"Let that thing alone," I said, as the rest of us passed into the car.

"There isn't any spark in it," he shouted. Crinkums, that kid is crazy.

He followed us into the car and we all sprawled down into seats, because we were good and tired.

Westy said, "Oh, boy, it's good to sit down. I wonder if our friend Eb Brewster was here. Next stop is the Land of Nod. I don't want any supper."

"G—o—o—d night!" Connie said; "I'll be hanged if we're not moving."

Just then, I looked out and saw the closed up store sneaking slowly away.



"Bye-bye, Ridgeboro," Wig shouted; "see you later."

By now the car was moving along at a pretty good clip. The store was 'way behind us and we were rolling sweetly down a grade into a kind of jungle of bushes and tree stumps.

"Good night!" I said; "The plot grows thicker. Where are we at?"

We fell all over each other getting out to the platform, and Wig and I grabbed the wheel and turned it as fast as we could, tightening up the chain.

"I thought you said it didn't have any spark in it," I said to Pee-wee.

"I—I thought it didn't," he blurted out; "where are we going?"

"Ask me something easy," I said; "get out of the way. Grab hold of this, Westy, and pull for all you're worth."

We had the chain tight now and it was only a case of pulling the brakes tight against the wheels, but, oh, boy, that takes some strength. We were rolling along an old pair of rails that were buried under grass and bushes and sometimes we couldn't even see them. It was a regular jungle. I guess maybe they used to back freight cars down there after lumber. But it must have been a long time ago, because the stumps were old and the place was all overgrown. Anyway, that track that we had been left on was more than just a switch siding, that was sure.

First I didn't mind so much, because things like that are all in the game, and I thought it would be easy to stop the car. There was hardly any grade at all where the train had left us, that was sure, but it doesn't take much of a grade to start things moving on tracks. I guess that's why they always tighten the brakes when they leave a car. And if there's one person that knows how to start things, it's Pee-wee. That's his favorite recreation.

Anyway, now we saw that we were in a pretty bad fix. The grade was good and steep now and we were moving pretty fast, and no matter how hard we pulled on the wheel, it didn't seem to make the car slow down. I have to admit I was getting a little scared. I guess the other fellows were, too.

"Maybe the thick brush will slow us down," Westy said; "it's awful thick, ahead."

"Not when we've got a start like this," I told him; "we're just cutting it all to pieces."

"Maybe one of us could jump off and put a log on the track," Pee-wee said.

"Yes, and what would happen to the car, and us maybe?" Connie asked him. "You've done mischief enough for one day. Look ahead there!"

Jumping Christopher! There, about a hundred feet in front of us was a road crossing the tracks and a little further, beyond the road, was some water. I guess it was an arm of the lake. Anyway, the tracks ran right downhill to the very edge of it. The car was going too fast for us to jump off now.



CHAPTER XVIII

THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD

Nearer and nearer we rolled, all the while yanking for dear life on the wheel. All of a sudden I had a thought.

"Run through to the back platform and if the wheel there is loose, tighten up that one, too. Quick!" I said.

Connie and Westy ran pell-mell through the car and I heard the jangling of the chain there and I could hear Connie say, "Quick! Pull hard—harder!"

Then, after a few seconds the car began slowing down.

"Pull with all your might," I said to the fellows with me; "you fellows, too," I called out; "she's letting up; pull—hard!"

The car kept slowing down.

"Yank! Hard!" Connie called through to us, "and hold on. Brace your feet."

The car moved slower, slower; then stopped.

"Kick the ratchet-pin in—hurry up!" somebody said, and I pushed it into place with my foot.

"All right, let go."

The car was standing right square across the road, but anyway, that was better than being in the water. Any port in a storm, hey?

I guess our nerves were all pretty much unstrung, anyway, I know my hands were good and sore.

"I thought we were goners," Westy said; "this is a nice place to stop. It's good they don't have any traffic cops here."

"I should worry where we stop," I said; "it's better than the lake. We stopped here because we stopped here. I never knew that Brewster's Centre had so much pep in it. This old station will go up in the air next. What do you say we get an anchor?"

"Where are we?" Pee-wee piped up.

"We're here, that's all I can tell you," I said.

"If you want to know where here is, look in the geography."

"We're neither here nor there," Westy said; "look at my hands, they're all blisters."

"Where do we go from here?" Connie wanted to know.

"I guess we take a southwesterly course and flow into the sink," I told him.

"Brewster's Centre ran away from home," Wig said. "Lost, strayed or stolen. We don't know where we are; we're in the middle of the road. Just like we said before, we're here, because we're here."

We all sat down on the steps of the platform and Wig started singing:

"Oh, there was the Duke of Yorkshire, He had ten thousand men; He marched them up the hill, And he marched them down again. And when they're up, they're up, And when they're down, they're down; And when they're only half way up, They're neither up nor down."

Pretty soon, while we were sitting there, we all started to make up words to the same tune, and after a while this is what we got to singing:

"Oh, there was young Pee-wee Harris (Cook), That ran a movie show. He loosed the brake of a station-car, To see where he would go. And when he'd roll, he'd roll, And when he'd stop, he'd stop. And he stopped right in the middle of the road, Where there wasn't any traffic cop."

"Suppose an automobile should come along," Connie said.

"That's a very good idea," I told him; "suppose one should."

Westy was sitting up on the top step and he said, "Oh, Sister Anne, Sister Anne, I think I can see one scooting along through the woods, the other side of the lake."

"Let it scoot," I said; "the only way it can get past here is to do a couple of double flops like Pee-wee's omelet."

"It can't get around on account of the woods," Pee-wee said.

"Right the first time, as usual," I told him. "Over the top is the only way. I hope it's a high-grade car, because a low-grade car could never get over such a high place."

"We had a narrow escape," Wig said

"If the machine doesn't stop, we'll stop it," Connie put in.

"Sure," I said, "we have a good argument."

"Brewster's Centre is getting to be a famous name," Westy said.

Connie said, "Sure, we're getting to be known in all the highways and byways—especially the highways. What do you say we give a movie show right here?"

"Vetoed," I told him.

We sat on the platform steps talking and jollying each other; what did we care? Be it ever so much in the wrong place, there's no place like home. Maybe you've read stories about boys running away from home for adventures, but our home was a good sport, it went with us. It had a good name, too, Brewster's Centre. Because it was right plunk in the center of the road.

Pretty soon Westy shouted, "Here comes the car. See it? You can see it right through the trees. It's green and red."

"It'll be black and blue if it tries to get past here," Wig said.

It was a great big touring car and its bright brass lights and trimmings were all shiny on account of the sun setting and shining right on them. It came rolling along, about fifty miles an hour, out from the woods, and then even faster as it hit it up along the straight road. Oh, boy, didn't it just eat up the miles!

I guess it must have been getting over the ground at about sixty per, when it began slowing down and stopped about a dozen yards from our car. Oh, bibbie, that was some peachy machine.

