CHAPTER XXIIITHE OTHER FELLOW

The next thing I knew Dub threw off his coat and just ripped his shoe-laces open and tore his shoes off. He didn’t wear sneaks like all the Scouts at camp, but regular shoes. It always made him look kind of funny. I didn’t have a chance to do anything—before I knew it he was in the water, swimming. He never went in much at camp, he just liked to hike around with us, so I never thought about how he could swim. But, oh boy, did he get through the water! I knew maybe it was his chance for the Gold Medal and I was glad. All I can say is, if that’s how a fellow swims that lives over a bakery store, I wouldn’t want to go into a race with one that lives over a delicatessen store—he might be even better. I guess Dub was born in a fish market.

He could tell where the trouble was because by that time the splashing was good and loud and the voice kept calling help. I thought it was funny because all the Scouts know how to swim. Maybe it was some crazy tenderfoot, that’s what I thought. I said to myself, “I hope he knows how to grab him.” Pretty soon I heard him speak—I mean Dub—and I heard the other voice, too. Dub called out, “All right.”

Then next I heard sounds of the boat and I called out and asked if everything was all right, but nobody answered. I guess they were too busy or excited or something. In about a minute I could see the boat coming toward me. It looked black and spooky. I called out, “Who is it? Is everything all right?”

“Sure,” Dub called out. “You don’t think they heard us over at camp, do you?”

“Sure not,” I said. Gee, I thought that was a funny thing to ask. He must have thought we had a broadcasting station.

Dub was sitting in the stern of the boat sculling it. The other fellow was sitting on the middle seat. When the boat came close Dub said kind of careless like, “Well, I went and did it, didn’t I?”

“Who is it?” I asked. All the while I was pulling up the boat.

Dub said, “Pull her up easy, look out you don’t tip her. How do I know who it is? Do you think I can see under water? He’s all in, I know that. The anchor rope was all tangled up with his leg. I ought to get the prize for untying knots under water.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get it,” I said.

As soon as I had hauled the boat up far enough I got into it. The fellow on the middle seat was sitting all hunched over. I grabbed hold of him and said, “Are you all right?”

“Sure, he’s all right,” Dub said, “except he’s wet.”

I took hold of the fellow to help him up and then he looked at me and I just stood there gaping at him. It was Will Dawson.

“What—the—” I just started blurting out. “I thought you were at camp-fire. What are you doing here—for—the—love—of—Go-o-d night! And you’re one of the best swimmers in the troop!”

He said, “A lot of good that does you when you’re all tangled up in a rope. If you want to know what I was doing, I was bobbing for eels. I stood up to throw the anchor out in another spot and my foot got caught in the rope and in I went.”

“You’re in all right,” I said. “You’re in bad. Do you know who you saved, Dub? It’s Will Dawson—that’s the one I was telling you about.”

“How’s he in bad?” Dub asked.

“Oh no! He’s not in bad,” I said. “He’ll go home to Bridgeboro to-morrow morning, that’s how bad he’s in. He’ll get his all right—and you’ll get yours.”

“He’ll get the Gold Medal I suppose,” Will said.

“Yousuppose!” I shot back at him. “You know blamed well he will—he won it with bells on. Didn’t he go down under the water after you and untangle a lot of rope? The Gold Medal? It’s lucky for you he was here. He’s got twenty merits besides and I bet you they’ll give him his Eagle badge too without going through the test. Jiminy crinkums, wasn’t this test enough? So now you know who you were saved by while you were breaking the rules and getting the whole patrol in Dutch after we made a lot of plans for the end of the season. You were saved by anEagle Scoutthat gets theGold Medalfor risking his life on account ofyou.You suppose!Go-o-dnight! You ought to be proud to be saved by a Scout like that!”

“Here you go, Dub,” I said, “here’s one of your shoes. I’ll look for the other. Come ahead into the woods and we’ll start a fire and get dry.” Even while I was holding his shoe I could feel how it was all kind of worn through on the sole. My finger went all the way through it.

We went up the hill a little ways into the woods and then down into a hollow. I knew about it because I had been there before. It was lucky I had some matches because those two fellows were soaking.

“What’s the idea?” Will Dawson asked me.

“Any fool would know that,” I told him. “It’s so we can start a fire where they can’t see it from camp. Do you think I want the whole camp coming over here?”

“He’ll be found out anyway,” Dub said to me.

“Sure he will, he’s a fool,” I said. “But you fellows have got to get dry, haven’t you?” Will Dawson he didn’t say a word, he just stood there. “A fine kind of a Star Scout you’ll make,” I said to him. “All but two badges and then you have to go spoil it all! After Westy and Dorry and all of us were counting on being a Star Patrol—good night! Warde Hollister, he wouldn’t even take a tenderfoot stalking for fear he’d get a black mark, he was so anxious on account of our record. Now look whatyougo and do.”

“A lot you care that I didn’t get drowned,” Will said.

“Sure I care,” I told him. “But if you had got drowned it would have been your own fault.”

“Oh, cut it out,” Dub said. “What’s over is over.”

“Sure,” I said, “our being a Star Patrol is over—you said it. He’s as good as Pee-wee for fixing things.”

“How about you?” Will said. “Didn’t you go off on a three day leave with other Scouts? Do you call that being a patrol leader?”

Gee, but I was good and mad. I said, “Listen here, Will. If I hadn’t gone off like that and got in with those fellows, Dub and I wouldn’t have been here to-night, if it comes to that. And where wouldyoube now. I’d like to know?”

Dub said, trying to smooth things over, “That’s what Pee-wee would call a dandy argument.”

“Please don’t talk to me at all,” I said to Will. “As long as you’ll get chased home to-morrow morning what’s the use of scrapping? All you had to get was bird study and carpentry to be a Star Scout, and you know as well as I do that a Star Scout means a Star Patrol. You had to go and throw mud on the parade. Jiminies, nobody ever heard me shouting about the rules—I’ve broken some of them and I’ve bent a few others—but when you know blamed well that you can’t take a boat back at night without being nailed,jimmy Christmas, what’s the idea of doing that?”

Will said, “Oh I could have pulled it up in the bushes before I got to the float, couldn’t I?”

“Couldn’t you?” I shouted at him. “No youcouldn’t you! Do you want to gather up some sticks or don’t you? It’s all the same to me.”

