INVASION
Pee-wee had the floor; he had the whole green; I guess he had nearly the whole town. Anyway, he had all the peanut brittle there was left.
“We caught a bandit,” he shouted. “He’s got footprints. He’s up in the top car of the ferris-wheel in Riverview Park. He’s bound with ropes. Even Detective Pinchem didn’t catch him, but we did.”
“Who put him up there?” somebody shouted.
“We did!” Pee-wee yelled.
“What’s he doing up there?” a man called.
“He’s trembling with fear,” the kid shouted. “He fired seven hundred shots and got away with two dollars——”
“You mean seven hundred dollars,” I said.
“Wefoiledhim!” the kid shouted.
“He’s all wrapped up in tin-foil,” I said.
The cop said, “What’s all this nonsense, anyway?”
I said, “Are you the police department?”
He said, “Well, I think I am.”
“You’ve got to be sure of it,” Pee-wee shouted. “We can’t deal with the civilized population.”
“Do you think we’re afraid of you?” that girl said, very scornful like.
“Hurrah for Pee-wee Harris,” Dorry shouted.
“Do you think we’re afraid of a boy named Pee-wee?” she said. “It sounds like a canary bird.”
Pee-wee pointed the big horn right plunk at her and shouted through it, “Do you call me a canary bird?”
I nearly died laughing.
She said, “If I had a name like Pee-wee I wouldn’t talk about dealing with the civilian population.”
“That name doesn’t belong to me,” he yelled.
“He only rents it,” Hunt said.
“His right name is Sir Harris, R. R.—Raving Raven,” Dorry said.
“What’syourname?” Pee-wee hollered at her through the horn.
“It’s Dora Dane Daring,” she said. “So there, Mr. Smarty. And I’m a girl scout.”
“Girls are afraid of snakes,” he shouted.
She said, “Well, they’re not afraid of canary birds.”
“They’re afraid of black menand—and—bandits,” he yelled. “Didn’t you ever hear ofwildcanary birds? That shows how much you know aboutbotany—I mean zoology.”
By that time everybody was screaming. Even the whole police department was laughing. He said, “Well, now, what’s all this about? Have you youngsters been dreaming or what?”
“What,” I said; “you guessed right the second time.”
I guess if it hadn’t been for Westy maybe that fellow with the cap would be up on the top of the wheel yet.
He said to the policeman, “I’ll tell you how it was if these fellows will keep still.”
I said, “Let’s have a large chunk of silence.”
So then Westy told him all about our meeting Detective Pinchem and how he was looking for a fellow that had robbed an auto party and how he had stolen a boat and left it in the marshes.He told him all about what happened at the old ferris-wheel and how I had found footprints there and how they showed that some one had come from the river. Most all the people that crowded around listening were serious. Two or three men said they guessed it was the auto bandit all right. The policeman said they’d soon find out.
A lot of people said they were going to see what happened and one or two of the patrol wanted to go back because, one thing, you don’t see bandits captured every day. Maybe whole weeks might go by and you’d never see one captured in a ferris-wheel. But that shows how you never can tell. You might chase a bandit on a merry-go-round but you’d never catch him.
“We should worry about the bandit,” that’s what I told the fellows. “Because we’ve got troubles of our own. We’ve got to make Carson’s Hill yet and then the woods up the ridge and we’ll have to go slow and use our compass in there. Look at that big tree up there waiting for us,” I said. “It’s got all dressed up for us since we started.”
And, honest, it did look that way because it was all gold. But, anyway, you’ll find out in thenext chapter that gold isn’t the only color. There are blue and green and yellow and strawberry and orange and banana and grape-fruit and peaches and russetapples—those are my favorites. Gee whiz, I don’t know whether I’m talking about fruit or colors! But one kind of vegetable I like, and that is onions.
Anyway, the color I was going to speak about is black. And believe me the next chapter is the darkest one in this book.
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FOILED!
Most of the people went back to the park with the police department. That girl had been listening to Westy telling the policeman about everything and so now she said to our young hero:
“You don’t call that binding a bandit with ropes, do you? With him up at the top of the wheel and you down at the bottom.”
The kid said, “Sure I do, that’s distancebinding—you’re so smart. That shows how much you know about scouting. I suppose you don’t know you can signal for miles and miles. Can’t you do other things by distance too?”
“That’s a fine argument,” Warde Hollister said.
“I invented it,” the kid shouted.
That girl said, very sarcastic like, “I must say you were very brave to kill that wooden figure. I’m not afraid of snakes, but I’d certainly be afraid of a wooden figure. Tell me, did you ever kill a rag doll?”
There were two or three girl friends of hers there and they all started to titter.
“Was it our fault if that colored man was made of wood?” Pee-wee said.
She said, “Oh, mercy, no. But when you were binding the poor bandit weren’t you afraid he’dbiteyou? He was only a hundred feet or so away, you know. Are you afraid of mice, too?”
“No, we’renotafraid of mice,” Pee-wee said. “And we’re not afraid of bugs either. Girls are afraid of June bugs.”
“That’s because they’re black,” she said.
