I bet. I should worry about them. +Then they all began laughing at me, because I was trying to look fierce +and bold. Maybe you think that’s easy.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee, I guess we went through every street in Kingston, with people +staring at me all the while, and kids hooting, but I didn’t care. +Anyway, I was proud to ride on that wagon.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Just when we were coming back into the circus grounds, I saw Harry +Donnelle and the patrol and some other scouts waiting, so I climbed +down, because I wanted to be with them. Mr. Costello came out and talked +to us and said that I did fine. He said I was the idol of thronging +multitudes—that’s just what he said. I was good and thirsty, I know +that. Gee, didn’t Harry Donnelle laugh.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mr. Costello said, “The boy scouts are an honor to this great and +glorious country and I should like to take our intrepid young friend to +Europe to appear before the high nobility.” Harry said that I was a +modest kid and that he guessed one continent was about all I could carry +in my pocket. He said that some day maybe I’d pick up Europe if I +happened to be passing that way.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Mr. Costello gave us all tickets to the show that night and after +that he made me a speech and said how I was beloved by all the world +renowned personages in the side show. He said that Madame Whopper told +him I was a little gentleman. A scout is courteous—oh joy. Then he put +his arm over my shoulder and walked away with me and told me not to talk +very much about Jib Jab being human, because he wanted the people to +decide for themselves. He said it wasn’t telling a lie, because he never +said Jib Jab wasn’t human. He just said, “Is he human?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said it’s all right to ask a question.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee whiz, nobody can deny that.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXI'>CHAPTER XXI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>WE VISIT THE SIDE SHOW</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Those scouts that we met were nice fellows. They were hiking back to +Newburgh; that’s where they lived. They told us they had hiked up along +the river to visit a place named Elm Center, about ten or fifteen miles +west of Kingston. They said they had a bivouac camp just outside the +city and that they had stayed there for a couple of days, so as to take +in the circus.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We all went to the show together that night, and I sat on Marshal Foch’s +cage wagon and rode around in the parade at the beginning of the show. +All the fellows cheered me, even those new fellows. After the show I +told them all that I wanted to go into the side show and say good-bye to +my friends. We were all standing outside and Dorry Benton said, “I’ll go +with you.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Of course, as soon as he said that, they all wanted to go, but Harry +said he guessed two were enough. So Dorry and I went in and made a call. +The freaks were getting ready to go to bed, but anyway, they were glad +to see us. I guess Madame Whopper slept in another tent; anyway, we +didn’t see her. Maybe she had a whole tent to herself.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mr. Lemuel Long said he was hungry and he wished he could eat a lot like +scouts do. Gee, I have to admit that scouts eat a lot—especially +dessert. You can bet I wouldn’t want to be a human skeleton. Judge Dot +said he should worry, because he couldn’t grow any taller no matter what +happened. He said he was fifty-two years old and after you get to be +fifty-five you begin to shrink. He said everybody does, mostly. He said +if he shrunk, he was going to make Mr. Costello give him more money. Gee +whiz, I couldn’t blame him, especially on account of the high cost of +living. He said Madame Whopper had gained fifty pounds and she made Mr. +Costello give her a raise.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>While we were talking with Judge Dot, Jib Jab came in and said, “Hello, +Scouty, how did you like the show?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “You looked good and wild, that’s one thing, especially with +that chain on.” He said that chain was his own idea.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess he had just been washing his face, anyway, there wasn’t any hair +on it and the brown was all cleaned off. I could see now that he was a +mighty nice looking fellow. His hair was kind of curly and his eyes were +awful bright. He took off his fur covering and put on a kind of a bath +robe and then sat down on a chair and stuck his feet up on Madame +Whopper’s platform. Oh boy, you should have seen Dorry stare. First he +looked at the fur covering. It had paws and claws on it just like an +animal. Then he looked at Jib Jab. I guess he didn’t know what to make +of him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jib Jab said, “Now for a smoke,” and he lighted a cigarette; “nothing +like a quiet smoke after the day’s work is over. Back in the jungle I +never had all this bother of dressing and undressing. Civilization is +just killing me. Fact is I can’t be tamed. Anybody got a newspaper? I +suppose I ought to be thankful I haven’t got my face all plastered up +with fly paper. Where’s old Sky Scraper?” That’s what he called the +giant.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Gone to bed,” Judge Dot said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How about you, Shorty; got a match?” he asked Judge Dot.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Judge Dot just said very stiff like, “I’ll bid you good night, sir.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Happy dreams, Shorty,” Jib Jab called after him. Then he said, “That’s +the trouble with all these freaks—uppish, especially the giant. Why he +looks down on everybody. Ma’s about the best of the lot. Shorty thinks +he’s the whole circus just because he has three rings on his hands. Same +with Skinny. I’d rather be back in the jungle than living with this +bunch. Half the time they don’t speak to me. You see I’m not a regular +freak; they look on me as a kind of a butt-in.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Gee, I’m sorry; I should think they’d like you.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“They’re all jealous,” he said; “that’s the trouble. They’re all down on +parade work, even Ma. They couldn’t stand for me making a hit with that +chain. Last week, up in Albany, I started to growl just as Shorty +started selling his photographs. The louder he piped away with that +silly little squeaky voice of his, the more I roared. When it comes to +roaring, I’ve got even the lions jealous. Fact is I’m not liked; they +are all jealous, even the animals. And I feel it, too; any honest hard +working <span class='it'>what-is-it</span> would. Especially if he’s human. The little +two-headed boy we had was about the best of the lot, only he was double +faced. He’s with Barnum’s now—fifty a week and overtime.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I don’t see why you want to be a <span class='it'>what-is-it</span>,” I told him; “especially +if they don’t treat you right.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He just went on smoking, awful funny, kind of. Jiminy, I couldn’t make +him out at all.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Now you take Teddy Roosevelt, the elephant. He’s what you’d +call a big attraction—very big. Do you suppose he’d refuse to pal with +me just because I’m a poor, neglected <span class='it'>what-is-it</span>? Only this morning we +had a bag of peanuts together; he and I and little Ruth. He’s just as +plain and democratic as he can be. But you see my position isn’t easy. +I’m human and yet I’m not. I don’t know where I fit in. The animals are +kind of leary; you can’t blame them. And the freaks are as stuck up as +poor old Marshal Foch was. Sometimes I wish I was back in the jungle.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jingoes, I didn’t know how to take him at all, and I could see Dorry was +just staring at him as if he didn’t know whether he was jollying us or +not.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway, we have to be sorry for you,” I said. He just kept puffing on +his cigarette and he said, “Well, it’s good to sit back here when the +freaks have turned in and have a quiet smoke. Pretty strenuous work +jerking and pulling on that chain. It’s a hard life being a question +mark.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You said something,” I told him; “cracky, I wouldn’t want to be +a <span class='it'>what-is-it</span>.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He just said, “No, when you grow up, make up your mind whether you’re +going to be human or not. Don’t try to be two things. Don’t be a +question mark. Why away down in my savage, primeval heart, I wouldn’t +hurt a kitten. Yet here I am growling and roaring and wrenching at my +cage bars and straining at that old chain, and the children and old +ladies back up on the street when they see me, frightened out of their +lives. I’m not loved by anyone. It’s mighty hard. Either one of you kids +got a cigarette about you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I told him no, that scouts didn’t smoke cigarettes.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Well, drop in and see me down at Poughkeepsie or Newburgh if +you happen in when we’re there. You’re always welcome.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee, we just couldn’t make heads or tails of that fellow. Anyway, I +liked him. And I had to admit that that was good advice he gave me about +making up my mind whether to be human or not.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXII'>CHAPTER XXII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>BRENT GAYLONG</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>The fellows were all waiting for us when we came out and we hiked out to +where those scouts had their camp. There were only five of them, one +patrol, and the biggest one was a kind of scoutmaster and patrol leader +rolled into one. His name was Brent Gaylong. I walked with him behind +the others and he told me all about his patrol and the troubles they +had. He was an awful nice fellow, kind of quiet like; but he was funny, +too. Christopher, that little troop must have been started on Friday the +thirteenth, that’s one thing sure.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “What’s the name of your patrol?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well,” he said, “we call ourselves the Church Mice, because we’re so +poor. First we were going to call ourselves the Job’s Turkeys, but we +decided that a church mouse was poorer than Job’s turkey.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I had to laugh. I said, “I’ve heard of most every kind of an animal’s +name used for patrols, but never a church mouse. My patrol is the Silver +Fox.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That’s a bully name,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway,” I told him, “the name hasn’t got so much to do with it. There +was a patrol up at Temple Camp named the Pollywogs and they were all +nice fellows. But they couldn’t keep still, they were always wriggling. +Maybe they’re frogs by this time, hey? A fellow up there told me about a +patrol named the Caterpillars and afterwards they changed it to the +Butterflies. He said there’s a patrol out west named the Mock Turtles. +There’s a lot of crazy fellows come to Temple Camp. One of them said +there was a fellow in his troop named Welsh and he was chosen leader of +a new patrol and they wanted to call it the Welsh Rabbits. Church Mice +is all right, I think.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “It’s appropriate anyway. I’d like to see a camp like that +Temple Camp; it must be great. Trouble with us is we’ve had such plaguey +hard luck. I guess there’s only one thing harder than our luck and +that’s the biscuits we make.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “I can make hard ones.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he said, “You see, first our scoutmaster had to go to war. We were +just starting then. It hit us a good whack. We tried to get another, but +scoutmasters were pretty scarce; they were scarcer than coal and sugar. +They were all in France. So I took the job. I suppose we could get one +now, but since we’ve worried along all this time without one, we decided +to wait till our scoutmaster gets back. He’ll be back in a couple of +weeks, I understand, and we want to give him a welcome. We’ve got two +dollars and fourteen cents toward it so far—two dollars and four cents, +really, because there’s a Canadian dime. If there are any Canadian dimes +around, we’re sure to get them. Then our little shanty burned down. It +was about the best camp-fire I ever saw, only it left us without a +meeting-place. We still have our scout smiles; they don’t cost anything. +If they did, we couldn’t afford them.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “That’s one thing about scout smiles; they’re the only things +that haven’t gone up.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“So here we are,” he said, “hiking back home after one of our fool +enterprises. We intended to go down on the train, but we went to the +circus instead.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s about thirty miles down to Newburgh,” I said; “you’ll have to +bivouac twice anyway.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “I guess we’ve got eats enough.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We might as well all hike that far together,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Good idea,” he said, “if you don’t mind chumming up with a travelling +poor-house.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We should worry about being poor,” I said; “I know a man that’s rich +and he can’t hike at all. He goes on crutches. How would you like to be +him? Anyway, don’t you fellows get discouraged.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t worry,” he said; “first it was hard, but now we’ve come to like +it. You can get a lot of fun out of hard luck. And all we need is time, +I suppose. This winter we’re all going to work on Saturdays. Trouble is +that isn’t going to help us give our scoutmaster a <span class='it'>welcome home</span>. We’ve +done more crazy things this summer trying to get a little money +together! I guess it would have been better if we’d all knuckled down to +jobs. But I wanted these poor kids to get a taste of scouting. Too late +now, anyway. Why if I told you why we hiked up to Elm Center, you’d just +laugh in my face. You’d say we were crazy. But we’ve had a good time +anyway.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “One thing sure, everything will come out all right and it’s +better to go on a hike and camping and all that in the summer than to be +working in the city. One of those fellows ahead of us is named Dorry +Benton and he’s kind of—not exactly poor, but—Anyway, he’s crazy to +get a motorcycle and he was going to stay home and work this summer, but +Mr. Ellsworth (he’s our scoutmaster) told him no, that it was better for +him to go up to Temple Camp. That big fellow with us isn’t our regular +scoutmaster. Anyway, Dorry is crazy to have a motorcycle and you can +bet he’ll have more fun with it if he has to wait for it, won’t he? +Anyway, I wish you’d tell me what you came up this way for. I won’t tell +any of the follows if you don’t want me to.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh,” he said, “they might as well all have a good laugh. And I don’t +want you to think that I’m grouching about hard luck, either. We’ll land +right side up—scouts mostly do. The woods are free, thank goodness. All +that’s troubling us is that when Mr. Jennis went away he gave us a +spread and presented each one of us with a scout knife and we’d like to +return the compliment, that’s all. We’d like to show him how much we +think of him. I had a crazy notion we’d all go down to New York and meet +him and give him something or other when the transport arrives. Happy +dreams. I guess all we’ll give him is the scout salute. But we’ll come +out right side up yet, even if we have to sweep up the streets in +Newburgh. Principal trouble with us is that we’re a lot of dreamers; I +guess I’m the worst of the lot. Not much money in adventures. So now +we’re up against it. You don’t make money <span class='it'>scouting</span>, you make it +<span class='it'>working</span>.