FBTI^
 

 
 UNTV. OF CALIF. LIBRARY. LOS ANGELES
 
 I BEGAN SINKING AS LOW AS MY WAIST. 
 Roy BlakeUy. Frontispiece (Page 35)
 
 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 HIS STORY 
 
 the true narrative of his adventures and 
 jhose of his troop on land and sea and in the mud 
 particularly in the mud. Taken from the Troop 
 Book of the ist Bridgeboro Troop B. S. A. and 
 arranged by himself with the assistance of Pee-wee 
 Harris and 
 
 PERCY KEESE FT 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 TOM SLADE, BOY SCOUT, .. AT 
 
 TEMPLE CAMP, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED * 
 
 HOWARD L, F '.STINGS 
 
 PUBLISHED WITH THE APPROVAL OF 
 
 THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA 
 
 GROSSET & DUNLAP 
 
 PUBLISHERS :: NEW YORK 
 
 Made in the United States of America
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY 
 GROSSET & DUNLAP
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PACK 
 
 I. TROUBLES OF MY OWN THE BIG 
 
 CONCLAVE ....... i 
 
 II. SWATTING THE SPY 8 
 
 III. SWATTING THE SPY CONTINUED . 16 
 
 IV. THE PLOT GROWS THINNER OR 
 
 ELSE THICKER ...... 24 
 
 V. LOST ......... 31 
 
 VI. THE TIGHT PLACE ..... 39 
 
 VII. WEETONKA, THE TERRIBLE CHIEF . 45 
 
 VIII. RESOPEKITWAFTENLY . . . . 51 
 
 IX. THE LOST LETTER ..... 62 
 
 X. THE RAVENS . . ... ... 70 
 
 XI. LOST :.;.:: : - 75 
 
 XII. ARTIE'S ADVENTURE . . . . . 81 
 
 XIII. TRACKING .... . : . . . 86 
 
 XIV. THE SLACKER ..... . 93 
 
 XV. DURING NOON HOUR ..... 99 
 
 XVI. NOBLE RAGS ..... . . 105 
 
 XVII. THE Two CROSSES 113 
 
 XVIII. SCOUT LAW NUMBER THREE . . 119 
 
 XIX. THE END OF THE MEETING . . . 129 
 
 2130381
 
 11 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XX. MOSTLY ABOUT SKINNY v . . . 134 
 XXI. SOMETHING MISSING ..... 145 
 XXII. SHOWS You WHERE I Do THE TALK 
 ING .......; .. > : : 152 
 
 XXIII. IN THE WOODS > . . > . >: 156 
 
 XXIV. TREASURE ISLAND . . >: . . . 165 
 XXV. THE SHORT Cur . .. . : . ; . : > 169 
 
 XXVI. IN MY OWN CAMP , : . > >j >. 173 
 
 XXVII. THE GENTLE BREEZE . >: >. .. : 178 
 
 XXVIII. JOLLYING PEE-WEE . . >: ... x 185 
 
 XXIX. JIMMY, THE BRIDGE-TENDER . . 193 
 
 XXX. GONE . 197 
 
 XXXI. THE CAPTAIN'S ORDERS . ... . .. 203 
 
 XXXII. I MAKE A DANDY FRIEND . . . 206 
 
 XXXIII. So LONG SEE You LATER . i . ; ... 214
 
 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 TROUBLES OF MY OWN THE BIG CONCLAVE 
 
 WELL, here I am at last, ready to tell you the 
 adventures of our young lives. Right away I have 
 trouble with Pee-wee Harris. He's about as easy 
 to keep down as a balloon full of gas. We call 
 him the young dirigible because he's always going 
 up in the air. Even at the start he must stick in 
 his chapter heading about a conclave. 
 
 Hanged if I know what a conclave is. It's some 
 kind of a meeting I guess. He said it was some 
 thing like a peace conference, but believe me, the 
 meeting I'm going to tell you about wasn't much 
 like a peace conference. I told him I'd use my 
 own heading and his too, just to keep him quiet. 
 I think he's got his pockets stuffed full of chapter 
 headings and that he'll be shooting them at me all 
 the way through like a machine-gun. 
 
 I guess I might as well tell you about Pee-wee, 
 before I tell you about the conclave or whatever
 
 2 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 you call it. He's Doctor Harris's son and he's a 
 member of the Raven Patrol. He's a member 
 in good standing, only he doesn't stand very high. 
 Honest, you can hardly see him without a magnify 
 ing glass. But for voice good night! 
 
 He sings in the Methodist Church choir and 
 they say he can throw his voice anywhere. I wish 
 he'd throw it in the ash barrel, I know that. 
 
 He always wears his belt-axe to troop meetings, 
 in case the Germans should invade Bridgeboro, I 
 suppose. He's the troop mascot and if you walk 
 around him three times and ruffle up his beautiful 
 curly hair, you can change your luck. 
 
 Well, now I'll tell you about the meeting. We 
 had a big special meeting to decide about two 
 things, and believe me, those two things had 
 momentous consequences. Momentous that's a 
 good word, hey ? 
 
 One thing, we wanted to decide about our cam 
 paign for collecting books for soldiers, and another 
 thing, we wanted to decide how we could all go up 
 to Temple Camp in our cabin launch, the Good 
 \Turn. 
 
 This large and what-do-you-call-it launch I 
 mean commodious launch is a dandy boat, except 
 'for one thing the bow is too near the stern. If
 
 TROUBLES OF MY OWN 3 
 
 we were sardines Instead of boy scouts, it would be 
 all right, but you see there's twenty-four of us 
 altogether, not counting Captain Kidd, our mascot 
 he's a parrot. 
 
 So I got up and said, "How are we going to 
 crowd twenty-four growing boys and a parrot into 
 a twenty foot launch ?" 
 
 "It can't be did," Doc Carson shouted. 
 
 "Then some of us will have to hike it on our 
 dear little feet," I said. 
 
 "Or else we'll have to get a barge or something 
 or other and tow it," Artie Van Arlen said. 
 
 "What, with a three horse-power engine?" 
 somebody else shouted. 
 
 "You can bet I won't be one of the ones to hike 
 it," Pee-wee yelled; "I'll dope out some scheme or 
 other." 
 
 And believe me, he did. 
 
 Well, after we'd been talking about an hour or 
 so on how we'd manage it, Mr. Ellsworth, our 
 scoutmaster, up and said there was plenty of time 
 for that as long as we were not going to camp for 
 a couple of weeks anyway, and that we'd better 
 begin thinking of how we were going to start about 
 collecting books for soldiers. 
 
 All the while I had something very important to
 
 ,4* -KO I u ^y-t i-vi-.i >i-. j. 
 
 say, and I was kind of trembling, as you might say, 
 for I thought maybe Mr. Ellsworth wouldn't like 
 the idea. Anyway I got up and began : 
 
 "The author that wrote all about 'Tom Slade's 
 Adventures in the World War'," I said, "told me 
 it would be a good idea for me to write up our 
 troop's adventures and he'd help me to get them 
 published." 
 
 Then up jumped Pee-wee Harris like a jack-in- 
 the-box. 
 
 "What are you talking about?" he shouted; 
 "don't you know you have to have a command o 
 language to write books? You're crazy I" 
 
 "I should worry about a command of language," 
 I told him. "Haven't I got command of the Silver 
 Fox Patrol? Anybody who can command the 
 Silver Fox Patrol ought to be able to command a 
 few languages and things. I could command a 
 whole regiment even," I kept up, for I saw that 
 Pee-wee was getting worked up, as usual, and all 
 the fellows were laughing, even Mr. Ellsworth. 
 
 "If you could command a division," Westy 
 Martin said, in that sober way of his, "you ought 
 to be able to command English all right." 
 
 "I can command any kind of a division," I 
 shouted, all the while winking at Westy. "I can
 
 TROUBLES OF MY OWN jg 
 
 command a long division or a short division or a 
 multiplication or a subtraction or a plain addi 
 tion." 
 
 "What are you talking about?" Pee-wee yelled. 
 "You're crazy!" 
 
 "I can command anything except Pee-wee Har 
 ris's temper," I said. 
 
 Well, you ought to have seen Pee-wee. Even 
 Mr. Ellsworth had to laugh. 
 
 "How can a fellow your age write books?" he 
 fairly screamed. "You have to have sunsets and 
 twilights and gurgling brooks and " 
 
 "You leave the gurgling brooks to me," I said; 
 "I'll make them gurgle all right. There's going 
 to be plenty of action in these books. And Pee- 
 wee Harris is going to be the village cut-up." 
 
 "Are you going to have girls?" he shouted. 
 
 "Sure I'm going to have girls gold haired 
 girls all kinds take your pick." 
 
 "Good night!" Pee-wee shouted, "I see your 
 finish." 
 
 Well, pretty soon everybody was shouting at the 
 same time and Pee-wee was dancing around, saying 
 we were all crazy. Most of the Raven Patrol 
 were with him and they ought to be called the 
 Raving Patrol, believe me.
 
 6 ROY, BLAKELEYj 
 
 Then Mr. Ellsworth held up his hand in that 
 quiet way he has. "This sounds like the Western 
 Front or a Bolshevik! meeting," he said, "and I'm 
 afraid our young Raven, Mr. Pee-wee Harris, will 
 presently explode and that would be an unpleasant 
 episode for any book/" 
 
 "Good night !" I said. "Don't want any of my 
 books to end with an explosion." 
 
 Then he said how it would be a good idea for 
 me to write up our adventures and how he'd help 
 me whenever I got stuck and how he guessed the 
 author of Tom Slade would put in fancy touches 
 for me, because he lives in our town and he's a 
 whole lot interested in our troop. He said that 
 breezes and distant views and twilights and things 
 aren't so hard when you get used to them and even 
 storms and hurricanes are easy if you only know 
 how. He said girls aren't so easy to manage 
 though. 
 
 "I'll help you out with the girls," Pee-wee said; 
 "I know all about girls. And I'll help you with 
 the names of the chapters, too." 
 
 "All right," Mr. Ellsworth said, "I think Pee, 
 wee will prove a valuable collaborator." 
 
 "A which?" Pee-wee said, kind of frightened. 
 
 So then we all laughed and Mr. Ellsworth said
 
 TROUBLES OF MY OWN 7, 
 
 it was getting late and we'd better settle about col 
 lecting books for the soldiers. 
 
 We decided that after we got to camp I'd begin 
 writing up our adventures on the trip, but we 
 couldn't decide how we'd all go in our boat, and 
 that was the thing that troubled us a lot, because 
 the fellows in our troop always hang together and 
 we didn't like the idea of being separated. 
 
 Well, I guess that's all there is to tell you about 
 the meeting, and in the next chapter I'm going to 
 tell you all about how we collected the books for 
 the fellows in camp, and how the mystery about 
 the boat was solved. Those are Pce-wee's words 
 about the mystery of the boat. I can't see that 
 there was any mystery about it, but there was 
 another kind of a mystery, believe me, and that 
 kid was the cause of it. I guess maybe you'll like 
 the next chapter better than this one. 
 
 So long.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 SWATTING THE SPY 
 
 Now I'm going to tell you about how we col 
 lected books for soldiers and especially about Pee- 
 wee's big stunt. 
 
 The next morning we started out and by night 
 we had over five hundred books. Mr. Ellsworth 
 said they were mostly light literature, but if he had 
 only had to carry fifty of them on his shoulder like 
 I did, he'd have thought they were pretty heavy 
 literature, believe me. 
 
 This is the way we fixed it. The Raving Patrol 
 (that's Pee-wee's patrol, you know) used Doctor 
 Harris's five-passenger Fraud car. It didn't go 
 very good and Pumpkin Odell (Raven) said he 
 guessed it was because the wheels were tired 
 that's a joke. They held up all the houses in 
 Little Valley. That's about sumpty-seven miles or 
 so from Bridgeboro. They've got two stores there 
 and a sign that says "Welcome to Automobilists" 
 and how they'll be arrested if they don't obey the 
 speed laws. Welcome to jail good night! 
 
 8
 
 SWATTING THE SPY 9 
 
 The Elk Patrol (that's our new patrol, you 
 know) went over to East Bridgeboro with Pinky 
 Dawson's express wagon (one horse power) and 
 some horse I wish you could see him. The Elks 
 were a pretty lively bunch, I'll say that, and they 
 cleaned out all the private libraries in East Bridge 
 boro. They even got cook-books and arithmetics 
 and books about geometry pity the poor soldiers. 
 
 The Silver Fox Patrol took care of Bridgeboro. 
 That's the best patrol of the whole three. I'm 
 leader of the Silver Foxes. The Ravens call us the 
 Silver-plated Foxes, but that's because we call 
 them the Raving Patrol and the reason we call 
 them the Raving Patrol is on account of Pee-wee. 
 
 Let's see, where was I? Oh yes, the Silver 
 Foxes took care of Bridgeboro. Brick Warner 
 (he's red-headed) has a Complex car or a Sim 
 plex, or whatever you call it I should worry. I 
 mean his father has it. He's got a dandy father; 
 he gave Brick five dollars so that we could have a 
 blow-out at lunch time. Oh, boy, we had two blow 
 outs and a puncture. 
 
 We got over two hundred books that day light 
 literature, dark literature, all colors. I could tell 
 you a lot of things that happened that day, because 
 we did a lot of good turns, and one bad turn, when
 
 io ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 we grazed a telegraph pole. What cared we? 
 But you'll care more about hearing of Pee-wee and 
 the raving Ravens and how they made out. 
 
 Anyway, I guess I might as well tell you now 
 about the scouts in my patrol. Don't ever borrow 
 trouble, but get to be a patrol leader, and you'll 
 have troubles of your own. Then you can pick 
 out the one you want and I'll drown the rest. 
 After that I'll tell you about the grand drive in 
 Little Valley. 
 
 First in the Silver Fox Patrol conies Roy Blake- 
 ley that's me. I'm patrol leader and I've got 
 eleven merit badges. I've got two sisters too. 
 One of them is crazy about the movies. 
 
 I've got seven scouts to look after and Captain 
 iCidd, the parrot he's our mascot. Our patrol 
 color is green and he's green with a yellow neck. 
 He's got one merit badge for music. Good 
 night! Then comes Westy Martin, and Dorry 
 Benton and Huntley Manners and Sleuth Seabury, 
 because he's a good detective, and Will Dawson 
 and Brick Warner and Slick Warner and that's all. 
 
 Now I'll tell you about the raving Ravens. Of 
 course, I can't tell you all that happened in Little 
 iValley that day, because I wasn't there. Doc Car 
 son said they had trouble with the motor and Pee-
 
 SWATTING THE SPY u 
 
 wee. He said that Pee-wee kept running wild all 
 day. But anyway they brought back a lot of 
 books with them, I'll say that much. 
 
 Well, when the day's drive was over, we all took 
 our books to the troop room and piled them up on 
 the table, and waited for Mr. Ellsworth to come. 
 He usually comes home from the city on the Wool- 
 worth Special. We call it the Woolworth Special 
 because it gets to Bridgeboro at five ten. Along 
 about six o'clock he showed up, and we began sort 
 ing out the books. The biggest pile was brought 
 in by the Ravens, and when he noticed a pile of 
 about twenty or thirty books tied with a brown 
 Cord, he asked where those came from. Then up 
 jumped Pee-wee, very excited, and said: 
 
 "I'll tell you about those." 
 
 "Do tell," said Elmer Sawyer, winking at me. 
 
 "Good night I Pee-wee's got the floor," shouted 
 Westy. 
 
 "Floor !" shouted Dorry Benton. "He's got the 
 walls and the ceiling and the mantelpiece and 
 everything." 
 
 "Will you pay a little attention?" Pee-wee 
 Icreamed. 
 
 "We're paying as little as possible," I told him. 
 
 "Tou're the worst of the lot," he yelled; "that
 
 12 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 pile of books, the ones with the brown cord, were 
 given to us by a kindly old gentleman ; he " 
 
 "A which?" Doc Carson said. 
 
 "Don't you know a kindly old gentleman when 
 f ou see one ?" Pee-wee fairly screamed. 
 
 "Let's see one," Artie shouted. 
 
 And that's the way it went on till Mr. Ellsworth 
 came to Pee-wee's rescue like he always does. He 
 said we should let Pee-wee have the chair. 
 
 " Here's a couple of chairs for him," we 
 houted. 
 
 "He qan have the table too, if he wants it," I 
 aid; anything to keep him quiet. 
 
 "I don't want to be quiet," Pee-wee screamed. 
 
 Good night, that was some meeting. Well, 
 pretty soon Mr. Ellsworth got us all throttled 
 down and Pee-wee started to tell us about his visit 
 to the kindly old gentleman. It seemed that was 
 one of the houses that Pee-wee called at alone 
 and the kindly old gentleman fell for him like 
 grown up people mostly do. I don't know what 
 it is but everybody seems to like Pee-wee. L You 
 know just because you jolly a fellow, it's not a 
 ign you don't like him. Pee-wee is one bully 
 little scout, I'll say that much. 
 
 "Do you want to hear about it?" he said.
 
 SWATTING THE SPY 13 
 
 "Proceed with your narrative," I told him; "be 
 gin at the beginning, go on till you come to the 
 end, then stop." 
 
 "Be sure to stop," Westy said. 
 
 Well, then Pee-wee went on to tell us about the 
 kindly old gentleman. He lived in a big white 
 house, he said, with grounds around it and a big 
 flag pole on the lawn, with a flag flying from it. 
 He said that the old gentleman didn't talk very 
 good English and he thought maybe he was a 
 German or French or something or other. He 
 guessed maybe he was a professor or something 
 like that. Anyway, he took Pee-wee through his 
 library, picking out the books he didn't want, till 
 he had given him about twenty or thirty. Then 
 they tied them up in a brown cord and Pee-wee 
 took them out to the Fraud car. 
 
 Well that's about all there was to it, and I 
 guess nothing more would have happened, if I "" 
 hadn't untied the cord and picked up the book that 
 lay on top. It was a book about German his 
 tory, princes and all that stuff, and I guess it 
 wouldn't interest soldiers much. Just as I was 
 running through it, I happened to notice a piece 
 of paper between the leaves, which I guess the old 
 gentleman put there for a book-mark. As soon as
 
 ii 4 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 I picked it up and read it, I said, "Good night! 
 Look at this," and I handed it to Mr. Ellsworth. 
 It said something about getting information to 
 Hindenburg, and about how a certain German 
 spy was in one of the American camps in France. 
 
 Mr. Ellsworth read it through two or three 
 times, and then said, "Boys, this looks like a very 
 serious matter. You said the old gentleman spoke 
 broken English, Walter?" 
 
 That's the name he always called Pee-wee. 
 
 "Cracky," I said, "Pee-wee's kindly old 
 gentleman is a German spy." 
 
 "Sure he is," said Westy Martin," and he's 
 only flying the American flag for a bluff, he's a 
 deep dyed villain." 
 
 "He can't be dyed very deep," said Doc Carson, 
 in that sober way of his; "because we haven't any: 
 German dyes to dye him with." 
 
 I was just going to say something to kid Pee- 
 wee along, when I noticed that Mr. Ellsworth was 
 very serious, and Pee-wee was staring like a 
 ghost. 
 
 "Boys," Mr. Ellsworth said, "I have no idea of 
 the full meaning of this paper." Then he said 
 how maybe in collecting books we had caught a 
 Spy in our net. He said that he was going to take
 
 SWATTING THE SPY 15 
 
 the paper anyway and show it to the Federal 
 Commissioner, down in the Post Office Building. 
 
 "If he's a spy, we'll swat him all right," I said. 
 
 "We'll more than swat him," Mr. Ellsworth 
 said, and I could see by the look in his eye that he 
 meant business.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 SWATTING THE SPY CONTINUED 
 
 WE didn't swat him in that chapter because I 
 had to go to supper, but we'll surely swat him in 
 this one. Positively guaranteed. 
 
 Pee-wee was proud that he made such a hit 
 with the old gentleman and especially because he 
 got so many books from him. But when he 
 realized that the paper I found in one of the 
 books had something to do with spying, it was 
 all Mr. Ellsworth could do to keep him quiet. 
 He told us all not to say anything, because maybe, 
 the old man might find out that he was going to be 
 nabbed and go away. I guess Pee-wee felt pretty 
 important. Anyway I know he was frightened, 
 because all the next morning he kept asking me if 
 he'd have to go to court and things like that. 
 
 "The only court you'll go to, is the tennis 
 court," I told him; so we made up a set with my 
 two sisters, Ruth and Margorie, and the girls bea* 
 us three games. While we were playing, along 
 came Mr. Ellsworth and Commissioner Terry 
 
 16
 
 SWATTING THE SPY 17 
 
 with two strange men, and I could see Pee-wee was 
 very nervous. They sent the girls away and then 
 began to ask Pee-wee questions. I could see that 
 they thought the discovery we made was pretty 
 serious. 
 
 "Are you the boy that found the paper in the 
 book ?" they asked me. Then they wanted to know 
 what kind of a book it was, and I told them it was 
 a book about German history and they screwed up 
 their faces and looked very suspicious. 
 
 "You say that the man spoke broken English?" 
 one of them asked Pee-wee. 
 
 Pee-wee was kind of nervous, I could see. "It 
 it well it wasn't exactly broken," he said. 
 
 "Just a little bent," I said, and oh, you ought to 
 have seen the frown Mr. Ellsworth gave me. 
 
 "It was kind of just a little " Pee-wee began. 
 
 "We understand," one of the men said. Then 
 the other one spoke to us. He said, "Boys, we 
 want you to go over with us and we want this 
 youngster to identify the man. You needn't be 
 afraid, Uncle Sam is with you." 
 
 But, cracky, I didn't like it and I guess Pee-wee 
 didn't either. I've read stories about boys that 
 had men arrested and all that, and I always 
 thought I'd like to be one of those regular heroes.
 
 1 8 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 But when it came to really doing it, I knew then 
 that I didn't like to help arrest anybody, and I 
 bet most real fellows feel the same way. I felt 
 funny, kind of. That's why I have no use for 
 young detectives in stories, because I know you've 
 got to be a grown-up man to feel that way and 
 do things like that. 
 
 They had an automobile right near the tennis 
 courts and we all got in and Pee-wee and I sat in 
 back with our scoutmaster. Cracky, I was glad 
 our scoutmaster was along, that's one sure thing. 
 
 Pretty soon we got to Little Valley and Pee- 
 wee pointed out the big white house with the lawn 
 and the flag flying there. Jiminy, but it looked 
 good and I wished we were up at Temple Camp, 
 raising our colors near the boat landing. 
 
 While we were going up the gravel path, the 
 old gentleman came out on his porch and looked 
 at us and I felt kind of ashamed and I could see 
 Pee-wee did too. But, cracky, I've got no use 
 for spies, that's one sure thing. Pee-wee and I 
 kind of hung behind and I guess he felt funny, 
 sort of, when the old gentleman waved his hand 
 to him, as if they were old friends. 
 
 I can't remember all they said but the two men 
 who I knew were detectives, showed the old
 
 I? 
 
 gentleman the paper and asked him what it meant. 
 First he seemed kind of flustered and angry and 
 I know Pee-wee's heart was thumping anyway 
 it would have been thumping, except that it was 
 up in his throat. 
 
 Then the men said that they'd have to search 
 the house to see if there was a wireless and then 
 the old gentleman got angry; then all of a sud 
 den he sat down in one of the wicker chairs on 
 the porch and began to laugh and laugh and 
 laugh. Then he looked at Pee-wee and said, 
 
 "I suppose this is the young gentleman who 
 succeeded in trapping me. I must take off my hat 
 to the Boy Scouts," and he smiled with an awful 
 pleasant kind of a smile and held out his hand to 
 Pee-wee. 
 
 Well, you should have seen Pee-wee. It was as 
 good as a three-ringed circus. He stood there 
 as if he was posing for animal crackers. And 
 even the detectives looked kind of puzzled, but all 
 the while suspicious. 
 
 "Are you the spy-catcher?" the old gentleman 
 said to Pee-wee, but Pee-wee looked all flabber 
 gasted and only shifted from one foot to the 
 other. 
 
 "I hope you don't mean to kill me with that belt-
 
 20 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 axe?" the old gentleman asked. But Pee-wee 
 just couldn't speak. 
 
 "He must be a telephone girl he doesn't 
 answer," I blurted out, and even the detectives 
 had to laugh. 
 
 "Gentlemen, if you will step inside, I'll make 
 full confession and then give myself up," the old 
 man said; "for I see there is no use in trying to 
 escape the Boy Scouts. It was I who wrote that 
 treasonable memorandum and I may as well tell 
 you that I have a wireless. I will give you my 
 whole history. I see that my young friend here is 
 a most capable secret service agent." 
 
 "We're only small boys we belong to the in 
 fantry," I said, for I just couldn't help blurting 
 it out. 
 
 Well, we all went inside and I could see that 
 the Commissioner and the detectives kept very 
 near the old gentleman as if they didn't have much 
 use for his laughing and his pleasant talk. I 
 guess maybe they were used to that kind of thing, 
 and he couldn't fool them. 
 
 When we got into his library I saw books all 
 around on the shelves, hundreds of them I guess, 
 and the desk was covered with papers and there 
 was a picture of Mark Twain with "Best regards
 
 SWATTING THE SPY 21 
 
 to Mr. Domicile," written on it. Gee whittaker, I 
 thought when I looked around; maybe Mr. Don- 
 nellee is a deep-dyed spy all right, but he's sure 
 a high-brow. 
 
 "You'd have to take an elevator to get up to 
 him," I whispered to Pee-wee. 
 
 "Shhh," Pee-wee said, "maybe he isn't dyed so 
 yery deep there's different shades of dyes." 
 
 "Maybe he's only dyed a light gray or a pale 
 blue," I said. 
 
 Then Mr. Donnelle got out a big fat red book 
 that said on it "Who's Who in America" and, 
 jiminy, I'm glad I never had to study it, because 
 it had about a million pages. I hate biography 
 anyway biography and arithmetic. Then he 
 turned to a certain page. 
 
 "Now, gentlemen," he said, "if you will just 
 read this I will then consent to go with you," and 
 he smiled all over his face. 
 
 The four men leaned over and began reading, 
 but Pee-wee and I didn't because they didn't ask 
 us and Boy Scouts don't butt in. 
 
 "I bet it tells all about German spies and every 
 thing, and now he's going to make a full con 
 fession," Pee-wee said; "maybe our names will be 
 in the New York papers, hey?"
 
 22 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 "They'll be more likely to be in the fly-paper," 
 I said; "there's something funny about this." 
 
 "I bet he was going to blow up some ships," 
 Pee-wee said. 
 
 "I bet he'll blow us up in a minute," I told him; 
 because I could see that he was saying something 
 to the men while they all looked at the book, anc! 
 that the whole four of them were laughing 
 especially Mr. Ellsworth. 
 
 "It was the elder boy who discovered it," I 
 heard him say, smiling all the while. 
 
 "Good night!" I said to Pee-wee, "I thought 
 we had a German in custody, but instead of that,, 
 we're in Dutch!" 
 
 "Will they send us to jail?" he whispered. 
 
 "I think we'll get about ten merit badges for 
 this not," I said ; "he's no spy." 
 
 Well, the men didn't pay much attention to us, 
 only strolled over to one side of the room and 
 began chatting together, and Mr. Donnelle got 
 a box of cigars and they each took one. 
 
 "I wouldn't smoke one of those cigars," Pee- 
 wee said, "they might be bombs. The Germans 
 are pretty tricky safety first." 
 
 Then Mr. Ellsworth came over to us, smiling 
 all over his face. "Well, boys," he said, "I'm
 
 SWATTING THE SPY 23 
 
 glad to say that our spy quest has gone up in 
 smoke. Mr. Donnelle is one of the best known 
 authors of America. He is writing a story of 
 the war and our dark memorandum is just a little 
 literary note of his about a spy among the Ameri 
 can forces. I think we shall find it a most in 
 teresting story when it is finished. It is full of 
 German intrigue and you will be glad to know that 
 the imaginary spy is caught and court-martialled. 
 .You have done a fine thing by your discovery, for 
 Mr. Donnelle has become greatly interested in 
 the Scouts, and especially in our young scout 
 author." Then he gave me a funny look. "So 
 you see our dark memorandum was not so dark 
 after all." 
 
 "G-o-o-d night!" I said; "it was a kind of a 
 pale white." 
 
 "And I dare say," Mr. Ellsworth said, all the 
 while slapping me on the shoulder, "that our deep- 
 dyed villain is going to prove a very good friend." 
 
 "Even if you're deep-dyed," said Pee-wee, 
 "sometimes the colors will run and you won't be 
 so deep-dyed after all. My sister had a skirt and 
 she dyed it a deep " 
 
 Honest, that kid is a scream.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE PLOT GROWS THINNER OR ELSE THICKER 
 
 PEE-WEE says it grows thicker and I say it 
 grows thinner, so I put it both ways. I told him 
 things would begin to stir up in this chapter and he 
 said a thing always gets thicker when you stir it. 
 I should worry. 
 