“Scouts aren’t afraid of anything, they don’t care what color it is——”
“Purple or lavender or pale white or dark black, what do we care?” I said.
“Do you see that hill away over there in the east?” the kid shouted at her. “That’s Blakeley’s Hill. That’s miles away. We came from there in a bee-line. Do you think that we let anything stand in our way?We’re—we’re—invincible.Houses—we go right through them. Even the movie people followed us, so now you can tell.Rivers—do you think that river stopped us? Do you know what the points of the compass are? We came straight west, just as straight as an arrow. Now we’re going up on that ridge, where that big tree is. If you want to follow us, you can. Then you can see just how we do it. You’ll seeus—you’ll see us go right through houses. I’m not blaming girls that they don’t have adventures——”
She said, “Oh, isn’t that too sweet?”
“And who are you going to kill next?” another one of those girls wanted to know. “Some terrible black man?”
“The blacker the better,” I said.
“Do you see that tree off there on the ridge?” Pee-wee asked her. “We have to climb right up that. There are snakes up there.”
She said, “Oh, isn’t that terrible?”
“I’m not saying you can’t do things,” the kid said; “because girls know how to sew and cook, I have to admit that. But when it comes to——”
“To being invincible?” she said.
“Now you just shut one eye and look at that big tree up there,” Pee-wee said. “Do you notice the house right at the edge of this green? Do you see how it’s right in a bee-line with that tree? We’ve got to go right through that house. Do you think we’d go around it? We’ll go right plunk through the middle of it, no matter what. That’s what a bee-line hike means. That’s why we had the police department come to us instead of our going to him. See?”
All the girls began to laugh. Dora Dane Daring said, “Isn’t that just wonderful?”
“That’s nothing,” Pee-wee said. “We do harder things than that.”
They all began to laugh again.
I said, “Well, as long as we can’t take this village with us we’ll have to leave it here, I suppose. I hope it will be here when we get back.”
“Maybe if you bound it with ropes——”one of those girls said.
“It would just be a waste of good rope,” I said. “We’ll stand a rock on the town and that will hold it here. Come on, official staff,” I said, “get busy. You fellows fall into line. The next assault is on that house that Pee-wee pointed out. Am I right?”
They all lined it up with the tree so as to make sure.
“Now you watch us,” I said to the girls.
“Oh, we’ll watch you,” one of them said. Then they all began to laugh again.
I said, “If you have patrols in the Girl Scouts, yours ought to be called the Laughing Hyenas. What’s the idea?”
They didn’t answer, only just stood there giggling. They ought to have a merit badge for giggling in the Girl Scouts.
“We think you’re so funny,” one of them said; “especially that little boy.”
“Your village isn’t so big if it comes to that,” Pee-wee said.
“No, but it hasn’t got coffee-pots and frying pans and old phonographs hanging all over it,” one of them said, laughing all the while. “He looks like an ash wagon.”
“That shows how much you know about scouting,” the kid shouted. “Don’t you know that scouts are supposed to cook their own meals?”
“And play their own music?” Dora Dane Daring said. “Do you take victrola lessons?”
I said, “He plays the shoe horn, also the gas pipe. He can even play onBoys’ Life; that’s the scouts’ official organ.”
She said, “Mostcanary birds are musical.”
“Yes,” I said, “and parrots can laugh, too.”
She said, “You ought to call it an A. B. C. hike instead of a B hike. If you’re going to tear down any houses we’d like to see you do it.”
“Everybody falls for thescouts—in all the houses,” Pee-wee yelled.
That Daring girl just giggled and said, “Oh, isn’t that justwonderful?”
So then I rounded up my army of invasion and I shouted, “Scouts and sprouts, I have squinted yonder tree with my trusty right eye and I find we have to cross neutral territory again. We have to go through that house over there——”
“The one with the roof of——”Pee-wee shouted.
I said, “That’s the one, the one with the roof. Take a good look at that house; you’ll see it has an inside as well as an outside.”
“I can’t see the inside,” Dorry shouted.
“Can you see the outside?” I asked him. “Well, the inside is just inside of the outside. If you took the outside away there wouldn’t be any inside. You can do that by algebra.”
I said, “There are two stories in that house and we have to put some adventure into those stories.”
Pee-wee shouted, “I’ll go ahead and ring the bell and tell them we want to go through, hey? Because I know what to say.” Then he said to the girls, “You can watch me if you want to. Maybe some time you’ll be on a bee-line hike and want to go through a house and then you’ll know just how to do.”
One of them said, “Oh, thank you so much.”
“The pleasure is ours,” I told her. “If the civilized population wants to follow us, what do we care?”
Then I said, “Ready—go!”
We all marched across the green with Pee-wee ahead of us and those girls coming along behind, laughing. You couldn’t blame them because the kid looked awfulfunny—very brave and bold. We all stopped on the walk in front of the house. It was a dandy big house; it looked like one of those houses that has a hall running straight through to the back. That’s the kind of neutral territory I like.
The kid marched straight up to the steps and up onto the porch and pushed the button.“That’s one thing you have to learn when you’re a scout,” he called down, “not to be afraid.”