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “I wish you’d please tell me why you came up this way, will +you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure I will,” he said; “it’s a joke—it’s a peach of a joke. Only I +tell you beforehand, we’re a band of wild adventurers. Here we are +at our luxurious camp. Pretty big tent, hey?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I don’t see any tent,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Don’t you see that big blue tent?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Where?” I asked him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“With the little gold spots all over it?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh, you mean the sky?” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Some tent, hey?” he said. And then he began laughing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There’s no man can make a tent like that,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s only intended for rich scouts,” he laughed; “we don’t even bother +to take it with us when we go; we just leave it here. Oh, we’re a +reckless, extravagant bunch.”</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXIII'>CHAPTER XXIII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>BRENT’S STORY</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>The Church Mice didn’t even make up a full patrol, because there were +only five of them counting Brent Gaylong. Maybe the rest of them stayed +home. Only three of them had the uniform, and Brent didn’t have any. +They didn’t even have duffel bags or a camp kit and when I saw how it +was with them, I just had to admire that fellow who was keeping them +together. Especially I felt sorry for them, because our troop has about +everything and that’s mostly the way it is with all the troops that go +to Temple Camp.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, we made up some pretty good late eats and after that we got a +good big fire started and all sat around it. Brent lay on his back near +the blaze and had his knees drawn up and was looking up at the sky. +That’s just the way he lay all the while he was telling us about his +patrol and why they came up that way. It seemed as if he thought it was +all just a big joke, but I could see he thought a good deal about +scouting and about those fellows. I had to laugh at him, but I liked him +a lot just the same. He was kind of happy-go-lucky, I could see that. +Harry Donnelle liked him, that was sure. I guess it was because he was +kind of happy-go-lucky, too.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Buried treasure is all right,” that’s what he said, “and so are missing +people, and people lost in the woods and all that; and liberal rewards +are very nifty. But if you’re after fifty or so buckarinos, the best +thing is driving a grocery wagon or selling the Saturday Evening Post on +street corners. You don’t get much adventure mowing people’s lawns, but +it’s sure money. The trouble with us is we’ve been speculating in +adventure and now we’re going to walk back home. Take a lesson from our +terrible example—and don’t read the newspapers.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle said, “There’s seventy-five per cent profit in +adventures. I’d go to South Africa if I thought there was a ten cent +piece buried there.” That was just exactly like him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway,” I said, “I’d like to know why I shouldn’t read the +newspapers.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Because they will lead you astray. They sent us off on a get-rich-quick +enterprise,” Brent said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Of course, I knew he was half joking, but that was always the funny way +he talked. He reached over and held a stick in the fire till the end of +it was all flaming, then he stuck it in the ground near his head and +pulled a clipping out of his pocket. He kept lying on his back all the +time and he looked so funny, I just had to laugh.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he said, “Well, now, this is what brought us up into these woolly +wilds”, and he began to read the clipping. This is it, because he gave +it to me afterwards:</p> + +<div class='blockquote'> + +<div class='lgc' style='margin-top:0.7em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line'>BOY SCOUTS ASKED TO SEARCH FOR MISSING DOUGHBOY.</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + +<p class='pindent'>Boy scouts in all sections of the country have been asked to watch for +Horace E. Chandler, late of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, +who has been missing since his discharge from Camp Upton several weeks +ago.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Private Chandler was mustered out on August third, having served with +great courage and distinction in the Argonne Forest, where he received +honorable mention for unusual heroism in raiding single handed an enemy +machine gun nest.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Private Chandler’s home is in Greendale near Plattsburg in New York. He +is reported to have been seen in Albany several days after the date of +his discharge, by several young men who had known him formerly, but on +being questioned they were not certain of the identity of their former +friend.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>His whereabouts are now a mystery and no reason can be ascribed to his +disappearance.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It is thought that he may have been the victim of foul play while on his +journey home.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>A wealthy and public spirited citizen of Greendale, Mr. Horace E. Wade, +whose namesake Private Chandler was, has offered the sum of one hundred +dollars for any information leading to the discovery of young Chandler’s +whereabouts.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Boy scouts have often succeeded in discovering missing persons. Their +large organization, covering as it does, the entire country and their +predilection for long tramps and journeys afford them some of the best +facilities for such quests.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mr. Wade has offered his reward after the futile efforts of the police +in many large cities to locate the returned soldier.</p> + +</div> + +<p class='pindent'>“And here’s his picture to go by,” Gaylong said; “good looking chap, +huh? Here’s what it says underneath it, ‘<span class='it'>Private Horace E. Chandler from +a photo taken the week before he sailed for France.</span>’”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Nobody said anything for a minute and Dorry, who was nearest to Brent +Gaylong, leaned over and looked at the picture. “I’d like to read it +over in a better light,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Brent said, “Take it; it’s no use to us. It gave us a good hike, that’s +all. We thought we might come back with the hundred. We had scout +uniforms and everything all bought—in our minds. We had a sumptuous gold +headed cane for Mr. Jennis. We had a meeting shack all furnished up. Oh, +we were regular prosperous scouts for a couple of days—in our +imaginations. I think I ought to have the badge for day dreaming, if +there is one. I think I could get a job in a dime novel. Up to Elm +Center and back again chasing a rainbow!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He was so funny about it that I didn’t know how disappointed he really +was. He was kind of funny and serious at the same time. But I could see +they were all disappointed.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All of a sudden Harry Donnelle said, “What started you up to Elm Center +near Kingston, when our wandering warrior lived away up near +Plattsburg?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh, yes,” Brent said; “I forgot the best part of it. Quite some time +after we read that accursed article, little Willie here and I happened +to drop in at a movie show in Newburgh—ten cents counting the war tax. +Cheap but filling. There was a picture in the Pathe jigamerig of an +aviator landing in the village of Elm Center near Kingston, New York. I +had never heard of Elm Center before. But anyway, an aviator had to come +down there and so Elm Center got on the screen. There were a lot of +people standing around looking at the machine and little Willie +wide-awake here, said to me, ‘Do you see that soldier in the film? The +one leaning against the fence and kind of glancing this way? He’s the +fellow whose picture was in the paper.’ I took a good squint at him and, +by jingoes, it was! It was Horace E. Chandler. ‘Caught at last,’ I +said.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“So here we are on our way home from Elm Center. It’s a pretty little +village—post office, two stables, a hardware store where you can buy +cake, and a watering trough. One of the nicest watering troughs I ever +saw.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And Horace E. Chandler? Oh, they never saw him or heard of him. Maybe +he went up in the airplane, huh? If I only had a Curtis biplane, I’d +search the skies.”</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXIV'>CHAPTER XXIV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>THE LIGHT IN THE WOODS</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Gaylong just rested his leg on his other knee and clasped his hands in +back of his head and kept looking up at the sky. He said, “So that’s the +story of the adventurous Church Mice. The next time we go in for a +hundred dollars, we’re going to get jobs in grocery stores. Hey, kids?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I could see he thought an awful lot of those fellows.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while Harry Donnelle was whistling to himself, as if he didn’t +care much. Pretty soon he said, “You had your fun; what more do you +want? What’s a hundred dollars?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s a good deal to <span class='it'>us</span>,” Gaylong laughed.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You said something about treasure hunting,” Harry said; “you don’t +suppose anybody ever goes treasure hunting on account of the treasure, +do you? They go on account of the adventure. So treasure hunting is +<span class='it'>always</span> a success; even if you only find a tin spoon. You had your +hike; you had your fun; you made a hundred per cent profit. That’s the +difference between a scout and a detective. It’s <span class='it'>going after</span> something +that makes the fun; not <span class='it'>getting</span> it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Brent Gaylong said, “I get you.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’ve flopped around all over the world and I haven’t got a cent to show +for it,” Harry said, “and if anybody told me there was a lead pencil +buried up near the North Pole, I’d go after it. What fun is there buying +a lead pencil in a store? Poor old John D. Rockerfeller could do that +much.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I get you,” Gaylong said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Besides, didn’t you meet <span class='it'>us</span>?” Harry said. “We’re better than a +hundred dollars, I hope. Fun hasn’t cost a cent; it’s the only thing +that hasn’t gone up in price. Maybe the wandering warrior is having the +time of his life, too. And you’d go and spoil it all for him. Maybe he +doesn’t want to be found. Never thought of that, did you? What you +fellows need is not a hundred dollars. You need the scout idea. +Adventure!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Righto,” Gaylong said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“But we’d like to have that hundred dollars,” the little fellow named +Willie piped up.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“True again,” Gaylong said—awful funny.</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>Of course, I knew that was the way Harry would think about it, because’s +he’s one of that reckless, happy-go-lucky sort. I guess Brent Gaylong +was kind of the same way. Anyway, before we lay down to go to sleep, I +said to Gaylong:</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Would you mind letting me have that article to read by our lantern +while you fellows are spreading the balsam?<a id='r1'/><a href='#f1' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[1]</span></sup></a>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Sure,” and began feeling in his pockets. “Guess that other +fellow has it,” he said, sort of careless; “it’s no use anyway.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon we were all fixed for the night. We made those Newburgh +scouts sleep under our balloon silk shelter. They didn’t want to, but we +told them we’d like to sleep in the open for a change.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess I must have been asleep for an hour or so, when all of a sudden +I was awake again. Anyway, it couldn’t have been more than an hour, +because the wood from our fire was still warm. It was awful nice and +dark and quiet. There wasn’t any sound at all, except a cricket. Pretty +soon I could hear the whistle of a train very far away; I guess it was +way over at the Hudson. I just lay there kind of thinking and wondering +what made me wake up. Because, oh boy, I’m usually dead to the world +when I sleep outdoors.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All of a sudden I saw a little light not very far away, in among the +trees. As soon as I saw it it went out, and then it came again. First I +thought it was a fire fly. Then I knew it couldn’t be—it was too big. +Then I saw it steady for about a minute and then it went out.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I sat up and just stared at the spot where I had seen it and I didn’t +make a sound. I wasn’t exactly scared, but I wondered what it could be. +Then I crept away and started over that way in the dark. I wasn’t +scared, but I was kind of nervous, sort of.</p> + +<hr class='footnotemark'/> + +<div class='footnote'> +<p class='footnote'> +<span class='footnote-id' id='f1'><a href='#r1'>[1]</a></span> + +Balsam is used for making beds.</p> + +</div> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXV'>CHAPTER XXV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>IN THE DARK</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Just then I heard a rustle and I could see a black form quite near. I +saw it move behind a tree.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Who’s there?” I said; but there wasn’t any answer.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I stopped for two or three seconds, because I didn’t know just what to +do, then I walked up to the tree and just as I came near, the form +stepped out from behind it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I heard a voice say, “What do <span class='it'>you</span> want here?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, very surprised, “Dorry? Is it you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “What do <span class='it'>you</span> want here?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I don’t want anything,” I said; “I just saw a light and I came to see +what it was. What’s the matter?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Nothing, I’m going to bed.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Did you have the light?” I asked him. “Maybe you only saw it same as I +did. Only you act awful funny, sort of.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “I’ve got as much right to be up as you have. Nobody can sleep +on that hard ground.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Why didn’t you dig a hollow for your hip?” I asked him, “same as I do. +Hard ground will never keep a fellow awake. It’s your hip. Gee, you’re a +scout; you ought to know that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Come on back,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I don’t know, but something about the way he acted made me feel sort of +funny—suspicious, kind of.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Were you hunting for something with your flashlight? What’s the +matter? Why don’t you tell me what you came out for?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There isn’t any reason, and why should I tell you anyway?” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well,” I said, “because I’m your patrol leader for one thing. And as +long as Mr. Ellsworth isn’t here, I have a right to ask you. I’m not +mad. Only I wonder why you got up and came away, that’s all. Anyway, I +got a splinter in my finger grabbing one of these trees, I know that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You want to find out if I’ve got the flashlight?” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“No, I don’t want to find out if you’ve got your flashlight,” I said, +“because I know you have. I’m not that kind. First you have to say I +didn’t speak about the splinter for that reason,” I said; “you have to +take back what you said.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I never said you were sneaky,” he said; “here, take it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s no crime to have a flashlight, I hope,” he said; “here take it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I wouldn’t try to find out that way,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I know you wouldn’t,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So then he held his flashlight to my finger and I said, “What do you +know about that? I’m carrying a lumber yard around with me. I <span class='it'>thought</span> +I felt kind of heavy.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Have you got a needle?” he asked.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“A crowbar would be better,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Hold still,” he said, and then he just pulled it out with his fingers.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That ought to be worth a couple of dollars, hey?” I said, “with the +high cost of timber.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So then we both laughed. Anyway, Dorry and I were always good friends, +you can bet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He was just going to turn off the flashlight, when I noticed that piece +of newspaper sticking out of his jacket pocket and I pulled it out, just +kind of half joking, and I said, “Here’s what I want. Gaylong said I +could read it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee whiz, there wasn’t any harm in that. Oftentimes I’d do things like +that with fellows, and especially Dorry, because I’d known him so long.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You put that back,” he said, kind of mad.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What’s the use of getting mad?” I said. “You’re grouchy because you +can’t sleep. Here, let’s have your flashlight.” And I just grabbed that +out of his pocket, too.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess he was going to grab them both away from me; anyway, it seemed +that way for a couple of seconds.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he said, “Now you’ll go and spoil it all.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Spoil what?” I asked him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Go on, read it,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure I’ll read it,” I told him; “what’s all the excitement about?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I hope you can keep your mouth shut,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But, believe <span class='it'>me</span>, I didn’t read very much of it, because all I could +see was the picture. I held the flashlight on it and just stared and +stared and stared.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I said, “Dorry!—You know—?” I was just flabbergasted and I could hardly +speak.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure I know,” he said; “it’s Jib Jab. I’m going to get my motorcycle +after all.”</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXVI'>CHAPTER XXVI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>DORRY AND I AND THE CRICKET</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>For a couple of minutes I could hardly speak, I was so surprised. The +picture in that article was the picture of <span class='it'>Jib Jab, is he human?</span> I +knew by the wavy hair and the look he had, that made me not know whether +he was jollying me or not. He had that very same look in the picture. I +could almost hear him speak to me. And I just couldn’t take my eyes off +it. Even that funny kind of twinkle in his eye was there, just the same +as when he made Judge Dot mad.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You and I are the only ones that saw his real face; that’s one good +thing,” Dorry said; “It’s Jib Jab all right, hey?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes, it’s Jib Jab,” I said, kind of half dreaming, I was so surprised. +“And that’s why you came out here; so as to read it and look at it all +alone. Dorry, if you got the hundred dollars and bought a motorcycle, +you’d fall off it and break your neck. You’d never get any fun out of a +motorcycle you bought that way.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Give me the paper,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Here,” I said, “take it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess neither of us spoke for about a minute. All the while I could +hear the cricket chirping, it was so quiet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You heard what Harry told him about how they’d had their fun already,” +Dorry said; “you heard what he told them—about how they’d had their fun +already—didn’t you? Now it’s <span class='it'>our</span> turn. If we can find him——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Shut up,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You heard him,” he just kept up, “and you know it’s true. They had +their adventure. They had their hike—didn’t they?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All the while I could hear the cricket, just chirping, chirping, +chirping. It was awful dark and quiet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Dorry, don’t talk like that, because you know you don’t mean +it. If you meant it, you wouldn’t be a Silver Fox, you wouldn’t. And +it’s just the same as telling lies about Harry Donnelle. I dare you to +go and ask him about it; I <span class='it'>dare</span> you to; and see what he says. Maybe +he’s reckless and crazy about adventures and doesn’t care anything about +having money, and maybe he’s kind of as you might say wild. Maybe he +flirts a lot with girls and likes to risk his life, maybe, but anyway, +he’s fair and square, and he never did a mean thing in all his life. Mr. +Ellsworth said so, and I guess he ought to know. If you think you’ve got +a right to do that, go and ask Harry Donnelle. I <span class='it'>dare</span> you to. Go and +tell him you know where that soldier is and that you’re going to notify +his people up there near Plattsburg and claim the hundred dollars so you +can get your motorcycle. Just go and do that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Why should I do that?” he asked me. “What’s that noise?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s a hawk,” I said; “he’s after little birds in their nests. Don’t +you remember how we wouldn’t name our patrol the Hawks, because they +sneak— You voted against it yourself—you did.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I mean that other——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s just a cricket,” I said. “I’m glad we’re out here all alone. I’m +glad it’s so quiet and dark. Maybe you can’t see in the dark, but you +can see what’s right or wrong better in the dark, because I’m not +mad—honest I’m not. You know what Tom Slade said about trails. Maybe +he’s dead now, over in France; but anyway, you know what he said about +trails.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He wanted a motorcycle, too,” Dorry said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes, but you know what he said about trails? How if you get thinking +about doing something that isn’t fair and square, it just means you’re +on the wrong trail. And you know yourself how hard it is to find the +right trail if you once get started on the wrong one? Maybe you don’t +think much about Tom Slade, these days, but I do. Often when nobody +knows it, I do.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I don’t see anything wrong in it,” Dorry said; “we were the first to +see him.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Then what makes you feel so mean about it?” I asked him. “What makes +you ask me about a little sound like a cricket? It’s because you’re kind +of rattled and you’re not sure, that’s why. Once a murderer went and +confessed after hearing a cricket all night. Maybe you don’t know that +it’s in a book how crickets start your conscience—maybe you don’t. +Listen!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “You mean you’ll tell and you won’t help me?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“No, I won’t tell,” I said, “and I <span class='it'>will</span> help you. I’ll help you to put +the Church Mice on their feet. I’ll help you to give that scoutmaster a +good welcome. I’ll help you to fix it so those poor little codgers all +have uniforms. I’ll help you to fix it so you can look Harry Donnelle in +the face—and Mr. Ellsworth, when you see him. And Tom Slade. And if +it’s a case of sneaking, I’ll help you with that too. We’ll make those +fellows think that <span class='it'>they</span> discovered Jib Jab, otherwise satisfactory, +you can go and ask Harry Donnelle they’d never take the reward. And if +that isn’t if it’s all right for you to get the reward. And if he says +yes, I’ll say so too. I bet he has no use for motorcycles anyway.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Dorry didn’t say anything, only just stood there.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What do you say?” I asked him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He didn’t answer me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What do you say—Dorry?” I asked him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How does a cricket make that sound, anyway?” he asked.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I should worry about how he makes it,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He just said, “Funny, isn’t it?”</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXVII'>CHAPTER XXVII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>WE TAKE HARRY INTO OUR CONFIDENCE</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>One thing, I wouldn’t let anybody talk against Dorry Benton. Even I +wouldn’t have told you about that, only he said it was all right. I knew +all the time that he would never cheat those fellows out of their +reward. He didn’t say anything more that night, but in the morning he +came after me when I went to get sticks for the fire, and then I knew +everything was all right.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “You and I are the only ones that know who Jib Jab is. What are +we going to do about it? And another thing, would it be all right for +scouts to take a reward like that? Something for a service?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure it would be all right,” I told him; “something for a service means +tips and things like that. Scouts can take presents and win rewards, I +hope. Didn’t Pee-wee win an extra helping of pie up at camp for keeping +still all through dinner? Mr. Ellsworth said it was all right.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee, Dorry couldn’t answer that argument. “You should worry about it’s +being all right,” I said; “but, oh boy, if we make a mistake we’ll spoil +everything. We have to watch our step. We’ve just got to make Brent +Gaylong discover that fellow without any help. If we don’t, <span class='it'>good +night!</span> he’ll never claim the reward. I know that fellow.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Maybe we’d better tell Harry Donnelle,” Dorry said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That’s just what I was thinking,” I told him; “because maybe he can +think of a way.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So as soon as we could, we got Harry off in the woods alone. There +wasn’t much time, because we were all going to hit the trail for +Newburgh after breakfast.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Harry, that freak fellow in the circus is the same fellow who’s +picture was in the paper; he’s Horace E. Chandler, I’m positive.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “I told you if you ate too many of those flapjacks last night, +you’d be dreaming dreams.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All right,” I told him, “you remember about Marshal Foch; how you said +he was a calf?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Let’s have a squint at the picture,” Harry said; “these remarkable +discoveries of yours are getting to be a bad habit. A leopard is bad +enough, but a <span class='it'>what-is-it</span>!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So we showed him the picture and he screwed up his face and looked at it +awful funny. Then he read the article all through.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, so you think that’s Wandering Horace, do you?” he asked.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Yes, because his hair is the same, and that funny kind of a +look in his eye and everything. You’ve got to admit Jib Jab is human. +He’s a nice fellow, too. I bet he’d want to see these fellows get the +reward.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “Yes, I don’t exactly hold it against him that he’s human; +he couldn’t help it I suppose. I’m kind of human myself. But just +suppose, for the fun of it, that you’re right——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There’s no fun about it,” I told him; “Dorry and I both saw him.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All right,” he said; “and you want to sacrifice him to the Church Mice. +You want to put them on his trail. How do <span class='it'>we</span> know he wants to be +discovered?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s a good turn,” Dorry said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “Well, I’m not a scout and I don’t deal much in good +turns——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “I bet you did hundreds of them.” And I bet he did, too.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He just said, “But who is the good turn going to hit? What is it you +want to do?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Dorry said, “We want these fellows to find out who Jib Jab is; we want +to start things going so they can find out of their own accord, before +it’s too late.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes, and how about poor Jib Jab?” Harry said. “If you harm one person +to help another, do you call that a good turn? How do we know why he’s +traveling with that circus and living in an animal’s skin? Seems to me +we’ve got to consider <span class='it'>him</span> when we act.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee, by that I saw that there’s a lot more to good turns than some +fellows think.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“But anyway,” I said, “Harry, that fellow is reckless just like you. Do +you mean to tell me his mother and father haven’t got a right to know +where he is? Just because <span class='it'>you</span> went all over the world doesn’t say——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, there isn’t any mention of his mother and father here,” he said; +“only Mr. Horace E. Wade, up there in Greendale, or whatever they call +it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>For a couple of minutes, Dorry and I didn’t say anything, and Harry just +sat there on a log whittling a stick.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he said, “Let’s see that picture again.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Dorry handed it to him and he looked at it in that funny, squinty way, +same as before, then handed it back.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Then can’t we do anything about it?” I asked him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How about getting the reward ourselves?” he asked me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What do we want it for?” I said. “We’re having plenty of fun. We don’t +need anything.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He just went on whittling and looked up kind of funny like, at Dorry.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How about you?” he asked. “You saw the picture first, and recognized +him. Come in handy, that hundred, I dare say?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Dorry just said, “Nix.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Bully for you,” Harry said, and he gave him a push in the chest. Didn’t +I tell you I knew how he’d feel about it?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, then,” he said, “since you are the only ones who would have any +claims, we’ll have to see what kind of a scout the Honorable Mr. Jib Jab +is. I kind of like that fellow’s face——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t you go and ask him to go off to South Africa with you,” I said. +Because I knew Harry Donnelle, all right.