We all started picking up sticks for the fire and none of us spoke to each other—some merry party. Dub was kind of funny the way he went around picking up sticks not saying anything. I guess he was surprised because he never saw me like that before. Once, after we got the fire started, I saw how he winked and made a funny face at Will. A lot I cared, I was so good and mad. The more Dub saw how mad I was, the more he kept kidding me about it, winking at Will and acting—you know how. He said, “As long as you feel so much like roasting I wish we had some potatoes and we’d roast them.”

“Do you blame me?” I said. “You’re all alone up here, so you don’t have to be thinking about your patrol. But if you knew more about Temple Camp you’d know that a scout honor is a patrol honor. And a scout black eye is a patrol black eye—you ask any Scout up here.” Dub said, “As Pee-wee would say, it shows how much I don’t know. All I can say is that if Temple Camp wants to teach me anything it better be quick about it. It will have to do it by Saturday.”

“Temple Camp will take care of him first,” I said, looking at Will.

By that time the two of them were standing close to the fire, turning round and round so as to get dry. I kept putting sticks on it. I couldn’t help it, I had to smile at Dub, the funny way he kept turning around. He wouldn’t let on that he was trying to make me laugh. He said, “When I go home I can tell my mother I went around a lot up at Temple Camp.”

“Yes, and you didn’t have to go breaking the rules to do it,” I said.

“I didn’t see any good enough to break,” he said.

I said, “Well there’s one thing, I’m going to make a report to Slady1about what you did, about the rope and all, and I bet you won’t even have to take your life saving tests on the Eagle award—I bet the Gold Medal will cover that. You’ll have the hero medal and you’ll be an Eagle Scout both.”

“That shows Will Dawson did me a good turn,” Dub said. “I’d treat him to an ice cream soda if I was only going to stay up here, if I only had a dime.”

“Now you’re starting kidding about it,” I said.

Dub said, “All right, if you want me to be serious, listen here. You’re not going to tell Tom Slade anything—you’re going to keep your mouth shut. Nobody has to know anything about this. I did my part, now you have to do yours.”

“And you not get the Gold Medal?” I just shouted at him. “And how about—gee, don’t you want to go home an Eagle Scout?”

“I don’t want to go home at all,” he said.

I said, “If I was an Eagle Scout and had the Gold Medal, I wouldn’t mind going home, you can bet.”

He said, “Well, are we dry?”

Will said, “Wait till I get my shoes dried out a little.”

“Yes, and you row straight across,” I told him.

“Are you going to walk?” he asked me.

“Didn’t I start walking?” I said. “Dub and I are going to finish the way we began. Do you want to get the whole three of us in Dutch? You better put some more wood on if you want to dry your shoes.”

“I’ll get a chunk of wood,” Dub said. “You keep drying your shoes,” he said to Will.

“You don’t need a very big piece,” I called after him.

Dub went running up out of the hollow and away toward the shore. Will was holding his shoes close to the fire. I just sat there on a rock, waiting. Will didn’t say anything to me, and I didn’t say anything to him. I guess we waited about ten minutes. Then I called but I didn’t get any answer. I got up and walked up out of the hollow but I didn’t see Dub anywhere. So I went down to the shore. I could see the camp-fire burning away over at camp.

I kept calling Dub but he didn’t answer. It was so dark I took out my flash-light. Because as long as we had gone so far after wood, I thought maybe he remembered seeing a good piece near where I pulled the boat up. But I couldn’t even find the boat. All of a sudden I saw something white on a tree. It was a piece of paper. Then I knew that was just where the boat had been. The paper was held to the trunk by a long, thin switch from a tree that was tied around the trunk. I held my flash-light up to the paper and read it. After I read it I took it down and put it in my pocket, so you can tell that the way I write it out now is just the same as it was on that paper. This is what it said, because I’m copying it. It was all sprawly like.

Please you and Will Dawson hike around to camp and don’t be scrapping. When you get there you don’t need to say you saw me. Nobody knows who started out with you and what they don’t know won’t hurt them. Tell Will Dawson he better go ahead and get to be a Star Scout. I’d like to see Pee-wee at that corn-roast. Like you said he’ll eat two at once. It’s no matter if I get pinched for being out in the boat because I’m going home day after to-morrow anyway and I’ll only lose one day. You shout so much about badges and things, now see if you can be loyal to a Scout in your own patrol.Dub Smedley.P.S. You keep still about me, do you hear.

Dub Smedley.

P.S. You keep still about me, do you hear.

That’s just what he wrote. After I read it I looked out on the lake but I couldn’t see anything and I couldn’t even hear a sound—not even the oar-locks clinking. I shouted, “Dub.” But there wasn’t any answer. I didn’t shout again because I knew he must have heard me. I was afraid they might hear my voice, far away like, over at camp. So I just stood there on the shore trying to see out on the lake. I couldn’t even hear an oar dipping, I thought he must be pretty far out.

I guess he was sculling, because you can hear oar-locks even far off on the water. There was a little kind of a narrow bright path on the water, made by the camp-fire across the lake. Way over there it was wide, but past the middle of the lake, over toward the side where I was, it was just kind of like a bright line—all used up, sort of. I saw something black go across that and I called out again.

But there wasn’t any answer. It was good and dark around there.

1.Slady. Nickname for Tom Slade, the young camp assistant and leader of camp activities.

When I got back to the hollow Will was just standing there holding his shoes to the fire. I said, “Dub took the boat and he’s gone over to camp—here’s a paper he left on a tree. He’s going to take the blame. Will you let him do that?” I admit I was all—I don’t know, I could hardly speak. I just said over again, “Will you let him do that? You see how he says we shouldn’t scrap—and I’m not going to scrap—no more. We never had any scraps in our patrol. But before I say if I’ll ever speak to you again you’ve got to say if you’ll let Dub Smedley do that.”

All of a sudden Will turned and opened up on me. By the fire I could see his eyes were all shiny like. Up to that time he took all I said. Now he just opened up on me. “Before I ever speak to you again,” he said, “you have to say if you really want me to answer that? I took all you said, even in front of him—I did—but now you say—you want me to tell you if I’m a yellow dog—one of your own patrol! Well I’m a Silver Fox, that’s what I am if you want to know—if you’re talking about animals!”