All of a sudden the front door opened and,g-o-o-d night, magnolia! There was the biggest colored man I ever saw. He was about six feet tall and eight feet in circumference, or maybe it was the other way round, I don’t know which. His face was so black that it would make a blackboard look pale. You could have written on that man’s face with chalk, dandy. He had on a kind of a uniform with brass buttons and his elbows stuck out on each side of him.
“Good night,” Hunt said; “that’s one mountain we didn’t figure on.”
I said, “I guess that’s one of the Black Hills. I wonder how it got out of my geography.”
Pee-wee looked like a kewpie doll in front of that man. The man just glared at him and then he said, good and loud, “Whatchue want here, you?”
Pee-wee said,“We—eh—we—does Mr. Smith livehere—please?”
The big man said, “No, he don’t. Whatchue want here?” He just glared down at the poor kid as if he were going to eat him.
Pee-wee said, kind of hesitating,“If—if we’d be willing to wipe our feet—maybe—would you be willing to let us go through this house—maybe?”
The big man glared down at him and then he said in a great big deep voice, “Looker here, you youngster! You want to get arrested, do you?You clear out of this!Whatchue mean comin’ to folks’ houses and say you like to go through, eh? You clear out of here, double quick, or I’ll have you in de lockup!”
He banged the door shut and there stood Pee-wee trying to get his breath, I guess. Then he started down the steps again, the stuff in his big megaphone rattling like a junk wagon.
“Foiled!” I said.
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DARING DORA DANE
Oh, boy, you should have heard those girls laugh. Dora Dane Daring said, “Isn’t that just too provoking? He didn’t seem to be a bit afraid of you, did he?”
“Don’t you know sometimes scouts have to use strategy?” Pee-wee said. “Did you think I was goingto—to—justforcemy way in? Don’t you know a scout has to be courteous?”
“It was so good of you not to hurt him,” she said.
“Scoutsare—they’re kind,” the kid said.
She said, “Yes, but you know they’re invincible. I suppose you’ll just go and ring the bell again?”
“We—we take turns doing things like that,” the kid said.
“The general appoints scouts to do that,” I told her. “I appoint Westy Martin and Dorry Benton to——”
“I can’t be drafted, I have a dependent ancestor,” Dorry said.
Westy said, “I’m sorry, but I have heart trouble. I claim exemption.”
I said, “You’re a fine pair. I appoint Will Dawson and Warde Hollister to go up there and arrange terms——”
Warde said, “I’m sorry, but I’m not in uniform.”
“I have a dependent mother,” Will Dawson said.
“I’m a conscientious objector,” Hunt Manners piped up.
The Warner twins said they were the sole support of a collie dog.
“Some bunch of warriors,” I said. “I always heard that scouts weren’t supposed to be afraid of a draught. What are we going to do? Go home?”
“If we had tanks——”the kid started.
“Well, go and get a couple of water tanks,” I said.
“Isn’t it exasperating?” one of the girls said.
“Can’t you wait a little while?” Pee-wee shouted. “Wasn’t the world war four years long? That shows what you know about history.”
One of the girls said, “Do you still claim to be invincible?”
“Sure we do,” Pee-wee said. “But of courseeverybody—a lot of people know that women helped in the war alot—everybody knows that. We wouldn’t be mad if you made a suggestion.”
That Daring girl said, “Oh, I haven’t asingle thingto suggest. We believe in action. Actions speak louder than suggestions. If you’re really ready to admit that you’re defeated I’ll make a proposal. It isn’t a suggestion, it’s a proposal.”
“Proposals are just as good as suggestions,” Pee-wee said.
She said, “Well, if you’re ready to admit that you’re balked——”
“Even—even—even the Germans were balked on the Marne, weren’t they?” our young hero shouted.
I said, “Well, it doesn’t look as if that giant with the brass buttons is going to surrender. If we could get some propaganda past him to the people in the house——”
“Like they did with airplanes,” Pee-wee said.
“Yes, but you see the shutters are closed,” she said. “Girl scouts areobservant. Itlooksas if there were no one in the house but that horrid big giant.”
I said, “What do you propose?”
Then Dora Dane Daring said, “I propose to lead you to victory if you will print it up on your banner that you were saved from disaster by the Girl Scouts of America, and keep that on your banner till you get home.”
“I’d like to see you do it first,” I said.
“You mean to tell me you’re not afraid of that man?” Pee-wee said. “Do you think I’d letyou—a scout has to be chivalrous. He has to protect women——”
“Give me your hatchet,” she said, and she jerked it out of his belt.
“You better look out what you’re doing,” the kid said. “Do you want to get arrested?”
She swung Pee-wee’s belt-axe in the air just like Carrie Nation or Joan of Arc and she said, “Follow me!”
Pee-wee said, “Dora Dane Daring, you’d better look out what you’re doing.”
She said, “Private Canary Bird Harris, you’re a coward. Fall in line, everybody!”