There were two young fellows in it, and I could see that they were pretty tough looking. Both of them wore sweaters and one had on one of those peaked caps like tough fellows in the movies always wear. They waited just a minute and spoke to each other very excited like. Then they both looked around, back along the road.

Next, the fellow with the cap jumped down in a big hurry and looked back along the road, better than he could do in the car. He seemed awful kind of scared and excited. He came over toward us, walking kind of sideways, you know, tough.

He said, "What's the matter here? Why don't they move this car? Yez are blockin' up the road, yez are. Where's the en-jine?"

I wasn't scared of him. I said, "The en-jine is having a nap. Don't talk so loud or you'll wake it up."

"Yez are a pretty fresh lot, ain't yez?" he said. "Where's the men belongin' ter this she-bang, anyway? Yez is blockin' traffic." Then he looked up the road again and said to the other fellow: "Don't see nuthin' of 'em, do yer? Keep your eyes peeled." He seemed awful nervous and in a hurry.

Just then I noticed Westy get up and step down off the car. "Get them inside if you can," Westy whispered as he passed me.

I didn't know for the life of me what he meant. But there's something about Westy, he's awful kind of thoughtful. Maybe you've read how a scout is supposed to be observant. Well, that's Westy all over.



CHAPTER XIX

WESTY

I said to the fellow, "The railroad hasn't got anything to do with this car; it belongs to us. And you can bet we weren't thinking about where it stopped, either. It's better to be here than in the lake."

He just shouted to the other fellow, "Come here, hurry up!" Then he craned his neck and looked back along the road. The other fellow got down from the auto in a hurry and came to the car, looking behind him all the while.

One thing, I could see that those fellows were scared and in a terrible hurry, and I decided that probably they had stolen the machine. I thought that, not only because they were always looking back, because they might have expected to be chased just for speeding, but because they were so tough looking. Anyway, they were pretty low-grade fellows to be in such a high-grade car, that was one sure thing. Besides, I knew that the fellow that was running that car wasn't the regular chauffeur, because the regular chauffeur of a car always kind of slides out very easy without rubbing against the steering gear. One thing sure, you can always tell if a man is used to running a car, especially some particular car.

Both fellows were on the platform now, and the one that came first said, "What yez doin' here; blockin' the road?"

I guess I shouldn't have told them anything, but I said, "We rolled down from near the store up there and it was lucky we managed to stop right here, or we'd have been in the lake. It's no easy job managing those brakes."

"No?" he said, kind of funny, and then looked at the other fellow.

Then they both went inside and I could see one of them looked out of the window up the road, while the other threw his cap on the floor and put on Connie's scout hat that was hanging in the car. He whispered to the other fellow and then the other fellow turned around and grabbed Wig's hat off his head and put it on his own head.

"Run her down, that's the only thing," one of them said; "and blamed quick about it, too. You kids git off'er this car if you don't want to be drowned."

I saw what they were going to do. They went out on the other platform and kicked the ratchet out and let the wheel spin. But the car didn't move. Then they came through to do the same thing to the other one. They were going to start the car and jump off. I knew it would start right away, because the grade was so steep. I stood right there in the aisle, blocking their way and I said:

"This car belongs to us and you're not going to run it into the lake. Maybe you heard of Mr. John Temple; he gave it to us. If you start it, you won't be able to stop it. Maybe it's worth more than that auto for all you know. Anyway, it is to us, and you're not going to run it into the lake—you're not."

He just swore and hit me in the face and I went staggering against one of the seats. Everything went all whizzing around and for a couple of seconds my head buzzed so that I couldn't stand up straight. But even still I wasn't scared of him and I followed them and the other fellows out onto the other platform.

"Git off the car, all of yez," I heard one of them say.

My head was buzzing and I felt awful cold and queer like, but I had sense enough to notice Westy sitting there on the railing of the platform, dangling his legs. I guess he must have been waiting there. As long as I live, I'll never forget how calm and quiet he was, and not scared of them at all. I was so dizzy from the crack on the head that fellow gave me, that I had to hold on to the railing and Westy looked as if he were shaking as he sat on it. But it was only because I was dizzy. I saw the two fellows grab the wheel and Connie and Pee-wee and Wig jump off the car. But Westy didn't move, only sat there swinging his legs and kind of smiling at those two.

"You're a couple of big cowards, that's what you are," he said; "to hit a fellow his size. And you're a couple of crazy fools, too. That's what you are; a couple of low down fools and cowards—and thieves."

For just a second they let go the wheel and stared at him, but he didn't move; just sat there watching them and swinging his legs.

"And what's the use of going to all that trouble?" Westy said. "You'll only make it worse for yourselves. Do you think that boy scouts are fools, just because you can hit one of them on the head and knock him out of your way? I've got two good snapshots of both of you and I hid the camera, and if you choked me, I wouldn't tell you where it is. See? That old Pierce-Arrow is here because it's here. See? And it's going to stay here, too. I just threw your spark plugs into the lake. If you hadn't been a couple of big fools you wouldn't have stepped inside this car. Steal a Pierce-Arrow! You make me laugh. You couldn't even get away with a Ford."



CHAPTER XX

TAKING IT EASY

And he just sat there, swinging his legs and laughing. It was as good as a circus to see him.

"Go ahead, run," he said; "it won't do you any good. Sink this car in the lake if you want to. That'll just mean a longer time in jail. We should worry. You thought a boy scout didn't know how to hit back, didn't you? Let's see you start the machine. You're a couple of circus clowns, that's what you are. You ought to be a pair of villains in the movies. Head hurt much, Roy?"

"Not so bad now," I told him.

Gee whiz, those fellows didn't wait long. Before Westy was finished speaking they were off the car and headed into the woods. That was the last we saw of them, then.

"Did you ever hear of a thief stopping to have his picture taken?" Westy asked.

"If they'd have only stayed a little longer, we could have got them in the movie camera and we could have a play called The Robbers' Regret," Pee-wee piped up, "or, The Missing Spark Plugs."

"Oh, they're not missing," Westy said; "they're just hiding, disguised as an oil can. Waste not, want not, hey?"

Do you know what fellow had done—all while we were in the car? Talk about a scout being quick! He had got the snapshots while those two fellows were on the platform. Then he had hid the camera in the bushes. But he wanted to make sure that they wouldn't find the plugs, so he put them into an oil can that he had found under the hood of the machine and tied a piece of wire to the can. He tied the other end of the wire to the root of a bush on the shore. And all that he did while the fellows were in the car. What do you know about that?

So now he just fished them up and cleaned them out and put them back where they belonged. Then we all sat in the Pierce-Arrow waiting to see what would happen next. Right in front of us was that old car with the sign all along its side.

Buffalo 398 Mls.—BREWSTER'S CENTER—N. Y. 30 Mls.