 "Suppose we should go ooating or something 
 like that where there's a lot of water," I told him ; 
 "that would thin it some if you added water, 
 wouldn't it?" 
 
 "You're crazy," he shouted. 
 
 Westy Martin wanted to name it The Deep 
 Dyed Villain so you can call it that if you want 
 to I don't care. 
 
 Now I'll start off. You remember about Mr. 
 Domicile saying that he had a wireless. Well, 
 pretty soon after what I've been telling you about, 
 the men went away and they were all laughing 
 and good natured about it. I heard one of them 
 say that the Boy Scouts were a wide-awake lot. 
 Believe me, they wouldn't say that if they saw 
 
 24
 
 THE PLOT GROWS THINNER 2$ 
 
 us sleeping after a day's hike at Temple Camp. 
 If you heard Vic Norris snore, you'd think it was 
 the West Front in France. 
 
 Well anyway, Mr. Donnelle wanted Pee-wee 
 and me to stay at his house a little while, because 
 he said he was kind of interested in us. He would 
 listen to Pee-wee very sober like and then begin 
 to laugh. And whenever Pee-wee tried to ex 
 plain, it only made him laugh more. 
 
 "Anyway, I could see you weren't a very bad 
 kind of a spy," Pee-wee said. 
 
 Jiminetty ! I had to laugh. 
 
 Well, Mr. Donnelle asked us all about the 
 Scouts and we told him all about them Pee-wee 
 mostly did that. He's a scout propaganderlet 
 that's a small sized propagandist. We told him 
 how we didn't know how we are going to manage 
 to get up to Temple Camp in our launch, because 
 it would only hold about seven or eight boys and 
 we had twenty-four, not counting Captain Kidd, 
 the parrot. 
 
 "Well, now I have a little scheme," he said, 
 smiling all the while, "and perhaps we can hit 
 some sort of a plan. If I can only get you boys out 
 of the way, away up at camp, Fll be able to carry 
 on my German propaganda work." Then he
 
 26 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 winked at me and I knew he was kidding Pee-wee. 
 
 Well, believe me, we hit a plan all right; we 
 more than hit it, we gave it a knockout blow. 
 
 All the while we were talking, he was taking us 
 across the lawn till pretty soon we came to a little 
 patch of woods and as soon as I got a whiff of 
 those trees, good night, I felt as if I was up at 
 Temple Camp already. That's a funny thing 
 about trees you get to know them and like them 
 sort of. 
 
 Then pretty soon we came to a creek that ran 
 through the woods and I could see it was deep and 
 all shaded by the trees. Oh, jiminy, it was fine. 
 And you could hear it ripple too, just like the 
 water of Black Lake up near Temple Camp. If 
 I was a grown-up author I could write some dandy 
 stuff about it, because it was all dark and spooky 
 as you might say, and you could see the trees re 
 flected in it and casting their something or other 
 you know what I mean. 
 
 "Can you follow a trail?" Mr. Domicile asked 
 us. 
 
 "Trails are our middle names," I told him, "and 
 I can follow one " 
 
 "Whitherso'er " Pee-wee began. 
 
 "Whither so which?" I said. Because he was
 
 THE PLOT GROWS THINNER 27; 
 
 trying to talk high brow just because he knew 
 Mr. Domicile was an author. 
 
 So he led us along a trail that ran along the 
 shore all in and out through trees, and he said it 
 was all his property. Pretty soon I could see part 
 of a house through the trees and I thought I'd 
 like to live there, it was so lonely. 
 
 "You mean secluded," Pee-wee said. Mr. Don- 
 nelle smiled and I told him Pee-wee was a young 
 dictionary pocket size. 
 
 Pretty soon we reached the ho:ise and, good 
 night, it wasn't any house at all; it was a house 
 boat. And I could see the fixtures for a wireless 
 on it, only the wires had been taken down. 
 
 Then Mr. Domicile said, "Boys," he said, "this 
 is my old workshop and I have spent many happy 
 hours in it. But I don't use it any more and if 
 you boys think you could all pile into it, why you 
 are welcome to it for the summer. It has no 
 power, but perhaps you could tow it behind your 
 launch. Anyway you may charter it for the large 
 sum of nothing at all, as a reward for foiling a 
 spy." 
 
 "I I kind of knew you were not a spy all the 
 time," said Pee-wee.
 
 28 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 Well, I was so flabbergasted that I just couldn't 
 speak and even Pee-wee was struck dumb. We 
 just gaped like a couple of idiots, and after a while 
 I said, "Cracky, it's too good to be true." 
 
 "So you see what comes from collecting books 
 for soldiers and for keeping your eyes open," Mr. 
 Donnelle said; "you have caught a bigger fish than 
 you thought. Now suppose I show you through 
 the inside." 
 
 Now here is the place where the plot begins to 
 get thicker and, beli ve me, in four or five chapters 
 it will be as thick as mud. We were just coming 
 up to the house-boat to go aboard it, when sud 
 denly the door flew open and a fellow scampered 
 across the deck and ran away. 
 
 I could see that he had pretty shabby clothes 
 and a peaked cap and I guess he was startled to 
 hear us coming. In just a few seconds he was 
 gone in the woods and we all stood gaping there 
 while the boat bobbed up and down, on account of 
 him jumping from it. But I got a squint at his 
 face all right, and I noticed the color of his cap 
 and how he ran, and I'm mighty glad I did, be 
 cause that fellow was going to come into our young 
 lives again and cause us a lot of trouble, you can 
 bet
 
 THE PLOT GROWS THINNER 29 
 
 Mr. Donnelle said he was probably just a tramp 
 that had been sleeping in the boat and he didn't 
 seem to mind much, only he said it would be bet 
 ter to keep the door locked. 
 
 "Maybe he might have been a " Pee-wee be 
 gan. 
 
 "No siree," I said. "We've had enough of deep- 
 dyed villains for one day, if that's what you were 
 going to say." 
 
 "Maybe we'd better track him," said Pee-wee, 
 very serious. 
 
 "Nix on the tracking," I said, "I've retired from 
 the detective business, and now I'm going to be 
 cook on a house-boat." 
 
 "We'll have a good anchor anyway if you make 
 biscuits," Pee-wee said. 
 
 "They'll weigh more than you do anyway," I 
 fired back. And Mr. Donnelle began to laugh. 
 
 Well, we didn't bother our heads any more 
 about the tramp, but I could see that Pee-wee 
 would have been happier if we'd have thought it 
 was the Kaiser or Villa, instead of just a plain 
 ordinary tramp, looking for a place to sleep. But 
 oh, crinkums, you'll be surprised when you hear 
 fcll about that fellow and who he was and I sup-
 
 30 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 pose you'd like me to tell you now, wouldn't you ? 
 But I won't. 
 
 I've got to go to camp meeting now, so good 
 bye, see you later.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 LOST 
 
 Now I'm going to write until my sister begins 
 playing the piano. Music and literature don't mix, 
 believe me. There are two cruises in this book, 
 a big one and a little one. You can take your pick. 
 The little one is full of mud and the big one is 
 full of pep. Anyway you get your money's worth, 
 that's one sure thing. 
 
 This chapter is about the little cruise. But first 
 I have to tell you about the house-boat, because 
 it turned out to be our home sweet home for a 
 couple of weeks. It didn't only turn out, but it 
 turned in and it turned sideways and every which 
 way. But I'm not going to knock it. It got 
 knocks enough going through the creek and up 
 Bridgeboro River. It knocked into two bridges 
 and goodness knows what all. But what cared we, 
 yo ho ? We cared nit I mean naught. 
 
 First Mr. Donnelle showed us through it and it 
 was dandy, only in very poor shape. It's shape 
 was square. But I wouldn't laugh at it because we 
 
 31
 
 32 ROYj BLAKELEY 
 
 had a lot of fun on it. Inside it had two rooms 
 and a little kitchen and the roof had a railing 
 around it and there was lots of room there. There 
 was lots of room on the deck too. And there was 
 a kind of little guard-house, too, to put Pee-wee 
 in if he didn't behave. Some of the windows were 
 broken, but I knew we could fix them easily. All 
 we needed to do was eat some green apples and 
 then we'd have plenty of panes. There were some 
 lockers too, only one of them was locked and we 
 couldn't get into it. 
 
 I guess the tramp didn't take anything, be 
 cause there was nothing missing. I guess all he 
 took was a look around. There were some 
 cushions piled on one of the lockers and they; 
 looked as if someone had been sleeping on them. 
 Pee-wee said he could see the oil stove had been 
 used by the smell he's got such sharp eyes that 
 he can see a smell. I told him he had a classy eye 
 because there was a pupil in it, and you ought to 
 hare seen Mr. Donnelle laugh. I guess he thought 
 we were crazy. 
 
 "Well we should worry about the tramp," I 
 said, "especially now that we have a boat like this. 
 The next thing to do is to bring the whole troop 
 and get her fixed up."
 
 LOST 33 
 
 One thing was easy anyway. Just below Bridge- 
 boro, where we live, there is a kind of a branch 
 flowing into the Bridgeboro River. We always 
 called it the creek. Now we found out from Mr. 
 Donnelle that it started along up above Little Val 
 ley. Over there they call it Dutch Creek. He 
 said that at high tide we could float the house 
 boat right down into Bridgeboro River and then 
 wait for the up tide or else tow it up to Bridge 
 boro. Cracky, I could see it would be a cinch 
 and I was glad because we fellows didn't have 
 money enough to have the boat carted by land. 
 /3ut, good night, this way was easy. 
 
 The next morning I sent a brich bark call to all 
 the fellows in our troop. I sent them each a little 
 piece of birch bark by courier. Connie Bennett, 
 he's our courier. And that meant come to Special 
 Meeting W. S. W. S. means without scout 
 master. So pretty soon they began coming up to 
 Camp Solitaire. That's the name I gave the tent 
 I have on our lawn. When they were all there, 
 I told them about Mr. Donnelle and the house 
 boat, and we decided that we'd hike over to Little 
 Valley and pile right in and get it ready instead of 
 bringing it to Bridgeboro first. We decided that
 
 34 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 if we worked on it for about three days, it would 
 be ready. 
 
 So we all started to hike it along the road to 
 Little Valley. We had an adventure before we 
 got there, and I guess I'd better tell you about it. 
 I made a map too, so you can see the way every 
 thing was. It's about five miles to Little Valley 
 by the road. 
 
 Well, we were all hiking it along, sometimes 
 going scout-pace and most of the time jollying Pee- 
 wee, when all of a sudden I noticed a mark on a 
 rock that I was sure was a scout mark. It was an 
 arrow and it was marked with a piece of slate. 
 Underneath the arrow was another mark like a 
 pail, so I knew the sign meant that there was water 
 in that direction. 
 
 I didn't know any scouts around our way that 
 could be camping there, but whenever a scout sees 
 a scout sign he usually likes to follow it up. So 
 I told the fellows I was going to follow if there 
 was any time. They said it was an old last year's 
 mark, but go ahead if I wanted to, and I told 
 them I'd meet them at Little Valley later. 
 
 So now comes the adventure. As soon as I left 
 the fellows, I hit the trail into the woods just like 
 you'll see on the map I made. It wasn't much of
 
 LOST 3* 
 
 a trail and I guess a fellow couldn't follow it if he 
 wasn't a scout. It was all thick woods like a 
 jungle kind of, and I could see where branches had 
 been broken by somebody that passed there. 
 Pretty soon it began to get swampy and there 
 wasn't any more trail at all. 
 
 As long as there's any sign of a trail you can't 
 get me rattled, but cracky, I don't like marshes. 
 iYou can get lost in a marsh easier than in any 
 other place. Pretty soon I was plodding around 
 deeper than my knees and it gave me a strain 
 every time I dragged my leg out of the swamp. 
 Maybe you'll wonder why I didn't go back, but if 
 you do, that's because you don't know much about 
 marshes. All of a sudden I was right in the middle 
 of it, as you might say, and there were no land 
 marks at all. 
 
 Pretty soon I was in waist deep and then I was 
 scared, you can bet. If there's one thing that gets 
 me scared it's quicksand. As long as I could get 
 my legs out I was all right, but when I began sink 
 ing as low as my waist and had to drag myself 
 out by squirming and catching hold of bushes 
 and things, then I lost my nerve I have to admit 
 it. 
 
 I saw I was a fool ever to go into that pesky
 
 36 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 place, but it was too late and I knew that pretty 
 soon I'd be in too deep to get out. Oh, jiminies, 
 I was scared. Once, after I scrambled out I tried 
 lying flat on the marsh with the reeds laid over 
 sideways underneath me. But they didn't hold 
 me up and anyway I knew I couldn't lie that way 
 forever. I wondered how a scout had ever gone 
 through here. 
 
 Before I knew how to swim I came mighty near 
 to getting drowned and I got lost in the woods, 
 too, when I was a tenderfoot. But this was worse 
 than anything I ever knew before. Once I sank 
 down almost to my shoulders and I guess I would 
 have been a goner, only my feet struck something 
 hard and flat and I stood on that until I got rested 
 a little. 
 
 All the while I looked around to see if I could 
 decide where the land might be a little harder, 
 but I guess I must have been in the worst part of 
 it. I decided that the safest thing I could do was 
 to stand just where I was. I didn't know what it 
 was I was standing on, but anyway it didn't seem 
 to sink any, so I was kind of safe there, as you 
 might say. But I ^new I could never raise myself 
 out of that place and I'd have to just stand there
 
 LOST 37 
 
 till I got so tired and hungry, that I'd drop down 
 and be sucked into the marsh. 
 
 So anyway, I'd have to die, I was sure of that, 
 only I didn't want to die any sooner than I had to. 
 Two or three times I shouted as loud as I could, 
 but I knew it wasn't any use, because I was two or 
 three miles away from any house. Even if any 
 body knew, I didn't see how they could get to me 
 and it was only by good luck that I wasn't dead 
 already on account of the hard thing I was stand 
 ing on. Every once in a while bubbles would come 
 up and I thought it was because that thing I was 
 standing on was sinking lower. The marsh was 
 just about even with my shoulders and I kept look 
 ing sideways at my shoulders all the time, so as 
 to see if I was going down any and sometimes I 
 thought I was. But I guess I wasn't. 
 
 The weeds stood up all around me so I couldn't 
 see, except up in the air and it was like being in a 
 grave with just my head out. Gee, I thought about 
 the fellows hiking it to Little Valley and begin 
 ning work on the house-boat and waiting for me to 
 come, and I could just kind of hear them jollying 
 Pee-wee, and oh, I wished I was there. I was 
 wondering who the Silver Foxes would elect for 
 their patrol leader and then I got to thinking how
 
 38 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 nobody, not even my mother and father r would ever 
 know what became of me, because you can't drag 
 a marsh like you can a river. And it seemed kind 
 of funny like, to die without anybody ever know 
 ing what became of you. 
 
 Pretty soon my legs began getting very tired like 
 a fellow's legs always do when he keeps standing 
 in water. Only this was worse than water. I 
 wondered how it would feel when my knees gav^ 
 out and I sank down. 
 
 Then I happened to think about having my hike- 
 book with me. It was all wet and the pencil was 
 wet too, but I held it up high out of the marsh and 
 wrote this on one of the pages. After I wrote it 
 I stuck it up high on one of the marsh weeds. 
 
 This is where Roy Blakeley, patrol leader, Silver 
 Fox Patrol, Bridgeboro Troop, B. S. A., was sucked 
 down into the marsh, after he couldn't stand up any 
 more. I was standing on something that was hard 
 and maybe you'll find my body lying on that. In 
 my desk is something I was going to give my 
 mother for a birthday present. I send her a lot 
 of love too. My father too. And I hope my Patrol 
 gets along all right and that the troop has a lot of 
 fun this summer. I hope somebody will find this.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 AFTER that I made up my mind I wouldn't think 
 any more about living and then I was satisfied, 
 kind of. 'Cause as long as you know you've got 
 to die, what's the difference. They could get 
 another fellow to lead the patrol, that's one sure 
 thing. Mostly I cared about my mother on ac 
 count of not being able to say good-bye to her. 
 
 All of a sudden it seemed as if there was more 
 water around me than before. Up to that time it 
 was mushy, kind of, but not much water. But now; 
 it was more like water all around me and I noticed 
 a little bunch of net moss near me. Maybe you 
 don't know what net moss is. It's moss that 
 grows in swamps. Well, what do you think I saw 
 lying on that clump of net moss? Cracky, you'd 
 hardly believe it, but it was a spark plug. And it 
 looked funny to see it there. 
 
 If you're not a scout maybe you don't know any 
 thing about camping, but it's one of our rules not 
 to defile the woods with rubbish and Mr. Ells- 
 
 39
 
 40 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 worth always told us a tomato can didn't look 
 right in the woods. Well, jiminety, that spark 
 plug sure did look funny lying on that piece of 
 net moss. It floated right near my shoulder and 
 I lifted it off and, oh, crinkums, but it made me 
 think of Bridgeboro. 
 
 It was almost the same as if it was a fellow come 
 to rescue me, as you might say. It was just be 
 cause it didn't belong there, I guess. Of course, 
 I knew it couldn't rescue me, but it reminded me of 
 people and that kind of cheered me up a little. 
 
 Then I began to think about it. I remembered 
 what our scoutmaster said about a fellow that's 
 drowning that he can think as long as his head is 
 out of water. And this was like drowning, only 
 slower. I was wondering how that spark plug 
 got there. It's funny how you'll think about little 
 things like that even when you're dying. 
 
 One thing sure, no automobile ever went 
 through there, and no motorcycle either. Maybe 
 a fellow in an airplane might have dropped it, or 
 maybe 
 
 Then, all of a sudden I began to laugh. And 
 while I was laughing some water flowed into my 
 mouth. But I didn't care, I was feeling so good. 
 I knew all about the whole thing now, and I felt
 
 THE TIGHT PLACE 41 
 
 like kicking myself only my feet were down in all 
 that tangle of marsh. But what cared I, yo ho 
 and a couple of yee hees. 
 
 Oh, I was some wise little boy scout then, and 
 I had a scout smile long enough to tie in a couple 
 of bow knots. That spark plug was thrown out 
 of a motor boat. I could see that the spark points 
 were bad and somebody threw it away because it 
 wouldn't work and then put in a new one. And 
 I knew that already the tide was beginning to come 
 up and that pretty soon there would be a creek 
 here and that I could swim in it. 
 
 Cracky, you can't scare me when it's a question 
 of swimming, for I wasn't brought up in a bath 
 tub. Many's the time I swam across Black Lake. 
 Water's all right, but swamps good night! 
 
 Maybe if you don't live near meadow lands 
 you won't understand how it was. But when the 
 tide rises twice every twenty-four hours (you 
 learn that in the Fourth Grade), it makes creeks 
 through the meadows and marshes. Some of them 
 are deep enough for small motor boats even, only 
 you've got to be careful not to stay up one of them 
 too long or you'll get stuck till the next day. One 
 time that happened to Ed Sanders that owned 
 the Rascal and he was there all night, and he al-
 
 4* ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 most died from poison of the mosquitoes. Any 
 way I would have been dead before night when 
 the mosquitoes come out that's one good thing. 
 I don't mean it's one good thing, but anyway you 
 know what I mean. 
 
 Pretty soon I could push the swamp grass out 
 of die way and swim a little. Oh, cracky, I was 
 thankful for that tide ! I knew it would keep on 
 coming when it once started 'cause the tide never 
 goes back on you. Of course it goes back, but you 
 know what I mean. Sometimes if you're on a hike 
 and telling time by the sun it'll go under a cloud, 
 or sometimes if you're lost and following the stars, 
 it'll cloud up and you can't see them any more. 
 And crinkums, a trail will go back on you some 
 times. But the tide is sure. It's got to come up, 
 and so I knew it was coming up to rescue me and I 
 knew I was all right as soon as I saw that spark 
 plug. 
 
 Pee-wee wanted to name this chapter "Saved By 
 A Spark Plug" or "The Hero Plug," but I said 
 it sounded silly. Any way I'll never say another 
 word against the tide. Often when I saw motor 
 boats stuck on the flats I could hear the men in 
 them saying things about the tide oh, gee, you 
 ought to have heard some of the things they said.
 
 THE TIGHT PLACE 43 
 
 But I'll never say anything, anyway. It seemed 
 kind of, you know, like an army coming to rescue 
 me, slow but sure, and pretty soon I was swimming 
 around, and oh, didn't I feel good! 
 
 All of a sudden like, there was a little river there 
 
 
 
 and it kept getting deeper and wider and I knew 
 it began away out in the ocean and it seemed as if 
 it was picking its way all the way up into these 
 marshes, to give me a chance to do what every 
 scout knows how to do swim. 
 
 Of course I was saved, but I didn't know how 
 far I'd have to swim, only I was pretty sure I 
 wouldn't have to die now. 
 
 I guess now you'd better look at the map I 
 made, and then you'll see how the creek came in 
 the marshes and about where I was, when it began 
 to rise. 
 
 Of course I didn't know where it came from or 
 where it went, but I decided to swim against the 
 tide for two reasons. First I was afraid to go the 
 other way because it might just peter out, like most 
 of those meadow creeks do, and then I'd be in the 
 marsh again. Oh, boy, safety first. I'd had 
 enough of marshes. Besides if I swam the other 
 k would be deeper and wider and I'd be more
 
 44 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 likely to find a board or a log or something and 
 pretty soon I might come to solid shores. 
 
 But before I started I had another adventure. 
 I took off my shoes and stockings and everything 
 except my underclothes. But of course, that wasn't 
 the adventure. It was a dandy adventure, but 
 you have to wait, and if it rains to-morrow so we 
 can't go trailing, I'll write some more. I think 
 it'll rain to-morrow.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 WEETONKA, THE TERRIBLE CHIEF 
 
 OF course you can tell when you look at the 
 /nap where the creek came from: It came from 
 Dutch Creek and Dutch Creek flows into the 
 Bridgeboro River, and Bridgeboro River rises in 
 the northern part of some place or other and takes 
 a some kind of a course and flows into New 
 [York Bay. Once I got kept in, in school, for not 
 knowing that. But how should I know where 
 this creek went? It came that was enough for 
 me. I should worry where it went. 
 
 Before I started to swim I decided I'd go under 
 and try to find out what it was that I'd been 
 standing on. Because I had to thank it. A boy 
 scout is supposed to be grateful. So I ducked and 
 groped around in the marshy bottom and I felt 
 something hard with a point to it. I had to come 
 up for air, then I ducked again and felt around 
 over it and under it. I joggled it with both my 
 hands and it budged not much but a little. Then 
 
 45
 
 46 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 I came up for air and went down and gave a good 
 tug at it. 
 
 I guess it was just kind of caught in the mud 
 and weeds for after I pulled some of these away a 
 lot of bubbles came up, and then I got hold of one 
 end of the thing and it stuck up slantingways out 
 of the water like an alligator's mouth. Oh, gee, 
 it was all slimy and had moss growing to it and it 
 was black and hard. I was crazy to find out what 
 it was and I swam around the end of it, bobbing 
 k up and down. Then I sat on it and rocked it 
 and it joggled. When I straddled it, it went down 
 with me and when I jerked it, it seemed to get loose 
 a little. The end that was sticking up wasn't very 
 big around, only it was terribly slippery. Any 
 way, I sat on it and tightened my legs around it 
 just like a fellow does with a balky horse, and 
 then I began jouncing up and down like on a see 
 saw. 
 
 Pretty soon the other end came up and, oh, boy, 
 didn't I get dumped off into the water. It looked 
 like a slimy old log floating. I gave it a turn and 
 then g-o-o-d night what do you think it was? 
 It was a regular Indian dug-out. 
 
 I guess maybe it was a hundred years old and 
 you can see it now, if you ever come to Bridge-
 
 1WEETONKA, THE TERRIBLE CHIEF 47 
 
 boro, because it's in the Museum of our Publk" 
 Library and you'll know it because it's got "Pre 
 sented by ist Bridgeboro Troop, B. S. A.," on it. 
 
 I guess maybe it was about fifteen feet long and 
 as soon as I cut into it with my scout knife, I saw 
 that it was made of cedar and it wasn't rotten 
 not so much, anyway. Jiminies, that's one good 
 thing about cedar; it lasts forever under water. 
 
 Oh, boy, wasn't I excited. I swam around it 
 washing it off with my scout jacket, then I bailed 
 the little dug out part out with my scout hat. It 
 wasn't so black when I got it all cleaned off. It 
 was kind of chocolate color and I knew it must be 
 very old, because cedar turns that color after a 
 long time. You learn that in Woodcraft. 
 
 It was all made out of one piece and the place 
 where you sit was just hollowed out about big 
 enough for one person. 
 
 Then I got inside and it was crankier than a 
 racing shell. You had to sit up straight like a little 
 tin soldier to keep it from tipping it was one 
 tippicanoe, you can bet. I fell out and had to rol! 
 it over and bail it out two or three times. At 
 last I got the hang of it and I pushed it in the 
 marshes a little way so it wouldn't drift up stream. 
 There was a regular creek there now, good and
 
 48 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 wide and deep, and the water was coming up like 
 a parade. 
 
 Then I pulled a lot of reeds and bound them 
 together with swamp grass. That was a funny 
 kind of a paddle I guess, but it was better than 
 nothing and anyway I decided to wait till the tide 
 was at flood and then paddle back with it. That 
 would be a cinch. 
 
 So then I sat in the dug-out and just waited for 
 the tide to come up. The dug-out stayed where 
 it was on account of being pushed in among the 
 reeds and oh, jiminety, it was nice sitting there. I 
 thought maybe the creek would empty out again 
 into Bridgeboro River and I could tie up there and 
 go home. But I had a big surprise waiting for me, 
 you can bet. 
 
 It was about nine o'clock in the morning when 
 I started on that crazy trail and it was about five 
 o'clock in the afternoon when the tide began to 
 turn and go back. All the while I was sitting there 
 waiting I thought about the Indian that owned 
 that canoe. Maybe his bones were down under 
 neath there, I thought. Ugh! I'd like to see 
 them. No, I wouldn't. Maybe he was on his way 
 to a pow-wow, hey? 
 
 Well, after a while when the tide turned I
 
 WEETONKA, THE TERRIBLE CHIEF 49 
 
 started paddling down. A little water came 
 through a couple of deep cracks, but not much and 
 I sopped it up with my hat. But oh, jingoes, I 
 never had to sit up so straight in school (not even 
 when the principal came through the class-room) 
 as I did in that cranky old log with a hole in it. 
 And oh, you would have chucked a couple of 
 chuckles if you'd seen me guiding my Indian bark 
 with a bunch of reeds. Honest, they looked like 
 a street sweeper's broom. 
 
 After a while the creek began to get wider and 
 then I could see far ahead of me the roof of a 
 house. Then, all of a sudden, I heard somebody 
 shout. 
 
 "Don't bother to plug the hole up, leave it the 
 way it is, so if the water comes in, it can get out 
 again." 
 
 Then I heard a voice shout, "You're crazy!" 
 and I knew it was the fellows jollying Pee-wee 
 Harris and they were talking about a hole in the 
 boat, because that was the roof I saw. So then 
 I knew I was coming out into Dutch Creek right 
 where it passes Little Valley. 
 
 Oh, boy! Wasn't I excited? Pretty soon I 
 could see the boat and some of the fellows on it 
 working away, sawing and hammering and jolly-
 
 50 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 ing each other, the way the fellows in our troop 
 are always doing. You can see by the map just 
 how I got to where they were. I guess I must 
 have been as near as fifty feet before Connie Ben 
 nett threw down his hammer and shouted. 
 
 "Look who's here I" 
 
 Westy Martin was sitting on the edge of the 
 deck dangling his feet and eating a sandwich. 
 Well, you ought to have seen them all stare. 
 
 "What in the dickens do you call this?'* Wig 
 iWeigand hollered. 
 
 But I didn't say a word till I got right close to 
 them, then I gave Westy a good swat with my reed 
 paddle. 
 
 "I am Weetonka, the famous Indian chief!" I 
 shouted, "and I haven't had anything to eat since 
 eight o'clock. Give me that sandwich or I'll scalp 
 you!"
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 RESOPEKITWAFTENLY 
 
 THIS chapter and the next one are mostly about 
 Wigley Weigand, but we usually call him Wig- 
 Wag Weigand, because he's a cracker-jack on 
 wig-wag signalling. He's good on all the dif 
 ferent kinds of signalling. He's a Raven, but he 
 can't help that, because there wasn't any Silver 
 Fox Patrol when the Raving Ravens started. 
 
 The Ravens were the what do you call it 
 you know what I mean nucleus of the troop. 
 That's how it started. There are about half a 
 million scouts in America and all of them can't be 
 Silver Foxes, even if they'd like to. 
 