Gee whiz, I thought that girl was crazy. Up she marched, right onto the porch, with all the rest of us after her. Pee-wee kind of hungback—safety first for him. I was ready to run any minute. We went across that porch as if we were stalking a bird.
But she didn’t care. She just hit the door a good rap with the hatchet and kept pushing the button. Boy, I was kind of shaky!
Pee-wee said to her, “You’d better be ready to run.”
I said, “I’m ready to go scout-pace for ten miles. I’m glad a scout can run.”
I guess that big army all rolled into one with the brass buttons must have known it was our crowd because he didn’t come right away. Gee whiz, I pictured him getting madder and madder every second. I was ready to jump from the porch to the middle of the street. Pee-wee had one leg all ready for a good starter. All the while Dora Dane Daring kept pounding on the door and pushing the button.
All of a sudden the door opened. That’s the end of this chapter.
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PEE-WEE’S LOSS
Pee-wee gave a sudden start, then stopped. We all kind of stood back a little. Westy and Dorry stayed by the railing. We were all ready to retreat in disorder. There was that great big man filling up the whole doorway and his brass buttons shining. He looked like the Allied Army. She just shouted right in his face,
“Stand aside and let these boys pass, in the name of the Girl Scouts of America!”
G-o-o-d night, as sure as I’m writing this, that great big colored man stood out of the way and in she marched waving Pee-wee’s belt-axe. We all followed after her, kind of scary.
“You’d—you’d better look out,” Pee-wee whispered to her. “He can lock us in here and have us all arrested.Maybe—you can’ttell—maybe he meditates treachery.What—what are you going to do?”
“We’re going to devastate his country, Private Canary Bird Pee-wee,” she said. “Now you see what the Girl Scouts of America can do. Maybe sometimeyou’llwant to know how to break through hostile territory and then you’ll remember Dora Dane Daring, won’t you? Do you thinkI’mafraid of abutler?”
“You’d—you’d better look out,” Pee-wee said; “safety first.”
As we went through the hall he kept looking all around as if he expected to see sharpshooters behind all the doors. It was a dandy house, with a nice big wide hall and it had a moose’s head for a hat rack. First I guess we were all pretty scared.
The kid walked on tiptoe through the hall, and he kept whispering to me, “This is justlike—it’s just like burglary. Girls are reckless. We’d better look out. Do you hear a footstep upstairs? I hear a bell ringing. I bet he’s calling up the police, hey?”
That girl led the way into a dandy big dining room and then all her friends began laughing again.
She said, “We’ll take everything there is to eat in the pantry. My brave army must be fed.”
Pee-wee said, “I’m—I’m not so hungry.” Gee whiz, it was the first time I ever heard him admit that.
She said, “If there is any bird seed in this house you shall have it. Sit down.”
Pee-wee sat down on the edge of a chair, looking all around, good and scared. Every time a door creaked he gave a start. He said,“It’s—it’sin—it says in the scout handbook that we have no right to trespass——”
She waved the belt-axe and she said, “The scout handbook!Ho, ho!A mere scrap of paper.” She was awful funny.
Pee-wee said, “We didn’t mean to stay here. All we wanted was to go through——”
“Do you eat pie?” she said.
He said, “Yes, but—maybe we’d better start.”
We were all sitting around the dining room. I guess all of us felt kind of shaky. I thought every minute that Pee-wee was going to get up and run.
All of a sudden Westy (gee, he’s a fiend for noticing things)—he said, “Dora Dane Daring, the boy scouts have to hand it to you; you’ve done a good turn, that’s sure. This house looked like a hard proposition. All we have to do now is climb over that fence in back. We all admit you’re a heroine. But there’s one thing I’d like to ask you. Do you notice that big silver cup on the sideboard has D D D engraved on it? Maybe scouts aren’t so much as warriors but they’re observant. I was wondering if you know whose initials those are?”
At that all the girls started laughing.
“It’s your own house!” Pee-wee shouted. “Now you see how scouts are observant. What did I tell you?”
She said, “It is not my own house; so there, Mr. Canary Bird Harris.”
“Whose house is it?” Westy said.
“It’s my father’s, Mr. Smarty,” she said.
“No sooner said than stung,” I told Westy.
Hunt said, “What difference does it make whose house it is as long as we go through it? We have to give you the credit anyway.”
“Is your father home?” Warde asked her.
She said, “Nobody’s home butmyself—and the butler.”
I said, “Yes, I seem to remember him. I think Pee-wee met him once.”
“I—I found out thatI’m—kindof—that I’m hungrier than I thought I was,” the kid said.
“Oh, sure,” I said; “his appetite is like a cat, it always comes back.”
And believe me, that was the only time in the life of P. Harris that I ever knew him to lose his appetite. Even then it was only for four minutes. Westy said it was three minutes and a half, but what’s the difference?
He got it back anyway.
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THE SHERO
One thing about scouts—I mean two things about them. They always keep their words and they always keep theirappetites—you can ask anybody.
I said, “Bring down a bottle of shoe-blacking with a sponge brush and we’ll let the whole World know that you’re a hero, I mean a shero.”
She said, “First we’re going to have refreshments.”