I just went up to him and I made my fingers into the salute, only I didn’t hold my hand up. I just grabbed his hand. I guess I didn’t know what I was doing but just the same he could feel how my fingers were.

“Listen Will,” I said to him. “Sure we’re Silver Foxes—only listen. I was sore—I admit I was sore—but maybe it isn’t so bad. Look at Hervey Willetts, the crazy Indian, he’s always breaking rules, and everybody likes him. Listen—will you please listen?”

“Do you take it back—that question?” Will said. Jiminies, he could hardly speak either.

“I do, sure I do,” I told him, “only yellow, that’s one color I don’t like except on bananas—”

“Now I know it’s you,” Will said.

“Listen Will,” I said to him. “Listen—we have to be starting back, but listen before we start. Will you cut that out! You’renot yellow, you’re the color of vanilla ice, that’s a kind of a silver color—now listen. If I said anything I’m sorry for I’m glad of it. Come on, let’s start back. Shall we hike around north, or go back the way Dub and I came—or both?” Will just sort of laughed, he said I sounded like myself—crazy he meant—I should worry.

So then we started for camp around north, because the trail is better that way.

“I was just bobbing for eels,” Will said. “I didn’t want to hear that Arizona Scout. It looks as if you didn’t want to hear him yourself.”

“Right in the eye,” I said. “See if you can hit me again.”

He said, “I suppose I’ll get sent home.”

“That’s the trouble—can’t be helped,” I told him. “Dub, he has to go day after to-morrow. If he got himself blamed for taking the boat, he’d have to go to-morrow morning—”

“Like I will,” Will said.

“Well, don’t you care,” I told him. “Maybe you’ll be in time to go away with your folks, hey? The sea shore—oh boy!”

“Shall I go to the office as soon as we get to camp?” he asked me.

“Sure,” I said, “and I’ll go with you and we’ll report how Dub saved your life. When he goes home day after to-morrow he’ll be an Eagle Scout and he’ll be down for the Gold Medal. Gee, Will, he’s a mighty nice fellow—I saw him a lot.”

“Why doesn’t he stay?” Will asked me.

“Because he’s just anin-and-outer,” I said. “He’s only up for two weeks. I think his folks are pretty poor, that’s what I think. If he’s got to go, he’s got to go. But, jiminies, we don’t want him going with a black eye.”

“I’ll say we don’t,” Will said. “I’ll take the black eye—black’s better than yellow.”

“You said it,” I told him.

When we got to camp, there wasn’t anybody around. We counted the coats and they were all in. Up on Powwow Hill the camp-fire was still going. I guess that old Scout from out west was talking everybody deaf, dumb and blind. We could see dark forms sitting all around. Even Cooking Shack was closed up, so I guess even Chocolate Drop was up there.

I said to Will, “They’re still breadcrusting bedtime stories. I’d like to have a hunk of pie, I know that.”

All of a sudden, there was Dub. I guess he was waiting for us. He just kind of appeared.

I said, “You’re all right, Dub, only you’re not going to get away with it. Whatever you said, we’re going into the office and tell the whole thing, just how it was. We happen to be a couple of solid silver-plated foxes and we congratulate you because you’re an honor hero. I dare you to sneak up to camp-fire and get the key of Cooking Shack from Chocolate Drop. We want to get some pie.”

Dub said, “Listen, you fellows, we’re in luck. Nobody has to go home to-morrow. Even Pee-wee Harris couldn’t have fixed it any better. Nobody saw me come in. The whole blooming outfit is up there listening to yarns—scoutmasters, councilors, everybody.”

“Hurrah for Arizona,” I said.

“You could steal the pavilion and nobody’d know it,” Dub said.

“Let’s steal Cooking Shack,” I especially most hungrily suggested.

“How about your life saving medal?” Will asked Dub.

“Sure, explain all that,” I said. “Do you think we’re yellow just because we eat lemon cake?”

“Have a little sense,” Dub said. “I don’t have to be sent home in disgrace at all, because nobody saw me bring the boat in. And Will doesn’t have to be sent home in disgrace because nobody knows he had the boat out. That leaves the life saving medal. All right, I don’t want it. If I could have been the first to win it and get that hundred dollars too, you can bet I’d have scooped up both awards because I want to stay here. I never said I didn’t. That’s what I wanted most of all, and that’s all I did want. Just because I have to go home day after to-morrow, is that any reason why Will should get sent home and all your plans busted up? I can get my Eagle badge any time I want to. The other one I don’t want. And what I want I can’t get. Listen here, Roy Blakeley, I don’t give you the right to go telling on me—what I did. That’smybusiness and not yours. You take care of your own patrol and you’ll have your hands full.”

“Good night, you said it,” I told him.

He said, “All right. If I was getting sent home in disgrace it might be different. But I’m not. I’d rather do Will Dawson a good turn than get the Gold Medal, and that’s my business, isn’t it? You can be a Scout in your way and I’ll be a Scout in my way. About two thousand, eight million and three-quarter times I heard Pee-wee Harris tell you to keep your mouth shut. That’s what I tell you now. Take Pee-wee’s advice and keep your mouths shut about what happened to-night. Let’s see how much you don’t know about scouting.”

Will just started to laugh. He said, “It’s easy to see Dub has been going around with you and Pee-wee! He talks like the two of you put together.”

“Sure—separated together,” Dub said. “Does that remind you of yourself? Or are you too busy thinking about my business?”

So now you know why Dub Smedley didn’t get the Gold Medal for saving Will Dawson’s life. That was twice he didn’t get it. And you needn’t think Will and I let it go like that just on account of ourselves. If a Scout would rather do a good turn than get the Gold Medal, that’s up to him. As long as Dub put it that way, that it wasn’t any of our business, we decided to do like he wanted and not say anything. Maybe I was wrong, I don’t know. As long as Dub said it was none of our business what he did, we decided to mind our own business. I knew that what he really did want was to stay at camp. And we couldn’t help him that way, that was what I said. So Will Dawson stayed all season. If I told you about the corn-roast we had on Labor Day night this would be a Pee-wee Harris story—I wish to the dickens he’d keep out of my stories anyway. He comes into my stories and he eats my patrol’s corn, a lot he cares.