 Wig has the crossed flags that's the signalling 
 badge; and the fellows say he can make the sky 
 talk. Believe me, he can make it shout. He isn't 
 so bad considering that he's a Raven and there's 
 one good thing about him anyway and that's 
 that his mother always gives us cookies and things 
 when we go on a hike. I got a dandy mother,
 
 52 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 too, and maybe you'll see how much I think about 
 her, kind of, in the next chapter. Anyway I have 
 to thank Wig Weigand, that's one sure thing. 
 
 Now maybe you think I did a good stunt in that 
 marsh, but a scout doesn't get credit unless he uses 
 his brains and does everything all right. And 
 that's where I fell down, and it came near making 
 a lot of trouble, believe me. 
 
 Many's the time Tom Slade (he's in the war 
 now) told me never to leave a scout sign after it 
 wasn't any more use. "Scratch 'em out," he said, 
 "because even if it means something now, it might 
 not mean anything six months from now." Jiminy, 
 that fellow has some brains. He said, "Never for 
 get to take down a sign when it's no use any more." 
 
 Well, when I found I wasn't going to die a ter 
 rible death (that's what Pee-wee called it) I didn't 
 have sense enough to take away that note that I 
 stuck on the reeds. When I stuck it there I 
 reached up as high as I could, so even when the 
 tide was high up there, I guess it didn't reach it. 
 I was so excited to find I could get away that I 
 never thought anything about it. And when I 
 sailed into Little Valley in my Indian canoe, gee, 
 I had forgotten all about it. 
 
 I found that the troop had done a good day's
 
 RESOPEKITWAFTENLY 53 
 
 work caulking the hull up and slapping a couple of 
 coats of copper paint on it, while the tide was out. 
 So then we decided that as long as the tide was go 
 ing down, we'd float her down with it to the 
 Bridgeboro River and then wait for the up tide to 
 float her upstream to Bridgeboro. We decided 
 that we'd rather fix her up in Bridgeboro. So you 
 see that this chapter is about the tide, too. Mr. 
 Ellsworth and Mr. Domicile both told me that I 
 must have plenty of movement in my story, so I 
 guess the tide's a good character for a story, be 
 cause it's always moving. 
 
 Well, you ought to have seen those fellows 
 when I sailed in shouting that I was Weetonka, 
 the famous Indian chief. Doc Carson dropped 
 his paint brush on Connie Bennett and he was 
 splashed all over with copper paint good night ! 
 
 "Where did you get that thing," Pee-wee 
 shouted, "it looks like a horse's trough." 
 
 "You have to part your hair in the middle to 
 ride in it, I can tell you that," I told him. 
 
 "Where were you all the time ?" he said. 
 
 "I was captured by a band of Apaches," I said. 
 
 "What kind of a band?" Pee-wee yelled. 
 
 "A brass band," I told him; "a brass band of 
 Apaches."
 
 [54 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 "You make me sick!" he said, kind of disgusted 
 
 "They took me to their village and were going 
 to burn me at the stake, only the butcher didn't 
 bring it, then they decided they'd chop me to 
 pieces only the butcher didn't bring the chops " 
 
 Oh, boy! you should have seen that kid. He 
 fired a wet bailing sponge at me and I dodged it 
 and it hit one of his own patrol kerflop ! 
 
 I guess you'll think all us fellows are crazy, 
 especially me. I should worry. I told them I 
 escaped in the canoe and all that kind of stuff, but 
 at last I told them the real story and you can bet 
 they were glad I was saved. They all said I had a 
 narrow escape, and I admit it was only about an 
 inch wide. 
 
 Now, I have to tell you about how we floated 
 the house-boat down to Bridgeboro River, and 
 maybe you'd better look at the map, hey? Oh, 
 but first I want to tell you about the name we gave 
 it. Some name ! We christened it with a bottle 
 of mosquito dope. It's regular name was all 
 rubbed off, so we decided we'd vote on a new 
 name. 
 
 This is the way we fixed it. Each patrol thought 
 of a name and then we mixed the three names up
 
 RESOPEKITWAFTENLY 55, 
 
 and made one name out of them. Then you just 
 add a little sugar and serve. 
 
 The Ravens voted the name Sprite, the Elks 
 voted the name Fly and the Silver Foxes voted 
 the name Weetonka, on account of me. Then we 
 wrote all these letters down and mixed them all 
 up and arranged them every which way, till we 
 got this name: 
 
 RESOPEKITWAFTENLY 
 
 Oh, boy, some laugh we had over that name. 
 We were all sitting around in the two cabin 
 rooms and believe me, it was some giggling match. 
 
 "It sounds like a Bolsheviki name," Westy 
 Martin said. 
 
 ".You wait till the infernal revenue people get 
 that name," I said, "it'll knock 'em out." Because, 
 of course, I knew we'd have to send the name to 
 the infernal revenue people I mean internal or 
 eternal or whatever you call it because $ou have 
 to do that to get your license number. 
 
 "It's a good name," I said, "you don't see it 
 every day." 
 
 "Thank goodness for that," Doc Carson said, 
 "it's as long as a spelling lesson or Pee-wee's 
 tongue."
 
 56 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 "It'll be a pretty expensive name; it'll take a 
 lot of paint," Brick Warner said. 
 
 "We should worry,"" I said. 
 
 So then I made some coffee, because I'm the 
 troop cook, and we thought it was best to eat 
 before we started. That bunch is always hungry. 
 They said it was punk coffee, but that was be 
 cause they didn't bring enough to go around. 
 
 " Don't laugh at the coffee," I told them, "you 
 may be old and weak yourselves some day." I 
 made some flapjacks, too, and then we started. 
 
 We didn't have to do much work because the 
 ebb was running good and strong, and we just 
 sat around the deck with our feet dangling over, 
 and pushed her off with our scout staffs whenever 
 she ran against the shores. She didn't keep head 
 on, but that was no matter as long as she went, and 
 pretty soon (I guess it must have been about 
 seven o'clock) we went waltzing into Bridgeboro 
 River. 
 
 And then was when we made a crazy mistake. 
 Just for a minute we forgot that the tide would 
 be running down the river instead of up. If we 
 had only remembered that, three or four of us 
 could have gone ashore with a rope and tied her 
 in the channel, which ran along the near shore.
 
 RESOPEKITWAFTENLY 57 
 
 Then all we would have had to cio would have 
 been to sit around and wait for it to turn, so we 
 could drift up to Bridgeboro with it. 
 
 But just when we were floating out of die 
 creek, we forgot all about what the tide would 
 do to us, unless we were on the job and sure 
 enough it caught us and sent us whirling around 
 and away over on to the flats. 
 
 "Good night!" I said when I heard her scrape. 
 
 "We should have had sense enough to know the 
 tide is stronger here than in the creek," they all 
 said. 
 
 "What's the difference?" Dorry Benton said, 
 "we're stuck on the flats, that's all. Now we 
 don't have to bother to tie her. When the tide 
 changes, we'll float off and go on upstream all 
 right. We're just as well off as if we were tied 
 up in the channel." 
 
 Well, I guess he was right except for what 
 happened pretty soon. So we settled down to 
 wait for the tide to go down and change. After 
 a while we began to see the flats all around us 
 and there wasn't any water near us at all only 
 the water in the channel away over near the west 
 shore. We were high and dry and there wasn't 
 any way for a fellow to get away from where we
 
 (58 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 were, because he couldn't swim and he'd only 
 sink in the mud, if he tried to walk it. 
 
 Well, while we were sitting around trying to 
 figure out how long it would be before the water 
 would go down and then come up enough to carry 
 us off, Doc Carson said, "Listen !" and we heard 
 the chug of a motor boat quite a long way off. 
 It was getting dark good and fast now, and there 
 was a pretty wide stretch of flats between us and 
 the channel. Pretty soon we could hear voices 
 all thin, sort of, as if they came from a long way 
 off. That's the way it is on the water. 
 
 "She's coming down Dutch Creek," one of the 
 ifellows said. After a while another fellow said 
 fee thought it was Jake Holden. Then another 
 one said it wasn't. 
 
 "Sure it is," Connie Bennett said, "listen." 
 
 Then as plain as day I could hear the words 
 "crab running," and then in a minute something 
 about "bad news." Pretty soon, through the 
 steady chugging I could hear a voice say very plain, 
 "I'm glad it doesn't have to be me to tell her." 
 
 We couldn't make them out because it was get 
 ting too dark, but it was Jake Holden, the fisher 
 man, all right. Pretty soon the engine began 
 chugging double, sort of, and I knew they were
 
 RESOPEKITWAFTENLY 591 
 
 going around the corner into Bridgeboro River, 
 because there's a steep shore there, and it made 
 an echo. 
 
 I was a chump not to realize what they were 
 talking about, but they had chugged around into 
 Bridgehoro River and were heading upstream 
 before it popped into my thick head. And even 
 then iv was on account of something else they said, 
 as the chugging grew fainter all the time. It 
 seemed as if I heard it while I was dreaming, as 
 you might say. I knew they were pretty far up 
 stream by now, but the voice was awful clear, 
 like voices always sound across the water, es 
 pecially in the night. 
 
 "He was a nice little fellow," that's what if| 
 said, "but he had a right to keep out of that place." 
 
 Then, all of a sudden, I knew. They were 
 talking about me. They must have been up that 
 creek fishing and found that note of mine. And 
 they were going to tell my people as soon as they 
 got home. 
 
 "Holler to them, fellows!" I said; "quick all 
 together." 
 
 I guess the fellows must have thought I was 
 crazy, but they hollered for all they were worth. 
 But it was no use, for nobody answered. I guess
 
 6o ROY BLAKELET 
 
 the wind must have been blowing our way or some* 
 thing anyway, they didn't pay any attention. 
 Then pretty soon I couldn't hear the chugging 
 any more at all. 
 
 Oh, jiminies, but I felt bad. Maybe you think 
 that as long as I escaped and would get home all 
 right I ought to be satisfied. But that's because 
 you don't know anything about my mother. When 
 my brother died I saw how she acted and the 
 doctor said she had to stay in bed two or three 
 days on account of her heart being not just right. 
 Maybe he thought it would stop, I guess. And,, 
 gee, I didn't want her to hear any bad news, 
 even if it wasn't true. 'Cause I knew just how? 
 she'd act I could just see her, sort of. I guess 
 I was kind of thinking about it and how it would 
 be when Jake Holden went to the house, and how 
 she'd have to wait five or six hours, maybe till 
 morning, before she saw me, when all of a sudden 
 I heard Will Dawson of my patrol say, "What's 
 the matter, Blakey?" he always calls me Blakey. 
 
 But I didn't pay any attention to him, because I 
 couldn't speak exactly. I didn't seem to see any 
 of the troop, I only just saw my mother standing, 
 maybe kind of unsteady like, and listening to Jake 
 Holden.
 
 RESOPEKITWAFTENLY 61 
 
 Then all of a sudden I walked straight over 
 to where the Ravens were all sitting on the cabin 
 roof. And I spoke to Wigley Wig-wag Weigand. 
 I said this is just what I said I said, "Wig, I 
 always claimed Ralph Warner was the best signal 
 ler in the troop and maybe you'll remember I was 
 mad when you got the badge. But now I ain't 
 mad, and I ain't jealous, only I don't want those 
 men to go and tell my mother I'm dead I I 
 don't. I forgot to take the note away and they're 
 going to tell her and she she has her heart 
 isn't very strong like. There's only one fellow in 
 the troop can do it it's you. You can do it. 
 You can do anything, signalling. I've got to admit 
 it now, when I need you. You're a Raven, but 
 I want you to signal, quick. They'll see it in town. 
 You're the only fellow can do it you are. I got 
 to admit it." 
 
 He didn't say much because he isn't much on 
 But he jumped down and he just said, "I'll fix it.'* 
 talking;. He's always studying the Handbook. 
 
 And I knew he would. 

 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE LAST LETTER 
 
 THEN Elmer Sawyer (he's a Raven) came up 
 to me and said, "He'll do it, Roy; don't worry. 
 And they'll get it too, because everybody in town 
 is out these nights looking at the searchlights down 
 the Hudson." 
 
 That was one lucky thing. A lot of cruisers 
 and torpedo boats were down in the harbor and 
 up the Hudson, and we could see their search 
 lights even in Bridgeboro. 
 
 Wig looked all around the cabin as if he was 
 hunting for something and then he said, "No 
 searchlight, I suppose." If we had only had a 
 searchlight it would have been easy, but there 
 wasn't any on board. 
 
 "Don't you care," Pee-wee said to me, "he'll 
 think of a way." Oh, jiminy, but he was proud of 
 Wig. I could see that Wig was thinking and for 
 just a few seconds it seemed as if he couldn't 
 make up his mind what to do. 
 
 "Can you smudge it?" Connie Bennett asked. 
 62
 
 THE LAST LETTER 63 
 
 "Guess so," he said, "you fellows rip open the 
 ends of these cushions, but don't tear the covering 
 any, and somebody get the stove cleared out; 
 see if there's a damper in the pipe, and see il 
 there's any bilge under the flooring. It'll take 
 those fellows about twenty minutes to chug up to 
 Bridgeboro." 
 
 Well, in two seconds he had us all flying every 
 which way, Elks, Silver Foxes and all. 
 
 We didn't have to open more than one of the 
 seat cushions and, lucky thing, we found it full ol 
 excelsior. That makes a good smudge. 
 
 "Only you've got to treat it," Wig said. 
 
 "Treat it!" I said; "I'll treat it to all the ice 
 cream it can eat, if it'll only help you to send the 
 message." I was feeling good now. 
 
 "Take it down in the bilge and treat it," he 
 said, very sober like, to one of his patrol. 
 
 "Don't let it spend a cent," I called after hirm 
 But I didn't go because I could see he would rather 
 have Ravens help him. You can't blame him for 
 that. In about half a minute they came upstairs 
 and they had a lot of the excelsior all damp, but 
 not exactly wet, and I don't know how they got it 
 that way, except I know there was bilge water
 
 r 6 4 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 down under the flooring. They're a lot of cracker 
 jacks on signalling, I'll say that much for them. 
 
 There was a stove in the main cabin with a 
 stovepipe going straight up through the roof like 
 a smoke stack and there was a damper in it right 
 near the stove. 
 
 "Get a handbook or a pocket code,'* somebody 
 said, "so he'll have the signs right near him." 
 
 "He doesn't need any signs," Pee-wee shouted, 
 disgusted like. 
 
 Well, this is the way Wig did it, and after he 
 got started, most of us went up on the roof to 
 see if we could read it. But that's mighty hard 
 to do when you're right underneath it. 
 
 By the time the fellows came upstairs with 
 the damp excelsior (that's what they call the 
 smudge) Wig had a good fire started in the stove. 
 
 "Lay that stuff down here," he said; then he 
 said to me, "What do you want to say?" 
 
 "Just say I'm safe, Wig," I told him. "Say 
 for them not to pay any attention to what they 
 hear." 
 
 I only waited long enough for him to get 
 started, just so as to see how he did it, then I 
 went up on the roof and watched the long black
 
 THE LAST LETTER 651 
 
 smoke column. Cracky, I was glad it was moon* 
 light, that's one sure thing. 
 
 As soon as he had a good fire started he stuffed 
 some of the damp excelsior in and shut the door, 
 and told Artie Van Arlen (he's their patrol 
 leader) to hold a rag over the crack in the door, 
 because the black smoke was pouring out that way, 
 especially because the damper in the pipe was shut* 
 
 I didn't stay there long, because the smoke was 
 too thick for me and when I saw Artie bind a wet 
 rag over Wig's eyes and mouth, I knew then it 
 was going to be mighty bad in that little cabin. 
 
 "Have another ready," I heard him say; "better 
 have three or four of them." 
 
 Then he put his hand on the damper in the pipe 
 and turned it and then the smoke in the cabin 
 wasn't so bad. He just turned it around quick and 
 kept turning it around and that let little puffs of 
 smoke through, and I heard the fellows up on the 
 roof shouting, "Hurrah !" so I knew it was work 
 ing all right. He sent up a lot of little puffs like 
 that, just so as to draw attention, and he kept doing 
 it so long I got impatient. 
 
 "No use talking till you know somebody's 
 listening," he said, kind of pleasant like to me. I 
 guess maybe he never liked me very much, because
 
 66 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 I didn't want that badge to get into their patrol^ 
 and anyway he's kind of sober, sort of, and maybe 
 he thought I had too much nonsense. But, oh, 
 boy, I was strong for him now. And I could see 
 how he began to cough and I was worried. 
 
 Then he groped around to get hold of the 
 damper, for he was blindfolded and the smoke in 
 there was getting thicker and thicker. Then he 
 gave it a quick turn, then waited a few seconds, 
 then held it lengthwise with the pipe for about 
 twenty seconds. 
 
 R I said to myself. 
 
 Then he opened the damper three times, each 
 about twenty seconds, and I could hear the fellows 
 tip on the roof shouting. 
 
 "O! It's a good O! Bully for Wig Weigand!" 
 
 "Give me another towel, quick," he said to 
 Artie. "Is the window open? You better go up, 
 Kid." 
 
 It was the first time he ever called me kid and he 
 had to cough when he said it. But I just couldn't 
 move. There was something in my throat and 
 my eyes that wasn't smoke, and I said, "I can stand 
 it if you can Wig." 
 
 "Go on up, kid," he said, "we've got got
 
 THE LAST LETTER 67 
 
 her talking now," and he coughed and choked. 
 
 "Go on up, Roy," Artie Van Arlen said. 
 
 Up on the roof all the fellows were sitting 
 around the edge with their legs over, watching 
 the black column in the sky, and shouting when they 
 read the letters. But I was thinking about those 
 fellows down in that cabin filled with smoke and 
 how they were doing that all on account of me. 
 
 "Pretty smoky down there," one of the Elks 
 said to me. 
 
 "You said something," I told him. 
 
 "He's marking up the sky all right, if he can 
 only stick it out," another fellow said. "Who's 
 down there with him?" 
 
 "Artie," I said. 
 
 "They'll stick it out, all right," Westy Martin 
 said; "it's easier for Artie, he can stay near the 
 window." 
 
 "Bully for you, Wig, old boy!" somebody 
 shouted, just as the E in SAFE shot up. And I 
 knew what it meant it meant that the words Roy 
 is safe had been printed in great big black letters 
 across the sky. 
 
 Then it came faster and faster and it seemed 
 as if he must be turning that damper like a tele 
 graph operator moves his key. "Don't worry,,"
 
 68 ROYj BLAKELEY, 
 
 it said, "reports false," "Roy Blakeley safe," 
 "Roy safe," "Blakeley alive." He said it all 
 kinds of different ways. 
 
 Once Artie came up coughing and choking and 
 watched a few seconds to see if the wind was 
 blowing the smoke away as fast as the signs were 
 made, because that was important. 
 
 "It's lucky we have that wind," he said, and 
 then went down again in a hurry. 
 
 Pretty soon we could see some searchlights far 
 away and I guess they were on the ships. But 
 ours was different and nearer to Bridgeboro, and 
 people would be sure to see it, only maybe they 
 wouldn't understand it and that's what made me 
 worry. I'm good on reading smudge signals, even 
 though I never sent many and I never have to have 
 the Handbook when I read the code, that's one 
 thing. And I didn't pay much attention to all 
 the talking and yelling, only kept my eyes up in 
 the sky, watching that long smoky column. It beat 
 any searchlight you ever saw. "Roy alive" "Roy 
 alive" it kept saying and sometimes "don't worry." 
 I didn't see how any fellow could manage a smudge 
 and send it so fast and keep his spaces. The last 
 word before it stopped was SAFE, or that's what it 
 was meant to be, only the short flash for E didn't
 
 THE LAST LETTER 69 
 
 come. The fellows all began shouting when there 
 wasn't any more, and I heard Pee-wee shout down 
 stairs, "Aren't you going to put the name of the 
 boat?" 
 
 "Do you want him to crack the sky open?" I 
 heard a fellow say, and they all laughed. 
 
 But I remembered how that last E didn't come 
 and I started down the ladder for all I was worth. 
 I scrambled around the narrow part of the deck to 
 the window und called, but nobody answered. The 
 smoke was coming out thick. 
 
 "Wig," I said, "are you there? Are you all 
 right? Artie, where are you?" 
 
 I had to turn away my face on account of the 
 smoke. I pulled off my scout scarf and tied it over 
 my mouth, so that it covered my ears too. Then 
 I looked in and down low, because I knew that the 
 smoke wouldn't be so thick near the floor. And I 
 saw Wig Weigand lying there right under the 
 stove pipe and his hand was reaching up holding 
 the damper, and his hand was all white like and 
 his eyes were wide open and staring. Then I 
 shouted for all I was worth. 
 
 "Doc I come down hurry! Send Doc Carson 
 down, Wig Weigand is dead he's suffocated."
 
 THE RAVENS 
 
 Doc CARSON is a Raven and he's our First Aid 
 Scout. He always has some things with him, be 
 cause that's our rule. But you can bet I didn't 
 wait for him. And I didn't care if I was killed or 
 not, I didn't, if Wig Weigand was killed. 
 
 So I jumped right through the window and the 
 smoke got into my eyes and made my ears ring, 
 but I didn't care. I could taste it all thick, too, 
 but I didn't care. That was the smoke that had 
 to do what Wigley Weigand told it to, and he 
 scribbled all over the sky with it, that's what he 
 did, and now it had turned around and killed him. 
 
 I knew that up to six or seven inches from the 
 floor there is never much smoke and I knew he 
 must have lain down low when he was almost un 
 conscious and worked that damper. And those 
 fellows up there had been laughing and cheering 
 all the while, when he was lying there like that. 
 
 I didn't see Artie anywhere and there wasn't 
 any sound. I lay down flat and crawled over to
 
 THE RAVENS 71 
 
 Wig and you bet I worked quick. I tied his hands 
 together with my scout scarf it was the Silver 
 Fox scarf and I tied the scarf around my neck. 
 
 "Wig," I said, but he didn't speak and his legs 
 and his neck hung loose, sort of, and it kind oi 
 scared me. Then I crawled to the window, be 
 cause I couldn't see the door, dragging him after 
 me. Then I did something I never thought I could 
 do, but maybe you've noticed you can do most any 
 thing when you have to. I just stood up, then fell 
 down again, coughing and choking, and my ears 
 were buzzing all the time. But I didn't care, I just 
 stood up again with him hanging to me, and I 
 grabbed the window sill and dragged him half way 
 across it and with his head outside, and then I 
 staggered and tried to grab something and my 
 eyes were stinging and, oh, I don't know, all of a 
 sudden my head knocked and I didn't know any 
 more. 
 
 Mr. Ellsworth says that Doc ought to write the 
 rest of this chapter, but he wouldn't, and it's just 
 like him. The next thing I knew I was sitting on 
 the lowest step and Connie Bennet was holding my 
 head. "You're all right," he said, "but you got 
 a good bump. You were only there a few seo 
 onds."
 
 72 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 "Did you pull me out?" I said. "Where'* 
 iWig?" 
 
 "Doc brought him around," he said, "he go* 
 him breathing, then it was easy. We ean't find 
 Artie." 
 
 Maybe it was funny, but just then I didn't seem 
 to be thinking about Artie. I felt my head and 
 found I had a big bump on it. "I should worry 
 about that," I said. "Where's Wig?" 
 
 Then I got up and went around the cabin to 
 the forward deck and mere were all the fellows 
 and Wig sitting up and Doc Carson holding him 
 and moving him, so as to keep him breathing 
 scout fashion. 
 
 "All righto, kid," Doc said, kind of pleasant 
 "you're a brick." 
 
 I always thought that I was as big as he was, 
 but he called me kid, and I didn't care. Anyway, 
 I couldn't see him very good, I admit that. Be< 
 cause oh, well, maybe you can understand. 
 
 "Artie's missing," he said. "You didn't see any 
 thing of him in there ?" 
 
 "I couldn't see at all, hardly," I told him. 
 
 Then Wig turned his head and looked at me 
 and he was all white and weak looking, especially
 
 THE RAVENS 73 
 
 when he smiled. And he had the remains of my 
 Silver Fox scarf, all torn, around his neck. 
 
 "All right?" he said very low. 
 
 But I just couldn't speak to him. I don't know 
 what made me do it, but I went up to him and he 
 looked at the bump on my forehead and said, 
 "Hurt?" 
 
 "You should worry about that," I told him. 
 Then I kind of fixed the Silver Fox scarf better, 
 4o that it was around his neck and I tied it in the 
 Silver Fox knot. "Your fellows won't mind if you 
 Wear it a little 'while," I said, and then I unfastened 
 his own scarf, yellow and brown, and tied it around 
 iiy neck. "There's no fellow can get this away 
 from me to-night," I said, "I'm going to wear the 
 Raven scarf I am." 
 
 Then, all of a sudden, I noticed that Doc had 
 gone away and I was holding his head up alone. 
 So I let it down on the cushion very easy and I 
 Baw we were all alone. Maybe you won't 
 understand and it's hard to tell you. But I didn't 
 say anything; I just stayed there and rubbed his 
 forehead. 
 
 "We told her," he said, kind of as if he was 
 tyeak and tired. 
 
 "Yop," I said, "you told her,"
 
 7.4 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 "Somebody'll get it maybe," he said. 
 
 "I ain't thinking about that," I said, "I'm only 
 thinking about how you did it. I I don't want 
 the signalling badge in my patrol now, honest I 
 don't, Wig. I want it to stay where it belongs. 
 And I want there to be only just the one in the 
 troop. I got mad first. That's because I'm always 
 getting mad, I guess. But there will never be 
 any signalling badge in my patrol, Wig. That's 
 going to be the rule." 
 
 "There'll be a Gold Cross though," he said. 
 And then he shut his eyes. 
 
 But I stayed right there just because oh, I 
 don't know, just because I wanted to stay right 
 there. You can't always tell why you want to do 
 a thing.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 LOST 
 
 Now when Wig said that about the Gold Cross 
 I thought it was just because he was weak and 
 didn't know what he was saying. Because, maybe 
 you know as well as I do, that the Gold Cross 
 isn't so easy to get. Only one fellow in our troop 
 ever got it, and that was Tom Slade. Maybe I 
 took a chance when I went into all that smoke, 
 I'm not saying I didn't, but if I got anything at all, 
 it would be the Bronze Medal, I guess, but nix on 
 the Gold Cross. You don't find gold crosses grow 
 ing around on every bush, you can bet. Anyway, 
 I didn't want any honor medal because I knew Wig 
 wouldn't get one (because they're only for life- 
 saving) and, gee, if he didn't deserve one, I'm sure 
 I didn't. 
 
 Anyway this wasn't any time to be thinking 
 about medals, because Artie Van Arlan was miss 
 ing and that was the principal thing we had to 
 think about. He wasn't on the house-boat, that 
 was one sure thing, because we looked everywhere 
 
 75
 
 76 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 and couldn't find iim. Wig said he remembered 
 somebody speaking to him when he was lying 
 there, and he guessed it must have been Artie. He 
 didn't know what he said though. 
 
 The fellows were all excited about it, especially 
 because the boat was just beginning to float, and 
 we didn't know whether we'd better anchor there 
 and wait to see if he turned up. Two of the fel 
 lows climbed down and swam around and the rest 
 kept calling. It wasn't very deep yet and they 
 could even feel around the flats, but they couldn't 
 find him anywhere. 
 
 I went around and looked at the window and 
 even then the cabin was filled with smoke, but not 
 so thick. Believe me, I wished that Tom Slade 
 was there then, because he's great on deducing and 
 finding clues and all like that. That's why we 
 always called him Sherlock Nobody Holmes. Any 
 way, I couldn't make out what happened. Artie 
 might have staggered up against the window to 
 get air, but I didn't see how he could fall out, and 
 if he was able to climb out then why didn't he 
 come up where the rest of us were? 
 
 I couldn't make anything out of it; all I knew: 
 was he was gone. I knew he must have been
 
 LOST 77 
 
 drowned and his body been carried up by the tide, 
 which was running up strong now. 
 
 Well, you can bet we didn't have any fun drift 
 ing up. Nobody said anything much; we just sat 
 around the edge of the deck with our staffs and 
 pushed her off, whenever she ran against the shore. 
 
 Charlie Seabury sat next to me and after a while 
 he said, "Who's going to tell his people?" 
 
 "I am," I told him, "because I'm to blame for 
 the whole business." 
 
 "Nobody's to blame," he said. 
 
 "Yes, I am," I said, "they just did it on account 
 of me." 
 
 "That's because all the fellows like you," he 
 said, "and they like to do anything for you." 
 
 Anyway, it wasn't so necessary, I see that now, 
 and it's just the same as if I killed him. Gee, I 
 wish it was I that got killed, I know that. Cracky, 
 I deserved to after being such a fool. 
 
 After that, nobody spoke for a long time', then 
 Hunt Ward, who's in the Elk Patrol, said, "It's 
 the first fellow in our troop that died. I guess we 
 won't go up to camp now." 
 
 "Not in this boat, anyway," I said. 
 
 Then after a while I said, "We'll send his name 
 in and they'll print it in Boys 9 Life."
 
 78 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 "I know," Hunt said, "with a black line around 
 it." 
 