Pretty soon we got to singing, and for a little while everybody was singing something different from everybody else, but after a few minutes we got settled down to this:

"There was the Brewster's Centre car, That traveled here and there; It had a lot of adventures, too, And we don't have to pay any fare. And when it's here, it's here, And when it's there, it's there; And when it isn't any place, Why then it's everywhere. And if it isn't on the ground, You'll find it up in the air; And if it goes to the moon or Mars, A plaguey lot we care!"

"You can talk about tents and log cabins and house-boats and things," Connie said; "but I'm for that old car. It's stood by us."

"Stood!" I said. "Good night, it hasn't stood very long anywhere; not since we had it."

"It's full of pep," Connie said.

"Always on the go," I told him; "it's different from other cars. It reminds me of Pee-wee. I wonder where we'll go next."

"Sure, I wonder what's the next step in our itinerary," Connie said. Boy, but that fellow is some high brow.

"Our whaterary?" I asked him.

"Anyway, it's nice sitting here," Wig said.

"I wonder who it belongs to?" Pee-wee said. "I bet it belongs to a rich millionaire."

"Yes, or a poor one," Connie said. "There's only one thing I don't like about this Pierce-Arrow, and that's that I don't own it. Otherwise, it's all right."

"There's one thing I don't like about it," I said.

"You're crazy!" Pee-wee shouted. "What don't you like about a Pierce-Arrow?"

"One great objection," I said.

"You must be crazy," he yelled. "You can bet I haven't got any objections to a Pierce-Arrow."

"That's because you're not as honest as I am," I said.

"Who? Me?" he hollered.

"The only thing I have against this machine is that it's stolen," I said. "I'm funny that way."

"You make me sick," Pee-wee said.

"I'd feel the same way about a flivver," I said.

"If you took a flivver, that wouldn't be stealing," Connie said; "it would be shoplifting."

"Sure, or pickpocketing," Wig said.

"Do you know the only way to tell if a man has a Ford?" I asked Pee-wee. "Search him. Look how the sun is going down."

The Brewster's Centre sign was all bright on account of the sun setting. It was getting dark and kind of cold and it made me homesick, sort of. It seemed funny to see that car standing there across that strange road, with the lake on one side and the thick woods on the other. The woods were beginning to look dark and gloomy, and the arm of the lake was all steel color. I was glad on account of that sign, because it seemed friendly, like. That's one thing about an automobile, it doesn't seem friendly, like. But boats do. And the old car did, that was one sure thing.

Mostly scouts don't care much about railroads, because they like the water and they like to hike. But anyway, that old car was friendly. Especially it seemed friendly on account of the sun going down and the day beginning to die and it getting cold. You can talk about boats and motorcycles and tents and leaf shelters and all those things, but anyway, none of them were as good as that old car. And don't you forget, either, that it was Westy that saved it for us. If it hadn't been for him, it would have been in the lake.

He's one real scout, Westy is.



CHAPTER XXI

THE SHERIFF ARRIVES

We were singing that crazy stuff that we had made up, when all of a sudden, along came an automobile with four men in it, and stopped right behind us. We heard one of them say, "Why, that's the car, now."

They all jumped down and came around the big Pierce-Arrow and stood staring up at us. They stared at the Brewster's Centre car, too; I guess they didn't know what to make of it.

One of the men said, "What's all this? What are you boys doing with that machine?"

As long as none of the other fellows said anything, I spoke up and said, "We're boy scouts and we're sitting here."

"Boy scouts!" he said, all flabbergasted.

"Right the first time," I told him; "we rescued this car from two fellows that were trying to get away with it. You see that railroad car? That belongs to us."

"We're going to have a deed to it," Pee-wee shouted.

"Sure," I said; "a dark and bloody deed. We just happened to be there, because we rolled down the grade from Ridgeboro. Believe me, I've been through eight different grades in school, but this one was the worst I ever saw. We came near taking a header into the lake, but we got the brakes on just in time. You get a fine view of the car from here, don't you?"

"I'm the sheriff of this county," the man said. "You say you stopped this machine?"

"We can stop any machine, even a Rolls-Royce," I told him.

"Yes?" he said.

"You'd better ask this fellow how it was," I said, pointing to Westy.

"We stopped them, that's all," Westy said. That was just like him.

"Well then, I'll tell you," I said. "When they said they couldn't get by, they wanted to run our car down into the lake. What did they care?"

"But we foiled them," Pee-wee shouted.

"Foiled them, hey?" the sheriff said. Gee, he couldn't help smiling.

Then I just grabbed Westy's head and pulled it where the men could see. "When they were on the railroad car," I said, "this fellow took the spark plugs out of the machine and hid them in the lake."

One of the men blurted out, "What!"

"That's nothing," Pee-wee started; "once——"

"He got a couple of snapshots of them, too," I said; "maybe they'll be of some use to you."

"Hey, Mister, can this machine do eighty miles an hour?" Wig piped up.

"Seventy," the man said.

"Y—a—a—h! What did I tell you?" Connie said, giving him a rap on the head.

"Maybe you'll be able to catch them, hey?" Connie said. "Anyway, I hope so, because one of them hit this fellow a good whack on the head."

"So?" said the man. "Well, we'll take care of that pair. It won't be hard, with their pictures. They're a couple of the most desperate auto thieves and highwaymen in this state. You boys did a fine thing. You deserve great credit."

"That's nothing," Pee-wee said; "once when——"

"Which way did they go?" the men asked.

So then we told them all there was to tell, and about our car, and about how we were brought out to Ridgeboro by mistake. They were in so much of a hurry that I thought they'd just let our car roll down into the water, so that they could get by. But anyway, they didn't do that. I guess they liked us, because we did them a good turn.

As soon as Westy gave them the film out of his pocket camera, they lifted a big heavy log across the tracks near the water. They said they thought they could let the car roll easily against that, without any danger of its going on down into the water. You bet we were nervous till we saw them do it, and then we realized that probably those thieves could have done the same thing, except that they didn't care anything about other people's property.

The men thought that the two fellows would cut through the woods and come out at a town named Skunk Hollow. Ozone Valley, that was the new name of it. So we all went in the two cars to that place, because a train stopped there at about half-past eight, and they thought that maybe those fellows would take the train.

I don't know which went faster, the automobiles or Pee-wee's tongue. Anyway, Pee-wee's tongue was running on high. He sat behind me in the big machine, wedged in between two big deputy sheriffs, and he told every heroic act that scouts have done since the movement started. Blamed if I know how he finds those things out, but he does. He gave them Westy's whole history and told how Tom Slade won the gold cross and how burglars and highwaymen weren't safe any more, on account of the Boy Scouts. Every time they told him it was wonderful, he would say, "That's nothing," and come right back with a five reeler. Oh, boy, I thought I'd die, but I guess the sheriffs liked it. Anyway, they laughed a lot.

Pee-wee told them about a scout in the dismal north (that's what he called it) that rescued a maiden. He told them a maiden was something like a girl, "only more kind of pale and weak and helpless, like." I nearly doubled up.

But anyway, he didn't mention cooking.