The next morning after that hike around the lake I helped Dub pack up his things. He didn’t have any duffle bag, he had an old oilcloth suitcase. He bunked in the big dormitory where all the Scouts bunk who don’t come with troops or patrols. Gee whiz, I don’t often go in there. They’re coming and going all the time in there. I felt good and sorry for him because he was going—jiminy, the season was only just getting started.

I was sitting on his cot looking over the snapshots he had taken. He was always taking snapshots to take home and show his mother and his little sister. I guess neither of them knew what a scout camp was like. Dub didn’t either, before he came to Temple Camp. Oh boy, it was a big thing for him all right.

I said, “Dub, if your mother and your little sister are as interested as all that—that they want to see pictures and all—are you sure you won’t let me tell how you saved Will, so you’ll get the Gold Medal? It isn’t too late,” I said. “Will’s folks have got lots of money and he can go to the seashore with them. His father’s one peach of a father, I’ll say that, and he won’t be sore because Will gets sent home. Listen Dub, maybe Will wouldn’t get sent home, you can’t tell.”

“That wouldn’t fix it for me to stay, would it?” he said. He just gave me a push in the face and he said, “Didn’t I tell you I don’t want the medal? You go read that bulletin-board. I don’t like the sound of that wordsummary.Summary dismissal from camp.”

“Will you come to Bridgeboro and see me when my troop goes home?” I asked him.

“Sure I will,” he said.

“Most always Scouts up here in camp don’t see each other when they go home,” I said, “But I want to see you. Will you come, and we’ll go round to Pee-wee’s house. He lives in a great big house. You wouldn’t think so, would you?”

“I’d like to see Will, too,” he said.

“Sure, you’ll see him,” I said. “He lives right near me. I’d have Sandy too, only he lives so far. Rye bread, or Rye Beach, or whatever you call it. But, oh boy, if you came, being an Eagle Scout! And if you had the life saving medal besides! Gee, it would be in the Bridgeboro paper.”

“Maybe I have got it,” he said.

I said, “What do you mean, Dub?”

“If you do a thing, you do it, don’t you?” he said.

“Sure,” I said, “but you want the proof of it, don’t you?”

“If I know I did it why do I want any proof?” he said. “That’s what Pee-wee calls a dandy argument.”

“You’re a funny fellow, Dub,” I said.

He just gave me a shove and he said, “Maybe when I come to see you Iwillbe an Eagle Scout. Now let’s talk about something else. You come in here to see my snapshots and all you do is razz me. Where’s Will to-day?” he wanted to know.

“Oh, he’s off after his bird study badge,” I said. “He’s only got that and the carpentry badge to get. Then he’s a Star Scout. Jiminies, he’s pulling shingles off and nailing them on again up at the old burned storehouse. Every time he sees a piece of wood he wants to saw it in half. To-day he’s got a date with a couple of blue jays or something. He’s got his little kodak with him.”

Dub said, “Do you know there is one thing I’d like?”

“Name it,” I said, “and I’ll give it to you twice.”

He said, “Do you remember when I first got in with you fellows, we started out on a hike, didn’t we?”

“Sure, whichever way the wind stopped blowing,” I said. “We went after wills and robbers and everything.”

Dub said, “I’d like you and Pee-wee and Sandy and Will Dawson to hike down to the train with me to-morrow. Catskill isn’t so much of a hike is it?”

“Sure not,” I said, “but it will seem funny coming back without you.”

“Let’s finish up with a hike,” he said. “We had a lot of fun hiking together—I did anyway. I’d kind of like to start home that way. Will you? Just you and Sandy and Pee-wee and Will Dawson and I, hey? I can send this old grip down on the bus, can’t I?”

“Sure you can,” I said. “But, gee, I don’t want you to go, Dub.”

“I’d treat you all to ice cream in Catskill if I wasn’t so blamed hard up,” he said. “But will you fellows hike down with me? We’ll start good and early and just sort of mope along like that day we hiked to Beaver Chasm, and you and Pee-wee can have one of those mortal comebacks. Will you? We’ll make it crazy, hey?”

“Sure, Dub,” I said. “You bet we will, only—”

I don’t know, I couldn’t say anything, I just started looking at the snapshots.

So that’s the way he did, we all hiked down to Catskill to see Dub off. The Scouts that went were the Big Four and Will Dawson. All my patrol wanted to go but I wouldn’t let them because I was going to do just the way Dub wanted. I told Pee-wee we were all going to be good and crazy, so as to make Dub feel good. The kid said, “I knew it before you told me.”

I told him, “If you want to stay behind the pleasure is ours. We’ll be able to have fifty-two more ice cream cones each.”

There are four ways to hike from Temple Camp to Catskill and each one is better than the other. But the best way is through Leeds because you pass Merrill’s farm and there’s an apple tree that sticks out over the stone wall. But anyway it was too early for apples. You go up the hill in back of the camp till you get to the road, then you turn left and go till you come to a cross-road with a sign that says TEMPLE CAMP COMMUNITY and an arrow pointing toward the camp. That’s where you turn left again and you go till you come to a noise—it’s a waterfall. At night you have to listen for that noise so as to know where to cut across fields. Then you come to the main road and that takes you to Catskill. If you go to Catskill most always you’ll see Scouts from Temple Camp there. If you don’t see them anywhere else look in Benny’s, that’s where you get hot dogs.

Dub was going down on the three-ten train so Chocolate Drop gave us our dinner early because we wanted to have plenty of time to take it easy. The way the Handbook says you should do is to set a nice easy pace. It says about hiking that you should never walk over anything that you can walk around. And you should never step on anything if you can step over it because you have to lift the weight of your body. And besides that, the Silver Fox Patrol has a rule that you must never walk more than one mile at a time, then you don’t get tired.

While we were moping along—you know how we go, just kind of fooling and everything—Sandy said, “The Handbook is crazy. If you should never walk over anything that you can walk around how can anybody expect to get anywhere? Suppose we come to a block and start walking around the block. Where would we get to, I’d like to know?”

I said, “That’s a dandy argument.”

“Do you mean the Handbook doesn’t know what it’s talking about?” Pee-wee shot out. “I know where it says that.”

“Sure, it’s crazy,” I said. “It says about hiking that you shouldn’t step on anything, but over it. How are you going to hike if you can’t step on the ground? I’ll leave it to Dub.”