 Yet we kind of kept hoping all the time, even 
 though we knew there wasn't any sense in it. 
 
 "You thought you were a goner," Hunt said, 
 "and you came back all right." 
 
 Now I was a big fool that it didn't put a certain 
 idea in my head when he said that, but I only said, 
 "Yes* but that was different." 
 
 Then Dorry Benton, who was two or three fel 
 lows away from me, said, "One thing is sure, he 
 went through the window and into the water. 
 Maybe he was half conscious and didn't remember 
 there was only a narrow strip of deck there. And 
 he must have tumbled right off it." 
 
 "I don't know," I said, "only if he isn't in the 
 boat then he must be in the water and if he fell 
 in the water and couldn't swim or shout either, 
 then he must be drowned." 
 
 Then nobody said anything and we just sat 
 there keeping her off shore and watching her drift 
 up. When we got around Bentley's turn we could 
 see the lights in Bridgeboro and then was when I 
 began to realize and I hated to get home. I wished 
 the tide wouldn't take us so fast. Some of the 
 fellows walked around on the roof, but none of
 
 LOST 79 
 
 them said anything. I wished it was me instead 
 of Artie, I know that. I ought to have been satis 
 fied to escape without getting the Ravens to do 
 that I mean send that message for me. Anyway, 
 I made up my mind I'd be the one to tell Mr. 
 Ellsworth about it, and Artie's people too, and I'd 
 take all the blame. 
 
 I guess nobody said anything more all the way 
 up, until we came near the Field Club landing. 
 The shore is like low cliffs here and after we got 
 her over against it, a couple of the fellows got out 
 and towed her along with ropes, till we came to 
 the long float. 
 
 "Are we going to tie her at the float?" Connie 
 Bennett asked, very sober like. Gee, it sounded 
 funny to hear someone speak. Doc Carson said, 
 "Yes." He was kind of like head of the three 
 patrols now, because he has the most sense of all of 
 us, I guess, and Tom Slade, who is head of the 
 Elks, is away and I decided, all of a sudden, that 
 I wasn't much of a patrol leader, and Artie he 
 was he wasn't there. 
 
 "Look out for that canoe,'* somebody said, 
 jus-t as we were coming alongside the float. 
 
 "They shouldn't have left it there," Connie
 
 8o ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 said; "that's no place for a canoe." I guess we 
 were all kind of nervous and cranky like. 
 
 Then I saw that there was a black figure sitting 
 on the lowest step of the boathouse. I was just 
 going to call "Who's there?" when Doc said, 
 "Pull that canoe out of the way before we smash 
 it in." 
 
 So I jumped off onto the float and grabbed the 
 canoe, and g-o-o-d night 1 it was my Indian dugout.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THEN I heard one of the fellows shouting, 
 "Look who's here!" and I saw the fellow who had 
 been sitting on the steps coming toward the float, 
 and I could tell it was Artie Van Arlen. Then I 
 could hear Pee-wee dancing on the cabin roof and 
 screaming, "The plot grows thicker 1 The plot 
 grows thicker !" good night, the kid was almost 
 having a fit. 
 
 "If it wouldn't be too much trouble," I said to 
 Artie, "would you please relate your adventures, 
 I see that you're not dead." 
 
 "Well, not so you'd notice it," he said, "but I 
 guess I came pretty near it." 
 
 Then I could see he was all in and must have 
 had a pretty hard time of it, but I couldn't help 
 kidding him, because I was feeling so good to 
 know he was safe. Believe me, that fellow v liad 
 some adventure. 
 
 "It was lucky for me," he said, "that you tied 
 this crazy canoe or whatever you call it " 
 
 81
 
 82 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 "That is an Indian dugout, if anyone should 
 ask you," I said, "and if I wanted to sell it to an 
 antiquary " 
 
 "A what?" Pec-wee shouted down from the 
 cabin roof. 
 
 "An antiquary," I said; "comes from the Latin 
 word aunt and the Chinese word query, meaning 
 to ask questions otherwise the same as Pee-wee. 
 As I was saying, if I wanted to sell it to an anti 
 quary I could get a large check for it." 
 
 "How large?" Pee-wee shouted. 
 
 "About eight inches by two and a half inches; 
 now, shut upl" I said. 
 
 Cracky, you should have heard those fellows 
 laugh. 
 
 "Well, whatever it is," said Artie, "it's lucky 
 for me that you tied it just under the cabin 
 window, because I fell into it I fell in good and 
 hard." 
 
 "I think you fell in soft," I said; "it shows how 
 thoughtful I am. A scout is foresighted " 
 
 "You make me sick!" Pee-wee shouted. 
 
 "Tell Doc Carson to give you some medicine," 
 I answered. 
 
 Laugh ! Because, you see, we were all feeling so 
 good about Artie being saved that we'd laugh at
 
 ARTIE'S ADVENTURE 83 
 
 nothing, like a lot of girls. But girls are all right, 
 I have to admit that. 
 
 Let's see, where was I ? Oh, yes, I was telling 
 you about Artie. You see when I first arrived 
 with that canoe I tied it just under the cabin win 
 dow and then scrambled up through the window. 
 So there it was all the time. Lucky thing, too. 
 Only the funny thing was we never missed it we 
 were punk scouts, that's sure. 
 
 Then Artie told us how it was. "After the 
 smoke got so thick that I was dizzy and couldn't 
 see, I got scared and groped around for Wig. I 
 couldn't find him anywhere and he didn't answer. 
 I didn't know whether all of the signal had been 
 Sent or not, but anyway I knew I couldn't stand 
 it in there any longer. I thought Wig must have 
 climbed out of the window. So I decided I would 
 do the same thing. Oh, but didn't I have some 
 job finding it! I lay down flat, I knew enough to 
 do that anyway, and then I crawled around with 
 one hand up feeling for the window sill. When 
 I found it I was so dizzy I just hung to it and I 
 thought I was a goner sure." 
 
 "I know how you felt," I said, "because I was 
 in the same trouble myself." 
 
 Then he said how he dragged himself up to
 
 84 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 die window sill and tried to shout, but couldn't. 
 Then he fell across it and kind of wriggled out. 
 He didn't have his senses, but he knew enough to 
 know that there was a narrow part of the deck, 
 just a passageway sort of, outside, and he thought 
 he'd fall on that. But it was lucky he didn't. He 
 fell past it right into the water and that brought 
 him to his senses, kind of. So he sputtered anQ 
 groped around till he happened to clutch the In* 
 dian dugout and it rolled over with him and the 
 anchor that we had laid in it with a rope to hold it 
 fast to the houseboat, the anchor rolled out, and 
 the first thing he knew he was drifting up the river, 
 hanging onto the dugout for dear life. 
 
 He was feeling so weak and sputtering so on 
 account of his lungs being all filled with smoke, 
 that he couldn't shout and after a while he drifted 
 up on the bar near Second Bend. Then he got 
 the dugout set right side up on the mud while he 
 bailed it out by splashing in it with his hands and 
 afterwards making them into a cup. 
 
 After that it was easy drifting up stream and 
 when he got to about a quarter of a mile below 
 the boathouse, he managed to paddle over to the 
 shore and then he pulled himself along by holding 
 on to the weeds and things.
 
 ARTIE'S ADVENTURE 85 
 
 "You had a pretty narrow escape," Pee-wee 
 said. 
 
 "It was a narrow boat, why shouldn't he have 
 a narrow escape," I said; "I had a good wide es 
 cape, anyway." 
 
 "Didn't you have your hat with you to bail 
 with?" somebody asked Artie. 
 
 "All I had was my copy of Initiation Drill," he 
 said. 
 
 "Why didn't you drill a hole in the boat then," I 
 said. 
 
 "What for?" Pee-wee shouted. 
 
 "So the water could get out as fast as it came 
 
 in." 
 
 "What are you talking about? You're crazy!" 
 he yelled. 
 
 "There should be two holeg in every boat," Con 
 nie Bennet said, in that slow way he has; "one 
 for the water to come in and the other so it can 
 get out." 
 
 Gee-vnlligcri You should have seen Pee-wee. 
 
 Anyway, I suppose you think by this time that 
 we're all crazy. I should worry.
 
 TRACKING 
 
 ANYWAY, you can bet I didn't stay there long, 
 because I wanted to find out if Wig's signal had 
 been received. Maybe you won't understand, but 
 down the river it seemed all right and I was sure 
 somebody must have caught it. But after we 
 landed and I started up home, it seemed as if it was 
 just kind of playing, after all, because that's the 
 way some people think about the scouts, so I hur 
 ried as fast as I could so that my mother and father 
 wouldn't be worrying. I felt awfully funny, kind 
 of, as I went up the lawn because I knew that if 
 no one had come and told them about the signal, 
 they'd think I was dead. 
 
 They were sitting on the porch waiting for me 
 and I knew from the way my mother put her arms 
 around me that they had been worrying. She 
 asked we what had kept me so late and my father 
 said that I ought to send them some word when I 
 was going to stay out as late as midnight. I have 
 to admit he was right, too.
 
 TRACKING 87 
 
 But anyway, I knew that they hadn't received 
 any word about me from anybody, and I was all 
 up in the air about that. I could see that Jake 
 Holden hadn't been there at all and that nobody 
 had come and told them about the signal, either. 
 I didn't exactly ask them, but I could tell it all the 
 same. So I told them all about everything that 
 happened, about how I got caught in the marsh 
 and all that, and especially about Wig being such 
 a hero. Then she cried a little, kind of, and I 
 said there was no use crying because I was home 
 all right. But anyway, she cried just the same, 
 and hugged me awful tight just as if everything 
 hadn't ended all right. That's a funny thing about 
 mothers. 
 
 So then I went to bed and I lay awake think 
 ing about everything that happened. What I 
 thought about most was why Jake Holden hadn't 
 come and told my mother and father like I heard 
 him say he was going to do. You remember how 
 I heard him say that. So that was a mystery 
 that's what Pee-wee would call it. And I was 
 wondering why he hadn't come to the house to 
 give them that note he had found. Because I 
 knew Jake Holden (he always called me 
 "Scouty") and he liked me, too, and I knew he
 
 88 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 would sure have come to the house if something 
 hadn't happened. 
 
 Now that I was all calmed down, as you might 
 say, I wasn't surprised any more about no one read, 
 ing the signal, because maybe it didn't show very' 
 plain in Bridgeboro and anyway, most grown peo* 
 pie seem to think that signalling and all that kind 
 of thing are lots of fun for scouts, but not much 
 use except when grown people, and especially the 
 Jiavy, do it. 
 
 Anyway, I should worry about grown people, 
 because we have plenty of fun. 
 
 Oh, boy, didn't I sleep that night ! When I got 
 pp I made up my mind that I'd go to Jake Hol- 
 Sien's shanty, just for the fun of it, and find out 
 why he didn't come and tell my family that I was 
 dead. Because, if I was dead, he sure ought to 
 have come and told them. Of course, I knew I 
 wasn't dead, but anyway, how did he know that? 
 
 After breakfast I did my good turn I turned 
 my sister Ruth's bed around for her so as it faced 
 the bay window. I was going to turn it twice and 
 call it two good turns, but she said that wouldn't 
 be fair that that wouldn't be two good turns. I 
 said it would be just as fair as Pee-wee turning the 
 ice-cream freezer till the cream was all frozen
 
 TRACKING 89 
 
 and then saying he did a hundred good turns. 
 Then she threw a tennis ball at me, but it missed 
 me. That's one thing about girls, they can't throw 
 a ball. They can't whistle, either. 
 
 Now comes another adventure. After break 
 fast I went to Marshtown (that's a few houses 
 down near the river) to Jake Holden's shanty. 
 It's a funny kind of a place made out of barrel 
 staves and part of a boat all jumbled up together, 
 and it looks kind of like a chicken coop. He lives 
 all alone and kind of camps out. He's a nice man, 
 you can bet, only you have to get on the right 
 side of him. If you Hon't get on the right side of 
 him the safest place is behind him. He catches 
 fish and crabs and goes around town selling them. 
 He taught me how to cook. 
 
 When I got to his shanty I saw it was locked 
 up and he wasn't anywhere around. I guess he 
 went down the bay crabbing. Anyway, I ran as 
 fast as I could to Marshtown landing to see if he 
 had gone yet, but there wasn't any sign of his 
 boat there. Maybe you think I wasn't disap 
 pointed. Anyway, I began looking around like a 
 scout is supposed to do, to see if there were any 
 signs to show me whether he'd be back soon, be 
 cause maybe he only went up to the Club landing
 
 90 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 [for gasoline. But there weren't any signs and he 
 didn't show up. 
 
 Now, if I hadn't been a scout I would have gone 
 home and played tennis or followed the shore up 
 to the Club landing and waited for the troop to 
 come and go to work on the houseboat. But in 
 stead of that, I kept looking around and pretty 
 soon what do you think I saw ? I saw a footprint. 
 Some Robinson Crusoe, hey? 
 
 It was a funny kind of a footprint. It wasn't 
 Jake's, I knew that, because he always wore fisher 
 man's boots. It was in the soft earth near the 
 landing and I could see it plain. I guess maybe 
 it was made by a good shoe, because it was pointed,. 
 but it was all worn out, that was one sure thing, be 
 cause there was a place that was made by a stock" 
 ing or a bare foot, where there wasn't any sole at 
 all. 
 
 Maybe you don't know much about deduction, 
 but that's one thing scouts learn about, and I tried 
 to make out what it meant, but it had me guessing. 
 Because the shoe was pointed and had the remains 
 of a rubber heel I could tell that by the big screw 
 holes. And that meant good shoes. And I thought 
 it was funny anybody who could wear good shoes 
 would let them wear out like that.
 
 TRACKING 9r 
 
 Anyway, it was none of my business, only there 
 was one mighty funny thing about that footprint. 
 There was an Indian's head stamped right in the 
 mud. It wasn't very plain, but I could see it was 
 an Indian's head all right. It was something like 
 the Indian's head on a cent. 
 
 Oh, boy, I was all up in the air then, because 
 I didn't understand how that could be there. 
 Maybe you'll say that it was stamped there to show 
 what make of shoes they were, but that's where 
 you're wrong, because most of the sole was alJ 
 worn away and the mark would be worn away, too 
 Somebody must have cut it there lately, that was 
 one sure thing, and I couldn't understand why any* 
 body would want to cut that on an old worn-out 
 shoe. 
 
 So I sat down on the edge of the float to think 
 'about it and then I saw two or three more just 
 like it, and even more, too, only not all of them 
 were so plain. Believe me, I didn't know what to 
 think. Then all of a sudden I happened to re 
 member that the Indian's head is the design of the 
 scout pathfinder badge. 
 
 Jiminetty, but didn't I get down on my knees 
 and study those some more. Maybe it didn't have 
 -anything to do with the scouts, but maybe it did.
 
 92 ROY: BLAKELET 
 
 And even if it did I couldn't make out what it 
 meant, because that shoe was no scout shoe. I 
 know a scout shoe when I see one, you can bet. 
 
 Anyway, I made up my mind I was going to 
 follow that track as far as I could. Maybe it 
 would peter out on a street or something and then 
 good night I 
 
 .You'll see what happened in the next chapter. 
 Oh, boy, it's going to be a -peacherinol
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE SLACKER 
 
 ONE thing, I wished Tom Slade was there, be 
 cause he was the best tracker we ever had. Hfc 
 could track an airplane that's what the fellows 
 used to say. But he was over in France and the 
 only other fellow in our troop who is a cracker- 
 jack at tracking, is Westy Martin. I don't say 
 that just because he's a Silver Fox, because I have 
 to admit that Artie Van Arlen and Wig Weigancj 
 are heroes, and they're not Silver Foxes. But, 
 honest, Westy is a winner when it comes to track 
 ing, and you've got to remember that, because now 
 I'm going to tell you some other things about 
 him and maybe you won't know just what to think. 
 But I'm going to tell you straight just what hap 
 pened. 
 
 Well, I decided that I'd rather have another 
 fellow with me, because that's a good rule in track- 
 *ng and anyway two fellows are better than one. 
 'And anyway, I knew he could hold a track longer 
 than I could. He got the pathfinder's badge t'oij 
 
 93
 
 $4 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 one of the best tracking stunts that was ever done 
 up at Temple Camp and he's done enough track 
 ing stunts to win it two or three times over. He's 
 a fiend on tracking. 
 
 By now I knew that the fellows would all be 
 coming down to the boat club landing to work on 
 the houseboat, because we had it fixed that they 
 would all be there by nine o'clock. I wasn't going 
 to flunk on that, you can bet, but I thought if I 
 told them about the footprint they'd let Westy and 
 me off for a little while, because if a scout is after 
 a merit badge he can usually get leave all right. 
 Anyway, that's the way it is in our troop. And all 
 the fellows knew I had the tracking bee, all right. 
 
 Gee, I hate to tell you about this, but I have 
 to. Now, the way you get from Marshtown land 
 ing up to the boat club landing is to follow thq 
 shore and its only about a quarter of a mile. After 
 I'd hiked it a little way, I could hear the fellows 
 talking and sawing and hammering, and I knew 
 they were all busy working. 
 
 When I got there they were all over the house 
 boat like flies, painting and varnishing and fixing 
 tip the flagpole, and I could hear Pee-wee as usual, 
 shouting away. Jiminy, but it sounded good. 
 Then I could hear somebody say, "Well, well,
 
 THE SLACKER 95 
 
 better late than never," and I saw it was our 
 scoutmaster, Mr. Ellsworth. He took a day off 
 to help the fellows. 
 
 "I'm only six minutes late," I said; "Silver 
 Foxes always show up." 
 
 "Well, let us hope so," Mr. Ellsworth said. 
 And I kind of saw that something was wrong. 
 
 "Westy isn't here," somebody shouted. 
 
 "He'll be here in a minute," I said; "get t<v 
 work; you should worry about Wcsty." 
 
 But just the same I felt sort of uncomfortable 
 because one thing Mr. Ellsworth is a stickler 
 about is us being on time. Whenever a scout 
 comes late for campfire up at Temple Camp or at 
 a troop meeting either, he always gets a look from 
 T. E. At camp we have breakfast at 7 142 and 
 lunch at 1 123 and supper at 7 :i3, just to teach the 
 fellows to go by minutes. 
 
 Anyway, I started working with my patrol, wh 
 were painting the deck. I stuck right to it, but 
 all the time I was wishing that. Westy would show 
 up. Every time I heard a sound I looked up. Be 
 cause maybe you don't know that a patrol leader 
 is responsible for his patrol and if one of them 
 falls down, it's just the same as if he fell down. 
 First the fellows kidded us about it, especially
 
 96 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 me, and spoke about the Tardy Foxes, and the 
 Sleepy Foxes, but pretty soon Mr. Ellsworth came 
 to me and said he guessed I'd better go into the 
 club house and telephone to Westy and find out 
 what was the mater. 
 
 "Find out if he's awake yet," somebody said. 
 
 "Maybe we'd better send a taxi for him," an 
 other fellow shouted. 
 
 "You think you're very funny, don't you?" I 
 said, "Maybe you raving Ravens won't rave so 
 much when you find out he's sick in bed." 
 
 So I went in and telephoned, and oh, jiminy, 
 that was the first time in my life that I ever really 
 wished a fellow was sick. But his mother told me 
 he hadn't been home since about half-past seven 
 and that when he went out he had a catching-mit 
 and a baseball with him. 
 
 Jimmies, I don't often get scared, but I could 
 feel my heart up in my mouth, kind of, and I didn't 
 know what to tell the fellows and Mr. Ellsworth. 
 It was like a disgrace to my patrol and it disgraced 
 me, too, you can bet. He would go off and play 
 ball and let us fellows do all the work on the boat 
 and then he'd go in it up to Temple Camp. Gee, 
 that's one thing a scout never is mean. We had
 
 THE SLACKER 97 
 
 it all fixed up to work and then he flunked and let 
 us do it all. 
 
 First I thought maybe I'd kind of not tell Mr. 
 Ellsworth all about that 'phone call and say I 
 couldn't hear very plain, and all like that. But I 
 saw if I did that, I'd be worse than Westy. It 
 was bad enough having a slacker in my patrol with 
 out having a liar. 
 
 No, siree! 
 
 So I just went up to him and I said, "Mr. 
 Ellsworth, he's out playing ball somewheres and 
 I guess he didn't intend to come. I admit it dis 
 graces my patrol and it disgraces the whole troop. 
 I was going to ask you if you thought maybe I 
 could go away for an hour or so to follow a track 
 I found, but I won't now; I'll just stay here and 
 work twice as hard so as to make up for him. 
 And the other fellows in my patrol will too. 
 Maybe that will make it seem not quite so bad."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 DURING NOON HOUR 
 
 ONE of the things that made me feel especially 
 bad was that Wig Weigand and Artie Van Ar- 
 len were there working, even after being nearly 
 killed the night before, and Artie was kind of 
 lame, too, from straining his ankle when he fell. 
 Gee, I had to hand it to those fellows. And even 
 Pee-wee was working away with the rest of the 
 Ravens and running to buy nails and everything. 
 Both of the other patrols were all there except 
 Tom Slade in the Elks, but they kept his place 
 open for memory, sort of. 
 
 After a little while Mr. Ellsworth strolled over 
 to where I was working and said to me gee, he 
 was awful nice the way he said it he said, "Roy, 
 if you want to follow up that trail you may as well 
 go ahead and come back after lunch. We're go 
 ing to hit the eats pretty soon now." That's the 
 way he always says it, "hit the eats." 
 
 "I was expecting Westy to go with me," I told 
 him. 
 
 98
 
 99 
 
 "Well, no matter," he said; "go alone and don't 
 worry any more about Westy. It wasn't because 
 Westy or any other single scout was needed here 
 for we have plenty of scouts on the job, but it was 
 just that he didn't show up when we all planned 
 to be here, that's all. I don't like to think of any, 
 of my scouts falling down." 
 
 "It's the same about my patrol," I said, "and 
 I'm ashamed, that's one sure thing." 
 
 He said I shouldn't feel that way and that he 
 guessed playing baseball was good exercise any 
 way. But he only said that so I wouldn't feel bad. 
 
 Anyway as long as they were going to eat I 
 thought I might as well go ahead and see if I 
 could do that tracking if it didn't take me too far. 
 On the way down to the other landing I thought 
 what I'd say to Westy. I knew he'd get a troop 
 reprimand, but I decided he'd get a patrol repri 
 mand too, you bet. And I was feeling pretty bad 
 about it too, because none of the Silver Foxes ever 
 got a troop reprimand. They got patrol repri 
 mands but not troop reprimands. And Westy had 
 gone and spoiled it all and, gee, that's one word 
 I don't like slacker. 
 
 When I got to the other landing I started fol 
 lowing that trail. If you think Westy had any-
 
 loo ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 thing to do with it, you're mighty mistaken, be* 
 cause he didn't. He always wore scout shoes, I 
 knew that. 
 
 Well, believe me, that trail was a cinch and I 
 could follow it as easy as a clothes line. It went 
 right up through River Lane where there isn't 
 any pavement and every footprint was plain. I 
 was afraid it would go through Daws Place, be 
 cause that's the easiest way to get to Main Street, 
 and I'd lose it there on account of the pavement. 
 But it didn't, and, oh, boy, wasn't I glad ! 
 
 Instead of going that way,the tracks went right 
 up across the ball field, just as plain as print. 
 That's another way to get to Main Street, and it 
 brings you out at Harvey's candy store, but don't 
 ever go there for ice cream cones, because you 
 get bigger ones down at Jack's. 
 
 Then I lost the trail on account of the pave 
 ments. Gee, that's one thing I don't like about 
 pavements. So there's where I did some deduc 
 ing. Maybe you don't know what bridging a trail- 
 gap means. You have only yourselves to blame 
 for not being scouts. Bridging a trail-gap meana 
 stopping to think when you lose a trail. You have 
 to decide where it most likely starts again. That's 
 what grown-up scouts call mental tracking.
 
 DURING NOON HOUR lor 
 
 So I sat down on Ridgeway's carriage step and 
 thinked a couple of thinks. That's right on Main 
 Street, you know, and I had to decide if that per 
 son went up or down Main Street or across the 
 street. Right across the street is the big bank 
 building. I've got forty-two dollars and eighteen 
 cents interest in that bank. Mr. Temple is the 
 head of it, and he's awful rich he owns railroads 
 and things. He started Temple Camp. He calls 
 me "Curly" because my hair curls. I should 
 worry. 
 
 Right down alongside of the bank runs Barrel 
 Alley. It reminds you of Fifth Avenue, it's so 
 different. That's where Tom Slade was born, 
 down there. Most every day somebody dies down 
 there, but anyway there are paving-stones there 
 now, that's one good thing. Except for tracking. 
 So you see how it was; that person, who ever he 
 was, could have gone up Main Street or down 
 Main Street, or over the stone crossing into Barrel 
 Alley. 
 
 I decided that he went across into Barrel Alley 
 for several reasons. One was that he went across 
 the ball field, and that meant that he'd have to get 
 down and crawl under the fence, so I decided it 
 was not a grown-up person, because most of them
 
 1102 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 have stiff backs and they'd rather walk a mile than 
 crawl under a fence. They're all the time saying 
 they're not as young as they used to be. And if it 
 was a boy he'd be most likely to go into Barrel 
 Alley because, believe me, they have boys down 
 there by the dozens, especially the kind that wear 
 worn-out shoes that rich people give them. So 
 that accounts for the good shoes all worn out. 
 
 Smart boy, hey ? 
 
 So you see that's the way I bridged that trail, 
 though I couldn't be sure I was right, I have to 
 admit that. Anyway I went across the street and 
 I saw by the clock in the bank that it was half 
 past twelve. I knew I couldn't go much farther 
 because I wanted to get back to the house-boat by 
 one. 
 
 I started down Barrel Alley, watching the mud 
 along the edge of the sidewalk, so I could tell 
 if the fellow left the sidewalk to go into one of 
 the houses. Barrel Alley is a blind alley that 
 means it has an end to it and you can't go any 
 'further. It runs plunk into the end of Shad 
 [Row. Norris Row is the right name, but old man 
 Norris is named Shadley Norris, so us fellows call 
 it Shad Row. You can get through the end of 
 Barrel Alley if you climb over old man Norris 1
 
 DURING NOON HOUR 103 
 
 feack fence, so it isn't exactly a blind alley. It's 
 just a little near-sighted, kind of. 
 
 Anyway I started through it and I knew if my 
 quarry (that means the fellow you're tracking) 
 went down there, he most likely went into one of 
 the tenement houses and I'd see that footprint as 
 soon as he turned off from the sidewalk. 
 
 Well, pretty soon I did see it right alongside 
 the sidewalk just where he started to go into one 
 of the houses. And oh, wasn't I tickled! If it 
 hadn't been for Westy Martin and the way he'd 
 acted I would have felt as grand as the Grand 
 Central Station. But that was the thing I was 
 thinking most about and when you're thinking 
 about something like that, you don't have very 
 much fun I know I don't anyway. 
 
 But as long as I was there, I might as well find 
 out who it was I had tracked and solve the 
 mystery about the Indian head. That's the way 
 Pee-wee would have said it, "solve the mystery" 
 He gets that kind of talk out of books. The next 
 chapter is going to be a dandy and I promised to 
 let him give it a name, so don't blame me what 
 ever it is. 
 
 So long.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 NOBLE RAGS 
 
 "GOOD NIGHT !" I said to Pee-wee, "what kind 
 of rags do you call those?" 
 
 "Didn't you ever hear of noble rags?" he 
 yelled; "that shows how much you know about 
 story writing." 
 
 "Are they any relation to a dish rag?" I asked 
 him. 
 
 "You think you're smart, don't you," he said; 
 "do you know what a hero is a ragged hero?" 
 
 "Sure, a hero is a male shero," I told him ; "you 
 learn that in the third grade. Just the same as 
 a cowardice is a female coward." 
 
 "You make me sick !" he yelled. 
 
 "I've heard of gasoline rags and dish rags and 
 wash rags," I kept up, "but I never saw any noble 
 ones. Have your own way. I should worry." 
 
 "It's a good name for a chapter," he said. 
 
 "I wouldn't know a noble rag if I met one in the 
 street," I told him. 
 
 104
 
 NOBLE RAGS 105 
 
 So that's how this chapter got it's name, and I 
 don't know what it means any more than you do. 
 I suppose the next one will be called "Trash 
 Paper," or something like that. 
 
 Well, anyway, I stood on that doorstep for a 
 few minutes, because I didn't know what to do 
 next. I was sure the fellow went in there, but I 
 didn't know where he went and anyway, I didn't 
 have any excuse to hunt him out because I was 
 only tracking him for a stunt. Anyway I went 
 in and when I got upstairs one flight I saw just 
 a sign of that print in the hall just in front of a 
 door. The hall was all dirty and greasy like. 
 