CHAPTER XXII

RAILROADING

When we got to the Ozone Valley station, there wasn't anything there, but the ozone and a couple of milk cans. The men searched all around in the woods and under the freight platform, but they couldn't find the two fellows.

"Don't you get discouraged," Pee-wee told them; "often I couldn't find things and then later they'd turn up."

"Oh, they'll turn up," the sheriff said; "and they'll go up, too. Just give us a chance to get those films developed."

Pretty soon the train came along, going toward Skiddyunk. It was a way train and I guess it stopped every now and then to change its mind. It had a couple of baggage cars and a couple of freight cars and a refrigerator car and one passenger car at the end. There were only a few people in the car.

The sheriffs searched the whole train, but they couldn't find the two fellows anywhere. They even searched the refrigerator car, but I didn't think they'd be there, because they were fresh enough without going on ice.

The conductor was a big fat man; he was awful nice. When the sheriffs told him about us, he laughed and said, "That's funny; I have a bill for that car; I'm going to pick it up to-night."

I said, "We heard there wasn't a freight on the Slopson Branch till Tuesday morning. We don't exactly want to go back yet."

He said, "Well now, Sonny, you see I haven't got any say about it. I get a bill and that's all there is to it. There might be a freight out of Slopson to-morrow or the next day, and then again, there might not. You could come near sending the whole of Slopson by Parcels Post. I've heard about you kids and I've got word to look after you. You're mighty lucky you didn't all go kerflop into the lake."

"How soon is there another train through here?" the sheriff asked him.

"Twelve-fifteen, if she's on time," the conductor said; "she's a through from Buffalo."

"Believe me," I said; "that's one town I know something about—Buffalo. I'll never forget Buffalo, 398 Mls." They all laughed.

"She doesn't stop here, does she?" the sheriff asked.

"Stops at Skiddyunk for water," the conductor said. "She passes us down at Red Hill siding."

The sheriff said, "I guess two of us had better watch the station here and be on the safe side in case she slows down, and the other two will go down in one of the machines and keep an eye out at Skiddyunk. They might get on there. We'll probably beat you to Skiddyunk, but if we don't, nab 'em if they get on. They're going to try to get away from these parts, I know that."

I was just thinking we'd have to hike back along the road to our little Home Sweet Home, when the conductor said, "Hop on, you boys."

* * * * *

When we got to Skiddyunk, the sheriff and one of his men were already there. But there wasn't any sign of the two fellows. Then the train started backing up along the Slopson Branch and the two sheriffs stayed on it. Pretty soon we were back almost to where we had started from. There wasn't any station at Ridgeboro, but the sheriffs looked all around the closed-up store, in the wood-shed and under the platform. Then the train backed down the siding and very gently bunked into the Brewster's Centre car. There were men swinging lights and shouting to each other, while one coupled our car to the train. Then there was a lot more shouting and swinging lights and then we started.

We stood on the back platform of our own car and I could see the moon just beginning to shine on the part of the lake that we were moving away from. The wheels rattled, rattled; and it seemed kind of as if the car was saying so long, so long, so long——

Pretty soon, away across the lake, we could see a light and we knew it was the fire at Camp Smile Awhile. Then we passed the store that was all closed up tight and I said, "so long, store. So long, Camp Smile Awhile." And while we stood out there on the back platform, the wheels kept saying, "S'long, s'long, s'long, s'long, s'long...."

Gee whiz, I was sorry.



CHAPTER XXIII

CRAZY STUFF

One thing sure, those auto thieves weren't on our train; they didn't get on at any of those three places, Ozone Valley or Ridgeboro or Skiddyunk. The two sheriffs got off at Skiddyunk again, to keep a watch when the late train came through. The Skiddyunk Station was all dark. As we left it the wheels kept saying, "s'long, s'long," and pretty soon we couldn't see it at all, and I knew that the country where we had had so much fun was way back there in the dark and that probably we'd never see it any more.

That was a single-track railroad and as we stood on the back platform, we could see the two shiny rails going away back into the dark.

"Let's go and sit down," I said; "I'm tired."

We had a shoe box full of eats that the girls at Camp Smile Awhile had given us and, yum, yum, those sandwiches were good.

Pretty soon a brakeman came staggering through, holding onto the seats. He had a red lantern and he hung it on the back platform. "So's the flyer won't bunk her nose into us," he said.

"Reg'lar private car, you kids got," he said.

I said, "When do you think we'll get to Bridgeboro, New Jersey?"

"Depends on the out trains from New York," he said; "we get in about three. No telling how long you'll stand in the yards. If you're picked up pretty quick, you ought to be home in time for breakfast. But there's no telling with a dead special."

I said, "You don't call this car a dead one, do you? You ought to have seen the adventures it had."

He laughed and said, "A dead special is a pickup. It ain't carried straight through. It's picked up and laid down and picked up. See?"

"We should worry when we get home," I said.

"You'll get there," he said, nice and pleasant; "don't you worry."

"Worry?" Connie said. "That must be a Greek word; I never heard it."

He was an awful nice fellow, that brakeman.

Pretty soon we were all sprawling on the seats, started on our favorite indoor sport, jollying Pee-wee. The train went through a pretty wild country and sometimes we could look way down into deep valleys, and sometimes mountains went right up straight from the tracks and seemed like walls outside the windows.

Wig said, "To-morrow is Columbus Day."

"Right the first time," I told him; "I wish we weren't going to get home 'till Tuesday."

"What's the difference between Tuesday?" Connie wanted to know.

"Is it a conundrum?" I said.

"No, it's an adverb, I mean a proverb," he said.

"Tuesday and what?" Pee-wee shouted.

"Tuesday and nothing," Connie said; "just Tuesday. Ask me the answer to it."

"You're crazy," Pee-wee shouted; "what's the answer to it?"

Connie said, "There isn't any answer. Want to hear another? How many onions are there?"

"Where?" Pee-wee yelled.

"Anywhere," Connie said.

"That shows how much sense you have," the kid screamed.

I laughed so hard I nearly fell off the seat.

"What's the cause of tears?" Connie said right back at him.

"What?" Pee-wee asked him.

"Crying," Connie said. "Why is the sky blue?"

"Why is it?" the kid shouted.

"It isn't," Connie said; "look out of the window, it's black."

"That isn't a riddle," Pee-wee shouted.

"It's a fact," Connie said; "what's the answer to a question?"

"You make me tired," the kid screamed; "what kind of a question?"

"Any kind," Connie said; "how fast is a mile?"

"A mile isn't fast, you crazy Indian!" Pee-wee screamed at him. "That shows——"

"All right, how slow is it then?" Connie asked him. "Suppose I have my picture taken."

"Well, what?" the kid blurted out.

"Nothing," Connie said.

"You said, suppose you had your picture taken," Pee-wee screamed.

"All right, suppose I did; what of it?" Connie laughed.

"He's got a right to have his picture taken, hasn't he?" I said. "You can take mine if you'll bring it back."