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We’ll just have to see if he’s game for a little conspiracy. I kind of +think from that twinkle in his eye, that he will be. We’ll just have to +lay the whole thing before him. We’ll tell him about Gaylong and the +poor Church Mice and if he’s human——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure he’s human!” I said. “Doesn’t he smoke cigarettes and jolly the +freaks, and wink at us and all that? <span class='it'>Sure</span> he’s human—he’s <span class='it'>especially +human</span>!”</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXVIII'>CHAPTER XXVIII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>IN THE WOODS</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>So you see it’s best to always think twice before you do a good turn. +Don’t be in too much of a hurry about it. Because a good turn might go +wild and cause a lot of trouble. You’ve got to take a good aim.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>As long as Jib Jab had told us we’d always be welcome, Harry said, it +would be best for him and Dorry and I to wait till the show was over +that night and then go in and make a call on him. So he told the fellows +that we’d hang around in the woods for one more day and hike it for +Newburgh in the morning. He said that would give us a chance to get some +provisions in Kingston and to stalk in the mountains. They all liked the +idea, only Brent Gaylong said his fellows didn’t have many eats and they +didn’t want to be sponging on us.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “We’re all one family and I’m sick of this Silver Fox +outfit, anyway. It’ll help to vary the monotony.” That was always the +way he talked.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>In the afternoon I took a walk through the woods with Brent Gaylong and +the little fellow he called Willie Wide-awake. He was a nice little +fellow. He found a four-leaf clover and he said, “Maybe that will change +our luck.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Maybe; you never can tell.” And, oh boy, didn’t I just laugh +to myself. <span class='it'>You wait</span>, that’s what I said to myself.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gaylong said, “The trouble with us fellows is that we started our great +and glorious troop during the war. Everybody was organizing +troops—France, Germany, Uncle Sam, Italy—and we got lost in the +shuffle. Too much competition. We’ll land rightside up yet. But when I +look over that scout magazine and see all the ads of things scouts want, +it sort of makes me discouraged. Knives, cameras, bicycles, canoes, +magic lanterns, toy steam engines, tin railroads, fancy memorandum +books, electric motors! I suppose I’m behind the times, but just about +all we want is a little place to meet in, and our scoutmaster back again +and the price of a welcome for him, that’s all. That, and the woods.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You said it,” I told him. “You should worry about all those ads; they +have nothing to do with scouting. All they’ve got to do with scouting is +that they’re good to kindle a camp-fire with. Scouting doesn’t cost +anything when you once get started.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It would cost about ten dollars a minute if some people had their way,” +he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure,” I said, “they’d have you looking like Santa Claus. You should +worry.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“But I ought not to kick,” he said; “because I’m to blame for this wild +goose chase. You see I wanted to get the kids out of doors. I wanted to +get their minds off patent sleds and go-carts, and goodness knows what +all. I was brought up in the country and I wanted them to have a taste +of adventure—the kind of stuff that isn’t advertised, you know.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “You bet I know; and I have to admit you’re right, too.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Of course, there wasn’t any chance of finding that fellow, Chandler,” +he said; “but what’s the difference? We had about seven dollars, and the +kids wanted to buy one of those moving picture machines, ‘<span class='it'>Boy Scouts, +Attention! Here is just what you want!</span>’ You know. So I just took the +seven plunks and brought them up this way on a hike. Something they +<span class='it'>really did</span> want. I thought maybe there was one chance in twenty of +finding that Chandler, but I didn’t say so. I let them think the chance +was fair. Anyway, we had a hike. We were out for adventure. They forgot +about the cornets and the clock-work gew-gaws that they really <span class='it'>didn’t +want</span>. We’ve been scouting. We’re broke, but we’ve been scouting. We +hiked up to a remote village after a missing person. Romance! Adventure! +We’ve been <span class='it'>scouting</span>. Hurrah, and a couple of bravos! That fellow +Donnelle has the right idea; and he’s a brick.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Believe <span class='it'>me</span>, that’s the biggest compliment you ever paid a brick,” I +said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“So here we are,” he said; “cleaned out and happy, and living on our +scout brothers. That’s the idea, isn’t it? Brothers? Poor relations, +hey? But we’re real, honest-to-goodness, scouts. None genuine unless +labeled <span class='it'>Church Mice</span>. Boy Scouts, Attention! Here is something you +<span class='it'>really</span> want. Hiking! Adventure! Some day or other we’ll stumble into +fifty or a hundred dollars, but by the Big Dipper we’ll get it +<span class='it'>scouting</span>. That fellow Donnelle has the right idea; he’s a peach.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Believe <span class='it'>me</span>, he’s a whole orchard,” I said</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then neither of us said anything for about a minute, only we kept +wandering along through the woods and we stopped and watched a chipmunk +in a tree and kept good and still so he wouldn’t be scared. And Brent +Gaylong picked up a locust, awful careful, and held it in his two +fingers and showed Willie Wide-awake how its wings went and how it was +different from a bird. And Willie Wide-awake held it in one hand, +because he had the four-leaf clover in the other hand. It was nice in +the woods. I found a red lizard, too; the kind that come out after it +rains. I guess he made a mistake, hey? There are lots of them up that +way.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “You just keep that four-leaf clover and it’ll bring you luck. +If you can stand a pine cone on your thumb and hold it that way till you +count ten, then you can make a wish and it’ll come true.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So Willie Wide-awake balanced a pine cone like that and counted ten and +then he said, “I wish we’d get a hundred dollars and I wish Mr. Jennis +would hurry up and come back.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And then I batted the pine cone away with a birch stick, so as to make +the wish come true. You’ve got to be sure the stick is made of birch.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXIX'>CHAPTER XXIX<br/> <span class='sub-head'>JIB JAB AND HARRY</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, the day passed soon enough, even if we didn’t have much to do, +and after supper, Harry said very innocent sort of, “Roy, suppose you +and Dorry hike into Kingston with me and carry home some stuff. The rest +of you start a fire.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Little Willie Wide-awake piped up, “I’ll go with you.” But Harry just +ruffled up his hair, the same as he was always doing with me and said, +“You just sit here and watch the fire. See what you can find in the +fire. The other night we were seeing all sorts of things in the +fire—pictures and things. You can find all kinds of pictures in fires, +can’t you, Brent?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Brent Gaylong said, “That’s the idea.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So then Harry gave the little fellow a kind of a push so he went +sprawling right down all over the other fellows. Gee, I bet those kids +liked him. I don’t know, but he had a way about him that everybody +liked. After we started I told him he ought to be a scoutmaster, and he +said he would only he had a date in Labrador. He said he had a date to +go hunting seals. Another time he told us he had a date to kill a man in +Australia. He had a lot of dates.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>On the way to Kingston he said to us, “Did you give that newspaper +article back to Gaylong?” And I told him, “Yes.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All right,” he said; “we don’t want that in our possession. We have +nothing to do with this business; see?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Dorry said, “Sure, we understand.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Harry said, “Now I don’t want you kids to be disappointed if this +wild man of Borneo turns out not to be wandering Horace at all; see?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I can’t be mistaken,” I told him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Well, Columbus was mistaken when he thought he’d reached +India, and he was smarter than you.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Gee whiz,” I said, “I don’t deny he was smarter than I am. But anyway, +I know we’re not mistaken.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All right,” he said; “but I want you to let me do the talking. All I +know about this savage beast is the twinkle in his eye. Twinkles are +good things; you can usually bank on a twinkle. But you kids leave it to +me; understand?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “It’ll be so still you’ll be able to hear the silence.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Because this is a pretty delicate business,” Harry said. “Even if Jib +comes across all right, there’s still Gaylong. Our fingers mustn’t be +seen in this pie. We’re going to try to make something <span class='it'>happen</span>, that’s +all. If he knows that we had anything to do with it, he wouldn’t <span class='it'>touch</span> +the reward. Gaylong is as white as a snowstorm.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Take it from me a snowstorm is dark brown compared to him. I +know that fellow.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, if we can just handle this wild <span class='it'>what-is-it</span>, we’ll put one over +on Gaylong all right,” Harry said. “We’ll buy that cane for +what’s-his-name and we’ll build that scout meeting-place. I’m getting +kind of interested myself now. I haven’t been so worked up since I sold +a phonograph to a king over there in the Cannibal Islands. As soon as he +heard it talk, he wanted to eat it. Come on, get a hustle.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When we got to Costello’s Mammoth Show, the people were crowding out. +Harry went up to the wagon where they sold tickets and said, “Hello, Mr. +Costello, how’s business?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Marvellous, magnificent!” he said in that big voice of his. “The town +is spellbound by our sumptuous show. How are the young scouts?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry told him we were all well, and asked him if I might go in and say +good-bye to my friends.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“They will be proud to receive the young hero and his companions,” he +said. And he waved his whip toward the door of the small tent. I kind of +liked that man. You can like a person, even if he’s a kind of a faker.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>In the side show tent, Lemuel Long was playing checkers with Judge Dot. +Over in the corner, Jib Jab sat with his feet up on one of the +platforms, smoking a cigarette. He had his bathrobe on and his face was +all clean. I guess he was tired after pulling at that chain all day. He +turned his head and said, “Hello, Scouty, glad to see you.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Jib Jab, this is the fellow who’s looking after us on our hike; +it’s Mr. Donnelle. I thought I’d come and see you before we go away and I +brought him, too. He wouldn’t tell anybody about you being human.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle put out his hand in that nice off-hand way he had, to +shake hands with him, and Jib Jab started to reach out too. Then, all of +a sudden he stood up and raised his arm and saluted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How are you, Lieutenant?” he said; “I see you’re mustered out, but I +salute you just the same, because you saved my life in France. I know +you even if you don’t know me, Lieutenant.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Just then Dorry whispered in my ear, “Did you notice his hand when he +saluted. There’s a cameo ring on it. Look close and see if that’s +Abraham Lincoln’s head carved on it. It’s awful old and clumsy looking.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Just then Jib Jab took my hand and I had a good look at that ring. Oh +boy, you can bet I was excited. And you can bet a scout knows Abraham +Lincoln’s head when he sees it. But even if I was flabbergasted, I could +seem to just hear those words, “<span class='it'>saved my life</span>.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I bet that fellow Harry Donnelle had hundreds and hundreds of adventures +that he never told <span class='it'>us</span> about. I guess he didn’t even notice the ring. +That’s one thing about a scout, he’s observant.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXX'>CHAPTER XXX<br/> <span class='sub-head'>JIB JAB IS SURPRISED</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Just then Mr. Lemuel Long and Judge Dot got up to go to bed and Jib Jab +called, “So long, Shorty! So short, Longy!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>While he was laughing at them, I whispered to Harry, “Notice the ring on +his finger.” I guess Harry noticed it all right, only he didn’t say +anything.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He just said, “Your face seems familiar to me; you were in my regiment, +eh?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I was one of those in the machine gun nest,” Jib Jab said; “don’t you +remember the four privates you saved?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “Oh, you were one of those fellows, eh? Glad to see that you +got back to the States all right. I came to see you, but I didn’t know +who you were; that is, I didn’t know you had been in France. You’re +Horace E. Chandler, I think, aren’t you? I’m glad to see that you’re +human; there seems to be some question. Will you have a cigarette?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee, it was awful funny to watch the two of them. Jib Jab just stared at +him while Harry lifted himself up on the edge of the exhibition platform +and lighted a cigarette, kind of off-hand and friendly like.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How’s the savage beast business?” he asked him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What makes you thing I’m Chandler?” Jib Jab said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “Oh, I’ve suspected you were Chandler ever since these boys +saw your picture in the paper, but of course, I didn’t know you had been +mixed up in the big scrap with me. Funny how things come about, huh?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, I suppose I’ll have to admit it,” Jib Jab said; “I hope you’re +not going to shout it out loud.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“No, I just want your assistance. I think you’re a good sport. Far be it +from me to criticise you for being a <span class='it'>what-is-it</span>. I’d like to be one +myself. Must be kind of nice flopping around the country with a lot of +freaks. How much does that skinny fellow weigh, anyhow? He looks like a +ramrod. Little fellow’s kind of pesky, isn’t he?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The two of them just sat there smoking cigarettes. Harry was dangling +his legs from the platform and Jib Jab had his feet resting on it and +his chair tilted back. It was awful funny to see them. For a couple of +minutes neither of them said anything, only Harry kept looking around at +the platforms where the freaks usually were.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon he just blurted out, “How’d you happen to hit this job, +Chandler?