Dub was just laughing. He said, “This is sure some bunch to hike with.”

“I’m glad you like us,” I told him. “We aim to please. One thing, we have plenty of sense only we don’t take it around with us while hiking. Walk briskly, throw the chest out but look out where you throw it, take deep breaths, also take apples if you can find any.”

Pee-wee said, “We ought to have asked Bobby Easton to come with us because he’s kind of in our crowd on account of me giving him the chance to get the Gold Life Saving Medal. He’s got his hundred dollars too, now, and I bet he’d treat to ice cream. He says he’s going to buy a canoe for the races on Labor Day and I told him I’d fix it for him so he could keep it in one of the lockers.”

“You’ll get killed one of these days fixing something,” Sandy told him.

“Sure, in the end he’ll have to get his jaw fixed,” I said.

Dub said, “I don’t think his jaw will ever need to be fixed, it seems to be in pretty good shape.”

“Did you see Bobby’s Gold Medal?” the kid piped up. “It’s a new kind of a one, it’s got all filigree around it, and it says FOR LIFE SAVING. I had to be a witness to prove I got saved. I had to prove it that I’m alive.”

“You don’t have to prove that,” I said.

Sandy said, “I’m going to get a new kind of award started. It’s going to be made out of fourteen carat gold—”

“Fourteen carrots are nothing for Pee-wee,” I said. “If I was making a medal for him I’d have fourteen carrots, nineteen turnips, a lot of mashed potatoes and three helpings of blackberry pudding. I’d have the medal in the shape of a pancake, hey Dub?”

Sandy said, “My new medal would be all studded with diamonds and it would be given to any Scout who failed to save Pee-wee’s life.”

“That’s a fine idea,” I said.

“If it wasn’t for me Bobby Easton wouldn’t have that medal or the hundred dollars either,” Pee-wee shouted. “He’s going to save fifty dollars of it for when he comes up next summer and the two of us are going to build a cabin and there ain’t going to be any Silver Foxes allowed to come to it.”

“The pleasure is ours,” I told him.

“A Gold Medal Scout has to kind of live by himself kind of away from other fellows,” the kid said.

“I wish you were one then,” I told him. “The further off the better. The North Pole would be a good place, you could get plenty of pineapple ice up there.”

“Did you see the bulletin-board to-day?” the kid piped up.

“No, did you fix that?” I asked him.

He said, “There’s an announcement that I wrote that to-morrow night there’s going to be a show that I’m going to give in the Pavilion, it’s two cents to get in. It’s going to be an exhibition of beetles and caterpillars and special kinds of spiders, and there are going to be some lizards too, and I’m going to give a lecture about them.”

“Now at last I realize how lucky I am,” Dub said.

“Be thankful there’s a place called Jersey City,” I told him.

Maybe I never told you that Pee-wee has a Bronx Park zoo in a cigar box.

I didn’t want him to keep talking about what the Scouts would be doing at camp all summer, because I was thinking about Dub, so I said, “Come on, let’s playFollow Your Leader, only we have to keep going in the right direction. The idea is to advance by easy stages, merrily, merrily, toward Catskill Landing. We’ve got to be there by ten-three.”

“You mean three-ten!” Pee-wee shouted.

“It’s the same only different,” I told him.

“We have to be there in time to get sodas before the train comes,” the kid said. “Didn’t you say you were going to treat us all on account of Dub?”

“Come on,” I said, “follow your leader.”

That’s some crazy game all right, I learned it from Hervey Willetts. I jumped up on the stone wall alongside the road and started along on it with the four of them after me. “Follow your leader wherever he goes,” I shouted.

“Don’t ask where you’re headed for nobody knows,Just keep your eyes open and follow your nose;Be careful, don’t trip and go stubbing your toes,And follow your leader wherever he goes.”

Oh boy, when we get started on that,good night! There’s a big sign in the field and it said.

TRESPASSING FORBIDDENTRESPASSERS WILL BE PUNISHED TOTHE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW.TAKE WARNING.

“You better look out you don’t go kerflop down in the field,” Pee-wee shouted at me.

“Follow your leader,” I said.

Pretty soon I started hopping on one foot and it’s pretty hard to do that on a stone wall.

“Have a heart!” one of them shouted at me. A lot I cared.

There was a man with a big straw hat on in the field and he came over toward us. I guess he thought we’d fall down in his cabbages. I kept hopping on one foot and kind of bending over toward the field and once I leaned away over and made believe to lose my balance and so the other fellows had to do the same. We were all kind of staggering on the stone wall.

The man said, “Look out whar yer fall if yer know what’s well fer yer. Did yer see that thar sign yonder?”

“If I turn to look at it I’ll fall,” I said. All the while we were trying to stand still, each of us on one foot. Gee, I bet we looked crazy.

The man said, “I’m givin’ yer warning, yer set a foot in this field uv cabbage and I’ll hev the law onter yer.”

“I can’t stand on one leg any longer!” Pee-wee shouted.

I kept hopping on one leg and I said, “Follow your leader whatever he does.”

“If we fall in the field we’ll miss the train,” the kid shouted.

“Our solemn honor is more important than a train,” I told him.

All of a sudden I lost my balance almost and I had to stand on both legs and wave my hands to keep from falling down into the field. Dub did the same and he bunked against me, then Sandy went bunking against him and, good night, we all went tumbling down in a bunch outside the stone wall. Lucky for us, hey?

“Follow your leader,” I said.

So then I went hop, skip and jump down the road with that crazy bunch after me. Gee, it was a picture no artist could paint. Anyway I guess Dub was having a good time. He was laughing, I know that. Pretty soon we came to the place where the road goes down to Shady Vale—it’s pretty steep. There was a sign that said.

STEEP HILLUSE YOUR EARS

I said to them, “Here’s where we have to be careful—follow your leader. Use your ears so you won’t go down too fast.” I grabbed hold of my two ears and held them out so the wind would catch them and hold us back—that’s what I told the other fellows. They all did just like I did. Some parade!

Down at the foot of the hill were a couple of girls sitting in a Ford and they started laughing at us. One of them said, “What are you holding your ears for? You look too silly!”

“To go slow down the hill,” I said. “There’s a sign up there that says we should use our ears.”