"You're all crazy," Pee-wee shouted; "you don't know a riddle when you see one. Do you call those riddles? A riddle is something where you ask a question and the answer, kind of, means something else."



"Precisely," Westy said; "the same as somewhere is a place you get to, by going to it. Deny it if you can."

"Well, there's one place I'm going to," Connie said; "and that's asleep."

"If you don't mind, I'll go with you," Wig said.

I don't know how it is, but just before we turn in, we always have a lot of nonsense like that. I bet you think we're crazy. Pretty soon Westy and I were the only ones awake. He's so careful he never goes anywhere without thinking it over beforehand—not even to sleep. If he were going to go crazy, he'd have to think it all over beforehand and count ten first. Talk about watching your step; he has his chained. And he always remembers where he puts things, too. He never even loses his temper. I don't lose mine much, but gee whiz, I mislay it sometimes.



CHAPTER XXIV

UP IN THE AIR

"This is a pretty wild country," Westy said; "it's all mountains. Do you hear the echo of the engine?"

Just as clear as could be, I could hear the sound of the engine echoing back from the mountains; the chugging and rattling sounded double, like. Then, pretty soon, it kind of died away.

After about half a minute, Westy and I just sat staring at each other, listening.

"That's funny," he said; "it seems to be going farther away."

"It sounds like the trains when you hear them at Temple Camp," I said.

He said, "That isn't our train, it's another train; it's over that way. We didn't hear it before, on account of ours."

I guess neither of us said anything for about half a minute, and all the while we could hear the rattling of the train, away off somewhere.

I said, "Westy, we're slowing down; it feels kind of funny; do you notice?"

"How?" he said.

"We're slowing down and there isn't any knocking of the cars against each other."

We both listened and all the while we could hear the rattling of a train far away.

"It feels just the same as it felt when we rolled down the siding," I said; "I don't know, kind of funny—easy like."

He opened the window and then shouted, "Look, look! This car's all alone. Look off there."

Away ahead of us, but a little over to one side, we could see a bright spot moving along and little bright dots in back of it. I knew it was the brightness thrown by a headlight and the lights showing through car windows. It was our train scooting along around the mountains. Our car kept slowing down very easy sort of, as if there was nothing pulling it or holding it back either. I knew the feeling, because I had been on that car when it was like that before. It went slower and slower and slower and then the wheels sounded different—sort of hollow, kind of. Then the car just crawled along and at last it stopped.

"Look down," Westy said; "I can't see the ground. Do you hear water rushing?"

I looked out of the window and down, down, down, till I couldn't see anything but just the dark. But I could hear water way down there.

"We're on a high bridge," I said.

Just then the wind blew strong and it brought the noise of that train near again. And it shook the bridge, too, ever so little.

Westy said, "Roy, we're a couple of hundred feet up. You know just how the water in Black Gully sounds up near Temple Camp. That's over two hundred feet."

"What happened, do you suppose?" I asked him.

"Coupling broke, I guess," he said. "Let's have one of those lifters from the stove."

We dropped one of the iron lifters and listened to hear it fall. But all we could hear was a little splash, away far down.

"This bridge must be terribly high," Westy said; "feel how it shakes in the wind."

"This is a dickens of a spooky place to be," I told him; "especially in a strong wind."

"You said it," Westy answered.

Gee whiz, I've often felt kind of shaky going over a high bridge in a train, but to be left standing in the middle of one; oh, boy!

"Let's go and see what happened," he said.

We got the red lantern from the back platform of the car and went through to the other platform and held it down. There was nothing at all beneath us, except ties very far apart, and the rails and the heavy steel runners outside the rails. The coupling was broken, all right. I guess that coupling must have been an old timer.

"Hang the lantern on the rail," Westy said, "while I get down and see what happened."

"Look out what you're doing," I said; "there's two or three hundred feet of space below you. Watch your step."

He lay on the platform so as to be able to reach down and look down where the coupling was, and find out just what had happened.

"Hold the light down," he said.

Gee, I can't tell you just how it happened. Westy says he was to blame and I say I was to blame. He said he knocked the lantern out of my hand, but, gee whiz, I should have kept it out of his way. Anyway, it went tumbling down and it went so far that it looked like just a little red speck. It stayed lighted till it crashed away down in the bottom of that place. And the light turned yellow and spread a little bit, then went out. I guess the oil spilled on a rock down there. Anyway, it looked like miles.

Westy was breathing hard and I guess I was, too. He said, "Have you got that time table? What time did our conductor say that train from Buffalo comes through?"

I said, "About midnight. We're in a pretty bad fix. I guess I'd better wake the fellows up, hey?"

We were both pretty serious.



CHAPTER XXV

IN THE DARK

I guess you know that was an old out-of-date car, because anyone would know that the railroad people wouldn't use a good car to stand on a side track for a makeshift station. Gee whiz, we didn't care about that, we even liked it, because it was old-fashioned and kind of ramshackle; it made it seem like a good place for camping. And if it hadn't been for that old stove in the corner of it, we could never have bunked in it and cooked our meals. Crinkums, I like old things, but not old worn-out couplings. Nay, nay!

Another thing, the only lights in that car were three lamps along the top, but they weren't exactly lights, because the lamps were broken. Just the brass things were there. There was just one good lamp in a side bracket in the ticket agent's place, and when we started away from Brewster's Centre that was full of oil. But we used it all up on Saturday night in Ridgeboro and we couldn't get any at the store the next day, on account of it being Sunday. We were going to get some on Monday morning, but you see we were picked up Sunday night. So now the only light we had was a little flashlight belonging to Connie Bennett.

I said, "Westy, this is the worst fix we were ever in. I never thought about anything like this when I said it was a lot of fun being pulled all over the country in this car. Feel how the bridge shakes in the wind; it's kind of spooky like, hey? If it only wasn't so dark. That makes it worse, not being able to see where you are at all. Listen, do you hear a train?"

"Nope," he said, all the while listening; "I guess it's just because you're scared."

"Anyway, there's no use wasting time," I told him; "let's wake up the fellows."

That was some job. We had to roll Pee-wee off the seat onto the floor and then roll him out into the aisle. I guess they didn't know what we were talking about first, but when they knew about it, they sat up all right. We just sat there talking in the pitch dark.

"What good is the flashlight?" Connie asked us. "It won't show far enough and the battery won't hold out for more than about a half an hour. I hear a train now."

No one said a word; just listened. "I heard that," Westy said; "it isn't a train."

"One is likely to crash into us any minute," Wig said; "I'd rather jump and be done with it—the suspense."

"Do you call that using your brains?" Pee-wee shouted. Gee whiz, when you come right down to it, I have to admit that kid is a bully little scout.

"You couldn't walk the ties even if we could," Wig said; "you can't take a long enough step."

"Well, then, you walk them and I'll stay here," the kid said.

I reached across in the dark and hit him a good rap on the shoulder. "That shows there's one thing about scouting you don't know, Kiddo," I told him. "A scout troop is just as strong as its weakest member, just the same as a chain is as strong as its weakest link. We will use our brains, right up to the last minute. Don't get scared."