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jib Jab said, “Oh, I don’t know; it’s a long story. It’s a pretty good +job when you want to lie low.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Lie low, huh? Why, what’s the matter?” Harry asked.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Cracky, I never saw Jib Jab so serious before. He said, “Oh, I was +just one of the heroes that didn’t get a job, that’s all. I’m a +happy-go-lucky.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Same here,” Harry said, and he just kept looking at him, awful sharp +and searching, kind of.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I came back from France broke.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Same here,” Harry said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And I just thought I’d try to pull together a bit before I hit the +trail for home,” Jib Jab went on. “I had a little over two hundred +dollars to bring home to my old dad, but they relieved me of it in a +sailors’ dance hall over in Brest.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Live up near Plattsburg, eh?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yop, and I started home as soon as I was mustered out, but didn’t make +it. Just couldn’t face the old folks—busted. I tried to get a job in +Albany, in Poughkeepsie; nothing doing. Worked for a couple of days for +a farmer over here in Elm Center, then hit the circus. Circus is a great +place when you’re down and out. Ever work in a circus?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I kinder think I’d like to,” Harry said; “I’ve done most everything +else.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“So here I am among the missing till I can save as much as I promised to +bring home. I sent the old gent a letter saying I had two hundred bucks. +I don’t know who’s got that two hundred, but I know one thing; I’m not +going up to Greendale till I have that much. I’m not human till then.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Old gent write you a letter?” Harry asked, kind of careless.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yop, and warned me. Didn’t do much good.” For about a minute Harry just +sat there smoking and Jib Jab did the same thing. Neither one of them +spoke. Harry was whistling <span class='it'>Over There</span>. Then he reached down into his +pocket and threw a roll of bills into Jib Jab’s lap.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Here’s your two hundred, Jib,” he said; “and here’s part of the letter. +Let’s have a squint at that ring, will you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee whiz, I guess you could have knocked Jib Jab down with a feather.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXXI'>CHAPTER XXXI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>JIB JAB’S STORY</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Harry told him all about his adventure out on the ocean and how he +found the dead man in the boat, and the money.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Funny thing, too,” he said; “but we were trying to dope out the meaning +of that letter, all sitting around the camp-fire. We even thought we +could see the old gent. Old veteran, isn’t he? Huh, that’s just what we +thought. Blamed funny thing, a camp-fire.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jib Jab didn’t say anything, only just looked straight ahead of him. +Harry just kept smoking and swinging his legs.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Guess we hit it about right, hey?” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jib Jab just kept looking straight ahead of him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Pretty near,” he said. He sounded kind of strange. Even still he didn’t +put the money in his pocket, or the water-soaked letter either, but they +just stayed where Harry threw them, on the bathrobe.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Pretty tough, being broke,” Harry said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Bet the old gent’ll be proud to see you. Under Grant, I suppose?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sherman,” Jib Jab said, very quiet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then neither of them spoke for about a couple of minutes, only Harry +asked him for a light.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Ever get mixed up with the boy scouts, Jib?” Harry asked him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jib Jab just shook his head.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, listen here,” Harry said; “and here’s the test of whether you’re +really human.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I guess I’m pretty human,” Jib Jab said, very low.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Harry said, “We ran into a party of scouts, Jib, who went up to Elm +Center to see if a fellow they saw in a moving picture was you. I guess +it was all right. They had an idea of winning that reward; you know +about the offer, of course?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I knew,” Jib Jab said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How about this old gent you’re named after? Friend of your father’s? I +thought as much. Pretty rich, I suppose? Good. Now, Jib, you and I know +what it is to go broke. I’ve gone broke forty-eleven times. And we’re +both keen for adventure; that’s our trouble, I guess. There’s a fellow +over where we’re camping, a young fellow, with a bunch of little +tenderfoot scouts. They came up to hunt for you and to get that reward. +They’re broke. They need some mazuma to start in with. They need a +hundred. Do they get it?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Jib Jab said, “What do you mean?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, first you’re willing to go home?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Do you have to ask me that?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All right then,” Harry said; “here’s the plan of campaign and General +Pershing himself couldn’t plan it better. You’re going home, that’s +settled. Prodigal son, and all that stuff. But first you’ve got to be +discovered. Give us another light, will you? I put it to you from man to +man, or from tramp to <span class='it'>what-is-it</span>, <span class='it'>you can’t go home without being +discovered</span>. You’ve got to come over our way and get yourself +discovered. These scouts need a shack to meet in and a lot of stuff. +They want to give their scoutmaster a welcome home. He was in the scrap +same as you and I. It all hangs on that hundred dollars, Jib. I’m sorry, +but you’ll have to be the goat. That young fellow Gaylong is a double +barrel scout and he’s trying to pull through with that outfit of kids. +He wouldn’t take a cent as an ordinary present. I’ve got his number. Of +course, if you’ve got the instinct of a baboon that doesn’t mean +anything to you. But all over the fences in this happy berg, Costello is +wanting to know if you’re human. You can’t show you’re human just by +taking off that bear skin and washing your face. I want to know if +you’re <span class='it'>human</span> or not.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Run out and ask Costello for a couple of marvellous, matchless matches, +will you, Roy?”</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXXII'>CHAPTER XXXII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>JIB JAB TURNS OUT TO BE HUMAN</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>So that’s all I can tell you about their talk, because when I went back +Harry was waiting for us near the entrance. All I can tell you is what +happened. On the way back through the woods Harry wouldn’t talk at all, +only he said that the scouts were a blamed nuisance and he guessed he’d +go and work in a circus. Gee whiz, I hope he doesn’t. But, oh boy, he’d +make a dandy <span class='it'>what-is-it</span>.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When we got to camp there was a peachy big fire and they were all +sitting around it. Brent Gaylong was lying on his back, same way as he +always did, with his knees up.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Move up and give us a chance here,” Harry said; “we’re tired.” And he +squeezed right in between little Willie Wide-awake and another one of +those kids. “Regular sewing circle, huh?” he said. “Well, Bill old top, +what did you see in the blaze?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He’s been seein’ things,” Brent said, kind of laughing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Get out—<span class='it'>no</span>,” Harry said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I saw a transport,” Willie Wide-awake said; “that long log looked like +a transport. Then it crackled and I didn’t see it any more.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “Torpedoed, I guess. Didn’t see anything of that scoutmaster +of yours, did you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I looked, but I didn’t see him,” Willie said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Down in the cabin eating his dinner, probably,” Harry said. “Chuck on a +couple more logs, Westy old boy.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He saw a meeting-shack, too,” Gaylong said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It was just like real,” the kid piped up.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That point on the blaze made the roof. You can see things better if you +half shut your eyes.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That’s the idea,” Harry said; “you’ve got to get kind of dreamy. You’re +getting the hang of it all right. Over in France one night I saw the +house I live in at home. There was a new chicken coop. Once I saw Teddy +Roosevelt.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“One good thing,” Brent said in that funny way he had; “the things you +see in the fire don’t cost anything.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “Yes, but they’re going up like everything else. They go up +in smoke.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Like everything else,” Gaylong said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There you go,” Harry said; “Hard Luck Gaylong, the boy grouch. How do +you know when you may strike luck. Look at Charlie Collins over there on +the west front; ran plunk into his own brother while he was on sentry +duty; brother said, ‘H’lo Charlie’—just like that. Neither one knew the +other was in France. You’ve been looking at maps and things and you +believe everything the geography tells you. I’ve been all around this +world and you can take it from me, it’s about the size of a cocoanut. Look +how Stanley met Livingstone in South Africa. You take a tip from me and +keep that newspaper picture.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Brent said, “I’d paste it in a scrapbook only we haven’t got a +scrapbook.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We haven’t got any paste either,” Willie shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Poor, but honest,” Gaylong said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Harry put his arm around little Willie Wide-awake’s shoulder, awful +nice and friendly like, and he said, “Don’t you mind him, Bill old boy. +Let him grouch. Now let’s you and I see what we can find there.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee, he was awful nice and it made me like him a lot. Because, anyway, +it showed that even if he was kind of wild and reckless, he could be +nice to a little fellow like that. I wish he’d be a scoutmaster, but I +don’t believe he ever will. He’s got too many dates. We all looked into +the fire and listened when he began.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “I can see old Grouch Gaylong, there, with a fine scout uniform +and one of those big long sticks and about ’steen hundred badges; badges +for being sarcastic, badges for lying on his back and sticking his feet +up in the air, Calamity Jane badges—all kinds. I can see you head of the +Church Mice patrol, only the Church Mice have struck it rich. They won’t +speak to the Silver Foxes any more. See that long, thin flame? That’s +one of their tails.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I can see the American flag,” Willie Wide-awake said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure, Old Glory;—right underneath it is a little kind of a bungalow +all fixed up, and a canoe right near it. See the canoe? And I can see a +face—yes sir, I can see a face. Mr. Jennis, is it? See, right through +the middle of the flame? That’s Mr. Jennis, all right. And——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I can see it!” Willie Wide-awake shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure you can,” Harry said, “plain as day——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Look! Look!</span>” the little fellow shouted, and he clutched Harry by the +arm, all excited. “<span class='it'>I see it! It’s real! Look!</span>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I was looking, too, and I saw it and then I knew. And I wanted, I just +wanted to go over and clutch Harry Donnelle by the arm, just like that +kid was doing. I could see Brent Gaylong roll over and look, kind of +curious, through the blaze. And all the fellows seemed to start, all +except Dorry and I. But I didn’t budge, only sat there watching Brent +Gaylong. His face looked kind of strange. Then he stood up. And the +other face behind the blaze rose up, too. And Jib Jab was standing there +and the fire was shining on his face. And even I could see the twinkle +in his eye.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I heard Harry Donnelle speak and his voice sounded queer, because +it was so still around there. And there wasn’t any sound except the fire +crackling.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Who are you? What do you want here?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Just a stranger after food and shelter,” I heard; “I’ve been wandering +in the woods. I am a discharged soldier and I’m in hard luck.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But I didn’t notice him, because I was looking at Brent Gaylong. He was +standing up straight and looking steady, right across the fire, into +that face. And he didn’t take his eyes off it; just stared.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXXIII'>CHAPTER XXXIII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>WE PART COMPANY</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh, it was great to watch Harry—the way he acted. He just said, “A +soldier, eh? Sit down, we were just going to have a bite to eat. I was +in the big scrap, myself.” That’s what he always called it—the big +scrap. He didn’t pay any attention to Brent Gaylong, and Brent just +stood there staring.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon Brent said, “Your name isn’t Chandler, is it?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Maybe, and maybe not,” Jib Jab said. “Who are you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He didn’t admit he was Chandler right away and Harry Donnelle said, kind +of careless sort of, “If you’re the missing Chandler you might as well +so say. We’re all tramps and wanderers here. All broke, too.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So pretty Soon <span class='it'>Jib Jab, is he human?</span> admitted that he was Horace E. +Chandler, and Harry Donnelle said it was mighty lucky we had decided to +stay over night in that neighborhood. He said he had always thought that +the world was about as big as a cocoanut, but now he knew it was the size +of a green pea. He said the trouble with it was there wasn’t enough +elbow room, and scouts couldn’t get away into the woods and be alone, +because on account of the crowds—crowds of missing people. Oh, he was +great and, believe me, we liked that fellow.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>None of those Church Mice even knew that Horace E. Chandler was Jib Jab +who was in the circus. On the quiet, Jib told us that Mr. Costello +didn’t mind his leaving like that, because <span class='it'>what-is-its</span> were easy to +get, on account of so many of them being out of work—I mean people. But +Jib said, Mr. Costello told him he was the best <span class='it'>what-is-it</span> he ever +had, and he would give him a good recommendation, if he wanted it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So that’s the end of <span class='it'>Jib Jab is he human?</span> And, gee, you’ll have to +admit he was human, all right. He said he wouldn’t go home to Greendale +unless the Church Mice went with him and stayed for a few days on his +father’s farm. Harry Donnelle stood up for him and said that was right. +I bet he knew about it all the time. He said that he wouldn’t trust +Chandler to go home alone.