 So by that I was pretty sure he had gone in 
 there and you see how I tracked him all the way 
 from Marshtown landing. Then I made up my 
 mind that he sure wouldn't be mad if he knew I 
 did it just for a stunt and I'd tell him I was scout 
 ing. For just a minute I was scared, then I gave a 
 rap on the door. 
 
 Oh, but it was dark and it smelled bad in that 
 hall. I guess they ought to tear down that row of 
 tenements. Pretty soon I rapped again, and I 
 felt kind of funny, because I didn't know what I 
 ought to say especially if a woman opened it. 
 All of a sudden it opened very soft, and, good
 
 io6 
 
 night I who should be standing there but who do 
 you think? 
 
 Westy Martin. 
 
 Jiminetty, but wasn't I flabbergasted 1 Even as 
 surprised as I was, I looked down at his feet and 
 sure enough he had on scout shoes, almost new. 
 Talk about plots growing thicker! This one was 
 getting so thick you couldn't drive a nail into it. 
 
 "Well what are you doing here ? H 
 I gasped out just like that. 
 
 "Shh," he said, "keep quiet; come in, but keep 
 quiet." 
 
 So I went in, all flabbergasted and there was a 
 room with the paper all falling off the walls and 
 no carpet on the floor, but anyway the windows 
 were wide open, that was one good thing. And 
 over in the corner was an old cot without any 
 sheets or anything and, oh, gee, it looked bad 
 because I've got a dandy bed up in my den all 
 brass and filigree work you know. 
 
 But, crinkums, I didn't notice the cot much be 
 cause there was a fellow on it and as soon as I 
 looked at him I knew who it was, even though he 
 looked worse than he most always did. It was 
 Skinny McCord. 
 
 "Yon waked him up by knocking," Westy said. .
 
 NOBLE RAGS 107 
 
 "It isn't the first knocking I did to-day," I said, 
 "but I guess I can see how it is now I guess I 
 
 can." 
 
 "It's only a good turn," he said; "he did you a 
 good turn, and so I had to do one for him, that's 
 all. It's for the scouts too, and I don't care what 
 they say." 
 
 Then I happened to notice a catching mit and a 
 baseball over on a table near Skinny, where there 
 was some medicine too. And then, all of a sudden, 
 everything seemed to glisten like, especially when 
 I blinked my eyes. Gee, I know how easy it is 
 /or girls to cry, but a fellow anyway when I 
 saw Westy sit down on the edge of that cot and 
 not pay any attention to me, only to Skinny, I 
 couldn't speak at all. I only just happened to 
 think to do something and I'm glad I thought 
 about it. I just raised my hand aad made Westy 
 Martin the full scout salute. Patrol leaders don't 
 do that mostly to the fellows in their patrols, but 
 I should worry about rules and things like that. 
 
 "You're taking care of him?" I said as soon 
 as I could, and I felt all foolish sort of. "I 
 tracked him, but I never thought" and I just 
 couldn't say any more. 
 
 JJut even still Westy didn't speak to me, only he
 
 io8 ROY, BLAKELEY, 
 
 said to Skinny, "Here's a real patrol leader come 
 to see you that's a big honor, that is, and he just 
 made you the full salute. You remember it in 
 the Scout Handbook?'* 
 
 "I made that salute to you" I said to Westy, all 
 choking, I have to admit it, "and I meant it too.'* 
 
 "You're a great tracker," he said; "wouldn't 
 you like to be as good a tracker as he is, Skinny?'* 
 And I could see that all he cared about was amus 
 ing Skinny. 
 
 "Don't talk about me," I said; "I'm a big fool, 
 that's what I am, but tell me all about it." 
 
 "There isn't anything to tell,'* said Westy, "ex 
 cept that Skinny always wanted to be a scout, but 
 he didn't have any money and all like that. But 
 anyway, he got the Handbook and studied it all 
 up and it got him." 
 
 "Same as it gets any fellow that looks inside of 
 it," I said. 
 
 "And the part that interested him most of all 
 was tracking and signalling. You see how he 
 carved the tracking emblem on one of his shoes '* 
 
 "You needn't show it to me," I said, "I saw it.'* 
 
 "Last night,*' Westy said, "he read that smudge 
 signal, because he learned the Morse Code out of 
 the Handbook, and he knew that somebody
 
 NOBLE RAGS 109 
 
 might be coming up the river with the false report. 
 He didn't know just what he ought to do and I 
 guess he was scared to go up to your house be 
 cause he didn't have any good clothes. So he ran 
 down through the marshes and waited at the land 
 ing, because he knew Jake Holden would be com 
 ing up stream. Jake's one good friend to him, 
 and he often took him out and he wasn't afraid 
 of Jake. 
 
 "Pretty soon he heard Jake's boat corning up 
 the river and saw the light and he just waited there 
 and when Jake come up alongside the float, the 
 first thing Skinny heard him say was, 'Roy 
 Blakeley is dead' didn't you, Skinny ?" 
 
 But I could see that Skinny's eyes were shut 
 now and he didn't hear. "Go on," I said. 
 
 "So Skinny told him it wasn't true, and told 
 him about the signal. Jake didn't pay much at 
 tention because he thought Skinny was just a little 
 crazy on account of being so poor and hungry 
 and all that and not having a good home. So he 
 was going up to your house anyway and Skinny 
 cried and hung onto him, and begged him not to. 
 I guess he went on kind of crazy, but he said he 
 was sure because he knew the Morse Code. Any- 
 :way, just to humor him, I guess, Jake promised
 
 no ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 him he'd wait till early in the morning, and mean 
 while you came home. Do you see?" 
 
 Honest, I couldn't answer him. 
 
 "Skinny was the one who did it," he said. "That 
 accounts for his tracks, don't you see?" 
 
 I shook my head to show him I understood. 
 But I couldn't say it. 
 
 "And that's how tracking and signalling have 
 brought the three of us together see?" Westy 
 said. "It's funny, isn't it, how it brings the three 
 of us together here in this tenement house." 
 
 "How did you come here ?" I said. 
 
 "I was just starting for the house-boat thii 
 ciorning early, when I met Skinny's mother. She 
 was going to do her day's washing. And she 
 told me how she had to leave him sick in bed, and 
 she asked me if I'd go and stay with him till she 
 got back. I went back and got the ball and mit 
 because I thought maybe he'd like them. She said 
 he got a bad cold in the marshes and he was all 
 excited and kind of crazy from the way he'd hung 
 onto Jake and begged him not to go up to your 
 house what did the fellows think when I didn't 
 show up ?" 
 
 "You you should worry," I just blurted out. 
 
 "Anyway I don't care so much about the troop
 
 NOBLE RAGS in 
 
 or Mr. Ellsworth either," he said, "and even if I 
 cared about Skinny it wouldn't do much good, be 
 cause he's going to die the doctor says so. But 
 I care a lot about you and he did you a good turn. 
 I was afraid he might die before you had a chance 
 to pay him back. So I just sort of tried to pay him 
 back for you " 
 
 All the while he was talking I could hardly hear 
 what he was saying and there was one word ring 
 ing through my head. 
 
 It was the word slacker.
 
 THE TWO CROSSES 
 
 I GUESS maybe I'd better tell you about Skinny 
 now, so you'll know all about who he is. Before 
 I was a scout I used to call him Wash-board, be 
 cause he was so skinny you could have used his 
 ribs for a wash-board. I guess I used to think 
 that was funny, but, gee, when you get to be a 
 scout you find out what real fun is and you don't 
 call names like that. 
 
 He always lived down in Barrel Alley and his 
 mother goes out washing. Once Skinny's father 
 hit him on the head and it made him queer like. 
 But he got better mostly. Only he was always 
 afraid of people after that. His father went away 
 and got killed. Sometimes Skinny sold papers at 
 the station, but he was always scared of people, 
 especially rich fellows. How should I know he 
 was interested in Scouts? He didn't have much 
 to eat, I guess. Anyway Jake Holden was a good 
 friend to him and he wasn't scared of Jake. I 
 guess maybe he had consumption. 
 
 112
 
 THE TWO CROSSES 113 
 
 He didn't wake up again then, anyway he didn't 
 open his eyes, and as soon as his mother came home 
 from her work Westy and I went home. I wasn't 
 thinking anything about the house-boat now. I 
 was only thinking about Skinny and I had my 
 mind all made up, too. I didn't say anything to 
 Westy, but on the way home I decided what I was 
 going to do. 
 
 It was the scout trail that took me to that tene 
 ment house and if you follow a scout trail you're 
 safe. That scout trail knew what it was doing all 
 right. There wasn't any trail leading to the house 
 boat. Stick to your trail. That's the rule. And 
 you can bet your life I was going to stick to that 
 trail now. If that trail was going to lead to the 
 cemetery, all right that's what I said. But I 
 had picked up Skinny McCord's trail and I made 
 up my little old mind that I was going to hang on 
 to it and follow it like a blood-hound. 
 
 That night we were going to have a special 
 troop meeting to decide about chipping in money 
 for our cruise up to camp, because we didn't have 
 much left on account of spending so much for 
 paint and lumber and different things. 
 
 I knew how the fellows and Mr. Ellsworth 
 would be feeling about me not coming back and
 
 ii 4 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 Westy not showing up, and I knew how the Silver 
 Foxes would feel, especially. But anyway, I had 
 my mind all made up. After supper my sister 
 Ruth played a game of tennis with Westy and 
 while they were playing I went up to my room and 
 got out the Scout Handbook. Then I read the 
 scout laws over, but anyway I knew them. After 
 I had read them all I made two crosses with a lead 
 pencil, one alongside of one law and one along 
 side another. Then I put the Handbook in 
 my pocket and went downstairs. 
 
 It was time to go to the meeting now and so wi 
 started off. 
 
 "You seem awful funny," Westy said; "what's 
 the matter?" 
 
 "It's patrol business," I said; "it's about " 
 
 "Is it about me?" he asked me. 
 
 "It's about my patrol," I said; "it's about the 
 Silver Foxes. Did you ever hear that a Silver 
 Fox never makes a mistake about a trail?" 
 
 "No," he said, kind of puzzled. 
 
 "You want to read up natural history," I told 
 him. "A silver fox knows the tracks of all the 
 different kinds of animals and if he could talk fee 
 could tell you about them."
 
 THE TWO CROSSES 115 
 
 "Too bad he can't talk," Westy said, sort of 
 jollying me. 
 
 "/ can talk," I said. Then after a minute I 
 *aid, "It's about the Elk patrol, too." 
 
 He didn't say any more and pretty soon we got 
 *o the troop-room that's in the Public Library. 
 We were a little late, but I wanted it that way, 
 so we wouldn't have any talk with anyone before 
 the meeting started. Everyone said "hello" to us, 
 but they were the coldest "helloes" you ever saw. 
 
 "If I'd known it was going to be as cold as this, 
 I'd have worn my sweater," I told Westy. Even 
 my own patrol didn't say anything to us, and they 
 all looked kind of glum. I heard Will Dawson 
 say something about our patrol being "in bad," but 
 I didn't pay any attention I should worry. 
 
 Now the way we sit at the beginning of troop 
 meetings is in three rows and each patrol is one 
 row. The patrol leader always sits at the right 
 hand end of the row and Mr. Ellsworth sits in 
 front. If there are any local councilmen they 
 sit in front with him. But it doesn't look much like 
 that after things get started, I can tell you that. 
 That night Mr. Bennett was there, too. He's 
 on the Local Council. 
 
 When Westy and I went up to our row to sit
 
 in 6 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 down, nobody said anything to us at all, not even 
 the fellows in our own patrol. Ralph Warner was 
 sitting in my seat at the end, and he said, kind of 
 cold like, "Do you want to sit down here?" 
 
 "Of course I want to sit down there," I told 
 him; "I'm the leader of this patrol Where 
 should I sit?" So he moved over kind of glum and 
 I sat down in my chair at the end, right beside the 
 Silver Fox emblem that stands in a rack on the 
 floor. Maybe they had an idea of electing a new 
 patrol leader, hey? I should worry. 
 
 As soon as we were all ready Mr. Ellsworth 
 called the roll and Westy and I were marked late. 
 Then Mr. Ellsworth read a couple of notices and 
 said the special meeting was called for sev* 
 eral purposes. He said one was to draft a letter 
 of gratitude to Mr. Donnelle for loaning us the 
 boat, and one was to decide (he always says de 
 termine, but decide is easier) how much each 
 scout could chip in for the expenses of our cruise 
 up the Hudson to Catskill Landing. 
 
 Then he looked very serious and said one of 
 the patrols had all signed a petition (all except 
 two absentees, he said) asking him to order an 
 election in that patrol for a new patrol leader. 
 
 "I have been asked," that's just what he said,
 
 THE TWO CROSSES 117, 
 
 *'I have been asked to administer a troop repri 
 mand to a member of the patrol of the Silver 
 Foxes for absenting himself throughout the day 
 from urgent troop duties with no better excuse 
 than a desire to play baseball. This I shall have 
 to do. The new election is asked for in order that 
 a patrol Jeader may be found who will not leave 
 his patrol and his duties on a mere pretext and 
 not return. I authorize this election. Meanwhile 
 Wesleigh Martin will please stand up." 
 
 I could see that Westy's face was kind of white 
 and his lips were tight together and I knew be 
 didn't intend to say anything.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 SCOUT LAW NUMBER THREE 
 
 Now, I can tell you just exactly what Mr. Ells* 
 worth said, because I remembered it and I wrote 
 it down right afterwards. First I was afraid 
 Westy would say something and I didn't want him. 
 to, because well, you'll see. So now I'll copy 
 what Mr. Ellsworth said. Oh, jiminy, you could 
 hear a pin drop, everyone was so quiet. He said: 
 
 "Wesleigh (that's Westy, you know), I have 
 been asked by your own patrol to give you this 
 public reproof, and I speak for the whole troop as 
 well, when I remind you that your action to-day 
 in absenting yourself and thereby avoiding your 
 share of the work we had undertaken to do, was 
 unscoutlike and unworthy of you, and unworthy of 
 the patrol whose fine traditions you were bound to 
 guard and support. You knew that to be enti 
 tled to your share of the pleasure of this purposed 
 cruise, you would have to do your share of the 
 work. You knew that to-day was set apart for 
 concerted effort bv the whole troop to make this 
 
 118
 
 SCOUT LAW NUMBER THREE 119 
 
 boat ready for starting next Saturday. You knew 
 that at the urgent request of some of you boys I 
 arranged to spend the day helping you. You were 
 one of the boys who asked me to do this. You 
 remember ? 
 
 "We meet here to-night after a hard day's work, 
 pleasant as work always is, but hard nevertheless. 
 iYou will have the satisfaction of knowing that 
 you will occupy a bunk which your companions 
 have made ready for you, and that you did not 
 yourself hammer so much as a single nail. Arthur 
 Van Arlen and Wigley Weigand, both weary and 
 one lame, after a frightful experience, were here 
 and helped to make the boat safe and comfortable 
 for you. They were loyal to the Raven Patrol. 
 I hope you may be moved to appreciate the in 
 terest and spirit which they displayed while you 
 were playing ball. 
 
 "When you have an opportunity, Wesleigh, I 
 would like to have you read the scout laws again 
 and bear in mind particularly your obligation of 
 loyalty to your scoutmaster, which of course, 
 means to your scout duties your troop and your 
 patrol. I kept my word with you to-day and you 
 did not keep your word with me. The house-boat 
 is ready for our cruise, and I hope that you, along
 
 120 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 with all the members of the troop will find the trip 
 enjoyable. That is all, Wesleigh, unless you have 
 something to say." 
 
 Oh, gee, you should have heard the silence 1 
 don't mean heard it but there wasn't a sound. 
 
 Then Westy said, "I haven't got anything t&. 
 say." And then he sat down. 
 
 I knew that it was time then for me to do what 
 I wanted to do, but I couldn't get up because I felt 
 all shaky. I was holding to the pole of th'e Silver 
 Fox emblem that was right beside me, and, oh, 
 cracky, I felt funny. All of a sudden I heard Mr c 
 Ellsworth say that he wouldn't say anything t 
 Roy Blakeley because the patrol was going tc 
 have an election and then I heard Will Dawson, 
 of my patrol, say under his breath, sort of, that 
 there'd be only one fellow to vote for me, and I 
 knew he meant Westy Martin. Gee, I'm glad I 
 heard him say that because it gave me a kind of an 
 idea what to say and it made me mad, and when 
 you're mad you have courage you know what I 
 mean, you can get up and talk. Jiminy, I knew I 
 couldn't make a speech like Mr. Ellsworth with 
 all long words, and besides I had to be careful 
 that it didn't seem as if I was just answering him 
 back.
 
 SCOUT LAW NUMBER THREE 121 
 
 So then I grabbed tight hold >f the emblem 
 pole because, I don't know, it seemed to give me 
 courage kind of, and it was my emblem and my 
 pati^ 1 for a few minutes yet, anyway. But oh, 
 didn't my hand tremble. Anyway I could see that 
 Mr. Bennett was sort of listening and I wasn't 
 so much scared after I got up. 
 
 This is what I said, only I didn't say it as well 
 as it sounds here on account of being nervous, but 
 I should worry as long as I knew I was right, hey? 
 
 "I heard a fellow in my patrol say just now" 
 that's the way I began, "that there is only one 
 Silver Fox would vote for me because I went away 
 and didn't come back. I know he meant Westy 
 and he's the one fellow I'd want to vote for me, 
 anyway, you can bet. I don't care what happens, 
 I don't, if Westy will only vote for me. Because 
 he's one real scout and none of the rest of you 
 know anything about scouting alongside of him 
 you don't. And anyway I don't care so much if 
 I'm not leader any more, if I could only be sure 
 you'd elect him leader " 
 
 "He stands a tall chance," I heard a fellow say. 
 
 "About as tall as Pee-wee," another fellow said. 
 He was trying to be smart. 
 
 "Maybe he'll have a tall chance, as tall as the
 
 122 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 Woolworth Building," I said; "you'd better keep 
 still. I want to ask Mr. Ellsworth if I can say 
 something while I'm still Silver Fox leader, ''^at's 
 all." 
 
 "Surely you may, Roy," he said, kind of 
 pleasant. 
 
 "Because there's one more thing I'm going to 
 say for my patrol. I I started that patrol 
 and" 
 
 Oh, gee, then I broke right down, not exactly 
 crying, but you know, there was something in my 
 throat and I just couldn't talk for a minute. 
 
 "Go on, Roy," Mr. Ellsworth said, and he was 
 awfully nice, I have to admit that. 
 
 So I said how I started that patrol and did the 
 best I could and always told the fellows to be loyal 
 and how disgrace spills all over just like Mr. Ells 
 worth himself told us. 
 
 "Anyway, Mr. Ellsworth," I said, "I can't say 
 it as good as I'd like to, because you know " 
 
 "Take your time, Roy," he said. 
 
 "Anyway, you remember how you spoke about 
 the laws." I was holding tight to the Silver Fox- 
 standard and it kind of helped me to speak, and I 
 guess pretty soon my voice didn't shake. "I know 
 all the laws," I said, "and I think more about them
 
 SCOUT LAW NUMBER THREE 123 
 
 than I do about stunts and adventures and things 
 > 
 
 "How about baseball?" a fellow said, but I 
 didn't pay any attention to him, and Mr. Ells* 
 worth frowned at him. 
 
 "And only to-night I looked at them," I said, 
 "and I made marks next to two of them." Then 
 I fumbled in my pocket and got out the Hand-, 
 book, and I reminded myself of a lawyer. Any 
 way I could see Mr. Bennett smile at Mr. Ells 
 worth. "Gee, I wouldn't say anything against the 
 iaws, that's one sure thing," I said, "because 
 they're all dandy laws, you can bet. But maybe 
 a fellow might not know which one to obey be 
 cause he can't obey them all at once, can he ?" 
 
 Mr. Ellsworth said he didn't know about that 
 and he looked kind of surprised. I should worry, 
 I wasn't scared now. "Suppose he's on his way 
 to obey Law 8 and keep his word and be loyal to 
 his troop and his scoutmaster," I said. "That's 
 Law 8, isn't it?" 
 
 Mr. Ellsworth looked surprised and said, 
 "Yes." And Mr. Bennett was smiling with an 
 awful funny kind of a smile. 
 
 "And suppose while he's on his way he runs 
 plunk into another law. Good night! What's he
 
 124 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 going to do? Maybe you don't know which law 
 I mean by another one. It's number 3, and I can 
 say it without even looking at the book. Even if 
 they elect " 
 
 I guess Mr. Ellsworth could see my voice was 
 trembling, because he said, "Take your time, Roy, 
 you have us interested.*' 
 
 I have to admit I was feeling bad, but anyway 
 I said the law right off without looking at the book. 
 
 3. A SCOUT IS HELPFUL. 
 
 He must be prepared at any time to save life, help 
 injured persons, and share the home duties. He 
 must do at least one good turn to somebody every 
 day. 
 
 "Maybe you never noticed that the part about 
 good turns is printed in italics. You know what 
 italics mean you learn that in the Second Grade. 
 It means that that special thing is emphasized, 
 see?" 
 
 Mr. Ellsworth was smiling a little, but anyway 
 he was listening and so was Mr. Bennett. Gee t 
 I didn't see anything to smile at. 
 
 Now I have to admit that I got kind of ex 
 cited and I didn't know much what I was saying*
 
 SCOUT LAW NUMBER THREE 
 
 Sometimes I had to stop on account of that lump 
 being in my throat. But anyway, I kept on and I 
 held on tight to my emblem the Silver Fox em 
 blem. 
 
 "So that's what I mean," I said, "and this 
 morning Westy was on his way to help on the 
 house-boat and he met" (oh, jiminies, I guess I 
 didn't know how I was talking now, I was so ex 
 cited) "and he met Skinny McCord's mother and 
 she told him about Skinny being sick on account 
 of a good turn he did for me keeping Jake 
 Holden from going to my house and she asked 
 him to go up and stay with him and he didn't 
 think any more about the house-boat, and I'm 
 glad he didn't, and I told him that, and I'm his 
 patrol leader yet, anyway. I tell him that, I do! 
 And he went home and got his baseball and his 
 catching mit and it cost a dollar and seventy-five 
 cents, and he took them to Skinny just so as he'd 
 kind of forgot being sick. Westy saved up to 
 get that mit and I know all about it. And he 
 stayed all day with Skinny and the doctor says, 
 he says Skinny has got to die, but anyway Westy 
 stayed all day with him that's what he did. And 
 I'm glad you fellows are going to elect a new; 
 leader if you want him to reprimand Westy, be-
 
 126 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 cause you'd never get me to do it, I can tell you 
 that!" 
 
 Oh, crinkums, there wasn't a sound. It had to 
 stop because I was gulping and all excited, but I 
 started again, you can bet. 
 
 "And there's only one thing more I've got to 
 say," I told them. "I got on the trail I mean 
 Skinny's trail. And it took me to his house in 
 Barrel Alley. I picked up his trail down at Little 
 Landing and it had the scout's pathfinder sign 
 printed in the mud. And I I'm I'm a scout, 
 I am, I don't care what you say, and I followed 
 it. And maybe, for all you know, it was put there 
 for me to follow maybe. It took me to where 
 a fellow was sick, it did, and it showed me one of 
 my own one of the Silver Foxes, doing a good 
 turn to pay Skinny back for the good turn he did 
 for me. And I stayed there to help and I forgot 
 all about the house-boat, and I'm glad I did. And 
 I hope that whoever these fellows elect, he won't 
 let them chip in for the cruise, but I hope he'll 
 have them chip in to send Skinny up to the country 
 I don't care what the doctor says. Once a 
 doctor said that he said that my father " 
 
 And that's all I had a chance to say. Gee, I 
 couldn't tell you what happened next. All I know
 
 SCOUT LAW NUMBER THREE 127 
 
 Is, I heard my Scout Handbook go kerflop on 
 the floor and Vic Norris of the Ravens grabbed 
 the Silver Fox emblem right out of my hand and 
 began waving it. All of a sudden I saw Westy and 
 he didn't say anything only put his arm around 
 my shoulder and he started to say something and, 
 oh, I don't know, he just couldn't. Then I heard 
 a fellow asking him what was the matter, because 
 he was husky, kind of, and his eyes shiny you 
 know. And he said he had a cold. Oh, boy I 
 
 "He caught cold from drinking out of a damp 
 glass," Doc Carson shouted. Honest, you couldn't 
 hear yourself think. And Pee-wee g-o-o-d night 1 
 
 Then Mr. Ellsworth held up his hand and we 
 all quieted down. 
 
 "Before we go any further," he said, "and while 
 our lungs are working overtime I want every 
 member of the Raven Patrol and every member 
 of the Elk Patrol to give three cheers for the 
 Silver Foxes, scouts, real scouts, every one of them, 
 and for their leader, Roy Blakeley. After that 
 you can hold your election."
 
 THE END OF THE MEETING 
 
 OH, boy, some excitement! "Excuse me while 
 I blush," I said. For they were all shouting and 
 !Pee-wee was on top of the table dancing and yell 
 ing, "Hurrah for the Solid Silver Foxes! Three 
 cheers for the Sterling Silver Foxes!" Believe 
 me, that kid is self -starting, but he isn't self stop 
 ping. 
 
 Then I told them that I had something more to 
 say, and they shouted it was their turn to do the 
 saying, and believe me, they did with something 
 left over. At last Mr. Ellsworth got us throttled 
 down and he told me to say what I had to say, be 
 cause Mr. Bennett had a word or two for us. 
 
 So I told them my idea that I'd had in my head 
 all the time, and you just wait and see how many 
 adventures it led to. That's one good thing 
 about good turns; they most always start some 
 thing. Already Pee-wee was started. 
 
 I told them I thought instead of keeping Tom 
 Slade's place open, kind of in memory of him, it 
 
 128
 
 THE END OF THE MEETING 129 
 
 would be better to put Skinny McCord in that 
 vacant place and take him up to Temple Camp and 
 help him to get well. Then I told them how hff 
 read the Handbook, and how he was crazy about 
 scouting, only he was scared of the fellows be 
 cause he was so poor. And then I said that find 
 ings is keepings and that Skinny belonged to the 
 Silver Foxes, and they would make a present of 
 him to the Elks on account of Tom Slade. "Any 
 way," I said, "when Tom gets back he'll be old 
 enough for assistant scoutmaster, so it's all right." 
 
 Then Mr. Ellsworth said, "Very good," and 
 that Councilman Bennett had something to say. 
 This is what he said, because Mr. Ellsworth wrote 
 it out for me, and he remembered almost just how 
 it was. Oh, but he's one fine man Mr. Bennett 
 he's on some kind of a board and he helped 
 build the hospital and he likes the scouts and he 
 wishes he could shin up a tree he said so. So 
 this is what he said. 
 
 "My young friends, I have listened with a good 
 deal of something or other (it's too much bother 
 to spell it out) to our young leader of the Silver 
 Foxes, and I must say that the Silver Foxes are 
 solid fourteen karat gold. I am a lawyer myself
 
 130 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 and I wish to express my professional admiration 
 of the way Leader Blakeley presented his case." 
 
 "The pleasure is mine," I said under my breath, 
 because I just couldn't help it. 
 
 Then he said like this he said, "If Skinny Mc- 
 Cord wishes to cast his lot with such boys as these, 
 he shall not find the means lacking. I will fur 
 nish his suit and such sundries as he needs. I 
 agree with Leader Blakeley that doctors are some 
 times mistaken. Let us hope it may be the case 
 in this instance. The cruise to camp must be made ; 
 Jet nothing interfere with that. If some of you 
 boys wish to go into the city in the morning you 
 may have the pleasure of purchasing Skinny's out 
 fit. I would suggest that the Silver Foxes do this 
 in order that their gift may go complete to their 
 comrades of the Elks. I think I have your scout 
 master's permission to do this." 
 
 "Sure you have !" Pee-wee shouted. 
 
 "We'll go in on the 9 A. M. train," Westy said. 
 
 "What time does the 9 A. M. train leave?" Pee- 
 wee shouted. "Oh, but it's great!" He was half 
 crazy. 
 
 "The nine o'clock train leave at 8.60," I told 
 him, "and you have to get a transfer " 
 
 "To what line?" he shouted.
 
 THE END OF THE MEETING 131 
 
 "To the clothesline," I said. 
 
 "You make me sick!" he yelled, "You haven't 
 got any what-do-you-call-it hero something or 
 other" 
 
 "That talk will have to be strained through a 
 sieve," I said. "Don't mind him, Mr. Bennett, 
 somebody's been feeding him meat. He goes to 
 the movies too much. He's known as the human 
 megaphone. All step up and listen to the Raving 
 Raven rave only a dime, ten cents, ladies and 
 gentlemen !" 
 
 Even Mr. Bennett had to laugh. 
 
 "Now all we've got to have is a girl," Pee-wee 
 shouted, "because we've got a poor lad I mean 
 you know what I mean noble poverty and a 
 boat and heroes doing good turns " 
 
 "And Ravens turning somersaults," I said. 
 