We all listened to a sound we heard far off.

"I'm not scared," Pee-wee said. And even in the dark I could see his eyes looking straight at me and they looked awful brave and clear, kind of.

"No use getting excited," Wig said. "Why couldn't we break up some wood and start a fire a few feet away from the car?"

"Listen!" Connie said; "shh——"

"Maybe it would stop a train, but it would surely burn the bridge down," Westy said. "The ties are wooden. There's enough wood to curl the steel all up into a mess of wreckage. And all that might happen before the train came along."

"Could we walk the ties?" Wig asked. "Even if they're far apart we might help Pee-wee——Listen!"

"Don't be all the time scaring me," I said, kind of mad, like. Because I was getting good and scared, and rattled. "Let's see your light, Connie."

I held the light to the time table. "There's no station anywhere around here, I guess," I said; "but that flyer ought to come along pretty soon——"

"I hear it now," Wig said.

"No, you don't," I told him; "what's the use of getting us all excited? Sit still. If it comes along, all we can do is to go out and lie flat on the ties and trust to luck. Any fellow that wants to hang by his hands, can do it. It would be pretty hard lifting ourselves up again though. But the flyer isn't coming yet."

"I hear a whistle," Wig said.

"No, you don't hear a whistle," I told him; "that's an owl down there in the woods. Don't you know the call of an owl?"

"How about freight trains?" Connie asked.

I said, "I don't know anything about freight trains; they're not on the time table. Of course, we're up against it, but what's the use of going all to pieces? If any fellow wants to try walking the ties, he can do it. It would be hard enough in the daytime. On a dark night like this, he'd just go crashing down into all those rocks and water, that's all. Maybe the chances are against us, but I say, let's stick together."

"That's what I say," Pee-wee shouted; "we've always stuck together. I say stick together."

"Bully for you, Kid," I said.

"We had a lot of fun anyway," he said; "and I always voted for you for patrol leader. I'm not scared."

I got up, because I just couldn't sit there any more. Every time the wind blew and the car rattled, it gave me a start. I put my arm over Pee-wee's shoulder and I said, "I've jollied you a lot, Walt."

"I don't mind that," he said; "and besides, a scout is brave."

"You're a better scout than any of us, I guess," I told him.

Then I went out onto the platform, because I just couldn't keep still. I remembered what Connie had said about all the men that lose their lives working on railroads. Anyway, Pee-wee was right, we had had a lot of fun. I guess we never thought about the other side of it. I looked away down into the dark and I could just hear the water splashing on the rocks. I had to grab hold of the railing when the wind blew. I looked away off along the tracks, but I couldn't even see where the bridge ended; only I could see a kind of a big patch of dark that was blacker than the regular dark, and I thought it was a mountain. I guessed maybe a headlight would show suddenly around that. Connie came out, but didn't say anything, and then went back through to the other platform. I could hear frogs croaking, away down.

"Going to watch?" I called after him.

He said, "We're going to hang from the ties when we hear it."

"All right," I told him; "it's awful dark. I can't see a thing."

I heard one of the fellows inside say that maybe the wind would start the car, but I knew that was crazy talk, because a bridge is always level. I made up my mind that I'd hang from one of the ties and clasp my hands around it. I knew that it would be hard pulling myself up and scrambling onto the bridge again; all of us wouldn't manage it, that was sure. It seemed kind of funny that probably we wouldn't have a full patrol any more. I wasn't exactly scared but, kind of, I didn't like to hear those frogs croaking way down there. It sounded so spooky.

I heard Westy say, "So long, Roy, if I don't see you again."

I called in for him to keep the kid near him. He was always my special chum, Westy was....



CHAPTER XXVI

WALTER HARRIS, SCOUT

All of a sudden, somebody was standing near me on the platform and clutching my arm. It was Pee-wee.

"Look out you don't fall, Kid," I told him.

"I didn't tell any of them," he whispered. "Listen, I've got an idea. I was—all the while I was trying to use my brains. But anyhow, I don't know just how we can do it, but you can find a way, so then really it'll be your idea. Shh—I want the fellows to think it's your idea; see? Shh! Why can't we use the movie apparatus, some way; why can't we? And flash it to them."

"You said it!" I fairly yelled.

"Shh—h," he whispered; "I always voted for you; listen, it's your idea, see? Because I don't know just how——"

Oh, boy, I just grabbed that kid around the neck, till I could feel his curly head right tight close to me.

"What should I 'shh' about?" I shouted. "You little brick! What are you whispering about? Pee-wee's hit it!" I just fairly shouted. "We're all right. Get in the car," I yelled at him, and I gave him a push. "Telling your patrol leader to shut up, are you?"

Then I called him back again, I just couldn't help it, and I grabbed him around the neck and I just held him that way.

"You bully, tip-top little scout," I said; "you—you little Silver Fox! You—you've saved all of us."

"And we can always stick together, hey?" he said.

"Sure,—oh, sure," I told him; "you bet!"

Gee whiz, all we needed was the idea. All the rest of the ideas came to us quick enough.

"There's oil in the movie lamp," Wig yelled.

"Break one of the windows," I said; "quick."

"What for?"

"Never mind what for. Get a piece of glass," I hollered. "Pick out two long sticks—hurry up."

It didn't take us long to decide just how we'd do.

"Two long ones," I said; "don't be listening for trains."

Crash went a window. "I've got a good piece," Pee-wee yelled.

"All right, blacken it with the movie lamp," I told him.

Oh, boy, we were some busy crew. The wood that had been nailed up under the car in Brewster's Centre was in long strips, and we hauled a couple of the longest ones out double quick. It wasn't exactly my idea, what we did; it was all of our ideas, I guess. We planned it out while we were hustling.

One of those long strips we stuck out of the window and then held it up outside. One end of it was inside the car, resting on the seat, and the other end pointed up as straight as we could hold it outside. It reached up past the roof. Two of us held it that way, while two others did the same thing with another one through the window just opposite. So you see those two long strips stuck up, one on either side of the roof. They didn't stand up straight on account of sticking down through the windows, but they slanted away from each other up above. It took four of us to hold them that way.



While we were doing that, Pee-wee had the little movie lamp turned up so it smoked and he held the piece of glass over it until it was all black with soot. Pee-wee was all black with soot, too. A scout is thorough. In two minutes more, I guess, he would have been disguised as a negro.

"Turn it down," I said; "that's enough. Are you game to climb up on the car? Get the sheet and the rope, quick."

Pee-wee was game for anything. You never saw him back down, did you? Not even—but never mind. That's a thing of the past. In five seconds that little monkey was up on top of the car with the screen cloth and the rope that we always used to hang it from. I called up out of the window for him to look out.

"I don't see any trains," he shouted down.

"I mean look out for yourself," I said. "Tie the rope across from one stick to the other as high as you can reach," Wig shouted; "and be careful when you stand up."