“It meansgears,” she said. “Somebody scratched out the G. You’re too ridiculous!”

“How did we know that?” Will asked her. “We’re Boy Scouts and we obey the law. When we see a sign we obey it.”

She said, “Well, Mr. Show-off, since you’re so obedient, there’s a sign right across the road there that says STOP.”

“Then we have to stop,” I told her. “Boy Scouts are supposed to obey the law.”

It was one of those things that had STOP and GO printed on it but I guess the cop was never there except on Sundays. Anyway I don’t see why they have that village there on week days. Nobody ever goes through it except on Sundays. If they stood it off the road it would be out of the way.

“Follow your leader,” I said. So then I sat down alongside the road and the other four fellows did just the same. We all sat in a row. We were right opposite the car with the girls.

One of the girls said to the other one, “Did you ever see anything soabsurd?”

Sandy said, “Go ahead, laugh. We’re not ashamed to obey the law. The sign says stop.”

The girl said, “It isn’t for pedestrians,silly!”

“Will you let her call you that?” I said to Pee-wee.

“Do you call us pedestrians?” he shouted.

“I call you lunatics,” she said.

“Right the first time,” I told her. “And you needn’t make fun of us because we won’t go. I’ve seen lots of Fords that won’t go, and I don’t mean maybe, perhaps.”

“He thinks pedestrian is an epithet,” one of the girls said. “Did you ever know anything soperfectly crushing?”

two boys climbing in a canyon“HE THINKS PEDESTRIAN IS AN EPITHET,” ONE OF THE GIRLS SAID.

“HE THINKS PEDESTRIAN IS AN EPITHET,” ONE OF THE GIRLS SAID.

“Sure, didn’t you ever see a stone-crusher?” I said.

She said, “I’d just like to know how long you’re going to stay there.”

“We’re going to stay here till it says GO,” I told her.

She said, “You must haveoceansof time to spare.”

“Sure,” I said, “do you want some of it?”

Sandy called over to them and said, “Will you please tell us how much time we’ve got?”

One of the girls said, “I hope you have more time than you have brains. I don’t even know where you’re going. What town do you want?”

“What ones have you got?” I asked her.

“She’s handing out towns,” Will said.

“And I’ll tell you another thing,” she said, “It was one of the boys from that big camp who mutilated that sign, and he wears a funny hat.”

“Hervey Willetts,” I whispered to Will.

“And he’d better not show himself here again,” she said. “That’s allI’vegot to say.”

I said, “Hey girls, will you please have somebody come and turn this sign around so we can continue on our way? We have to catch a West Shore train at Catskill Landing and it leaves at ten-three.”

“Well then, you’ve missed it already,” one of them said.

“He means three ten,” Pee-wee shouted.

“Well you can just sit there and starve,” one of the girls said. Then they started off in the Ford.

I said, “I think this is serious. Maybe that sign won’t be turned around till next Sunday. By that time the train will probably have gone.”

“We’d better consider what we’re going to do,” Will said.

So then we started making poetry—it wasn’t so good. I said,

“Beyond we cannot roam,And Dub he can’t go home.”

Sandy said,

“We’d like to hike some mawBut we cannot break the law.”

Will Dawson said,

“The sign up there says STOP,And we’re waiting for the cop.”

“Let’s start all over again,” I said. “As long as ten-three doesn’t come till night we might as well take it easy. Maybe the cop will come here in his sleep to-night. It’s nice and comfortable sitting here.”

All of a sudden Pee-wee opened up. He said, “You’ll keep saying ten-three so much that you’ll really get to think so and we’ll no fooling miss the train for Dub and we won’t be able to get any ice creams—if we keep fooling like this.”

I said, “That’s quite a good argument.”

Pee-wee said, “You’ll live to regret it with all your fooling and wasting time here like this.” He was thinking about not having time for ice cream.

After we had a good rest I grabbed the apple that Pee-wee was eating and I threw it at the word STOP and the thing turned around to the word GO. “That shows you how much resourcefulness a Silver Fox has,” I told them. “If I hadn’t thought about that we might have sat here till next Sunday. That was my idea.”

“It wasmyapple!” Pee-wee shouted.

“Follow your leader,” I said.

So now you know the way we hike. Sometimes even it’s worse than that. Tom Slade (he’s camp assistant) says it’s best to have a destination when you start. But if you have a destination when you start, what’s the use of going anywhere? What’s the use of going to a destination if you’ve got one already? I should worry about the Handbook. But anyway you needn’t write to me to ask if you can go on one of my special crazy hikes next summer because already nine Scouts want to go. Even now I could tell you what kind of a one it’s going to be, only I won’t. You just wait.

We got to Catskill half an hour before it was time for the train and we went to the Polar Ice Cream Parlor and had ice cream. I treated them to regular fifteen cent plates of ice cream, not cones. It says in thereGet a Polar cone.It’s a bear.Believe me, the fifteen cent plates are elephants. That ice cream place is a branch of Temple Camp.

While we were in there Will Dawson was kind of funny acting—he didn’t say much. I thought maybe he was feeling mean because nobody knew how Dub had saved his life. Will and Dub and I were the only ones that knew anything about it. Nobody knew anything about Will taking the boat that night. Once while we were eating Will went over and spoke to the man that keeps the place.

“What’s the matter?” I asked him when he came back.

He said, “Nothing, I was just asking about the train.”

“There’s plenty of time,” Dub said. “It doesn’t leave till three-ten.”

“I bet you’re sorry to go, hey Dub?” I said.

He said, “Sure I’m sorry, I never said I wasn’t.”

“I bet you’d like to be Bobby Easton, hey?” the kid asked him.

“Never mind about Bobby Easton,” I said.

“You mean never mind about an honor Scout?” the kid screamed at me.

“Will you please keep your mouth shut about Bobby Easton,” I said. “Run over to the post office and ask them how much two cent stamps are to-day.”

We started for the station and Pee-wee and Sandy walked ahead. Will and Dub and I walked together.

“Well, we’re pretty near at the end of the end,” Dub said.