 "And all that," he kept up, "and Roy foiled his 
 prosecuters I mean persecutors " 
 
 "You mean executers," Doc said. 
 
 "And all we need now is a heroine," Pee-wee 
 said, while he danced up and down. "A poor girl 
 I mean a maiden with gold hair if we couM 
 only rescue one oh, wouldn't it be great." 
 
 "Even if her hair was only gold-filled it would 
 be something^" Connie Bennett said.
 
 132 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 "You're crazy!" Pee-wee shouted, "it shows 
 none of you know anything about stories." 
 
 Oh, jiminy, I can't tell all the stuff we shouted. 
 You see, it was just because we were feeling so 
 good. And Mr. Ellsworth didn't try to stop us. 
 
 The next chapter is about two dollars. I don't 
 mean it's worth that much. I don't know what 
 I'll name it yet. 
 
 Olive oil* that's the French way to say, "So 
 long." Anyway, it's something like that. I should 
 worry. 
 
 *Au revoir is probably what he meant.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 MOSTLY ABOUT SKINNY 
 
 This chapter I am going to fill 
 With some stuff about a two dollar 
 bill. 
 
 THAT isn't so bad for poetry, is it? I got 
 that idea out of a story by Sir Walter Scott put 
 ting poetry at the top of the chapters. Mr. Ells 
 worth says sometimes a fellow might get killed for 
 writing poetry. I should worry a scout is brave. 
 
 You can bet that if Pee-wee had his way we'd 
 have all gone into the city that very night and 
 broken into a store to get Skinny's outfit. But nix 
 on that hurry up business when it comes to Mr. 
 Ellsworth. "Scouts are not made in a day," he 
 said to Pee-wee, "and the outfit doesn't make the 
 tcout anyway, remember that." 
 
 "Any more than a merry-go-round makes a good 
 turn," I said. 
 
 So Mr. Ellsworth went to see Skinny and his 
 mother, and then he went to see the doctor, and 
 
 133
 
 i 3 4 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 fee found out that Skinny wasn't going to die right 
 then, but that something was the matter with his 
 lungs, and that he'd keep getting sick all the time 
 probably and wouldn't grow up. Oh, boy, when 
 Mr. Ellsworth once gets on your trail, good night! 
 That's just the way he hauled Tom Slade into the 
 troop, head over heels. And look at Connie Ben 
 nett, too. Mr. Ellsworth had to hypnotize Con 
 nie's mother and now Connie's a first class scout. 
 
 After two or three nights he brought Skinny 
 to meeting, and oh, cracky, but that kid looked 
 bad. He just sat and watched us do our stunts 
 and he was scared when anybody spoke to him, 
 except Mr. Ellsworth. And he was coughing a 
 lot, too. 
 
 After the meeting Westy and I and Mr. Ells 
 worth took him home, and just when we left him 
 he asked us if maybe he'd live long enough to get 
 the pathfinder's badge. "And oh, gee, it made me 
 feel good the way Mr. Ellsworth answered him. 
 He said, 
 
 "Well, I can't exactly promise that because I 
 don't know how long it will take you to win that 
 badge, but if you think you can win it inside of 
 forty or fifty years, I think you'll be there to grab 
 it when it comes." Oh, jingoes, but we've got one
 
 MOSTLY ABOUT SKINNY 135 
 
 dandy scoutmaster. I don't care what you say, he's 
 the best one in America. And when he said that, 
 Skinny kind of smiled and then you could see how 
 thin he was, because the wrinkles came all around 
 his mouth. 
 
 Well, on Saturday Westy and Dorry Benton 
 and Ralph Warner (they're all in my patrol) went 
 into the city to get Skinny's outfit, so we could 
 give him a surprise at the meeting on Monday 
 night. I didn't go because I wanted Westy to 
 have the say, and I didn't want him to think I 
 was butting in, because Skinny belonged to him, 
 as you might say. Besides I had to cut the grass 
 so my sisters could play tennis with Johnny Wade 
 honest, that fellow is there all the time. He's 
 got a machine, but I never saw it. I guess may 
 be it's a sewing machine, hey? 
 
 Now I didn't know how much money Mr. Ben 
 nett gave Mr. Ellsworth. All I know is that when 
 the fellows came back they had everything for 
 Skinny, or most everything. Because they camq 
 up to Camp Solitaire (that's the tent I have on 
 our lawn) and we opened the whole business. 
 Pee-wee was there and the first thing we knew he 
 was shouting that there wasn't any belt-axe. 
 
 "We used all the money we had," Westy said,
 
 i 3 6 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 "and it isn't worth while asking Mr. Bennett for 
 any more, even if there's one or two things miss* 
 ing." 
 
 Oh, jiminy, Pee-wee went up in the air. "Why 
 didn't you get a belt-axe," he shouted; "don't you 
 know a belt-axe is the most important thing of all ? 
 It's the sign of the scout! It's more important 
 than the uniform." 
 
 "He'd look nice going down Main Street witk 
 a belt-axe and no uniform," I said ; "you're crazy 
 on the subject of belt-axes. What's the matter, arc 
 you afraid Hindenberg is going to invade Bridge- 
 boro? You should worry about a belt-axe. Wait 
 till he's a tenderfoot." 
 
 "That shows how much you know about scout 
 ing," he yelled; "the belt-axe is the emblem of the 
 woods." 
 
 "The which ?" Westy said. 
 
 "The emblem of the woods," he hollered at the 
 top of his voice. "You have to Have a belt-axe 
 first of all. It's more important than the Hand 
 book. It means woodcraft and and and all 
 that sort of stuff !" 
 
 Well, first I just laughed at him and jollied him 
 along, because I know how crazy he is about things 
 like that he'd wear every badge in the Hand*
 
 MOSTLY ABOUT SKINNY 137 
 
 book on his chest if he had the chance. And he's 
 always getting new suits and things, because his 
 father is rich. Pee-wee's all right only he's daffy 
 ibout all the scout stuff that you see in the pictures 
 and he always has his belt-axe dragging on his 
 belt, even when he's home, as if he expected to 
 chop down all the telegraph poles on Main Street. 
 
 "You have belt-axes on the brain," Westy told 
 him. 
 
 "He's got them on the belt anyway," I said. 
 
 "You ask Mr. Ellsworth about it and see what 
 he says," Ralph Warner said. "He'll tell you it's 
 better for Skinny to wait till he can earn a little 
 money and then buy a belt-axe. There's time 
 enough." 
 
 "Sure he would," I said, because I know just 
 how Mr. Ellsworth feels about things like that. 
 And for all I know, maybe he didn't want Skinny 
 to have everything at the start, just so as he would 
 be able to get some things all by himself later. Be 
 cause Mr. Ellsworth thinks that's the best way. 
 
 Of course, we always jollied Pee-wee about his 
 belt-axe and about wearing his scout-knife and his 
 drinking cup hanging from his belt right home in 
 Bridgeboro, as if he was in South Africa, and Mr.
 
 138 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 Ellsworth always said he was the typical scout 
 that's the word he used typical. 
 
 But now I began to think maybe it would cause 
 some trouble and I hoped he wouldn't be giving 
 Skinny any of that kind of talk. But he did just 
 the same, and it made a lot of trouble. Pee-wee's 
 all right, but I don't care if he knows what I said, 
 because it's true. 
 
 On Monday we had it fixed for Skinny to come 
 up to Camp Solitaire, and Westy and I would 
 teach him some scuff out of the Handbook. 
 Then we were going to give him the new stuff so 
 he could put it on, because we wanted him to feel 
 good you know what I mean when he went to 
 meeting. We didn't want him to feel different 
 from the other fellows. But usually we don't do 
 that until a fellow takes the oath first. 
 
 Oh, boy, but wasn't he proud when we put the 
 khaki suit on him, and fixed the hat on his head. 
 He smiled in that funny way he had that always 
 made me feel kind of bad, because it made his 
 face look all thin. And he was awful bashful and 
 scared, but anyway, he was proud, I could see that. 
 
 So then I opened the Handbook to page 59, 
 where there's a picture of a scout standing straight, 
 making the full salute, and I told him he should
 
 MOSTLY ABOUT SKINNY 139 
 
 stand straight and try to look just like that. He 
 said, "I ain't fat enough," but I told him not to 
 mind, but just to look at that picture and he'd 
 know how he looked as a boy scout. 
 
 "How soon will I be one ?" he said. And I told 
 him pretty soon. 
 
 Now I thought about that picture early in the 
 morning and I made up my mind I would show it 
 to him when he got dressed up. You can bet he 
 didn't look very much like it but a lot I cared about 
 that, as long as it made him feel good. So early 
 in the morning before he came, I took my two 
 dollar bill (that's my allowance my father always 
 gives me Monday morning) and put it in the 
 Handbook at page 59, so that I could find the 
 place all right. 
 
 After I showed the picture to Skinny I shut the 
 Handbook because I wouldn't need it any more 
 and I laid the two dollar bill down on the table in 
 a hurry, because I wanted to straighten Skinny's 
 belt and fix his collar right and make him look 
 as good as I could. Anyway I laid an oar-lock 
 on the bill so it wouldn't blow away. I've got 
 two nickel-plated oar-locks that my patrol gave 
 me on troop birthday, and I keep them in my tent 
 except when I go to camp.
 
 ii 4 o ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 Westy was telling Skinny how fine he looked 
 and, oh, gee, Skinny was happy, you could see 
 that. Of course, he didn't look very good, I have 
 to admit it, but he had a smile a mile long. 
 "You're all right," I told him, "all you have to do 
 is to stand up straight and think about scouting 
 and the oath and the laws, and then you'll look 
 like one." 
 
 Then he said, "I have to have one of those axes, 
 'don't I?" 
 
 "You should worry about an axe," I said; "you 
 didn't see one in the picture did you?" 
 
 "Wasn't it because the boy in the picture was 
 facing me, and you wear the axe in back, don't 
 you?" 
 
 "Don't you worry," I told him, "I know that fel 
 low in the picture and he hasn't got one on." 
 
 "One of your scout fellows says you have to 
 have one," he said, kind of timid. 
 
 "Good night!" I said to Westy, "Pee-wee's 
 been at it." 
 
 "He knows, too," Skinny said. 
 
 "You mean that little fellow?" I said. "Has 
 he been talking to you?" 
 
 "Yes," he said. 
 
 "Forget it," I told him; "if that kid had his
 
 MOSTLY ABOUT SKINNY 141 
 
 picture taken he'd stand with his back to the 
 camera so as to show his belt-axe. If he had 
 the Gold Cross he'd pin it on the end of his nose, 
 so everybody'd see it. The principal thing to wear 
 is the scout smile, you take it from me. Whea you 
 see Mr. Ellsworth to-night you ask him about the 
 belt-axe and go by what he says. That's the one 
 to go to your scoutmaster." 
 
 "But anyway it's in the book about the axe," he 
 said, and oh, gee, I could see how he fell for that 
 axe. I don't know, it was something about it, I 
 suppose, "It's all right for a tree to fall for an axe, 
 but don't you" I said. That was a joke. 
 
 "You got to have one when you go chopping 
 trees, haven't you?" he asked me. 
 
 "You forget it," I said, and I decided I'd give 
 Pee-wee a good bawling out after the meeting. 
 
 Then I started straightening Skinny's suit and 
 telling him how swell he looked and how he must 
 always take off his hat to ladies. He was in 
 terested all right, but I could see how the belt- 
 axe kind of had him, and I suppose it was because 
 it was bright and shiny and a weapon, sort of. 
 That's the way it is with lots of fellows whea 
 they start being scouts. 
 
 We tried to get him to go in the house to sup*
 
 142 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 per with us and then go to the meeting, but he was 
 kind of scared and wouldn't. I guess it was be 
 cause I live in a big house and because my father 
 is rich but anyway, he never acts that way, that's 
 one sure thing. And, gee, nobody can say Ruth 
 and Marjorie wouldn't have been nice to him too. 
 
 So we left him in the tent and told him to read 
 the Handbook, but to be sure to go home and 
 get his supper in time to be at the meeting that 
 evening. We made him the full salute just for 
 fun, and oh, didn't he smile and look proud. I 
 bet he was proud going up Main Street too. 
 
 "I'd like to get my hands on that kid," I said 
 to Westy, as we went across the lawn; "he makes 
 me sick with his heroes and his noble rags and 
 his belt-axes. He's got that poor kid's brain full 
 of fancy stuff before he's even a sqout." 
 
 "That's just like him," Westy said, "but he'll 
 get over it." 
 
 ''Emblem of the woods/'' I said. "Did you 
 hear that?" 
 
 "I guess he told Skinny we were going to chop 
 down some saplings to-morrow for stanchions on 
 the boat," Westy said. 
 
 "Goodness knows what he didn't tell him," I
 
 MOSTLY ABOUT SKINNY 143 
 
 said, "Skinny will be chopping down all the fence 
 rails in Barrel Alley if Pee-wee has his way." 
 
 Oh, boy, we had huckleberry pie for supper, 
 and didn't Westy and I have two helpings! 
 "There's only one thing scouts like about huckle 
 berry pie," my father said, "and that's the taste 
 of it."
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 SOMETHING MISSING 
 
 AFTER supper Westy and I started for troop 
 meeting. It was getting dark fast and we went 
 scout-pace down the hill, because after all that 
 had happened you bet we didn't want to be late. 
 No, siree. 
 
 All the while we were talking about just what I 
 ought to say when I presented Skinny to the Elks, 
 because that's what we were going to do that 
 night. And I was the one to do it, because I was 
 patrol leader. Westy had a blue ribbon, because 
 that's the Elks' color, and he was going to pin it 
 on Skinny with an express tag that he got that day. 
 He had it all written nice and neat on the tag. 
 
 From the Silver Foxes to the Elks. 
 Handle with Care. 
 
 I told him to put prepaid on it, too, and then 
 he said it would be a good idea to put some thrift 
 stamps on Skinny's face. Jiminy, that fellow 
 
 [Westy has some crazy ideas. 
 
 144
 
 SOMETHING MISSING 145 
 
 "Believe me, it'll be great," he said. 
 
 "The Elks will have some training to do, that's 
 one thing," I said. 
 
 "He'll learn soon enough, all right," Westy 
 answered. 
 
 "I guess it would be a good stunt to have a flag 
 sticking up out of his collar," I said; "he won't 
 mind, he'll just smile. He doesn't get mad, that's 
 one good thing about him." 
 
 "I like to see that smile, don't you?" Westy 
 said, "it's kind of bashful like." 
 
 "He's going to pan out all right," I said, "you 
 take It from me." 
 
 Then we said how it might be good to put him 
 in a barrel and mark it "A gift from Barrel Al 
 ley" but we decided not to because it might make 
 him feel so kind of bashful and scared you know 
 what I mean. 
 
 All the while I knew what I was going to say, 
 and this was it: 
 
 Scouts of the Elk Patrol, we present you with 
 this testimonial (my sister said that was a good 
 word to use) of our steam I mean esteem. You 
 get fifty green trading stamps besides. This youth 
 is positively guaranteed to grow, if kept in the sun 
 and to win the pathfinder's badge before the sum-
 
 i 4 6 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 mer is out. He is made of fast colors and will not 
 
 run except when he's tracking. He should be 
 
 kept away from explosives such as Pee-wee Harris. 
 
 With love and kisses from the 
 
 Silver Foxes. 
 
 "Oh, it will be great!" Westy said, "we'll do it 
 before Mr. Ellsworth takes up the collection for 
 the cruise, hey?" 
 
 "G-o-o-d night!" I said and I stopped short 
 
 "What's the matter?" Westy said. 
 
 "I'm glad you said that," I told him; "I forgot 
 my two bucks." 
 
 "I'll go back," Westy said; "you wait here." 
 
 There wasn't any time to stop him and anyway, 
 he can beat me running, I have to admit that 
 
 "Where did you leave it?" he called back. 
 
 "I laid it right on the table," I shouted, "and 
 I laid an oar-lock on it to keep it from blowing 
 away. Feel around and you'll get it Hurry up." 
 
 I saw him going back up the hill for all he was 
 worth and then I sat down beside the road to wait 
 for him. I got to thinking about the house-boat 
 and the fun we'd have cruising up the Hudson and 
 how Skinny would get fat and eat a lot, and es 
 pecially how he'd stare when he saw Jeb Rush-
 
 SOMETHING MISSING 147 
 
 more. He's our camp manager, and just wait till 
 you see him, that's all / say. 
 
 But mostly I was thinking about the fun we'd 
 have presenting Skinny to the Elks, and, oh, boy, 
 I could just see Mr. Ellsworth laugh with that 
 funny laugh he has trying not to. And you can 
 bet I was glad we had Skinny started. Because 
 when a fellow once gets on the trail, he's a goner. 
 Oh, bibbie, that was going to be some meeting I 
 
 Pretty soon Westy came running back dowa 
 the hill. 
 
 "Did you get it?" I asked him, but, of course, 
 I knew he did. He was so much out of breath 
 that he couldn't answer and even after he stopped 
 he had to pant it out, kind of. 
 
 "It wasn't there," he said. 
 
 "Wasn't there?" I said; "you're crazy. Sure 
 it was there. Where did you look?" 
 
 "I looked just where you said," Westy panted, 
 "and all around besides. First, I felt all around 
 with my hand and I lifted the oar-lock and it 
 wasn't underneath it." 
 
 "Maybe you got the wrong oar-lock," I said, 
 all excited; "there are two of them." 
 
 "The other one was hanging up," he said; "I 
 found your flashlight on the duffel-bag and poked
 
 i 4 8 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 the light all around and I saw the other oar-lock 
 hanging up. I threw the light on the ground, too, 
 because there's a pretty strong breeze up there.'* 
 
 "How could the breeze blow it away when it 
 was under the oar-lock?" I said. "It was a new 
 two dollar bill." 
 
 "Well, it wasn't there, anyway," he said. 
 
 Then for a minute we both stood there and 
 neither one of us said anything. I know what I 
 was thinking, but I didn't want to say it. I guess 
 iWesty was thinking the same thing, too. We both 
 sat down beside the road and after a couple of 
 minutes, he said: "Maybe a tramp took it, hey?" 
 
 "Jerry wouldn't let anyone on the grounds," I 
 said. Jerry's our gardener. "And besides Don 
 wouldn't, either." He's our dog he's a collie. 
 
 "Well, it isn't there, anyway," Westy said; "I 
 lifted the oar-lock and felt underneath and I laid 
 it down again, right where it was on a book or 
 something. When I flashed the light it wasn't 
 there. Come on, we'll be late. I'd let you have 
 two bucks if I had that much extra, but I've only 
 got two myself. You can chip in yours to-mor 
 row, it'll be all right." 
 
 I got up and I felt awful funny.
 
 SOMETHING MISSING 149 
 
 "Anyway, there's no use being late," he said; 
 because I kind of just couldn't start. 
 
 "It isn't that I'm thinking about," I told him, 
 "It's" 
 
 "I know," he said, "I thought about that, too, 
 but we've got to hustle." 
 
 So we started down the hill and neither of us 
 said anything. Of course, we were both thinking 
 about Skinny, but neither one of us would say it. 
 
 "Pee-wee's to blame in a way," Westy said, 
 after a while ; "it's the belt-axe the poor kid was 
 thinking about." 
 
 "No, he isn't to blame, either," I said; "he 
 didn't mean anything he didn't mean for Skinny 
 to do anything like that." 
 
 "He should have kept his mouth shut," Westyj 
 said. 
 
 "Anyway," I said, "I'm not going to make that 
 speech; I just can't. I'm not going to say any 
 thing to Skinny about it. Maybe I'll tell Mr. 
 Ellsworth sometime I don't know. But any 
 way, I can't present him to the Elks that way, I 
 can't. I just can't. Poor kid, I don't suppose he 
 ever saw as much as two dollars before." 
 
 "You shouldn't have left it out like that," 
 IWesty said.
 
 ISO ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 After that I guess neither of us said anything. 
 Gee, I can't tell you how I felt. I know if a fel 
 low is low down and fires stones and calls names 
 and all like that, even still he can get to be a scout. 
 But if he steals jiminy, I've got no use for a fel 
 low that steals. A plaguy lot I care about tw& 
 bucks, but, oh, boy, I was looking forward to that 
 meeting and how we were going to have Skinny 
 all decorated and present him to the Elks. And 
 now we couldn't do it. Honest, I didn't even want 
 to see him. I didn't feel sore at him, but I didn't 
 want to see him. Because he'd spoiled all the fun 
 for me, that's all.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 SHOWS YOU WHERE I DO THE TALKING 
 
 WESTY said we shouldn't say anything to Mr. 
 Ellsworth, but wait until Skinny had taken the 
 oath and knew all the laws and all about scout 
 ing, and then maybe say something to him, how 
 we thought maybe he had made a mistake some 
 time and would like to fix it right. Westy said 
 we'd call it just getting off the trail. Westy's a 
 mighty nice fellow, you bet, and he's a good scout. 
 
 But anyway, it knocked all the fun out of that 
 meeting for us, and I don't know what the other 
 fellows thought. 
 
 Skinny was there in his new suit and he showed 
 how proud he was to have it. He was always 
 smiling in that bashful kind of a way, as if he 
 was kind of scared but happy at the same time. 
 Mr. Ellsworth told him to sit with us and he 
 came over and sat in an extra chair right next 
 to me. 1 guess he kind of liked to be near me 
 anyway, it seemed like that. I was nice to him 
 all right, but I don't know, it didn't seem like it
 
 152 ROY. BLAKELEY 
 
 did before. But no fellow could get mad at him 
 he looked so poor, and his suit didn't fit him 
 yery good and he looked all strange and nervous. 
 
 Pretty soon I said to him, kind of half inter 
 csted, you know, I said, "That's where you're 
 going to sit, in that vacant chair where the Elks 
 are. They're a good patrol, the Elks, and the 
 fellow who used to sit there with them was Tom 
 Slade. You have to try to be a good scout just 
 like he was." 
 
 "I know all the laws, every one," he said in a 
 whisper. 
 
 "Do you know law one?" I asked him. 
 
 "Yop, it's the best of the lot," he said; "it 
 teaches you about honor. Do you know the two 
 things about scouts I like best?" he asked me. 
 
 "No, I don't," I said. 
 
 "It's that first law and the belt-axe that they 
 wear." 
 
 "Never you mind about the belt-axe," I said. 
 
 "Yes, but you want me to tell you honest, don't 
 you?" he blurted out. And he looked straight at 
 me and his eyes were all kind of hollow and excited 
 like. Gee, he was a queer kid. "You can make 
 fun of me all you want," he said, "I don't care. 
 Will I be a scout to-night?"
 
 WHERE I DO THE TALKING 153 
 
 "Not to-night," I told him, "we're going to turn 
 you over to the Elks to-night. And then they'll 
 teach you things and get you ready." 
 
 Pretty soon it came time to present him, but I 
 didn't feel like making any fun about it. Gee, 1 
 don't know what my patrol thought about me. 
 But anyway, Westy knew. So I just said how we 
 found Alfred McCord and how he wanted to be 
 a scout and we thought it was a good idea to give 
 him to the Elk Patrol, to fill the place of Tom 
 Slade. Cracky, there wasn't any pep to it at all. 
 
 Then afterwards Mr. Ellsworth took up the col 
 lection of one dollar and seventy cents from each 
 fellow, to buy the eats and pay the expenses of the 
 cruise. I had to say that I wasn't ready with it, 
 and I guess he was surprised, because 1 never miss 
 a chipping in, but anyway, I said I'd have it next 
 day. I should worry about that. 
 
 On the way out I met Pee-wee shouting away 
 like a machine gun. "Come on up the street with 
 me," I said; "I want to tell you something." 
 
 When we were about a block off I said, "You 
 listen here, kiddo. I don't want you to be shout 
 ing about belt-axes and jack-knives ana things like 
 that in front of Skinny McCord. I'm telling you 
 that and I want you to remember it. And I've
 
 154 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 got good reasons, too. Scouts aren't made out of 
 belt-axes and jack-knives and badges. They're 
 made out of ideas, as you might say. You just 
 remember what I tell you and don't be springing 
 this stuff about the emblem of the woods and all 
 that. A belt-axe costs two dollars haven't you 
 got sense enough to know that. And do you know 
 hew much it costs to take the scout oath ? Not one 
 blooming cent!" 
 
 Jiminy crinkums, he just listened and didn't say 
 a single word. For two blocks he didn't say a 
 word. 
 
 It was the biggest stunt he ever did.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 IN THE WOODS 
 
 Now 1 I have to go backward that's one good 
 thing about this story, it has a reverse gear; you 
 can go backward. 
 
 The first night we had the house-boat, Mr. Ells 
 worth went to see Mr. Darren, who is superin 
 tendent of Northside Woods (that's owned by the 
 Northside estate) and he asked Mr. Darren if 
 we could chop down some saplings to use on the 
 boat. Because we wanted to make some stanch 
 ions for the awning, and another flagpole, and 
 some bumper sticks. He thought that was a good 
 idea, because lumber costs so much. Connie said 
 the reason it was high is because they're building 
 tall houses. So Mr. Darren marked some saplings 
 with chalk and said we could take those. 
 
 The next afternoon after that last meeting, we 
 all hiked over to Northside Woods to chop down 
 the saplings. You have to go across the bridge 
 to get to Northside Woods and then you go up 
 the road toward Little Valley. 
 
 155
 
 156 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 Westy didn't go with the rest of us because he 
 wanted to get a book out of the library, for he 
 thought the library might be closed when we got 
 back, 
 
 "Have a. heart," I said, "and don't be late what 
 ever you do, because there's been enough of that 
 kind of thing in our patrol lately." 
 
 "I'll be Johnny-on-the-spot, don't you fear," he 
 said. And I knew he would, only he's one of those 
 fellows that's always trying to do too much. He 
 isn't late much, I'll say that for him, but he always 
 comes running in at the last minute. 
 
 "Well, don't get us in Dutch," I told him, "that's 
 all I care about." 
 
 We had a dandy hike over to the woods. My 
 patrol got there first and pretty soon the Ravens 
 came along and Doc Carson had his First Aid kit 
 you'd think somebody was going to fight a duel, 
 honest. "Why don't you start a base hospital and 
 be done with it ?" I said. 
 
 Pretty soon the Elks came along and Skinny 
 was with them. As soon as I looked at him I felt 
 kind of bad like, for I saw I was right about the 
 two dollars. I knew I was right all the time, but 
 now I saw it, and jingoes, it spoiled all my fun. 
 Because he had a belt-axe on and I could sec he
 
 IN THE WOODS 157 
 
 was very proud of it. He came up to me and 
 smiled that funny kind of a smile he had, and 
 he said, "I got one; see, I got one." 
 
 It was a new one all right, but not a regular 
 scout-axe, and I guessed he must have bought it in 
 the hardware store. It was what they call a camp 
 axe just the same only different. His belt was 
 loose anyway, on account of him being so thin, but 
 the axe dragged it way down and made him look 
 awful funny, but he had on the scout smile and 
 that's the principal thing. 
 
 "It's a good one, ain't it?" he asked me. 
 
 "It's all right," I said, but I just couldn't tatce 
 it and look at it. 
 
 "It'll cut, too," he said; "and I'm going to chop 
 down a lot of trees. And it's my very own, isn't 
 it?" 
 
 Jiminy, I didn't know how to answer that, so 
 I didn't say anything, only I told him not to chop 
 down many because he wasn't strong yet. And I 
 told him not to chop any that didn't have chalk 
 marks. I told him to ask Connie Bennett, and to 
 stay near him, because Connie is the Elks' leader 
 ever since Tom Slade went away. "You do what 
 Connie tells you," I said. 
 
 Well, the way that kid started you'd think he
 
 158 ROYi BLAKELEY 
 
 was going to chop the North Pole in half. "He'd 
 be able to chop through the equator in a couple o 
 hours at that rate," I told Connie. But anyway, 
 he was getting fresh air and a whole lot of fun. 
 
 Some of the fellows chopped and some of them 
 cut off the branches and tied the saplings together, 
 three or four each, because we were going to haul 
 them as far as the bridge and then float them 
 down to the landing. 
 
 Every little while I looked at Skinny and he was 
 chopping away at one sapling for dear life. He 
 had it all full of nicks and every nick had a place 
 all to itself. 
 
 "That isn't chopping, it's what you call wood- 
 carving," Dorry Benton said. 
 
 "He's a good butcher, anyway," Artie said. 
 
 Every time Skinny hit, he hit in a different place 
 and he would never get the sapling down, I saw 
 that, but he was having the time of his life, just 
 the same. 
 
 "Some Daniel Boone," Will Dawson said. But 
 I told them not to make fun of him. 
 