"That's nothing," Pee-wee shouted.

In less than half a minute the sticks stood up all right without being held, and we knew that they were tied together and bent enough toward each other so that they would stand up good and solid. Then we told him to sit down, because we didn't want him standing and reaching up to fix the sheet.

"I'll go up," I said.

When I got up on the roof, Pee-wee and I hooked the sheet to the rope all the way across and tied it to the sticks at the bottom, so it wouldn't blow. Then we dangled the end of rope down past the window just below, and the fellows tied the movie apparatus to it, and we hauled it up. There was a kind of a tank lying flat on the roof and fastened tight, and we stood the apparatus close against that, and kept close to it ourselves to keep from slipping and falling off. Jiminies, I've heard of tramps riding on the tops of cars like that, but believe me, I wouldn't want to be on the top of one while it was going.

With my little finger I printed the word STOP in good big black letters on the smoked glass.

"Listen," Pee-wee said; "shh; do you hear a train?"

I listened. "I guess it's just the fellows down in the car," I said. "Have you got matches?"

"I've got four pockets full of them," he said. Even then I had to laugh. A scout is thorough.

"Listen," he said; "I think it's a train."

Away off I could hear a rattling sound, very low and quick—tkd, tkd, tkd, tkd, tkd, tkd, tkd, tkd; then all of a sudden a long, shrill whistle. And I could hear it again, very low, echoing from the mountains.

"She's coming!" Connie shouted up.

"We should worry," I hollered down.

But just the same my hand trembled as I put the piece of glass into the apparatus, and held it there in place.

There wasn't any sign of light anywhere, the cloth stayed as dark as pitch.

"What's the matter?" Pee-wee asked, all breathless.

"It doesn't work," I said. I could hardly speak, and cold shudders were going all through me.

Away far off, there came a big patch of light on one of the mountains, so that we could even see the trees off there. It was from the headlight of a locomotive that we couldn't see yet. I guess it was coming around the mountain.

"All right?" Westy called up out of the window.

"It doesn't work, Westy," I said.

I could hardly speak, my throat felt so queer, sort of.



CHAPTER XXVII

"POTS"

"Did you take the cap off?" Westy called up. Thoughtful little Westy!

"G—o—o—d night," I said; "I never took the cap off the lens cylinder."

"Maybe that was the reason," Pee-wee said, in that innocent way of his.

"It's just possible," I said.

I took off the cap and, oh, Christopher Columbus, wasn't I happy! Sprawling right across that sheet was the word STOP in good big letters. Believe me, that was my favorite word. STOP. It showed far enough in both directions for an engineer to see it in time to come to a full stop.

"Will they see it?" Pee-wee asked me, all excited.

"If the engineer isn't dead, he'll see it," I told him.

"Maybe we ought to have said please, hey? A scout is supposed to be polite," he said. I just had to sit back and laugh, right there on the roof of that car. Cracky, but that kid is a scream.

One funny thing was that from the train the word would show wrong side around. It would show the right way from one direction and the wrong way from the other direction.

"It will read POTS," I said.

"Maybe he won't stop, hey?" the kid asked me.

"Sure he will," I said; "how does he know how big the pots are? It will knock him silly when he sees that."

Even beyond the screen, away over against a hill, we could see the word POTS printed very dim and small. Only the P was wrong side around.

But anyway, safety first; so I kept moving the glass so the word danced around. An engineer who couldn't have seen that must have been blind.

Pretty soon, along she came, and we could see the headlight now, good and clear, and hear her thundering along as if she should worry about anything. Rattle, bang, she went, and roaring and clanking as if she'd be glad to trample the whole world down and never even stop to take notice. Slam, bang, she came along, and we could see the mountains as plain as day, brightened up by her headlight.

I just held the glass, moving it around, and I have to admit I was a little kind of nervous, sort of.

Slam bang, slam bang! She came along and we could hear the rattling and clanking echoing from the mountains, and the racket was all mixed up. Sparks of light were flying up out of the smokestack and we could hear the rails clanking, clanking....

Then the sound of the clanking changed. Then it died down, and there was only the steady rattle, rattle....

She was slowing down.

"We've got her, Kid," I said; "sit still, you'll only fall off. We've got her eating out of our hands."

"Clank, clank, clank—clank—clank," she went; then "s-s-s-s-s-s...."

She had stopped.

There she stood, puffing and puffing, part on the bridge, and part back in the dark. The locomotive seemed like a big lion that had just been going to spring at us.

"Hurrah!" we heard the fellows down in the car calling.

"P-f-f-f-f-f-f," the locomotive went.

"Let me do it! Let me do it!" Pee-wee yelled.

I took the piece of glass out and leaned back against the tank. All of a sudden I saw something else sprawled all over the sheet. It was the right way around, too, for the engineer. I guess Pee-wee had been carrying it in his pocket. Anyway, there were spots on it where the soot had been wiped off. But it was easy to read it, and this is what it said:

MUCH OBLIGED, MISTER

Honest, can you beat that kid?



CHAPTER XXVIII

"SEEN IN THE MOVIES"

I guess the fellows down in the car must have seen the notice where it was printed kind of faint like, against a hill, because they couldn't have seen it on the screen. Anyway, they set up a howl and began shouting up out of the windows. They're a crazy bunch.

"Show them Pee-wee peeling potatoes! Show them Pee-wee flopping flip-flops!" they began yelling.

"Show them the one of me stirring soup," the kid said, grabbing me by the arm; "that's the best one!"

I said, "You crazy Indian, do you think those people in the flyer are there to see a movie show? Keep still, here come a couple of men with lanterns."

"They're going to penetrate the mystery," Pee-wee said. I guess he got that out of some book, hey? Penetrate the mystery.

I said, "As long as they didn't penetrate this car, I'm satisfied."

We could see two lights bobbing along toward us from the train. Even with lanterns it must have been a pretty risky job, walking those ties. All the while Pee-wee and I were taking down the sheet, and as soon as we loosened it from the sticks, the fellows down in the car pulled them in.

"Look how clear it shows against the hill, now the sheet isn't up," I said to Pee-wee.

I guess you know what I meant, all right. Even through the sheet the printing had shown kind of dim against a hill in back of the train, but with the sheet taken down it showed pretty clear and it seemed awful funny. And besides, now that the sheet was down we had a good look at the train; the light from the movie apparatus seemed to shine right along the tops of the cars.

All of a sudden, Pee-wee grabbed me by the arm and said, "Look! Look! On the top of the second car. Look! Do you see? Right beside that long sort of a boiler thing."

I looked, and then, for once, I had sense enough to do the right thing in a hurry. I closed the shutter in the apparatus.

"Did you see them?" Pee-wee whispered, all excited.

"Sure," I said; "two men."

They were lying on the top of the car, right close against a big, long thing like a boiler. It was much bigger than the thing on our car. One was lying on one side of it, and the other one on the opposite side. The reason I shut the light off in such a hurry was because I didn't want them to know they were seen.