Jiminies, I felt terribly sorry for him, he was so nice about it. He was the kind of a fellow you get to like more and more all the time. Believe me, you see all kinds at Temple Camp. Some of them go up there as if they were going to wrap up the place and take it home with them. Fresh. Dub didn’t even look like a Scout because he didn’t have any Scout suit, only the hat, and it made him look funny at camp. And Iwasthinking how he really had the Gold Medal for life saving, only he didn’t have it, like you might say. Gee whiz, he didn’t have anything thatshowedhe was a Scout. But he was one just the same, you can bet. I guess he was as poor as any fellow that ever went up to Temple Camp. He only had just the money for his board and he didn’t have any to spend. He didn’t even have a troop or a patrol with him. He didn’t butt in much, but the Scouts that knew him liked him. He wouldn’t say much when he was out with us, he’d just laugh.

I said, “How do you feel, Dub, now that you’re going?”

“I feel full of ice cream,” he said.

“Do you feel sore at us, even just a little bit?” I asked him.

He started laughing and he said, “What for, I’d like to know?”

“You know as well as I do,” I told him. “Because only for Will and I keeping still you might have had the Gold Medal—even your Eagle badge too, maybe? You’re so quiet, I thought maybe after all you were sore. Are you?”

“You have to be quiet when Pee-wee’s around,” he said. “A fellow doesn’t get a chance to say anything.”

I said, “Will you let me tell Pee-wee and Sandy so they’ll know what you are before you go? They won’t let on at camp. Then all the four of us will make you the full salute, Dub. Gee Dub, Will and I feel mean. I know you’ve got to go and we can’t help you that way. But just the same I want everybody at camp to know all about you—what you really are. It makes us feel mean, doesn’t it Will?”

Will said, “I’ve got nothing to say. I don’t feel so very mean.”

Oh but I was good and mad. You never saw me when I was good and mad. I said, “Well, if you don’t feel mean,I do. You’d be back in Bridgeboro if it wasn’t for him. It’s just the same as if Dub gives you a present of staying the rest of the season. It’s as good as the Burnside award—what he does for you.And you don’t feel mean!I’d like to know how you do feel.”

“I feel kind of worried,” Will said.

“Yes, for fear they’ll find out at camp that Dub Smedley went home on account of you.I’m going to tell the whole camp anyway!”

“And go back on your promise,” Dub said. “I guess I will have to feel sorry for myself if not even my best pals are good scouts.”

“I didn’t mean it, I’ll keep my promise,” I said.

“But I’ll tell you this, you’re a Gold Medal Scout and an Eagle Scout, and the best scout that ever came to Temple Camp. And if you had what was coming to you you’d be wearing the Gold Medal now.”

“What, on this jacket?” he said.

“Yes, on that jacket,” I said. “You can put a scout suit on a dummy in a clothing store, can’t you? And does that make him a Scout?”

“Some argument,” Dub said. “I kind of like you when you’re mad.”

“Yes and you make me mad,” I said. “Because I have to feel mean. And Will does too, I bet he does. And another thing, it spoils the whole summer for me, your going home.”

“I wish I was going to have the hike back with you,” he said.

“There won’t be much fun in it,” I told him.

There were a lot of people waiting over at the station. We just sat there on a baggage truck waiting. Will went in the station and came out again. He said he wanted to find out if the train was on time. I was kind of sore at him because he said he didn’t feel mean, but I wasn’t going to be scrapping with him and let Dub see it. He kept looking at his watch all the time. I said, “What’s the idea? Are you in a hurry for Dub to go?”

Pee-wee said, “Let’s tell riddles while we’re waiting.”

I said, “I don’t feel like telling riddles.”

Sandy said, “Shall we playFollow your leader?”

“I don’t feel like doing that either,” I said.

So we just sat there on the baggage truck, swinging our legs. Pee-wee was eating some milk chocolate that he bought in the station. All of a sudden we heard a train whistling.

“Here she comes,” I said.

“It’s ahead of time,” Sandy said.

“It’s ten minutes early,” another one of them shouted.

“You’re all wrong the first time as usual,” I said. “It’s a north bound train. Such fine Scouts! You can’t even tell which direction a whistle comes from.”

“I kept still,” Pee-wee said.

“Sure, that was the funniest part of all,” I told him.

Dub said, “Well, I’ll have a few more minutes to stay.”

“Golden minutes with Silver Foxes,” Sandy said.

“Maybe we’ll have time to go and get some sodas,” Pee-wee said.

“Go ahead,” I told him. “I’m going to sit here and see if any Scouts for camp get off this train.”

“Will you go with me?” the kid asked Will.

“You go with him,” Will said to Sandy.

“Come on, I’ll treat you,” the kid said. “I’ll bring back some gumdrops.”

“Don’t come back at all if you don’t want to, the pleasure is ours,” I said.

“We’ll hear the whistle,” Sandy said.

“Go ahead,” I told him.

Sandy’s a nice fellow, he’ll even drink sodas to help a friend. He’s always doing good turns. Just as he and Pee-wee went away I noticed Will wasn’t around anywhere. Then I saw him way up at the end of the platform.

“Mine will be along in a few minutes,” Dub said. Then he said, “I’m glad to be here all alone with you these last few minutes.” He said I was the one he was going to miss most.

“You feel good and sorry now that the time has come, don’t you?” I said. “You can’t fool me, I can see it.”

“Sure I’m sorry,” he said.

“Didn’t you ever go away in the country before, Dub?” I asked him. He said only once when he went to Bronx Park.

“That isn’t country,” I said. “You see, when you get back now, the trolley cars and everything will sound awful loud. When I first get back everything seems funny like. But it isn’t so bad because we go right to school—not saying that isn’t bad enough. Are there fellows around where you live?”

“Yes, but most of them work,” he said. “If I hadn’t delivered groceries on Saturdays I couldn’t have come up here. I tried to make it for three weeks but I could only get money enough for two.”

“How did you hear about Temple Camp, Dub?” I asked him.

He said, “There’s a big house where I deliver groceries, and the fellow that lives there told me about it. He was up here a couple of years ago. Horace Baker, do you know him? His father’s president of a bank or something.”

“I don’t remember him,” I said.

We just sat there on the baggage truck swinging our legs. He said, “What’s Will doing, I wonder?”

I said, “Oh he’s watching to see if any Scouts he knows get off the train. They’re coming up every day now. Not many are going back this time of year.”

“I hold the prize on that,” Dub said.