 All the while I kept wondering if Skinny really 
 thought that axe was his very own like he said. 
 And it seemed sort of funny that he could be get 
 ting so much fun out of it. Oftentimes he would
 
 " EVERY TIME SKINNY HIT, HE HIT IN A DIFFERENT PLACE." 
 Roy BUkfley Page 158
 
 IN THE WOODS 159 
 
 get tired and begin to cough and Connie would 
 make him sit down and rest. Then he would show 
 his axe to the fellows and match it to theirs and 
 say he liked his best. I don't know, maybe 
 there was something wrong about Skinny. Maybe 
 he was more crazy about weapons than he was 
 about scouting. He didn't seem to think about 
 anything except cutting down that sapling, and the 
 more of a botch he made out of it, the harder he 
 worked. I remembered something Mr. Ellsworth 
 said to Tom Slade about not caring more for his 
 gun than he did for his country. But, gee, when 
 I thought about what Skinny said about the two 
 things he liked most, the axe and the law about 
 honor, good night, I couldn't understand him at 
 all. 
 
 Pretty soon I began worrying about Westy, be 
 cause something is always delaying that fellow, 
 and I even hoped that he wouldn't stumble over 
 any more good turns, until this day's work was 
 over. If Westy fell out of a ten-story building, 
 he'd do a good turn on the way down that's the 
 way he is. 
 
 Well, pretty soon I heard him coming through 
 the woods on the dead run. We all stopped work 
 ing and laughed, because he was coming along like
 
 160 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 a marathon runner. All except Skinny 1 he went 
 right on chopping away and the sapling looked as 
 if a cow had been chewing it. 
 
 I don't know, but something or other made me 
 Feel kind of mad at him all of a sudden, and I 
 didn't laugh at him. 
 
 Then he called over to me and he said, "Look 
 how I'm chopping it down with my axe ! See ?" 
 
 "Who's axe ?" I said, because I just couldn't help 
 it. 
 
 "Look I See?" he shouted, all excited; "ain't I 
 a good chopper ain't I?" 
 
 Maybe you won't understand how it was, be 
 cause, gee, I can't tell things so you'll see them 
 just right. Anyway, I'm not excusing myself, 
 that's one thing. But I just looked over at Skinny 
 and I said: 
 
 "I don't want to look at your axe ! Shut up you 
 little " I was going to call him a little thief, but 
 I'm mighty glad I didn't. "Can't you see I'm look 
 ing at something else?" I said, kind of mad. 
 "You'd be better off if you never thought about 
 the axe ; you're a " 
 
 Just then I heard somebody yell, "Look out, 
 Westy, the boards are gone! You'll have to 
 climb!"
 
 IN THE WOODS 161 
 
 After that, everything seemed to be all jumbled 
 up. I saw Skinny standing near his sapling just 
 staring at me and he looked as if I had just hit 
 him and he didn't understand at all. He didn't 
 even notice all the other fellows who were run 
 ning. Then I looked and I didn't see Westy, but 
 all the fellows were heading for the ditch and I 
 knew right away what had happened. Somebody 
 hollered, "Get your kit, Doc, and hurry up." 
 There was a ditch near where the saplings grew 
 and usually there were a couple of boards across 
 it. But they weren't there when all of us fellows 
 went across and we had to go down into the ditch 
 and climb up the other side. I guess the woods 
 men had taken them, maybe. 
 
 Anyway, when Westy came along the path he 
 was running so hard he didn't notice in time that 
 the boards weren't there, and he went head over 
 heels into the ditch. I guess I was the last one to 
 get there, and all the fellows were standing around 
 and Doc was kneeling over Westy, and feeling his 
 pulse. Westy T s face was all white and there was 
 blood coming down from his eye and he looked 
 straight up and didn't notice anybody. All the 
 fellows were quiet and scared, kind of, and wait 
 ing for Doc to speak. But he wasn't excited, only
 
 i62 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 he said we'd better get a doctor. "It isn't a frac 
 ture," he said; "it's only a cut, but anyway, we'd 
 better get the doctor." 
 
 Then I saw some blood on the front of Westy'a 
 khaki shirt. But Doc saw it first and he said, 
 "Open his shirt, maybe he has something hanging 
 from his neck that cut him. Feel and see if he has 
 a knife in his breast pocket. Open his shirt first. 
 Give me the iodine and some bandage, one of 
 you fellows." 
 
 I thought I ought to be the one to open his 
 shirt, because he was in my patrol and besides we 
 were special friends, as you might say. So I pushed 
 through past the others and just as I was kneeling 
 down I saw Skinny standing up on the edge of the 
 (ditch and his eyes looked big and he was all tremb 
 ling and excited. There were big red spots on his 
 cheeks and I knew that was the consumption that 
 showed whenever he got excited. He was all by 
 himself up there and he looked kind of wild I 
 can't exactly tell you. 
 
 Then I opened Westy's shirt and I saw he had 
 a ring with two keys hanging there and they must 
 have pressed into his chest and cut him. It kind of 
 scared me, because there was so much blood, but
 
 IN THE WOODS 163 
 
 Doc said, "Give me the iodine that's nothing." 
 And I knew he knew what he was talking about. 
 
 While he was putting iodine in the cut I felt in 
 Westy's pocket like Doc told me to do, but there 
 wasn't any knife there. But there was something 
 else there and I pulled it out. Oh, gee, I hate to 
 tell you about it. It was my two dollar bill. I 
 could tell because it was new and because it had a 
 stain on it in the shape of a half circle. 
 
 I always kept oil on those oar-locks, so they 
 wouldn't get rusty.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 NOBODY noticed me, I guess, and I just 
 scrambled up the ditch and went away behind a 
 tree and looked at the two dollar bill again. I 
 guess you sure know the shape of an oar-lock all 
 right kind of round, but open at the top. And 
 that was just the shape of the stain on the bill. I 
 could have laid one of my oar-locks right on that 
 bill and covered up the st|in. 
 
 Maybe you think I was glad to get the bill 
 back but I wasn't What did I care about that 
 bill? Gee, a two dollar bill isn't anything, com 
 pared to a friend, it isn't. I could have another 
 bill right away if I wanted it, and anyway, I'd be 
 sure to get one on Monday. It was Westy I was 
 thinking about, because you know how you heard 
 me say we were special friends, sort of. Jiminy 
 Christopher! I didn't care about anything now. 
 Even once when I lost my bronze medal I didn't 
 feel so bad. Then I said I guessed Westy just 
 put it in his pocket to fool me and that he was 
 
 T64
 
 TREASURE ISLAND 16$ 
 
 going to give it to me. But cracky, there's no use 
 trying to kid yourself. Then, all of a sudden I 
 thought how he wanted me to hurry and run and 
 how he didn't want to stop and talk much about it. 
 
 Jiminy, I didn't know what to do and I just 
 felt like going home and going up to my room and 
 locking the door. I knew if I ever told anybody 
 it would be either Ruth or Marjorie. It's funny 
 how when a fellow really has a lot of trouble he'd 
 rather tell a girl than anybody else. You can 
 laugh at girls, but that's true. Maybe they can't 
 run and all that, but they kind of know all about 
 it when you have a lot of trouble. Maybe I'd 
 tell them, too, because they'd wonder if Westy 
 didn't come to the house any more. 
 
 Anyway, I was glad it was me to find the two 
 dollars and none of the other fellows. I decided 
 that as long as it wasn't any good to me I'd put 
 it back in his pocket if I could get a chance. Then 
 maybe it would be kind of like a memorandum to 
 him and he'd come and give it back when he had 
 plenty of money sometime, maybe. 
 
 But when I went back there wasn't any chance 
 to do that, because all the fellows were still crowd 
 ing around. I stood up on the edge of the ditch 
 and I heard somebody say that El Sawyer had
 
 i66 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 gone to Bridgeboro. Doc looked up at me and 
 he said, "It isn't bad, kiddo, don't worry." And 
 I knew he was right and it made me feel good. 
 
 Anyway, I don't know why he called me Kiddo 
 sometimes. Because I'm leader of the Silver Fox 
 patrol, why should he call me kiddo. But I guess 
 he felt sorry for me, as you might say. 
 
 It was funny, but as soon as I knew Westy was 
 going to get better, I didn't want to stay there. I 
 was afraid he might look at me and see that every 
 thing wasn't all right. I was afraid he might see 
 something in my eyes you know. So I walked 
 away, and besides, anyway, I wanted to think and 
 I just felt I wanted to be alone by myself. 
 
 Just as I was going away one of the fellows 
 said, "Here you go, kiddo," and chucked a book 
 up at me. "You take care of it; it was in his 
 pocket," he said. I guessed it was the book Westy 
 had got out of the library and I was pretty glad 
 because when you're all alone and haven't got any 
 friends and everybody goes back on you, kind of, 
 it's dandy to read a book. Because, anyway, 
 books never go back on you, that's one sure thing. 
 And they don't take anyway they're good 
 friends. When I looked at this one, I saw it was
 
 TREASURE ISLAND 167 
 
 "Treasure Island" and I was glad 'cause I always 
 liked that one. 
 
 That fellow, Jim Hawkins, he was a fine fellow, 
 anyway. Gee, I said to myself, I'd like to have 
 him for a friend, that's sure. Because a fellow 
 in a book can be a friend to you just like a real 
 one. Even better, sometimei.
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE SHORT CUT 
 
 ONE thing, I hoped they'd all go home soon s* 
 I could sit down on a log and read some more in 
 that book. Only lately I read it, but cracky, that 
 doesn't make any difference when it's a good book, 
 I thought I'd go back to the ditch pretty soon as 
 soon as El Sawyer came with the doctor. But, 
 anyway, I wanted to be alone now. 
 
 So I stuffed the book in my pocket and strolled 
 over to where we had been cutting the saplings. 
 Then I went over close and looked at the one 
 Skinny had been chopping. I guess I didn't know 
 what I was doing and thinking about. Anyway, 
 now that I looked at it, I was sorry I made fun of 
 him and got mad at him. It wasn't only because 
 I knew he didn't take the two dollars, but anyway, 
 I felt sorry for him. 
 
 I couldn't see him anywhere around and he 
 wasn't in the ditch, I knew that If he had been 
 there then, you bet I'd have been all right with 
 him. It made me feel bad when I looked at that 
 
 168
 
 THE SHORT CUT 169 
 
 sapling all hacked and standing up just as strong 
 as ever. He must have chopped away on it for 
 half an hour and about all the poor little kid did 
 was to get the bark off. Right close by, I saw 
 his belt axe lying just where he left it. It had 
 Skinny marked on it, and I guess he did it him 
 self. It made me feel kind of sorry for him th?.: 
 he called himself Skinny. It was his axe, anyway. 
 And I felt like kicking myself. And I saw how 
 he had been trying to be a scout just like the other 
 fellows, poor little kid. It wasn't any of my 
 business where he got the money. It was his, 
 anyway. 
 
 Then I began kicking the chips around with my 
 foot and saying, "Poor kid." And I said I guessed 
 he'd die before he could ever chop down a tree. 
 Because, now since I had seen those red spots on 
 his cheeks I knew how bad he was. I knew he 
 didn't have any strength at all, and all the time 
 something he had said kept running in my mind. 
 "/ like the one about honor." "Poor little Skinny," 
 I said. I was feeling bad, anyway. 
 
 All of a sudden I heard a sound and saw three 
 or four fellows scrambling up out of the ditch. 
 So I went over there and just as I got there, I saw 
 something that I'll never forget, you can bet.
 
 170 ROX BLAKELEY 
 
 First I thought it was a ghost, and all the fel 
 lows were flabbergasted. It was Skinny stand 
 ing right near and clutching hold of a tree, and he 
 was all trembling and I thought he was going to 
 fall down. Honest, I never saw anything like 
 the way he looked. His hair was all flying loose 
 ..nd it made him look wild, because it wasn't cut. 
 And his eyes were all like as if they were on fire. 
 
 "I got him," he said, "I got him he's coming* 
 He's getting out of out of his automobile. I 
 got him because I'm I'm a swamp-rat!" Thafs 
 just the way he said it, and he hung onto the tree 
 and his fingers were all thin like an old man's and 
 the spots were in his cheeks. "He's coming !" he 
 panted out. 
 
 Just then I could see Doctor Winters coming 
 through the trees with a little black bag. He must 
 have left his machine out on the road about a hun 
 dred yards away. And I guess Skinny must have 
 jumped out and run in ahead to show him the way 
 And he just kept saying, "I got him, I got him: 
 Because I'm a swamp-rat everybody says so 
 and I know the short cut now can I have a badge 
 maybe sometime ? Maybe am I a scout now ?" 
 
 I just looked at him and it gave me the creeps. 
 Because I knew what he had done. And I re-
 
 THE SHORT CUT 171 
 
 tnembered now how people called him a dirty 
 swamp-rat. Many a time I'd heard them call him 
 that. Just a dirty little swamp-rat. And now, 
 he was sort of proud of it. 
 
 First, I couldn't move and I just couldn't speak. 
 Then I went up to him and I said I didn't care 
 for the doctor or anybody I said, "Skinny, there's 
 one fellow here who knows what the marshes are 
 and that's me. Because I came near getting swal 
 lowed up by them." 
 
 "It's it's short cut," he just panted out. 
 
 "All I want to tell you is," I said, "there's not 
 another scout in the whole troop could do it do 
 you hear I You're not a swamp-rat, you're a 
 swamp-jcow//' I said. 
 
 Then I was going to say more, only Skinny 
 seemed as if he was going to fall and the doctor 
 kind of seemed to want me to move away. Any 
 way, I went over and got Skinny's belt-axe to carry 
 it home for him.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 IN MY OWN CAMP 
 
 As soon as the fellows knew for sure that there 
 was nothing much the matter with Westy, they 
 scrambled out of the ditch and all stood around 
 Skinny, praising him up and he was so excited 
 that he didn't talk straight, but sort of yelled at 
 them. The only ones with Westy were the real 
 doctor and Doc Carson, and Doc was helping him 
 fix the bandages better. 
 
 When I saw them down there it made me feel 
 as if I'd like to go down and say something to 
 Westy. His face was all white and the bandage 
 on his head made him look oh, I don't know 
 sort of as if he might die. And then I'd be sorry 
 I hadn't said something to him. Because I had 
 known Westy an awful long time. 
 
 So I went down and pretty soon the doctor went 
 up to seq Skinny and Doc Carson went too. So 
 I was alone with him down there, but his eyes were 
 shut on account of his being weak from losing sc 
 much blood, and he didn't notice me. 
 
 172
 
 IN MY OWN CAMP 173 
 
 Anyway, I slipped that two dollars into his 
 shirt pocket because I didn't want it anyway, and 
 I thought maybe it would be a memorandum to 
 him, like I said. Besides I didn't have a right 
 to keep money I got out of another fellow's pocket 
 
 I said, "It's me, Westy ; the reason I didn't come 
 around was because all the other fellows were 
 here. But now you're alone I want to tell you 
 that I'm glad you're not hurt bad." 
 
 He just looked at me and he said, "I went I 
 did it." 
 
 First I didn't know what to say, and then I 
 said, "Never you mind, I guess you were kind of 
 crazy. We all get crazy sometimes. I was crazy 
 when I thought Tom Slade was lying once. Never 
 you mind." 
 
 "I guess I was crazy," he just said, and then he 
 shut his eyes and I didn't bother him any more 
 only just sat there. I don't know what made him 
 tell me, but anyway, I was glad. 
 
 Pretty soon I helped him to Dr. Winters' auto 
 mobile because he limped pretty bad. Skinny 
 went in the automobile, too, and Doc Carson, but 
 they didn't ask me. All the fellows went along 
 the road, too, because nobody felt like hauling the 
 saplings that day, and / didn't, that's sure. I said
 
 I 7 4 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 I was going back to get Skinny's axe, and I was 
 glad when I was all alone in the woods. That's 
 the best place to be if you've got any troubles and 
 you want to think. 
 
 And I kind of didn't want to think about Westy, 
 so I thought about Skinny just to keep everything 
 else out of my head. Because I knew it wouldn't 
 ever be just the same again with Westy and I 
 didn't want to think about it. In the troop it 
 would be all right, and maybe in the patrol too, 
 but it wouldn't ever be just the same again with 
 iWesty and me. 
 
 I was glad that I'd be interested in Skinny and 
 now I could see he was different from all of us 
 kind of wonderful I don't know how to tell you* 
 His eyes were so big, and wild, and starey. And 
 he said things in such a funny way and he got so 
 excited. Up at Temple Camp, afterwards, Mr. 
 Ellsworth told Jeb Rushmore that Skinny was in 
 spired, but I don't know just what he meant. All 
 I knew is we were even scared of him sometimes, 
 He never called any of us by our names that was 
 funny. 
 
 Pretty soon I went home. It was all dark in 
 the woods and dandy for thinking, and I was glad 
 I had one friend, anyway, and that was Jim Haw-
 
 IN MY OWN CAMP 175] 
 
 kins in the book. I guessed maybe that was the 
 reason that Westy got the book, because only 
 lately I had read it, and I had told him so much 
 about it. All the way home I kept thinking about 
 Westy and I wished I had never found that out. 
 
 Mostly at night I sit on the porch with my 
 mother and father, but that night I went to my tent 
 and lit the lantern and sat there. I like a lantern 
 because it reminds you of camping. Nix on electric 
 lights up at Temple Camp, that's what Jeb Rusk- 
 more says. Gee, he has no use for electric lights 
 electric lights and umbrellas. But, anyway, I've 
 got a wire from our garage to Camp Solitaire 
 '(that's my tent) and a bulb for when I want to 
 read. Jerry says I ought to pay for tapping the 
 garage current. I should worry. 
 
 I sat down and began reading Treasure Island 
 all over again. I skipped a lot because I had only 
 just lately read it, and pretty soon I was reading 
 about in the middle of it, where they start off in 
 the ship. That's the part I like best. All of 
 a sudden I couldn't see the reading very good and 
 I noticed there was a stain on the page. 
 
 Here's where I wish that I knew all about writ 
 ing books like a regular grown up author, because 
 I have to explain something to you and, cracky, I
 
 176 ROY, BLAKELEY. 
 
 wi&h you could see that book, because then it would 
 be easier. First, I didn't think anything about it 
 at all, only I noticed that the stain was on the left 
 hand page. Then, all of a sudden I noticed some 
 thing about that stain that got me all excited. 
 
 It was in the shape of a ring, kind of. 
 
 Right away I knew what it meant. I picked up 
 one of my oar-locks and laid it on the stain and it 
 just covered it. So I saw I had damaged the book 
 when I had it before. That's one thing you're not 
 supposed to do damage books out of the library. 
 If you keep a book till its overdue, that isn't so 
 bad, because then you just pay a fine. Connie says 
 that's being a good bookkeeper. 
 
 But to damage a book g-o-o-d night 1
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 I WAS just thinking how funny it was that Westy 
 got this very same book that I had, but maybe it 
 wasn't so funny, because that was what put it into 
 his head to get it seeing it in my tent. Anyway, I 
 was glad it came back to me, because now I saw 
 what I had done and I made up my mind that I'd 
 buy a new book for the library. 
 
 Then I was thinking how I'd have to tell Westy 
 about it, and, oh, I don't know, I just didn't know 
 how to go and speak to him. I wasn't mad at him, 
 but anyway, I felt as if I didn't want to see him 
 yet. Anyway, I didn't have any money yet and 
 books like that cost a lot. 
 
 All of a sudden I heard Don start barking and 
 then he stopped. So I knew somebody was coming 
 that he knew. Then I heard somebody say, 
 "You're always suspicious, ain't you," and oh, I 
 felt awful funny, because I knew it was Westy. It 
 seemed as if he might be saying that to me, but 
 I knew he was saying it to Don just kind p$ 
 
 177
 
 (178 " ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 jollying him. Maybe you think you can't jolly a 
 dog but you can. You can Don, anyway. 
 
 I didn't know what I would say to him, because 
 I thought probably he'd come to give me my two 
 dollars and say he was sorry and must have been 
 crazy or in a hurry. Jiminy, any excuse would be 
 good enough for me, as long as he told me straight 
 out about it, like he did in the ditch. And maybe 
 things would get to be all right after a while. But 
 I couldn't understand how he could come up the 
 lawn whistling and jollying Don and feeling so 
 good. I don't mean because he was hurt, be 
 cause I knew that wasn't so bad, but I didn't see 
 how he could be feeling so happy. 
 
 Pretty soon he came in and Don was jumping 
 up all around him and wagging his tail. 
 
 "I'm glad you're well enough to come out," I 
 said. 
 
 "You should worry about me," he said; "I just 
 have to limp a little, that's all. I'm a swell looking 
 Silver Fox, hey?" And then he gave me a push 
 and rumpled my hair all up and said, "You won't 
 be ashamed of me on account of my honorable 
 wounds, will you? I was a punk scout to go and 
 do that."
 
 THE GENTLE BREEZE 179 
 
 Gee, I didn't know what to think, because it 
 wasn't anything to be laughing at, that's sure. 
 
 "Do what?" I said. 
 
 "Run right into that ditch." 
 
 "Is that what you meant you did when you 
 told me?" I said, kind of disappointed. 
 
 "Sure it is," he said, "I'm a swell scout, hey? 
 Going headlong into a ditch 1" 
 
 I just listened to him and I felt pretty bad, be 
 cause now I saw that was what he meant. 
 
 Then he gave me another shove and he said all 
 happy like, "But I'm the champion boy sleuth all 
 right. Look at this here's your two bucks and 
 Skinny never took it at all." 
 
 "I I know he didn't," I said. 
 
 "How did you know," he shot right at me. 
 
 "Because," I started to say and then he rumpled 
 my hair up some more and began talking and 
 never gave me a chance. 
 
 "Because it was right in that copy of Treasure 
 Island that's laying there," he shouted, "and I'm 
 one big gump, that's what / am I I got that copy 
 of Treasure Island out of the library this morn 
 ing, because you were telling me about it, and 
 right there in the middle of it was your plaguy old 
 two buckarinos I"
 
 i8o ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 Just for a minute I looked at him and I knew 
 it was just like he said, because he was laughing 
 he was so blamed happy about it. 
 
 Oh, boy, didn't I feel good I 
 
 "How in the dickens did it get there ?" he said, 
 
 "That's one puzzle," I answered him. 
 
 "Anyway* you've got your two bucks back." 
 
 "A lot I care about that," I said; "jiminy, IVe 
 got something better than two dollars, and that's 
 friends, you can bet." 
 
 Then I showed him the stain on the page of the 
 book and we both sat there gaping at it and thinkr 
 ing. 
 
 "I'm hanged if I know," Westy said; "it would 
 take Tom Slade to dope that out." 
 
 "Maybe Skinny was looking at the book and 
 shut it with the two dollar bill inside," I said. 
 
 "How about the stain?" Westy asked me. 
 
 "Jingoes, it's a puzzle," I said. 
 
 All of a sudden he laid the book down open and 
 laid the bill on it and then he laid the oar-lock on 
 the bill. Then he just sat there like as if he was 
 studying. Pretty soon he said, "We have to get 
 a new copy for the library, anyway. Do you mind 
 if I make another stain on this one? I've got a 
 sort of an idea.''
 
 THE GENTLE BREEZE 181 
 
 "Go ahead," I said. 
 
 So now I'll tell you just what he did and you'll 
 see how it solved the puzzle. And, believe me, 
 you'll have to admit that Westy's a pretty smart 
 fellow. If you have an old book you don't care, 
 anything about, you can even try it and you don't 
 even need an oar-lock. Westy turned to a new 
 place in the book and then he laid the bill down on 
 the right hand page. Then he laid the oar-lock on 
 the bill. "That's just exactly what you did when 
 you laid the bill down in such a hurry that night 
 you were fixing Skinny up. You laid it on the open 
 book just like that see?" 
 
 "Maybe I did." I said, "but what's the big idea, 
 kind sir?" 
 
 "Well, then," he said, "I came up here to get 
 your two bucks for you, didn't I? And you re 
 member I told you there was a breeze blowing? 
 Now what did I do in the dark?" 
 
 "Search me," I said. 
 
 "Why, you big galook, I felt around in the dark 
 and lifted the oar-lock off the bill and then felt 
 there for it, but the breeze was too quick for me. 
 It blew the page over and I slapped my hand down 
 on what?" 
 
 "Another page," I said; "good night!"
 
 1 82 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 "Good-bye two dollar bill," he said, "it was 
 between those two other pages. That's why there 
 was a stain on the right page in the book. There 
 was a stain on the bill made by the oar-lock and 
 when the page and the bill blew over, the fresh oil 
 on the bill kind of stamped itself on the left hand 
 page. You didn't damage the book. You only 
 damaged the bill. It was the breeze that damaged 
 the book see?" 
 
 "Believe me ! I'll be responsible," I told him. 
 
 "That breeze was a thief," he said. 
 
 "It'll come to grief some day," I told him. 
 
 Then we both began to laugh. 
 
 "And it's lucky I got that book out of the li 
 brary," he said. "There was your two bucks 
 tucked away all nice and neat between the pages. 
 It was just where Jim Hawkins was starting away 
 on the ship." 
 
 "Narrow escape," I said, "hey? If you hadn't 
 taken the book out just when you did, good night, 
 the ship might have started and good-bye to my 
 two dollars." 
 
 "You crazy Indian," he said. 
 
 "And all the time I was saying Jim Hawkins 
 was honest and a good friend and all that, and 
 all the time he had my two bucks."
 
 THE GENTLE BREEZE 183 
 
 "Believe me I wouldn't trust that fellow with a 
 postage stamp," Westy said. 
 
 Laugh ! Oh, boy, I thought I'd die laughing 
 and Westy, too.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 JOLLYING PEE-WEE 
 
 THAT'S the reason I'll never trust a gentle 
 breeze. In books you find all kinds of nice things 
 about gentle breezes, but look out for them, that's 
 what I say. Whenever I leave my bathing suit 
 on the grass to dry, I lay a good big rock on it, 
 you can bet. I'd trust Skinny with a hundred dol 
 lars, I would, and Westy too, but gentle breezes 
 Nix. They're so plaguy sly and sneaky like. 
 
 Westy and I went and bought a dandy copy of 
 {Treasure Island for the library. It cost us a 
 quarter more than my two dollars, but we should 
 worry. 
 
 Now I have to tell you one other thing that 
 happened before we got started on our cruise, es 
 pecially because it has a lot to do with our cruise. 
 
 The next morning we all went back to Northside 
 Woods to tie up the saplings and drag them over 
 to the river. Then we were going to use a row* 
 boat and tow them down and maybe float some of 
 them down. I told you about our old launch, but 
 
 184
 
 " WE TOWED THE SAPLINGS AND STARTED DOWN STREAM." 
 Roy Blaktley Pa S e 185
 
 JOLLYING FEE-WEE 185 
 
 it's too shallow to use a launch up as far as North- 
 side Woods. 
 
 All the fellows were there except Skinny, be 
 cause the doctor made him stay home on account 
 of being all played out. I bet that doctor had some 
 scrap with him. One thing sure, Westy and I 
 stuck together. By noontime we had all the stuff 
 hauled over to the river and some odds and ends 
 of kindling wood besides, to take in the house-boat 
 
 We filled the rowboat with the small stuff and 
 towed the saplings and started downstream that 
 way. The tide was running up and it was almost 
 full and we had some job bucking it. Some of the 
 fellows wanted to wait till it turned and come down 
 with it. But I said that would be an hour maybe 
 and that if the tide didn't want to turn and go with 
 us, we should worry. 
 
 Now that there wasn't anything left to do, but 
 tow the stuff down, all the fellows except Westy 
 and I and Pee-wee started to hike it home. We 
 said we'd take him with us in the boat so that he 
 could bail, because that boat is built like a sieve. 
 
 "If it keeps on leaking like that," I said, "there 
 won't be any water left in the river it'll all be in 
 the boat." 
 
 "It's pretty hard bucking the tide," Westy said.
 
 i86 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 "And we're going up hill besides, too," I told 
 him; "remember that." 
 
 Well, you should have seen Pee-wee. "What 
 are you talking about up hill!" he shouted. 
 
 "When we begin going down hill," I said, all 
 the while winking at Westy, "she'll go easier, 
 thank goodness." 
 
 "We'll have to put on the brakes," Westy said. 
 
 "Do you know why they talk about lowing lum 
 ber?" I asked Pee-wee; "because it's measured by, 
 the foot." 
 
 "You're crazy!" he shouted. 
 
 "Just the same as when they use it for back 
 fences, it's measured by the yard," Westy said, all 
 sober like. 
 
 "Sure back yard," I said. 
 
 "You think you can jolly me, don't you?" Pee- 
 wee shouted. 
 
 "You just keep on bailing," I said, "and don't 
 stop. When the tide begins turning you won't have 
 to bail so fast." 
 
 Jiminy, Pee-wee didn't know what to think 
 whether I was kidding him or not. "Why won't 
 I ?" he wanted to know. 
 
 "Because it will be going the other way," I said, 
 "sec? It'll be flowing away from the boat."
 
 JOLLYING PEE-WEE 187 
 
 Oh, boy ! Pee-wee just emptied the bailing can 
 (down my neck. 
 
 And that's the way it was all the way down. 
 Cracky, but we had Pee-wee so crazy that he'd 
 bail up a can of water out of one end of the boat 
 and empty it in the other end. 
 