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Now you’ve got him, hang onto him,” that’s what he said to Brent. +“Safety first, don’t take any chances. Go up there and get your hundred. +These discharged soldiers are a bad lot. See what kind of a farm he +lives on, and if it’s any good we’ll hike up there next summer and strip +the apple trees. Got any good russets up there, Horace?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So that’s the way they fixed it, and the next morning Horace Chandler +and the Church Mice started off on their journey to Greendale. Brent +Gaylong said he was going to ’phone home from Kingston, so that their +people would know. Anyway, I guess their mothers and fathers wouldn’t +worry much, because Brent was the kind of a fellow they could trust, +that was one sure thing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry told Horace Chandler to start off with them just as if they were +going to hike all the way, and then when they got good and tired, to buy +tickets on the railroad. Do you know what I think? I think Harry had +some money and that he gave it to Horace so he could do that. That’s +what I kind of think. It would be just like him anyway.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>One thing, you’re going to meet all those fellows again, but not in this +story. Because after a while we went up to that farm in Greendale and +camped there, and met old Major Chandler and Mr. Wade and Horace, and +had a lot of fun, you can bet. It’s a whole story all by itself. They +have dandy russet apples up there, and, oh boy, can’t Horace’s sister +Betty make apple dumplings. I ate four one night. Hunt Manners ate six, +but anyway he started before I did.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXXIV'>CHAPTER XXXIV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>A GOOD IDEA</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>That same day we hiked out through Woodstock. Harry Donnelle said we had +to be careful, because the woods were infested with poets and authors +and artists, but I should worry, who’s afraid of a poet? We saw a lot of +them and they wore funny big neckties and long hair. But anyway, Harry +said they were harmless. They live in little shacks.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We went around the Ashokan Reservoir and then along the road down +through Atwood and Stone Ridge till we got to the Wallkill River, and +that night we camped near New Paltz. There’s a great big abnormal school +there, or a normal school, or whatever you call it. I should worry. +Anyway, there’s one thing I like about school, and that’s vacation.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The next day we followed the Wallkill River and caught some perch and +cooked them for supper, and that night, around the fire, we made Harry +tell us how he saved four privates on the West Front. The next morning +we started off again and passed a place named Great Bluff. It was a +great bluff all right, because it was so small you could send it by +Parcels Post.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon we came to a place named Tanner’s Crossroads. I couldn’t see +anything so cross about them. But anyway Mr. Tanner was cross enough to +make up. He wouldn’t let us take a short cut across his land. What cared +we?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I don’t know how big the village was, because I didn’t have a ruler with +me. I guess somebody must have dropped the village there and never +noticed it. That night we slept just inside of a village named <span class='it'>Slow</span>. +Anyway, that’s what it said on a sign alongside the road. Harry said it +meant for autos to go slow. I made flapjacks that night.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>In two days we came in sight of the Hudson. I knew it would be there. Oh +boy, but we climbed some hills. Pretty soon we could see Haverstraw, but +we didn’t go near it. We camped in a dandy place outside the town. And +that’s the place where we had our big adventure. Maybe you’ll remember +how I said our hike got tied in a knot in one place. Well, that was the +place.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So now I’m going to tell you about that adventure. It has girls in it +and everything. And it shows you how boy scouts can be heroes. It has +two heroines, so maybe if you don’t like one, you’ll like the other. +One’s an emergency heroine, that’s what Harry said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now maybe if you’ve read all about our adventures up at Temple Camp, +you’ll remember that my sister Marjorie was going to have a birthday +party. I told Mr. Ellsworth that I would like to go home for that party +and go back to Temple Camp the next day. Maybe you will remember about +it, on account of my saying that she was going to have cocoanut frosted +cake.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now on that night that we were camping near Haverstraw, I happened to +think about it being my sister’s birthday. I just happened to think of +it while we were sitting around our camp-fire.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “This is my sister’s birthday and she’s going to have a party +and cocoanut frosted cake and things, and I’d like to be there. I wish I +had thought about it yesterday—I’d have sent her a postcard.” Because, +one thing, I never forgot about my sister’s birthdays.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “Why don’t you call her up?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure,” Westy said, “they’ll just about be having the eats now.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “What good will that do me?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway, where’s the telephone?” Dorry said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I bet there’s a booth over in that little station,” Harry said; “why +don’t you go over and see? It would be a big surprise, hey?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “You bet it would. Come on over and we’ll see if there’s one +there, Westy.” The station that Harry spoke about was a little dinky +station that we had passed about a half of a mile back. When we passed +it, Harry said he guessed maybe it was the West Haverstraw Station. It +was all dark even then. But anyway, Westy and I decided we would go back +to it and see if it was open and if there was a ’phone booth there.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Let’s wait till half-past nine before we start,” I said; “and then +we’ll call up at exactly ten o’clock, because that’s the time they’ll +all be going in for the eats and they’ll be giving the presents then, +too. It’ll kind of seem as if I were there just at the right minute.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So at half-past nine, Westy and I started down the road.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Give her our best wishes,” Harry called after us.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was awful dark and we could hardly see our way going along the road. +A couple of times I went stumbling into the ditch. But, anyway, all the +while I kept thinking about Marjorie and how it would look at home with +all those people there and lots of presents and things.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’m mighty glad Harry thought about that,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Westy said, “Jiminies, it will be great. Just when they’re all sitting +down around the table, all of a sudden the ’phone will ring——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yop,” I said, “and Marjorie will answer it, because she always answers +the ’phone, on account of Charlie Wentworth all the time calling her up. +He’s in Philadelphia. That’s what makes the ’phone service so bad, +because he keeps all the operators busy. Believe me, they ought to have +a private wire. Anyway, that’s what my father says.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I bet you won’t be able to get her,” Westy said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There you go,” I told him; “Calamity Jane!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“To call her up, you’ll have to call Central down,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I should worry,” I told him.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXXV'>CHAPTER XXXV<br/> <span class='sub-head'>WHAT I HEARD ON THE TELEPHONE</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>That station stood all by itself, and it was pitch dark all around. It +reminded me of the Grand Central Station, it was so different. First we +tried the door and it was locked. Then we tried one of the windows and +it opened.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Do you think it would be all right to climb in?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure it would,” Westy said; “because the window doesn’t open into the +ticket agent’s room, only into the waiting room. Go ahead.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I didn’t see any harm in climbing in, because the window was part open +and there was a sign outside that said “Public Telephone.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Anyway,” Westy said; “if anybody should come and find us here, we could +say we just wanted to ’phone. And we could prove that’s all we wanted, +too, by our really getting the number.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>First I didn’t know what we ought to do, but as long as we didn’t have +to break anything open, and as long as all we wanted was to ’phone, I +decided it would be all right.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So we climbed in and I saw there was a booth in the corner. I dropped a +nickel into the ’phone and held the receiver to my ear and waited and +waited and waited and waited. Gee, I waited about as long as three whole +chapters would be.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I heard a girl’s voice. It said, “Hello, hello.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “I want three, two, one, Bridgeboro, New Jersey, and please +hurry up, because my sister’s having a party.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess the wire was crossed, the girl was awful excited, and every time +I said hello, she’d say, “Hello, hello, is this you, father?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I guess she was so rattled, she didn’t know who she was talking to.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>By this time I was getting kind of sore at the operator, because I +wanted to get my sister the minute of ten o’clock, and she was sort of +spoiling my plan. I had just three more minutes to get her, because +Westy lighted a match and looked at his watch. Then I said, “Hello, +hello.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The same voice kept saying, “Hello, hello, is this you, father?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “No, it isn’t. How long does it take to get the operator in this +berg?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The poor girl was almost crying by now. She said, “I’ve been trying for +an <span class='it'>age</span> to get my father. Won’t you <span class='it'>please</span> let me get him? I want my +father! Why <span class='it'>don’t</span> they give me my father?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee whiz, you’d think I had her father in my pocket. I said, “I’m trying +to get my sister, too. If you happen to see her, tell her, will you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She said, “Oh dear; it’s just <span class='it'>exasperating</span>. Won’t you <span class='it'>please</span> get off +the wire. I want Central. Why can’t they help me? We’re in such a +<span class='it'>dreadful predicament</span>.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “I guess Central went to the movies or somewhere. I’m a boy +scout and I’m in a dark station somewhere or other near Haverstraw——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh, isn’t that just too <span class='it'>provoking!</span>” she said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Oh, it isn’t so bad in here, only it’s dark.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Is there <span class='it'>anything</span> I can <span class='it'>do</span>?” she said; “we’re lost on the top of +Eagle’s Nest Mountain. Oh, I wonder if you’d be willing to go to +Haverstraw and tell my people—Judge Edwards. It’s <span class='it'>dreadful!</span> We’ve +been here since five o’clock. We haven’t had a thing to eat and we’re +nearly perishing. The boys made a mistake about the trail. Oh, it’s +<span class='it'>terrible</span>! We’re frightened out of our lives. I’ll <span class='it'>never, never</span> come +up this <span class='it'>horrible</span> mountain again!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Are the boys scouts?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She said, “No, they’re regular young men and they’re <span class='it'>utterly +bewildered</span>!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Now I <span class='it'>know</span> they’re not scouts. But anyway, you don’t need to +worry, because we’ll come up and get you. Trails are our middle names. +You should worry about Central. But, one thing, I’d like to know how +there happens to be a ’phone up there.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She said, “Oh, you’re just a <span class='it'>dear</span>.” That’s just exactly what she +said—honest.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “Mountains aren’t horrible. I’ve met a whole lot of them and +they’re all right. Don’t you worry. I was trying to get my sister on the +’phone to tell her Many Happy Wishes, because it’s her birthday, and +she’s having a party. She’s just seventeen. We’re on a hike.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I’m just seventeen, too,” she said; “and you’re perfectly +<span class='it'>wonderful</span>. I <span class='it'>know</span> you’ll save us. We’re up here at the fire +observation station. If you’ll go to my father and go to the police——”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We should worry about the police,” I said; “the only trail they can +follow is a trail around the block. One of us fellows will go to your +father’s house and tell him, and meanwhile, the rest of us will come up +there. Anyway, I’d like to see that observation station. So now maybe +you’ll calm down and tell me how to find the mountain road.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh, do you <span class='it'>think</span> you <span class='it'>can</span>?” she asked.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sure, we can,” I told her.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Just then somebody must have pulled her away from the ’phone. Anyway, a +fellow’s voice said, “Let me talk to him. What is he? Just a kid?” Then +he said, “Will you please run to Haverstraw and notify Judge Edwards, 22 +Terrace Street, that his daughter and three friends are on the top of +Eagle’s Nest, and to please have the authorities notified and a party +formed to come here. I will see that you’re suitably rewarded.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “I’d be ashamed to have the whole town of Haverstraw coming up +after me, and scouts don’t accept rewards. We’ll send to Haverstraw and +tell Judge Edwards, and then we’ll come up and get you. All you have to +do is to sit there and tell riddles till you see us. Which road do you +take for Eagle’s Nest?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he said how we should follow the west road from Haverstraw till we +got to a big white house with a windmill in front of it. Pretty soon +after we got past that, he said, we’d come to a cow path that led +through the fields. He said we should follow that till we got into the +woods where we’d see picnic grounds and then we’d find a trail that went +up the mountain. He said other trails branched off from it, so we’d have +to be careful. He said it didn’t go right to the top, and I suppose +that’s why they couldn’t find it coming down.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Did you ever hit a mountain trail?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Hit</span> one?” I said. “We give one a knock-out blow every couple of days. +So long, we’ll see you later. Tell that girl not to worry.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee whiz, I forgot all about Marjorie.