I said, “No, first we’re going to give you credit.”
She just laughed and she said, “No, because it’s my father’s house.”
I said, “That’s not your fault. If that butler was in my house he’d scare the life out of me just the same. I hope you never feed him meat. Even if I met him at the Peace Conference he’d scare me.”
So two or three of those girls went upstairs and got a bottle of shoe blacking and a big piece of cardboard. It was the cover of a box a suit comes in. I printed on it good and plain:
WITH THE ASSISTANCEOFTHE GIRL SCOUTS
and we fastened that just underneath the other sign on our martial standard. Pee-wee kind of balked at that.
But he didn’t balk at eating pie. They had dandy pie in that house. We all sat around the dining room eating refreshments and we had a good time. Pee-wee showed them that a scout could eat, anyway. Even still, every time there was a noise he gave a start. Safety first.
Dora Dane Daring said she liked Bridgeboro.
Pee-wee said, “Were you ever in Bennett’s there?”
She said no, but she knew some girls there.
I said, “Do you know Minerva Skybrow? We named a kind of mushroom after her.”
She said, “The idea!”
I said, “It’s a good idea; she showed us all about how to grow mushrooms. She can play tennis in four languages, that girl can. There are a lot of smart people in Bridgeboro. We’ve got three patrols in our troop but, thank goodness, there’s only one of them here. That’s enough, hey?”
Westy said, “If you ever come on a hike to Bridgeboro——”
“Maybe you can’t walk that far,” Pee-wee said.
She just looked at him, very scornful.
I said, “If you ever come over there, come and see us in our headquarters; we’re away most of thetime—I didn’t mean it that way.—We’ve got a railroad car for a meeting-place down by the river. Drop in if you’re ever down that way.”
“Drop in the river?” she said. “Aren’t youperfectly dreadful!”
“The river’s all right,” Pee-wee said.
One of the other girls said, “I bet you have lots of fun, you boys.”
“We eat it alive,” I told her. “There’s a scarcity of fun in Bridgeboro because we used it all up. That’s why we have to explore the country. The next thing we’re going to do is a zigzag hike.”
She said, “Did anybody ever tell you you were crazy?”
“Nobody has to tell us,” I said, “because we know it. Anyway, I guess we have to be going now.”
We had dandy fun sitting around there talking. Girls are all right, only they’re kind of funny, they keep giggling all thetime—giggling and fixing their hair. But anyway, they know how to do good turns. Most of them like algebra and they’re funny in other ways too. But gee whiz, everybody hassomethingthe matter with him. I know a girl who stuck a safety pin on a stump for a scout sign. But they’re strong on being kind and all that, I’ll say that much.
Those girls took us out across the lawn in back and when I pointed out the big poplar tree away up there on west ridge they said they’d like to be going with us. And Dora Dane Daring said she was glad her father owned that house, so she could help us to keep to our bee-line. They stood there at the fence waving to us until we got awayover pretty near to Westcott’s Hill. One of them threw a kiss to us then. Girls always wait till you get far away before they do that so that you can’t be really sure whether they meant it that way or not.
But I was sure, all right.
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THE NEW SCOUT
Now comes the part of our bee-line hike that I like best because we had to go through woods and open country. Houses and villages are all right, but me for the open country. There wasn’t any one following us now, there were no buildings or anything like that ahead, and it seemed quiet and lonely. Up to that time our hike had been sort of like a circus, only more so. But pretty soon, oh, boy, it wasn’t much like a circus, because something pretty serious happened.
It was beginning to get dusk by that time and there were kind of like little dabs of dark red on the top of the ridge. Away up on the peak of the big poplar tree was a dab of red and all the rest of it was dark. It seemed awful clear against the sky, that tree. I kind of thought how all day long the sun had been on a bee-line hike too, going straight west. “If the sun can do it, we can do it,” that’s what I said. It would be nice up there under that tree in the dusk. I was hoping that we’d get there soon so we could start a fire. Then my mother could see that from the porch and she’d know we were all right. Because we’d come back around by the road and that would be easy. We could take the jitney on the state road right up there on the ridge and go straight to Bridgeboro station. I don’t know if you know where the Bridgeboro station is, but it’s right near Bennett’s.
Now I’ll tell you about the country from Little Valley to west ridge. First it’s easy, across fields. Then you come to Westcott’s Hill. Gee whiz, I don’t know what he ever wanted to own a hill like that for. The side nearest Little Valley isn’t very steep but going down the other side it’s pretty steep. On that side the hill is sort of broken off like. We weren’t worrying because we knew there’d be some way down. We should worry about hills. At the foot of that hill is a deep cut where the railroad goes through. On the other side of the railroad tracks the ridge begins. Before you get to the ridge there’s apond—apretty big one. Up the side of the ridge are woods.
Now most all the way from Little Valley to the ridge we could see the tree. There were only two places where we couldn’t see it. One was just before we got to the hill. But after we got part way up the hill we could see it again. The other place was west of the hill, in the hollow. We knew how it would be there but we didn’t care because we had our compass. We intended to go up through the woods on the ridge with our compass.