 "What's the difference whether it's inside or 
 outside?" Westy said, "as long as it's there. I bet 
 there's a lot of canned salmon in this river." 
 
 "Canned what? Pee-wee shouted. 
 
 "Keep on bailing," I said; "canned salmon is 
 what he said, but I think there are more pickled 
 herrings. There's lots of pickled herrings in the 
 Hudson, I know that." 
 
 "You mean smoked herring," Westy said, alJ 
 the while rowing and looking around very sober 
 like at me. 
 
 Oh, boy, didn't Pee-wee open his eyes and stare ! 
 He didn't know whether to take it for a joke or not 
 we were so serious. 
 
 "I suppose it's on account of the smoke from 
 the big Hudson River boats," I said, "just the 
 same as Oyster Bay." 
 
 "What about Oyster Bay?" Pee-wee shouted. 
 
 "When the water gets all stewed up in rough 
 weather, they get stewed oysters."
 
 1 88 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 "Not always," Westy said. 
 
 "No, but most of the time," I said. 
 
 "Oh, sure," Westy said, "but I've seen lots of 
 red lobsters that didn't come from Red Bank " 
 
 "It's boiling makes them red; you big galook!" 
 Pee-wee yelled. 
 
 "Oh, sure," I said, not paying any attention to 
 him, but all the while rowing hard and looking 
 around very sober like at Westy, "because I know 
 there are lots of bluefish caught near Greenland 
 and you'd think by rights they ought to be green." 
 
 "Sure," Westy said, "just the same as the fish 
 caught in American River out west, are red, white 
 and blue." 
 
 "And stars," I said. 
 
 "Sure the river's full of starfish and striped 
 mackerel stars and stripes. That's why you 
 have to stand up in the boat if you're rowing on 
 that river." 
 
 "Oh, sure," Westy said, "that's why so many 
 boats get upset." 
 
 Good night! you should have seen Pee-wee. 
 
 "Keep on bailing, kiddo," I said, "keep plenty 
 of water in the river." 
 
 "Maybe it would be better to let a little more 
 come into the boat," Westy said, "so as to lowei
 
 JOLLYING PEE-WEE 189 
 
 the water in the river, so we can get under the 
 bridge." 
 
 "The both of you make me tired!" Pee-wee 
 yelled; "do you think I believe all that stuff?" 
 
 Good night, some circus ! It's always that way 
 when Westy and I get out with Pee-wee. 
 
 Pretty soon we heard a loud whistling and we 
 wondered what it was, because it didn't sound 
 like a train and it sure wasn't on a motor-boat. 
 
 Then Westy began asking what we were going 
 to do about power after we got our stanchions 
 and bumper-sticks and all that fixed. I said we'd 
 have to get Jake Holden to tow us down around 
 into the Hudson and then get somebody to tow us 
 up. Westy said Mr. Ellsworth thought it would 
 be cheaper to take our little three horse power 
 engine out of our launch and install it in the house 
 boat. 
 
 I said, "That would be all right, only it would 
 kick us along so slow that we'd spend all our va 
 cation on the trip and wouldn't have any time at 
 camp." Cracky, I didn't want to start back as soon 
 as we got there. 
 
 "Well, then, there's only one thing to do," 
 Westy said, "and that's for us to get towed and 
 that costs a lot of money."
 
 190 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 All the while the whistling kept up and it was 
 awful loud and shrill, sort of, as if it was mad 
 you know how I mean. 
 
 "I know what it is," I said; "it's somebody 
 waiting for the bridge to be opened." 
 
 "Good night, they stand a tall chance," Westy 
 said. 
 
 "It's a tug, that's what it is," Pee-wee said; "I 
 can see the smoke. It's going up in a big column." 
 
 "It's more than a column, its a whole volume," 
 Westy said, looking around. "There must be 
 books on that boat; the smoke is coming cut in. 
 volumes." 
 
 All the while we were getting nearer to the 
 bridge and it was easier rowing, because the tide 
 was on the turn. 
 
 Now maybe if you fellows that read this don't 
 live in the country where there's a river, you won't 
 understand about tides and bridges and all that. 
 So I'll tell you how it is, because, gee, we're used 
 to all that, us fellows. 
 
 Jimmy Van Dorian, he lives right near the 
 bridge in a little shanty and he's lame and he's a 
 bridge tender. You don't get much for being a 
 bridge tender and mostly old veterans are bridge 
 tenders. Anyway, they don't get much out out
 
 JOLLYING PEE-WEE i 9 r 
 
 way, because big boats don't come up and they 
 don't have to open the bridge often. 
 
 When we got down to the bridge we saw that 
 the tide was right up so we even had to duck our 
 heads to get under, and right on the other side of 
 the bridge was a tugboat standing facing upstream 
 and its whistle was screeching and screeching just 
 like a dog stands and barks when he's mad. It 
 seemed awful funny because it was a small tug and 
 it made so much noise. 
 
 "It ought to be named the Pee-wee," Westy said. 
 
 "Nobody's paying much attention to it," I told 
 him. 
 
 Just as we came under the bridge we could see 
 a big fat man, oh, Christopher, wasn't he fat, 
 standing up in the pilot house pulling and pulling 
 the whistle rope, for the bridge to open. Some 
 times he'd pull it very fast, just like you do with 
 the receiver on the telephone when you're good 
 and mad because Central don't answer. And it 
 was pretty near as bad as the telephone, too, be 
 cause he went on tooting and tooting and tooting 
 and nobody paid any attention to him.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 [JIMMY, THE BRIDGE-TENDER 
 
 PRETTY soon the big fat man stuck his head out 
 of the window and he shouted, "What's the mat 
 ter, is everybody deaf around here? Here, you 
 boys, where's the bridgeman?" Honest, you'd 
 think I had the bridgeman in my pocket. I told 
 him I didn't know where the bridgeman was. Oh, 
 but he looked mad. He had an awful red face 
 and white whiskers and I guess he must have been 
 used to ordering people around anyway, he 
 looked that way. 
 
 He said, "Here I am on the down tide, the 
 water going out every minute and got to run up 
 to North Bridgeboro yet. It's a " he said what 
 kind of an outrage it was, but I wouldn't tell 
 you. Oh, he was hopping mad. "I'll get stuck 
 hard and fast in the consarned mud," he said, 
 "if I ain't back and past this here Sleepy Hollow, 
 in forty minutes that's what I will I" 
 
 I hollered up to him that I'd row across to 
 Jimmy's house and see if he was asleep. 
 
 192
 
 JIMMY, THE BRIDGE-TENDER 193 
 
 "A sleep!" that's just the way he shouted. "Do 
 bridgeman sleep on full tide up this way? Don't 
 he know the harbor and waterway laws? I'll 
 make it hot for 'im I will." And then he began 
 pulling the whistle faster and faster. 
 
 "Somebody must have been feeding him meat," 
 Westy whispered to me. 
 
 "He's good and mad, that's sure," I said. 
 
 Even while we rowed across to Jimmy's shanty 
 I could hear him shouting between the whistlings 
 and saying he'd have the bridgeman up for desert 
 ing on flood tide and putting him in the mud. And 
 jiminy, I have to admit that he was up against it, 
 because the tide was running down and by the time 
 he got up to North Bridgeboro and back, it would 
 maybe be too low in the channel. One thing, 
 Jimmy had a right to be there, especially at flood 
 tide, I knew that. But I guess the reason he wasn't 
 was because nothing but little motor boats ever 
 came up our river and they can always crawl 
 under. 
 
 Jimmy lives all by himself on account of being 
 old and his people are all dead. I said to Westy 
 that maybe he was just asleep, so we knocked and 
 knocked, but nobody came to the door. Then I
 
 :i94 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 knew he wasn't there at all or else maybe he was 
 dead. 
 
 "Anyway, we'd better find out," I said, "be 
 cause it's mighty funny him not being there, seeing 
 that he never goes ^way anywhere." 
 
 All the time we could hear that old grouch 
 shouting about Bridgeboro and our river and say 
 ing it was Sleepy Hollow and Dopeville, and 
 the river was a mud hole. But it isn't and don't 
 you believe it. 
 
 "Anyway, I'm going to climb in through the 
 shed window," I said, "and see if maybe Jimmy 
 is sick or dead." I could see that Pee-wee was 
 not exactly scared but sort of anxious, and I was 
 too, I have to admit it. 
 
 Westy and I got the shed window open, all 
 right, because Jimmy wasn't careful about it, on 
 account of not having anything worth stealing, J 
 suppose. I was kind of shaky when we went into 
 the first room, because that was where he slept 
 and I thought maybe he'd be lying there dead. 
 But he wasn't there at all. Just the same we stood 
 there looking at each other, and we were both 
 kind of nervous, because Jimmy's clothes were ly 
 ing all around on the bed and on the floor, and a 
 chair was knocked over, and it looked just as if
 
 (JIMMY, THE BRIDGE-TENDER 
 
 somebody had been rummaging in the room in a 
 big hurry. The door into the other room was 
 closed and, I have to admit, I didn't feel like 
 opening it. 
 
 "I bet somebody's robbed him and killed him," 
 Westy said, kind of low. 
 
 "That's just what I'm thinking," I said, "and 
 when we open that door we'll see him lying on 
 the floor dead, hey?" 
 
 "Anyway, we have to open it," he said. 
 
 "I'll open it if you don't want to," I told him. 
 
 But, anyway, neither of us opened it. We just 
 stood there and I felt awful funny. It was all still 
 and spooky and I could hear the clock ticking, and 
 I counted the ticks. It sounded spooky, going tick, 
 tick, tick. 
 
 Then Westy said, "Shall I open it?" 
 
 "Sure," I said, "we've got to sometime." 
 
 So he opened it just a little bit and then, all oij 
 a sudden, he pushed it wide open and we looked 
 into that other room.
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 GONE 
 
 IN the middle of the room was a table Jimmy ak 
 ways ate his meals at, and on that table was a big 
 square piece of paper and there was a big envelop* 
 on the floor. But there wasn't any sign of Jimmy. 
 Oh, boy, didn't I feel good on account of that. 
 
 Westy read the paper out loud and it was tome- 
 thing about a convention of the Grand Army, or 
 something like that. It said how all the members 
 of some post or other were asked to go to Saratoga 
 on account of that big convention and it was ad 
 dressed to "Comrade James Van Dorian." Gee, 
 I felt awful sorry for him, sort of, because I knew 
 bow it was with him. 
 
 "He just couldn't help it," Westy said, "he got 
 ready in a hurry and went. I guess he took all the 
 money he had saved up poor old Jimmy." 
 
 "He'll lose his job, that's sure," I said. 
 
 Even while we were standing there I could kind 
 of see him getting dressed up in a hurry in that 
 old blue coat he had, with the buttons all falling off 
 
 196
 
 GONE 197 
 
 it, and starting off with his crutch. Maybe he just 
 got his pension money, hey ? 
 
 All the while the whistle on the tug was blow 
 ing and I was afraid people would come around 
 and maybe they'd all be on the side of the tugboat 
 man and be mad at Uncle Jimmy. 
 
 Jiminy, I wasn't mad at him, anyway. 
 
 And I could hear that old man shouting about 
 all the things he was going to do and about the 
 bridgeman deserting and leaving him in the mud. 
 
 "Hurry up," Westy said, "let's find the key-bar 
 and we'll open it for him; we can do it all right.'* 
 
 So we looked all around in a hurry, but we 
 couldn't find it anywhere. The key-bar is what 
 you open the bridge with, you know. It's kind of 
 like a crow-bar and you stick it in a certain place 
 and walk around pushing it. It isn't so hard when 
 you get started on account of the bridge being 
 balanced right and it's geared up, too. But what's 
 the use if you can't find the key-bar? 
 
 "It must be somewheres around," Westy said, 
 all excited. 
 
 Oh, didn't we turn things inside out I But 
 it wasn't any use we couldn't find it. 
 
 "Don't let's bother," I said, "I've got an idea; 
 Come ahead quick !"
 
 1198 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 I didn't even stop to tell him what I was thinkt 
 ing about, but I hustled back into the boat, with 
 Pee-wee after us, wanting to know what we found 
 inside. 
 
 "A couple of mysteries," I panted out. 
 
 "How many?" he wanted to know. 
 
 "And a couple of ghosts thrown in," I said, 
 "Hurry up." 
 
 On the way across I told the fellows to please 
 let me talk to the old man, because I had some 
 thing particular to say to him. I was panting and 
 rowing so hard, that I couldn't tell the fellows 
 then. Anyway, I guess Pee-wee had that house 
 haunted and filled with German spies and Uncle 
 Jimmy murdered and goodness knows what all. 
 
 We pulled up right alongside the tug-boat and 
 I called out to the old man that I wanted to tell 
 him something and to please let me come up. I 
 was all trembling, but anyway, I said it right out 
 and I didn't wait for him to say yes, because he 
 was too busy saying other things to say it. 
 
 Westy and Pee-wee stayed in the rowboat and 
 I went right up into the little house where the old 
 man was. Oh, boy, wasn't everything polished 
 all nice and shiny ! Gee, it was nice up in there. 
 The wheel looked awfully big and the compass,
 
 ROY DIVED AFTER THE KEY-BAR 
 
 Roy fHakeley 
 
 Page 203
 
 GONE 199 
 
 you could just see your face in it. And it smelled 
 kind of oily and nice up there. Wouldn't I like to 
 live in a place like that ! 
 
 The old man was smoking a pipe and he blew 
 out a lot of smoke it was kind of like a barrage. 
 Then he said very stern and gruff, 
 
 "Well, sir?" ' 
 
 Oh, boy, wasn't I shaky ! But I started right in, 
 and when you once get started it's easy, that's one 
 sure thing. 
 
 I said, "Maybe you'll only be more mad when 
 I tell you but I heard you say something about 
 Uncle Jimmy deserting. Twice you said that. And 
 I thought maybe you might be a veteran, hey? 
 Maybe that's a crazy thing to think, hey?" 
 
 All he said was, "Well, sir," and he blew a lot 
 of tobacco smoke at me and looked at me with a 
 frown, all fierce, but I wasn't scared. 
 
 "I only kind of deduced that," I said, "and 
 anyway I've got to admit you've got reason to be 
 mad." 
 
 Even still, all he said was, "Well, sir," and he 
 held his pipe so I thought maybe he was going to 
 chuck it at me good night! 
 
 "Anyway, if you were a soldier, maybe you'll 
 understand, that's all. Uncle Jimmy, that's what
 
 200 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 we call him, he went away to the Grand Army 
 Convention that's where he went. I'm not say 
 ing he had a right to go, but one thing, big boats 
 like yours never come up this way, so the bridge 
 doesn't have to be opened very often sometimes 
 not all summer. It's kind of just bad luck for him, 
 that's all. But, one thing sure, I know how it is 
 to be away when I ought not to be, I do. And I'm 
 no better than he is, that's one sure thing. I'm 
 a boy scout," I told him, "and my scoutmaster 
 says you have no right to make bargains about 
 things that are wrong. But anyway, maybe you 
 wouldn't think this would be trying to make a 
 bargain with you and sticking up for somebody 
 that did wrong. So I thought I'd ask you if you'll 
 please promise not to write to the government 
 people, and I'll promise you to open the bridge 
 for you in ten minutes. He's lame, Uncle Jimmy 
 is, and he got that way in some battle, and he has 
 to use a crutch. And that's the reason they gave 
 him a job. I see your tug is named General 
 U. S. Grant, and maybe he was fighting with 
 General Grant, hey? You can't tell. 
 
 "We can't find the key-bar, but about a month 
 ago, the old key-bar fell in the river, and I know 
 where it is. Maybe you think I'm crazy, but I'll
 
 GONE 201 
 
 dive and get it for you, if you'll only promise not 
 to tell on Uncle Jimmy, because he couldn't help 
 going. Maybe you don't understand, but he just 
 couldn't. I've got the swimming badge and that's 
 for diving too. All you have to do is to give me 
 some rope, so I can take one end of it down and 
 then you can haul it up and the key-bar will be 
 tied to it. You can be dead sure. Because what 
 a fellow has to do, he can do. Only you have to 
 make me the promise first 'cause that'll help me to 
 do it."
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 THE CAPTAIN'S ORDERS 
 
 MAYBE it wasn't a very good speech, but any 
 way, he was nicer than he was before and he had 
 an awful funny twinkle in his eye. 
 
 Then he said, "So you know how to dive, huh, 
 sonny? Can you keep your mouth shut?" 
 
 "Sure, you have to keep your mouth shut when 
 you dive," Pee-wee yelled up from the rowboat, 
 and then the old man just had to laugh. 
 
 "I mean when you're on land, sonny," he said. 
 
 "Sure I can," I told him. 
 
 "Well, then, he said, "if any of you scout kids 
 goes about sayin' as how Uncle Jimmy went away 
 to the convention, and I ever meet you in your old 
 skiff, by the Big Dipper I'll run you down and cut 
 you in half, that's what I'll do! Do you hear?" 
 he shouted. "If you ever run afoul o' the Gineral 
 Grant in the bay or anywheres else, by thunder, 
 I'm Cap'n Savage, I am, and onct upon a time I 
 was Major Savage, and I should be at that there 
 
 202
 
 THE CAPTAIN'S ORDERS 203 
 
 convention myself, instead of standing here blow 
 ing away at a better soldier than me!" 
 
 "Don't you care, we'll forgive you," Pee-wee 
 shouted up. 
 
 "Keep him quiet, will you?" I called down to 
 Westy. 
 
 "Ask me something easy," Westy said. 
 
 "And so you think you can dive," old Captain 
 Savage said, "or is that just boy scout talk? Do I 
 stand a chance of getting upstream and down ag'in 
 to-night, or not. Where do you say that key-bar 
 is?" 
 
 You can bet I knew just exactly where it was. 
 It was under the east span of the bridge and just 
 underneath about the fifth or sixth plank from the 
 centre. I knew it was hard bottom down there, 
 too. So Captain Savage and the other man he 
 had gave me a thin rope and we fastened one end 
 on the deck. I tied the other end of it around my 
 waist in a loose French sailor's knot, so I could 
 pull it off without any trouble under water. 
 
 Then I dived. I had to come up a couple of 
 times without it, but the third time I got hold of it 
 lying on the rocks, and quick as a iash I loosened 
 the rope from my waist and tied it nto the key- 
 bar. Then I came up, sputtering.
 
 204 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 "Pull," I sputtered, "you've got it; only pull 
 easy." Then I scrambled up on the deck. 
 
 Believe me in less than a minute the tug-man 
 and Westy and Pee-wee were on the bridge and 
 had the key-bar fixed in its socket. Then we 
 started to push and around she went slow at first, 
 then faster. 
 
 Oh, boy, wasn't I glad to see old General 
 Grant march through. Just as I was going to 
 get in the rowboat, Captain Savage stuck his head 
 out of the window and shouted, "Her-e you, 
 youngster; you come in here. We have to over 
 haul accounts." 
 
 "Scouts don't accept anything for a service," 
 iWesty shouted. 
 
 "I ain't a-talking to you," Captain Savage 
 shouted; "you other feller, scramble aboard and 
 come up here ! Don't they learn you nothin' about 
 obedience in them thar scouts huh? You 
 scramble up on board here like I tell you !" 
 
 Oh, boy, I knew he meant me.
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 I MAKE A DANDY FRIEND 
 
 THAT was the first time I ever rode in a tug 
 boat, and believe me, it was great. I stood right 
 beside the wheel in that little house and pointed 
 out the channel to Captain Savage all the way up 
 to North Bridgeboro. That's one thing I sure 
 know the channel. Anyway, if you don't know 
 it, follow the abrupt shore. But with a tug-boat, 
 good night, you have to be careful because a tug 
 draws so much water. He was going up there 
 after a lumber barge, he said. 
 
 First, he didn't say anything, only smoked, and 
 it was like a fog in there. Pretty soon he said: 
 
 "So you youngsters don't take nuthin' fer serv 
 ices, huh?" 
 
 "We have to do a good turn if we see a chance,'* 
 I told him. 
 
 Then he wanted to know all about the scouts, 
 how they were divided into troops and patrols and 
 everything, and after I told him all that, we got 
 to talking about our vacation and about Temple 
 
 205
 
 206 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 Camp, and especially about the house-boat. I 
 asked him if he thought a three horsepower engine 
 would drive the house-boat up the Hudson, so we 
 could get as far as Catskill Landing in a couple 
 of weeks. 
 
 He said, "It would be more like a couple of 
 years, I reckon." 
 
 "Good night!" I said, "if it takes us two years 
 to get there and we have to be home inside of a 
 month, I see our finish. I suppose it costs a lot 
 of money to get towed." 
 
 He said, "Wall now, whin I bring in a Cunarder 
 .and back her into her stall, it stands them in a 
 few pennies." 
 
 "You said something," I told him. 
 
 * 'N I don't suppose your troop has got as much 
 money as the Cunard Line," he said. 
 
 "Gee, we've only got about four dollars now," 
 I told him; "I suppose we couldn't get towed as 
 much as a mile for that, hey?" 
 
 "Wall, four dollars don't go as far as it used 
 ter," he said; "maybe it would go a half a mile." 
 
 Then he didn't say anything, only puffed and 
 puffed and puffed on his pipe, and kept looking 
 straight ahead of him, and turning the wheel ever 
 so little. After a while he said there wasn't water
 
 I MAKE A DANDY FRIEND 207 
 
 enough in our river to drown a gold fish, and he 
 didn't know why we called it a river at all. He 
 said he couldn't imagine what the tide was think 
 ing about to waste its time coming up such a 
 river. He said if a bird took a drink in the river 
 while he was upstream, it would leave him on the 
 flats. He was awful funny, but he never smiled. 
 
 When we got up to the mill at North Bridge- 
 boro, he got the barge and started downstream 
 with the barge alongside. All the while he kept 
 asking me about the scouts, and I told him about 
 Skinny, and how we were going to take him up to 
 Temple Camp with us, so he could get better, 
 maybe. 
 
 Then for quite a while he didn't say anything, 
 only puffed away and pretty soon we could see the 
 bridge and I knew we'd have to open it again. 
 But anyway, I could see a lot of fellows there and 
 I knew they were all from our troop and that they 
 were waiting to open the bridge for General 
 Grant. 
 
 Pretty soon Captain Savage took his pipe out of 
 his mouth and began speaking, only he didn't 
 notice me only kept looking straight ahead. 
 
 ".You know how to port a helm ?" he said.
 
 2o8 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 I told him no not on a big boat like that any 
 way. 
 
 Then he said, "Wall, there's lots o' things you 
 got to learn, youngster. And there's one thing 
 about tug cap'ns that you got to learn, see ?" 
 
 I told him that was what I wanted to do learn. 
 
 "Wall, then, I'll tell you," he said this is just 
 what he said "I'll tell you, you are in a mighty 
 ticklish place 'n I don't just see how you're going 
 to get out of it." 
 
 For a minute I was kind of scared. 
 
 "I ain't sayin' you're not a brisk lot, you 
 youngsters, because you are, and no denyin'. All 
 I'm sayin' is you're in a peck of trouble that's 
 all." 
 
 Then he didn't say anything only looked straight 
 ahead out of the window and kept on smoking. 
 Gee, I felt awful funny. 
 
 Then I said if we did anything that wasn't right, 
 cracky, we didn't mean it anyway, that was sure, 
 and we'd do whatever he said. And I said I 
 knew it wasn't right for us to break into Uncle 
 Jimmy's shanty, because I couldn't think of any 
 thing else we'd done that was wrong. 
 
 Then he said, " 'Tain't so much wrong, as 'tis 
 a conflict of rules, as the feller says. Yer see, the
 
 I MAKE A DANDY FRIEND 209 
 
 trouble is tug-boat captains are a pretty pesky, 
 ugly lot, as yer can see from me, and when it 
 comes ter services, it's give or take. Now I was 
 thinkin', that if you youngsters don't let me tow 
 you up as far as Poughkeepsie next week, I'll just 
 have to write and notify the authorities about 
 Uncle Jimmy and make a complaint. I kinder 
 don't like to do it by reason of him being an old 
 veteran, but it's up to you youngsters. Either 
 scratch out that rule of yours, or else see Uncle 
 Jimmy lose his job. Take your choice, it's all 
 the same to me." 
 
 G-o-o-d night! Jiminy, I didn't know what to 
 say to him. I guess I just stood there staring and 
 he looked straight ahead out of the window and 
 smoked his pipe, as if he didn't care either way. 
 
 Pretty soon he said, "I'm going up to Pough 
 keepsie next Saturday with a barge, and I'll give 
 you youngsters till Friday to decide. You can 
 send me a line to the barge office or the Pilots* 
 Association, or else you can leave me and old 
 Uncle Jimmy fight it out between our two selves 
 and Uncle Sam.*' 
 
 The fellows opened the bridge for General 
 Grant to go through and Captain Savage let me 
 out on one of the cross-beams, without even stoj>
 
 210 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 ping. He didn't even look at the fellows as the 
 tug went through, only looked straight ahead of 
 him and puffed away on his pipe, as if he didn't 
 even know that there were such things as scouts, 
 We just stood there watching the tug churning up 
 the water, as she went faster and faster until she 
 was gone around the bend. 
 
 "He's a kind of an old grouch," Pee-wee said. 
 
 "It's good you happened to think about how 
 he used that word desert" Doc said. 
 
 Then Connie said he wouldn't want to be his 
 son and Artie said he wouldn't want to be around 
 the house with him on a rainy Sunday, and I let 
 them go on knocking him, until they got good and 
 tired and then I said, 
 
 "Do you know what he wants to do ?" 
 
 "I bet he wants us to go and be witnesses against 
 Uncle Jimmy," Pee-wee said; "he'll never get me 
 to be a witness, you can bet." 
 
 "Wrong the first time, as usual," I said; "he 
 wants to tow the house-boat up as far as Pough- 
 keepsie for us next week." 
 
 Well, you should have seen those fellows. 
 
 "What did you tell him?" Pee-wee yelled. 
 
 "I told him that I was sorry, but that scoutg
 
 I MAKE A DANDY FRIEND 211 
 
 couldn't accept anything for a service not even 
 favors." 
 
 "You're crazy!" Pee-wee shouted; "did you teli 
 him that?" 
 
 "Sure I did," I said, very sober, "and he got so 
 mad he's going to have old Uncle Jimmy sent to 
 jail just because I told him we couldn't let him 
 tow us to Poughkeepsie." 
 
 "You make me tired!" Pee-wee screamed, "do 
 you mean to say that if a fellow does a good turn 
 to another an old man and it turns out to be 
 a good turn on somebody else, and he says the 
 other one that has a boat that he'll make a lot 
 of trouble for the other one we did a service for 
 do you mean to tell me that the other one has 
 a right to say he'll make trouble for him, and if 
 he does we haven't got a right to let him do a 
 good turn to us, so that the other one we did a 
 good turn for can get under a bridge it's a good 
 turn to let him do us a good turn, isn't it? Let's 
 hear you deny that?" 
 
 "You're talking in chunks," Doc said; "pick up 
 the words you spilled and straighten 'em out." 
 
 "Hold him or he'll fall off the bridge," Artie 
 said. 
 
 "Do you mean to tell me that we haven't got to
 
 212 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 let him pay us back so as to save Uncle Jimmy?" 
 JPee-wee fairly screeched. Oh, boy, you should 
 have seen him. 
 
 "There is yet time," I said, just like an actor, 
 sort of. I said, "There is yet time to fool him 
 I mean foil him. We have till Friday to accept 
 his offer." 
 
 "Who's got a pencil?" Pee-wee shouted. 
 
 Good night ! You should have seen that kid.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 SO LONG SEE YOU LATER 
 
 So that's about all I can tell you now, but pretty 
 soon I'll tell you about our cruise up the Hudson 
 and all about the fun we had on the house-boat 
 and on Captain Savage's tug. Oh, boy, he turned 
 out to be one fine man. And I'm going to tell you 
 all about Skinny too, and about the fix we got into 
 about that tramp that slept in the house-boat. You 
 remember that fellow, don't you. Some scare we 
 had, believe me. 
 
 And you'll hear about Temple Camp and Jeb 
 Rushmore, and you'll get to know us fellows a lot 
 better. Gee, I hope you'll like us. Mr. Ellsworth 
 says I'm a pretty good author, only I took such 
 a long run there wasn't any space left to jump in. 
 I should worry. Some authors don't run at all, they 
 only walk. Believe me, you have to drag some of 
 them with a rope. 
 
 Anyway, we've got acquainted now and that's 
 something. In the next story there's going to be 
 
 213
 
 ROY BLAKELEY 
 
 some girls and some snakes, too. Especially one 
 snake. Gee, but girls hate snakes snakes and 
 mice. Anyway, Mr. Ellsworth told me to write 
 just the same as I talked, so if it's no good, may 
 be that's the reason. You should worry. Maybe 
 you'll like the next one better, hey? 
 
 Anyway, you'll like Temple Camp, that's one 
 sure thing.
 
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