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXXVI'>CHAPTER XXXVI<br/> <span class='sub-head'>UP THE TRAIL</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>As soon as I told Westy about it, he said he’d go into Haverstraw so as +to save time, while I went back to camp and got the rest of the fellows. +Oh boy, didn’t I hustle. I went running into camp shouting that there +were two fellows and two girls on the top of Eagle’s Nest, and that we +had to go and rescue them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Are they human?” Harry asked in that funny way he had.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes, they’re human,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Five toes on their front feet and four on their hind feet?” he asked +me. “Had we better take some flypaper?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All right, you can laugh,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “I’ve followed you through many wild adventures, but I never +accompanied you in rescuing a maiden in distress.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Two maidens,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All right,” he laughed; “the more the merrier.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And one of those fellows said I was a kid,” I told him. “Anyway, if I +took a girl out, I’d know how to bring her back, that’s one thing. Wait +till I see that fellow.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry just laughed and said he wouldn’t miss it for anything. So we took +two lanterns and started off along the road that ran north, and pretty +soon we hit into the main road out of Haverstraw and came to the big +white house with the windmill. Pretty soon we hit into the cow path that +led up through the woods. It wasn’t just like the fellow said, because +it fizzled out in a pasture. Anyway, across the pasture were thicker +woods and we picked up the mountain trail there. If he had told us that +it started right near a big stone, it would have saved us a lot of +hunting around with our lanterns. That’s just the way it is with big +fellows; they think they’re so smart that they don’t know anything. Gee +whiz, you didn’t need a microscope to see that rock, but he never even +mentioned it over the ’phone.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>One thing, who ever named that mountain Eagle’s Nest ought to apologize +to the first eagle he meets. It would have been a crazy eagle that would +build a nest like that. As nearly as I could make out it was a lot of +mountains all jumbled into one. Harry said it was a kind of a bouquet of +mountains.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The trail led up through a pine forest and first it was easy following +it. Then it went down into a hollow and got mixed up with a lot of +rocks. I guess that must have been one of the rooms of the eagle’s nest. +Anyway, we couldn’t follow it through there so we took a chance and +picked it up on the other side.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>That’s where the climbing began. Oh boy, that was some tangle—all +underbrush and scrub oak. <span class='it'>Good night</span>, I don’t know how those girls +ever got through there. Pretty soon I stopped and began sniffing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Do you know what it reminds me of?” I said. “It reminds me of raking up +the leaves at home.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It smells like a rake,” Hunt Manners said, just joking.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“No, but I mean burning autumn leaves,” I said; “you know how it smells +in Bridgeboro in the autumn. Then you know it’s getting cold and +Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming. Anyway, you can laugh, but that +smell always reminds me of Thanksgiving.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry just sniffed, but didn’t say anything, and we started up again. +There were lots of big hubbles, kind of valleys in the mountain, and +most of them were rocky. I guess in the daytime it would be easy enough +to keep the trail in those places, but at night, we had some job.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>In one of those places we heard a sound as if some one was moving and we +all stopped short and looked around. Pretty soon Dorry whispered for me +to look, and he pointed to a dark thing kind of sneaking away.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry called, “Who’s there?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There wasn’t any answer and the man, or whatever it was, was gone. It +was so dark we couldn’t see which way he had gone.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “That’s funny; this is a queer place to meet anybody.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Will Dawson said, “I guess it was just a tramp.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Or a leopard,” Tom Warner said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Or maybe a <span class='it'>what-is-it</span>,” Charlie Seabury chimed in.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, we didn’t want to run any risk of losing the trail, so we didn’t +bother about him, but kept on up the mountain.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The higher we got, the worse it was. There was what we call mongrel +forest, tall trees and thick brush underneath. But it was straight going +now, without any up and down places. The trail was easy to follow, only +we had to go in single file, the first fellow (that was Harry) keeping +it by holding a lantern low.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon he stopped and said, “There’s brush burning somewhere around +here; I can smell it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Ralph Warner said, “<span class='it'>Listen.</span>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We all stood stark still and just as plain as could be, I could hear a +crackling sound quite a way off.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I don’t smell it now,” I said; “I did a little while ago.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Wait till the breeze is this way,” Harry said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And then, in just a minute we got a good whiff of it—strong, just like +when I burned the leaves on our lawn at home. Then all of a sudden I +couldn’t smell it at all. Dorry tied his scout scarf on a stick and held +it up, and when it blew out straight we got a strong whiff, and the +crackling was louder. Sometimes it blew around the other way, up the +mountain. Sometimes we couldn’t smell anything at all, but mostly we +could hear the crackling a little. It was too dark to see any smoke and +there wasn’t any blaze. Harry said he guessed it was pretty far away. He +said the breeze could carry the smell a long distance.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It couldn’t carry the sound so far, though,” I said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Trouble is, a stiff breeze can carry most anything,” Harry said; “well, +let’s move along and rescue the maidens.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Just then Hunt Manners said, “<span class='it'>Listen!</span>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Far off we could hear the whistle of a locomotive and a kind of +rattling, not very clear, but I knew it was the rattling of a train.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That’s ’way over at the Hudson,” Harry said; “shows you how far sound +will carry in the night.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Just then I looked at Dorry’s scarf that was tied on the stick, and I +saw it was blowing the way we were going—up the mountain.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “That’s why we hear the train; the breeze is blowing from the +east. But I can’t hear the crackling now.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Guess the breeze is blowing that up the mountain, too,” Harry said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then we started up the trail again toward the summit.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXXVII'>CHAPTER XXXVII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>A VOICE</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>It was a jungle of underbrush, that’s what Harry said. Pretty soon the +trail just fizzled out in the bushes. We poked around with our lanterns +and found a spring there. I guess the wood between there and the summit +must have been where the party got lost. Sometimes we could hear the +crackling and sometimes we couldn’t, but we could smell the burning +brush all the time.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Guess we’re pretty near the summit,” Harry said; “let’s call that we’re +coming. The breeze will carry our voices.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So we all called together, “Hello, we’re coming.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There wasn’t any answer, but anyway, we couldn’t have heard on account +of the breeze blowing up the mountain.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>That was the only thing we had to guide us now—the breeze. We kept the +scarf in the air and just followed it, pushing through the brush. +Sometimes we had to stop and tear away an opening, so as to get through. +There must have been an easier way or those girls and fellows would +never have managed it, but Harry thought it was better to push right up +than to be groping around for a path.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>All of a sudden, Ralph Warner said, “<span class='it'>Look!</span>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'><span class='it'>Good night!</span> A long line of fire was coming up the mountain, maybe a +quarter of a mile in back of us. First it seemed like a dotted line, +kind of, because there were dark spaces. But even while we looked some +of these filled up. The thing it reminded me of most of all was +soldiers; it seemed like a line of soldiers, all bright and fiery, +charging up the mountain. It was coming fast and I have to admit it +scared me. Because even if we could get through the brush fast enough, I +saw we couldn’t get out of range of it. Kind of, the thought came to me +that it was like soldiers who had just scrambled out of the trenches. +That was just how suddenly we saw it. I remember I heard Harry say +something about wind and fire being allies, but we didn’t stop to talk, +only pushed up through the brush as fast as we could, but all the while +it kept gaining on us.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Pretty soon I said, all out of breath, “We can’t keep this up; it’s +gaining; I can even feel the heat.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We can’t flank it, that’s sure,” Harry said; “hustle for all you’re +worth; that’s all I can say.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee, I’ll never forget that night. We just pushed on up through the +brush, stumbling and falling and lifting each other and trying to run. +Our clothes were all torn and we were panting like a lot of dogs.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Watch and see that no fellow is left behind,” Harry panted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Every minute two or three of us were just dragging some fellow up out of +the brush. I guess it was a case of more haste, less speed; it’s pretty +hard running through brush.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry just panted out, “Boys, we’re in a pretty tight place; don’t get +rattled. Lift your feet high with each step and follow right in my +tracks. If anybody falls, <span class='it'>shout</span>!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “We’re losing all the time; what’s the use?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We can keep ahead of it for a couple of hundred yards,” he said; “maybe +we’ll strike clear land. Anyway, we can’t do anything else than give it +a race.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>By that time we could feel the heat and sometimes sparks blew almost +over our heads, but they were out when they reached ground. Harry just +kept panting out, “Hustle,” and “Keep your nerve.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>By now the crackling was loud and I could taste smoke. I knew there +wasn’t much chance for us, but I didn’t say so. Anywhere a blown fire is +bad enough, but uphill it just rushes. It seemed funny that I’d have to +die on Marjorie’s birthday, and all of a sudden I thought how I had +tried to ’phone her. Gee, she’d never even know that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Hustle,” Harry said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Do you hear a voice?” Dorry asked; “<span class='it'>listen</span>.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>As plain as could be, I heard a girl’s voice, crying. It kind of seemed +as if it might be Marjorie crying, because I was dead.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then I heard Hunt Manners say, “Yes, I hear it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry just panted out, “Never mind, step high and hustle.”</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXXVIII'>CHAPTER XXXVIII<br/> <span class='sub-head'>WE FIGHT AND RUN AWAY</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>“Where are you?” Harry shouted; “all call together.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We could hear several voices answering all together, “Here.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Keep shouting,” he called; “we’re coming. Is there any open land up +there?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“No,” a voice said; “hurry!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We followed the voices and pretty soon came to the observation station. +It was just a little shanty with a trestle-work wooden tower close to +it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Did you get ’phone connection yet?” Harry called as we came up.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Guess the poles are burned down,” a fellow’s voice answered. “We can’t +even get Central. Have you got water?” he fairly wailed. “We’re going to +be burned alive! Have you got water?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Inside were two girls and two young fellows.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>One of the girls was wringing her hands and just sobbing, and the other +girl was trying to calm her down. She just kept crying, “It’s coming +nearer and nearer! What shall we do? Oh, what shall we do?” One of the +fellows was all gone to pieces, too, and he just clutched Harry’s arm +and said, “Save us; can’t you save us?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry just kind of threw him off. He said, “We’re here to save you if we +can, and die with you if we can’t. The first thing is, not to be a +coward. Remember, when the Titanic went down, the band was playing. +There have been a couple of million people killed in the last two years. +Who are you, to be standing here crying like a baby?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh boy, that hit the girl if it didn’t hit the fellow. She just got up +and grabbed Harry by the hand and said, “I’m <span class='it'>not</span> a coward. I <span class='it'>can</span> be +brave.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All right,” he said; “we’ve got about eight minutes. Sit down and be +calm. These boys are scouts. Take a lesson from them.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'><span class='it'>Oh, didn’t I admire that fellow!</span> I bet the girl did, too. Gee, you +couldn’t blame her.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There ought to be some axes here,” he said; “hustle and turn things +over.”</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width:80%'> +<img src='images/i004.jpg' alt='' id='i004' style='width:100%;height:auto;'/> +<p class='caption'>WE CHOPPED AWAY THE BRUSH TO MAKE A LONG CLEAR SPACE</p> +</div> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh boy, it didn’t take us long to have that shanty inside out. We found +five axes.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“All right,” Harry said; “now we’ve got just one slim chance and it all +depends upon how fast we can work. We’ve got to chop down and tear up a +line of brush and start a fire back to meet the other one. Everybody get +busy-woman’s place is on the fire line; <span class='it'>hustle</span>!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Oh boy, you should have seen that girl who had been crying. She just +grabbed an axe and wouldn’t give it up. Now this is the way we did, and +all the while that line of fire was coming along, nearer, nearer, +nearer. We chopped away the brush so as to make a long clear space about +ten or fifteen feet wide. Harry and three of the scouts and one of the +girls used the axes; because that girl just wouldn’t hand over the axe +and we couldn’t make her. And didn’t she turn out to be a regular Mrs. +Daniel Boone!