It was pretty easy going till we got up to the top of the hill but then we saw that it was going to be pretty hard getting down it, it was so steep. It went down a little way, maybe ten feet, almost straight. Then there was a kind of a little slanting shelf with all grass and bushes. We didn’t know how it was below that slanting shelf because we couldn’t see. Maybe it was so that we could climb down. If it wasn’t it would have to be pretty steep.
So we stood on the top of the hill thinking what we would do.
Warde Hollister said, “The only thing to do is for one of us to climb down on that ledge and look over and see how steep it is below. Then we’ll know whether we can make it or not. There’s no use turning back till we know we have to.”
“Turning back?” I said.
“Well, what else are we going to do if we can’t get down this hill?” he wanted to know.
“All our day’s hike for nothing?” Westy said.
“I didn’t say I’m for turning back,” Warde said. “But this isn’t a case of ringing front door bells and getting on the right side of people. Maybe scouts like Nature, but Nature doesn’t care much about scouts.”
“You said something,” I told him. “But, gee whiz, we don’t want to turn back.”
He said, “Well, there’s no use crying till we’re hurt. We’ve got to find out how steep it is below and that ought to be easy.”
He started throwing off his jacket.
“Only you’d better be careful,” I said. “That ledge is kind of slanting.”
“It’s all full of bushes,” he said.
“How will you get up again if you have to come back?” one of the fellows asked him.
“A couple of you can reach down,” he said. “There’s a good foothold up on top here.”
I didn’t like the idea of his doing that. But I didn’t like the idea of turning back either.
After leaving Little Valley I guess we had all begun to think it would be easy going on account of there not being any streets or houses in our way. Because, one thing, scouts are used to the open country. We never thought about running into anything like that. It came all of a sudden, like, and there we were with the big tree on the ridge across the valley, plain to see, and we couldn’t seem to get any farther. Gee williger, it was pretty hard for any of us to think about turning back then, after going right straight for that tree all day long.
“I don’t know about that,” Westy said. He’s always careful.
Warde said, “Well, what are we going to do then? Turn back? We could go north and down the hill where it’s easy, but that wouldn’t be a bee-line hike.”
I said, “This is a bee-line hike; it’s either straight west or home, victory or defeat. No beating around the bush.”
“That’s us!” they all shouted.
Warde said, “Well, then, we’ve either got to go on or turn back. And I’m going to find out which we have to do. There’s no use standing here talking about it. If we’re beaten, we might as well know it. We can be good losers, I hope. We can either go down this hill or we can’t and I’m not going to say we can’t till Iknowwe can’t. That’s the kind of a scoutI’m—going to be.”
“You mean it’s the kind of a scout youare,” I told him. “And I’m glad to have you in my patrol, I’ll tell you that!”
“Maybe this hill canbeatme,” he said; “but it can’tfoolme. Here, hold my jacket.”
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THE LEDGE
If it hadn’t been for that slanting ledge a little below us we could have looked down and seen just how steep the hill was. It would be bad enough to have to turn back, anyway, that’s what I thought. But to turn back without reallyknowing for surethat we couldn’t possibly go any further, gee whiz, that didn’t seem like scouts. We were all feeling pretty disappointed because we knew that the chances were against us.
“We’ll either do it orknow that we can’t, that’s our motto,” Hunt said.
“And if we can’t, that will mean no one can,” I said.
“That’s us,” Dorry shouted.
“Give me a hand down,” Warde said.
“A scout in khaki ought to do that,” I said. “We ought not to let a new fellow risk——”
“You’re so strong on good turns,” Warde said. “Aren’t you willing to give a fellow a chance towinthe khaki? Here, grab hold of my hand. I’m not going to walk off the ledge. Do you think I’m blind?”
“Well, anyway, be careful,” I said. I felt kind of shaky, I couldn’t help it. Because below that ledge there must have been a hundred feet and for all we knew it was straight up and down.
I got a good firm foothold by bracing my feet behind a rock. “Stand back,” I said to the other fellows. Then I held Warde’s hand while he climbed down onto the ledge. I couldn’t keep hold of his hand till he got all the way down, but he braced his feet on the side of the rock that made a kind of wall up from the ledge.
The ledge was all rock and it was slanting so no one could stand on it without taking a chance. Between the cracks in the rock were small bushes growing.
I said, “Get down on your hands and knees, quick. Don’t try to stand there.”
Now that he was down there on the ledge I saw how risky it was. Before there was any one down there it didn’t seem so very dangerous, but as soonas I saw a person on it then I was sorry I had let him do it. I didn’t see how he was going to look over the edge because he’d have to keep his hands toward the wall to hang on. He’d be taking an awful chance if he faced the other way.
“It’s pretty slanting, hey?” Westy said.
I said, “Don’t trust to it, hang onto the bushes.”
“I’m all right,” Warde said.
“No, you’re not either,” Hunt told him; “we can see how it is from up here better than you can. Do you slip? Look out!”
“I’m all right,” Warde said.
“Only don’t get reckless,” I said. “What’s the use of taking chances? I’m sorry you went down. If you can stand up maybe I can reach you.”