I said, “Will you please not talk that way, Dub. Don’t you think I feel mean enough already. Gee, I don’t know what I ought to do.”

“Yes you do,” Dub said.

By that time the north bound train had stopped and people were getting on and off and a trainman was calling, “Train for Albany.” All of a sudden,good-night magnolia, along the platform came Will smiling all over his face and on one side of him was Mr. Dawson and on the other side of him was Mrs. Dawson. And Mabel Dawson (that’s Will’s sister) was trying to get at Will and put her arm through his all the while he was walking between his mother and father.

“Jiminy, Christopher, crinkums!” I said. “Look who’s here.” And I just jumped down and ran up to them. Dub stayed where he was. That’s just like him—bashful.

Mrs. Dawson started calling, “Why it’sRoy!”

“Still out of the lunatic asylum,” Mr. Dawson said. He’s an awful nice man, he just grabbed hold of my hand and he put his arm around my shoulder and he said to Mabel, “Look out you don’t kiss the wrong boy by mistake.” Then he said, “Well, tell us the worst, here we are as per orders.”

I could see Mrs. Dawson was kind of anxious but Will didn’t give her a chance to be anxious very long. He said, “Did it scare you, the telegram?”

Mr. Dawson said, “It didn’t scare me but it put me financially in a hole, paying for it collect. I was afraid we wouldn’t have the carfare to come up here. It was as long as a spelling lesson. Your mother has been a little anxious but I told her everything was O. K.”

“What telegram?” I asked him.

Mabel said, “Goodness, gracious—show Roy the telegram, Dad. I never saw such a telegram in my life! Since Dad paid for it, he says I can’t have a fur coat next winter.”

“No new car now,” Mr. Dawson said. Then he gave me a kind of a wink—gee he’s awful nice. He said, “Here Roy, you glance this telegram over sometime when you have a couple of hours to spare.”

Oh boy, this was the telegram. I hope nobody ever sends me one like that, collect.

Try to come to-morrow instead of next week. Important but don’t worry am all right. Need you to help me but tell Mom don’t worry. Train gets here two fifty-eight. Be sure don’t fail. Will explain. Am well. Will expect you sure.Will.

Will.

Mr. Dawson said, “Do you see how he could be well after sending a wire like that? I should think he’d be suffering from exhaustion.”

“And think of the cost of the ink,” I said. “Anyway it was good exercise for his wrist.”

Mr. Dawson slapped me on the shoulder and he said, “Same old Roy.” Then he said, “Well, Billy, what’s the matter?”

I looked up the platform to where Dub was sitting all alone swinging his legs from the baggage truck. He didn’t look like a Scout at all.

Will just put his arms around his father’s waist and stood in front of him to prevent him from walking. He was all excited, he said, “Listen, Dad, quick, because in a couple of minutes the south bound train will be here and then it will be too late. You keep still, Roy.”Jiminy crinkums, people are always telling me to keep still. Anyway Mr. Dawson winked at me.

Will just said—gee, but he was anxious and excited—“Listen Dad, I broke the rule and took a boat out at night, and—do you see that fellow up there? The one sitting on the truck? He’s a Scout—”

Mabel Dawson said, “He doesn’t look like one.”

“Never you mind, he is one,” Will said. He kept shaking his father so he’d listen in a hurry. He said, “That Scout saved my life—I’ll tell you all about it afterward how I got tangled up with a rope in the water. Listen—listen quick! He ought to have the Gold Medal for that. But he wouldn’t let us tell because then I would have been sent home for breaking the rule—do you see? I had to promise him I wouldn’t tell anybody at camp. But I could tell you because you weren’t at camp—that isn’t breaking my word. Now he’s going home because he hasn’t got money enough to stay any longer—his train—listen—his train is coming any minute.Listen—you said maybe I’d get a big radio on Christmas and I know what you mean when you saymaybe—”

“He don’t mean maybe,” I said.

“Will you keep still!” Will shot at me. “Listen Dad,” he said. “Instead of getting that radio I want that fel—Scout—I want him to stay up here till the camp closes. So will you do that? You have to answer quick because the train is whistling—I hear it—so will you do that? He saved my life and kept still so I could stay up here. I’ll go home if I have to but he’sgotto stay up here—he’s got to—listen, there’s the train—will you answer me!” Gee, I never saw Will so excited in all his life. He was right about the south bound train, it was whistling up the line. The train the Dawsons came on started off. I could see the smoke of the other one over the trees way up the river.

“It’s—it’s coming,” Will said. He just kept pulling his father’s coat. “I don’t want a new radio anyway,” he said.

Jiminies, you can’t hurry Mr. Dawson. He took it easy walking over into the station with Will and I after him. Then he went over to the news stand and bought a cigar and lighted it. I thought maybe he was mad about what Will did—breaking the rule like that, I mean. Then he went over to the ticket window and asked the man about the down trains next day. I guess Will and I didn’t know what to think. Will was terribly excited. When Mr. Dawson came out on the platform again he said,

“That the boy—the one sitting on the jigger? What’s his name?”

“His name is Dorin Smedley,” I said, “but we call him Dub.”

“No khaki huh?” Mr. Dawson said.

Then, all in a hurry, Will told his father all about Dub—all that we knew about him. The train was coming along but that didn’t seem to worry Mr. Dawson. It worried Will and me though. Mr. Dawson just kind of strolled over to the baggage truck and he screwed his cigar over into one end of his mouth and he looked awful kind of shrewd like. He held out his hand just like he would to a man and he said, “H’lo Dub.”

Dub jumped down because the train was puffing all ready to start but Mr. Dawson kind of smiling didn’t let go his hand, he just kept shaking it. Mrs. Dawson and Mabel came up, but Mr. Dawson just kept on shaking Dub’s hand. Poor Dub didn’t know what to make of it. All of a sudden the bell on the engine rang and the train started to move. A lot Mr. Dawson cared about the train! He travels around a lot and I guess he misses lots of trains—he should worry.

That’s the way he is, always fooling, kind of. He just kept hold of Dub’s hand and Dub tried to get away, but he couldn’t. And so he missed the train! “What’s all the hurry about, Dub?” Mr. Dawson asked him.

Jiminy crinkums, that man should worry about trains!

Back to Index Next