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The rest of us threw the brush over toward the fire as fast as we could. +Some of the small bushes we just dragged up out of the earth. Some +hustling!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The fire was so near us now, that we could feel the heat good and strong +and sparks kept falling among us, so we had to keep stamping them out. I +don’t know how long it took us, but pretty soon we had a long, narrow +space cleared. I know my hands were bleeding. As fast as the brush was +chopped away, some of the fellows dragged it over toward where the fire +was, as near as they dared. That girl would go almost up to the blaze +and push a big clump of brush toward it and then run back. Her dress was +all torn, but she didn’t care.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then we lighted the brush along the edge of the cleared space that was +nearest to the fire. If the wind had been blowing that way, the fire would +have moved right out to meet the other one. But it had to buck the wind +and that was bad. Anyway, the clearing we had made prevented it from +coming our way, but the sparks kept blowing across the clearing, and we +knew that all we had done was to check the fire long enough to get +another good head start away from it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Believe <span class='it'>me</span>, we didn’t wait long.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry was panting so hard he could only just talk. “We’ve got to get +down the other side of the mountain,” he said, “I figure it’ll be about +ten minutes or so before the land this side of the clearing gets +started. The sparks’ll start it. The clearing isn’t wide enough and the +wind is wrong. Drop everything and follow me—quick.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Will Dawson spoke up. He never talked very much, but he was a good +scout just the same. He was breathing so hard he just gulped. “Do either +of you girls or fellows know where the man who lived here got his water? +There must be water here somewheres or they wouldn’t have built the +house here.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We can’t stem this advance with spring water,” Harry said; “we’d need a +reservoir. Come on!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“But if we could find the spring,” Will said, “we could follow the +trickle and get into a brook lower down. How are we going to find our +way down the other side of the mountain? It’s worse than this side. The +west side of the mountain is always worse.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The fire won’t climb down as fast is it climbs up,” Harry panted; “it +doesn’t work that way. The mountain itself acts as a wind shield. We’ve +got to get over the top blamed quick. I’ll find a way down. Don’t let’s +waste time here!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Will just said, “The best trail in the world is a brook. It goes the +quickest way. If it takes us fifteen minutes to find the spring, even +then it’s best. It’s better than getting lost. The brook knows its way +and we don’t. Water is a scout.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Who says so?” Harry said, kind of impatient.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Kit Carson said so,” Will said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, I guess you’re a pretty good scout, too,” Harry said; “hike +around, only <span class='it'>hustle!</span>”</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>In about two minutes we found the spring, about +a hundred feet from the house.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Lucky it’s there,” one of those new fellows said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It had to be there,” Will answered him; “because people drink water. +Where there are people, there is water.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee whiz, I never knew Will Dawson till that night. And I was mighty +proud that he was in my patrol, you can bet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>That girl said, “Isn’t he just <span class='it'>wonderful?</span>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I said, “You’re wonderful, too, and I’d like to have you in my patrol.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But, one thing, there wasn’t any time to talk, because the sparks were +blowing across the clearing and dropping all around the house. The fire +that we had started back toward the other one had cleared some land +between us and the blaze, but not enough.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The water from the spring trickled down over the rocks and we followed +it. It went through a kind of cavern on the top of the mountain, and +when we got through there, we could see plain enough that we were on the +west slope. The mountain wasn’t all down hill right there, but the +trickle of water flowed down through hollows and anybody could see now +that Will Dawson was right. He was right for three reasons.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>First, because as long as we followed the brook there wouldn’t be any +going up and down, like there was climbing up the east side of the +mountain. Second, because it took us down the quickest way. And third, +because we’d always be near water. In some places we had to scramble +down steep precipices where the water fell, but we always managed it, +and every time we did that, we knew we were saving space.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After we got about half a mile, we could see points of flame up over the +top of the mountain and we knew the fire had reached the spot where we +had been. Harry said he guessed the shanty was on fire. Maybe it would +come down the east side a ways, we didn’t know, but anyway it wouldn’t +have such a breeze to drive it, and we were coming into open land, so we +should worry.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The west slope of that mountain was easy, once we got down a ways from +the top. That’s the way it is with most all the mountains near the +Hudson; the steep side faces the river. Pretty soon we were hiking +across pastures and then we came to a road. We didn’t bother with the +brook after we passed the steep part. I don’t know where it went, but it +did us a good turn, that’s one thing. Some fellows like fire better than +water, and I’m not saying anything against camp-fires. And I don’t say +that water is always a friend, either, because look at floods and things +like that. But I like water better.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Only, gee whiz, I don’t like it to rain in vacation.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XXXIX'>CHAPTER XXXIX<br/> <span class='sub-head'>WELCOME HOME</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Now this chapter goes from the bottom of that mountain to the top of a +pineapple soda in Bennett’s. That’s in Bridgeboro where I live.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The first house we came to along the road we got the farmer up and told +him about the fire on the east side of Eagle’s Nest, and how we got away +from it. He asked us if it was very bad.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Jiminetty!” I said, “I don’t know how bad it is, but I hope the eagles +up there have their nests insured.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry asked him if he had a telephone and he said, “No.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We probably couldn’t get a number if you did,” Harry said; “the +telephone company reminds me of Rip Van Winkle; they seem to have gone +to sleep at the switch-board for twenty years. Have you got a flivver?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>We kind of knew he had, because they raise flivvers on all the farms up +that way. But he was a <span class='it'>regular</span> farmer—he had a Packard, 1776 model. +And, believe me, we packed that Packard, and in ten minutes we were +rolling over the road that runs around the mountain, headed for +Haverstraw.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry kept talking to the girls; it was awful funny to hear him. Those +other two fellows didn’t have a chance at all. Gee, I was glad of it, +because what right did that fellow have to say I was just a kid? That +girl that helped us, said we were <span class='it'>just wonderful</span>. Cracky, I wouldn’t say +that we’re so smart, but when there’s a fire we don’t stand wringing our +hands as if they were a fire bell.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When we came into Haverstraw, we found the streets full of people, +everybody watching the fire on the mountain. We could see the east side +of Eagle’s Nest and the fire, just as plain as if it were all on a movie +screen. It seemed kind of funny, because while we were up there we never +thought about how it would look from the village. The fire was right up +on the top of the mountain now, with little patches in other places, and +we could see a great big burned space. I guess that was the very part we +had passed through on our way up.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I could see now, even better than before, the danger we had been in. I +guess everybody in the village thought we were dead, because when we +looked away up there it just seemed as if nobody could have escaped out +of all that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We went out the stage entrance,” Harry said, as the auto rolled up +along the main street; “sneaked through the back yard, hey?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I think you’re just <span class='it'>marvelous</span>!” one of the girls said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said to her, “Let it be a lesson to you never to throw a lighted +cigar away in the woods.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh, the <span class='it'>idea</span>!” she said; “I think you’re just horrid. I wouldn’t touch +a <span class='it'>horrid</span> cigar!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, don’t throw a good one away, either,” Harry said; “the good ones +are just as bad.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Aren’t you <span class='it'>perfectly terrible</span>!” the other girl said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But she didn’t think he was terrible.</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>Anyway, I knew from what he had said that the dark figure we had seen on +our way up was probably to blame for the whole business. Cracky, I’ve +got nothing to say against cigars, because my father smokes them, but +anyway, a cigar isn’t worth as much as a mountain, I should hope. And +you bet it was a lesson to us never to throw matches in the woods and +always to trample our camp-fires out before we turn in. But, jiminies, I +guess all scouts know that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When we stopped at Judge Edwards’ house, a big crowd of people pressed +all around us wanting to know how we escaped. They said that men had +tried three times to get up the mountain, but were driven back by the +flames; they thought we were all dead.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Edwards came running out calling, “<span class='it'>You’re not dead! You’re not +dead! Oh, you’re not dead!</span>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Gee, anybody could see that.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She just threw her arms around her daughter and around the other girl +and around those two fellows. Oh boy, I thought I was in for it, too! I +don’t mind leopards and <span class='it'>what-is-its</span>, but nix on hugging and kissing. +Then Judge Edwards and Westy came out and, oh, I can’t tell you +everything that happened, because everybody was talking all at once. +Harry said it was a regular west front, all over again.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Edwards made us all go into the house and have cake and hot coffee, +and just to show you how things happen, what kind of cake do you suppose +it was? I bet you can’t guess. Yum, yum—m—m, it was cocoanut frosted +cake.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And you can bet I thought about my sister Marjorie while I was +eating it. I had three helpings and home in Bridgeboro I would only have +had two, so that shows you that it’s worth while doing a good turn.</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>After that we didn’t have any more adventures. Good night, we had had +enough of them, that’s what <span class='it'>I</span> said. We bunked in Judge Edwards’ house +and the overflow bunked in the barn, and the next morning we hit the +trail for home.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Believe me, we stuck to that trail as if it were a tight rope. Harry +said if any one of us looked right or left, he’d put blinders on us. +That night we camped near Nyack and early in the morning we said +good-bye to the Hudson and struck in southwest till we came to our own +little river—that’s the Bridgeboro River. At about four o’clock that +afternoon we went tramping over the River Road bridge and hit into Main +Street. Right on the corner was Bradly’s grocery wagon, and oh boy, it +looked good to me, because it proved we were back home. “<span class='it'>Bradly’s Cash +Grocery</span>,” Dorry said; “those are the three sweetest words in the world.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Wrong the first time,” I said; “the three sweetest words in the world +are <span class='it'>Bennett’s Fresh Confectionery</span>.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Me for Bennett’s!” Charlie Seabury shouted.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Same here!” Dorry piped up.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Bennett’s or die!” screamed Ralph Warner.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Lend me a dime, will you?” Tom Warner shouted at his brother.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Lend me two dimes, somebody!” Bad Manners began howling.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Good night, it was some circus!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry said, “Come ahead, I’ll take you all to Bennett’s and treat you, +and I hope I’ll never get mixed up with this crew again. I’ve had +enough.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Hurrah for Harry Donnelle!” everybody yelled.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Cracky, everybody was staring at us and laughing as we went down Main +Street. We should worry.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>In Bennett’s we all lined up and Harry told Mr. Bennett to please put +arsenic or carbolic acid or some other nice flavoring in our sodas; +something to keep us quiet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I ordered a pineapple soda and yum, yum-m-m, didn’t that first spoonful +of ice cream taste good.</p> + +<div><h2 id='ch_XL'>CHAPTER XL<br/> <span class='sub-head'>MMM—MM-M-M!</span></h2></div> + +<p class='pindent'>This is the last chapter and it’s very short. Maybe you’ll say that’s +one good thing. But it’s a good one just the same. It’s a peach—I mean +a pineapple. It’s the best chapter I ever wrote. It goes from the top of +the glass to the bottom of the glass. And that’s the end of the story. +So even if the story’s no good, it has a good ending. It had a good +beginning, too. Harry Donnelle said there should be a special chapter +about that soda.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Of course, there were seven other sodas, too. I don’t mean that I drank +seven more. But mine is the best one to end with, because I always go +right down to the bottom of the glass. The bottom is the only thing that +stops me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So that’s the way it is with this story. It has a happy ending. It bunks +right into the bottom of the glass. The plot is all cleared up. So is +the glass. There’s nothing left to tell—or to drink.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Harry Donnelle said if I didn’t look out I’d scrape the polish off the +glass with my spoon.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>I should worry, a scout is thorough.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So long.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROY BLAKELEY, PATHFINDER***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 19815-h.htm or 19815-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/8/1/19815">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/8/1/19815</a></p> +<p> +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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