“What do you mean,reach me?” he said. “What do you suppose I came down here for?”
“You’re pretty game,” Westy said, “but look out.”
By that time Warde was on his hands and knees. He was keeping hold of the stuff that grew through the cracks and letting himself out toward the edge of the shelf. We all stood at the top watching him and we were pretty anxious.
I said, “Don’t turn around, go backward.”
“How am I going to see anything that way?” he called.“Whoa—a——”he said, and just then he let go one little clump of bush and grabbed another. It gave me the shudders.
“That was coming up,” he said.
I called to him, “Warde, don’t try to turn around on that ledge. Crawl back and see if you can stand up enough so I can get hold of your hand. We’ll call the whole thing off.”
He didn’t pay any attention to me, but moved around so his head was toward the edge. About three feet more and he would be able to look over. It gave me the shivers just to watch him.
Will Dawson said, “It’s too late, he couldn’t get back up here now.”
I knew that was so—that he wouldn’t be able to get within reach of our hands. If it turned out that he couldn’t go all the way down I didn’t know what would happen.
He was clutching little clumps of bush with his hands and sort of holding himself back that way. All of a sudden he slid forward and only stopped himself by pressing a little patch of bush between his knees. I could see he was holding his knees togetherwith all his strength. Even still he slipped a little. I guess by that time he realized himself the danger he was in, but he didn’t say anything.
Westy flung off his coat and threw it down, keeping hold of one sleeve. He called, “Here, grab hold of that with one hand if you can.”
“I can’t let go,” Warde called.
His back was toward us so he couldn’t see the jacket, but the rest of us saw that it wasn’t within his reach. When Westy threw it, it went maybe within two feet of Warde’s hand and then fell dangling against the cliff.
“Let’s tie two jackets together by the sleeves,” Hunt said.
“He wouldn’t dare let go to catch hold of it,” I told him. “Can’t you see he’s hanging on with both hands and feet now? He can’t afford to take any more chances; it’s bad enough already.”
“Watch your step, don’t move,” Westy called down. “If you’ve got a firm hold hang on; don’t try to look over. Give us a chance to think.”
Warde called, “Wait till I see how it is below and maybe you won’t have to bother to think. Maybe I can go down all right.”
“That fellow’s game,” Westy said.
“Safety first,” I called. “You’re in a pretty bad place, Warde. You can see better how it is up here. You hang on with both hands and feet and give us a chance to think. Don’t get excited. We don’t care anything about the hike now.”
“All right, go on home,” he called. “I’m going to see whether we can climb down here or not.”
“He’ll make a scout,” Dorry said.
“If he lives to take the oath,” Westy said.
All of a sudden Warde moved. I don’t know whether he slid or moved on purpose. Anyway there was a little clump of bush in his hand. He threw it away and clutched the ground in another place. That brought his head to the edge of the shelf. Jiminies, my heart was just pounding in my throat. The palms of my hands were all wet, even. None of us spoke. One more move and he’d be over the edge. I wanted to call and ask him how it was below, but I sort of felt that even my voice might start him moving again. He was way out of reach of us now, right on the very edge, and we knew that his life depended on how the land was below him. Because one thing sure, he couldn’t come back.
Just then he slipped ever so little and I could see his knees and feet pressing the weeds between them tight, just as if his legs were a vice. I just couldn’t call and ask him how the land was down there.
Pretty soon he spoke. His voice sounded just the same as usual even though it was a kind of death sentence he was saying.
“It’s straight up and down,” he said.
“How far?” I called. My own voice sounded strange to me.
“’Bout seventy or eighty feet,” he said; “maybe a hundred. I can’t tell exactly.”
Then he seemed to move again but maybe I only thought so because I was so excited.
“Hang on,” I said. That was all I could say.
“I will,” he said. “But so long, if I don’t see you again.”
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THE LAST HOPE
“Hang on and don’t move,” one of the fellows called to him. “The hike is off. You justhang on. You haven’t got another inch to move in. Don’t look around even.” I don’t know who it was that called, all I know is it was one of us.
“What can we do?” I said.
Westy said, “Let’s take off our stockings and tie them together.”
“Good idea,” Hunt said. “Look—he’s moving again.”
“Don’t get excited,” I said; “he didn’t move. Hurry up, all of you, take your stockings off. Are you all right?” I called to Warde.
“Guess so,” he said.
“Don’t look down, it’ll only get you rattled,” I said.
“What do you mean—rattled?” he called.
I said, “Well, can’t you take a little advice? When you’re in the scouts you’ll learn that you can always hang on tighter with your eyes shut.”
We took off our stockings and tied them together but there was so much space needed for the knots that they made a line only about five feet long. So we tied a couple of our scout shirts on by the sleeves. Then Westy took hold of one end and I took hold of the other, and we pulled. It pulled out in one place and we fastened it again. It was a clumsy kind of a line and we didn’t know whether it would hold or not. But it was the only thing we could think of.
Then I called to Warde, “Don’t move till we tell you. Are you slipping?”
“Guess not,” he said.
“Don’t move even if you feel something on your back. We’re going to throw a line right near your hand.”
I grabbed the end stocking and wound it around my hand so it wouldn’t slip away. Then I threw the other end, the end with the shirts. It went over the edge of the shelf within about three feet of Warde’s arm.
“Don’t grab it yet,” I said. “Wait. Don’t let go.”
I began pulling to make sure the line was strong. Maybe the shirt on the end was caught on something below the shelf. Maybe the line would have held Warde all right if he moved back on his hands and knees. But anyway, it didn’t hold when I pulled on it. I guess I pulled too hard. Anyway the line broke right near my hand and most of it went over the edge of the shelf.
“There it is at the bottom,” Warde said. He didn’t seem excited or disappointed. I never saw a fellow like Warde Hollister—never. I’ve seen brave fellows but never a fellow just like him.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Westy said; “what next?”
I guess Warde must have heard that because he called, “Nobody’s to blame. You tell my people.”
I was nearly crying. I said, “Warde, you hold on. You’re not slipping, are you?”
“N—not much,” he said.
“Don’t trust to those weeds,” Westy called. “Can’t you get your fingers in a crack or a crevice or something and brace yourself back? We’ll take off every stitch we have on and make another——”
“I’m slipping, fellows,” he said. “I was a scout anyway, hey? No, I wasn’t——”
“You’re the best scout that ever was, Warde,” I called to him. I was nearly crying, I couldn’t help it. “Only hang on—pleasehangon—do you hear?Pleasehang on. Thebushes—just wait——”
By that time the fellows were all undressing. Poor Pee-wee was so excited and nervous he just tore his shirt off.
“It’s too late,” Wardesaid—awful calm. “I’m slipping. These blamed weeds don’t hold. Don’t you fellows worry. Maybe I’ll land——”
We could see well enough that his head and shoulders were over the edge. It was just a case of one root coming up and his grabbing another one, and slipping a little each time. In about another half a minute he’d have only his legs to hold on with. I haven’t got much use for lifelines made of old clothes. They’re all right in stories but where there are a lot of knots fastening together different kinds of clothes, one knotis pretty sure to give way. The only kind of line we could make now was a pretty clumsy kind of a one and it would take us at least ten minutes to get it made.
By that time Warde would be....
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A GOOD TURN
“There isn’t time to do this,” Westy said.
“Well, we’ll do it whether there’s time or not,” I shot back at him. “Hustle, all of you, get your clothes off. There’s time until he disappears. Two of you fellows follow the hill north and go down at the nearest place you can get down. There isn’t any bee-line now. No, don’t you go, Pee-wee—Dorry and Will go. Here, take my scarf, you’ve got your own,too—never mind looking at the tree,” I said. “Here, take this shirt, too. You know how to stop blood flowing, don’t you? Put a stick under the bandage and wind it round.Hurry up, he’s slipping.We can’t get this blamed thing ready in time. Do what you can for him down there. Hurry....”
It was funny, but as soon as they started I just couldn’t help looking over there to the ridge atthat big tree that had guided us all day. Kind of, I wondered if it knew the trouble we werein—and that after all we wouldn’t get there. But I only thought of it for about a second.
Down there on the ledge Warde was almost half over. He couldn’t use his hands to hold on with now, but he just squeezed the bushes between his feet. He was slipping over slowly.
“Hang on,” I shouted; “we’re hustling, we’ll throw you a line.”
“Look, look!” one of the fellows who had just started away shouted. “Oh, look!”
I just clapped my hands over my eyes for a moment; Icouldn’tlook. I just couldn’t. I knew what it meant. My hand was trembling and my heart was just choking me. “Didyou—did you hearhim—land?” I asked.
“Over there—east,” some one said.
I looked in the direction we had come from, and as sure as I’m writing this, there was some one running pell-mell right toward us. I saw right away it was a girl. You know how a girl runs, especially when she runs fast. She was holding her head way back and laughing, and her hair was all flying loose. There was somethingbig and kind of gray colored around herneck—very big and clumsy. I stood just about a second, then I made a sprint for her. I never ran so fast in my life. We came toward each other just flying. Her cheeks were all flushed and her hair was all over her face and she was panting and laughing all at once.
She said,“I—I—I—I’ve—got—your—rope—so there.I—I—ranall—theway—with it.You—yousaid—I—I—I——”
“Don’t talk, give me the rope!” I said.
“Maybe—I—I—fooled youabout—about thehouse—myown—house—but I can do thingstoo—run—see? Here. Theycaught—thebandit—here——”
I ran pell-mell back to the edge with the rope. “Didhe—did he go over?” I called.
“Hurry!” they shouted.
Gee, I wish you could have been there to see all that. There were the scouts of my patrol, all half dressed, jumping up and down and yelling, “Hurry, hurry!” There was Dora Dane Daring coming along behind me and all the scouts cheering her. I can hardly tell you just how everything happened. Westy grabbed the rope from me and by the time I looked over the edge, all panting and trembling, there it was right over the edge of the slanting shelf.
But Warde Hollister wasn’t there!
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