"Are they train robbers?" Pee-wee whispered to me. "Are they highwaymen?"

"They're high enough to be highwaymen," I told him.

"Maybe they're bandits, hey?" he said.

"I hope so, for your sake," I told him. "I hope they're a couple of pirates, but I guess they're only tramps. Come on, let's go down."

We dangled the movie apparatus down and the fellows took it in through the window. Then they came out on the platform and helped the kid and me down. That was a pretty hard job, believe me. Just as we got our feet on terra what d'ye call it.—I mean terra cotta[A]—that Latin for platform—anyway, you know what I mean—as soon as we got our two feet (I mean four feet) on the platform, the two men with lanterns had just reached it.

One of the men said, "What's all this? What are you doing here, anyway? Who are you?" Gee whiz, it sounded like an examination paper.

Whenever we get mixed up with grown-up people it's usually me—I mean I—that has to do the talking. Pee-wee usually helps though. So I gave the men our regular motto.

I said, "We're here because we're here. Ask me something easy. This is the Comedy of Errors." I said that because we have the Comedy of Errors in school and I just happened to think of it.

I guess the man was the fireman; anyway, he had on a jumper. He walked into the car and looked all around with his lantern and the other man looked all around, too, trying to size us up, I guess.

The fireman said, "Comedy of Errors, huh?"

Pee-wee said, "Sure, that's in Shakespeare."

"Well, it's mighty gol darn lucky you had a movie machine along," the fireman said. "You youngsters have had a mighty narrow escape."

"Why shouldn't it be a narrow escape?" Connie said. "It's a narrow bridge. Anyway, where do we go from here?"

"There's a couple of men lying on the top of one of your cars, too," Pee-wee said; "we could see them by the light."

"Tramps, I guess," the brakeman said. He didn't seem to be surprised.

So then we told them all about how it was with us—our adventures with the car and all that. They said we had a bad coupling and that it was no wonder it had parted.

"We should worry," I told him; "scouts stick together, even if couplings part. But anyway, we'd like to get off this bridge."

The fireman said it wouldn't be a bad idea.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote A: He probably meant terra firma.]



CHAPTER XXIX

"FOILED"

Pretty soon they went back to the train and then, after about ten minutes, the engine began puffing and coming toward us ever so slow. It seemed as if it hardly moved.

"I think we're going to get a good bunk in the nose," Wig said.

"Good night," I told him; "I hope it doesn't pick up speed."

"I'd rather see it pick up anything than that," Connie said.

"Suppose it had hit us at full speed," Pee-wee said.

"It would have been a home run all right," I told him.

Even with that locomotive just creeping along toward us, it scared me. It seemed as if it couldn't touch our car without banging it into splinters. But that engineer knew what he was doing all right. The train came along so slowly you could hardly tell it was moving, and sometimes it stopped and started again. Pee-wee said it was going scout pace. But it was more like a snail's pace, I guess.

Pretty soon it stopped just about ten feet from us and the headlight brightened up the whole car. I could feel the bridge tremble a little, sort of keeping time with that great big locomotive, as it stood there puffing and just kind of throbbing. And I thought how all that engineer would have to do was pull a handle and—g—o—o—d night! He was sitting, looking out of the window, sort of calm and easy, smoking a pipe. Connie called up to him and said, "Hey, Mister, have a heart and don't start anything." The engine just went, "pff, pff, pff," very slow. We could even feel the heat of it.

Somebody called out for us to get inside the car and stay there. A man went through our car with a red lantern and kept swinging it on the other platform. I could see men swinging red lights way in the back of the train, too. Some people on the train tried to get out, but the railroad men made them get on again. I could hear a lady crying that there was going to be a bad collision. Cracky, I never heard of a good one, did you?

The men between the front of the engine and our car had a long iron bar, sort of, and they had one end of it fixed in a sort of coupling just above the cow-catcher. It was pretty hard keeping us off the platform, so we saw everything they did. The other end of that bar they held up so it stuck out like a shaft, and then the engine moved about an inch, then stopped, then moved about another inch, then stopped. Gee whiz, I was glad I wasn't down there with those men. Yum, yum, I like sandwiches, but I don't like being the middle part of one. Then all of a sudden, bunk.

The men climbed up on our car and in a minute, chu chu, along we went ever so slow, the engine pushing us.

When we were off the bridge, the train stopped and the men on the other end of our car went away along the tracks, swinging their lanterns. Gee, it's all right to say a bridge is strong, and I guess that one was, all right, but me for the good solid earth. It feels good underneath you.

Pretty soon the conductor and a lot of passengers came along to take a look at us. What did we care? Everybody said we were wonders to think about using the movie apparatus and they were laughing. I guess it was at the word pots, hey? One man said we were prenominal,[B] or something or other like that—I should worry.

Pretty soon we noticed a little crowd of people outside the second car, so we went up that way to see what was the matter. A couple of men were just coming down off the platform and each of them was holding a man by the collar. The men they were holding had on scout hats. I took one look and g—o—o—d night! Those two fellows were the automobile thieves.

"What—do—you—know—about—that?" Connie whispered to me.

"And the train people never knew they were up there until we told them," Westy said.

I guess the two men were detectives. Anyway, just as they stepped off, they let go the one man and one of them said, "Now you two hoboes beat it, and the next time either of you is caught riding on this road, you'll do time for it There's the road——"

Jiminetty! I didn't wait for him to say any more. I just went right up to that detective and I said, "Mister, those men are worse than tramps; they're not tramps at all; they're thieves; they stole an automobile; hurry up, you'd better catch him."

Oh, boy, didn't he grab hold of that fellow again! The fellow must have seen some of us, because he was just starting to run when, zippo, that detective had him by the collar again. The other one hadn't been let go even, so he was safe.

By that time passengers from the train were crowding around and Pee-wee was right in the center, shouting, same as he always does. "They're—they're desperate—culprits——" he said; "we foiled them once before—we did——"

All the passengers were laughing. Even the conductor and the detectives were laughing. I was laughing so hard, I couldn't speak.

He just shouted on, "You can say what you want about robbers and bandits and—and all things like that being bad—in the movies—but anyway, I don't care how many censors there are—you've got to admit that the movies are all right—they can—what d'ye call it—they can reveal identities, they can——"

Then Westy spoke up. He said, "This is our little mascot; he's harmless." Then he told all about how our car was stalled on the road and how the thieves got away. Westy always has his wits about him when he talks, that's one thing.

One of the detectives said, "Can you boys positively identify this pair?"

"Haven't they got our hats?" I said. "Sure we can identify them."

The two thieves looked at us as if to try to scare us, but what did we care? They made a big fuss and said they were only tramps, but it didn't do them any good, and nobody believed them. Because all those people could see we knew what we were talking about, especially Westy, because he's always so sober, like. And besides, they knew that we were the ones who had first discovered them on top of the car, and I guess they saw that we had some sense, because on account of our flashing the signal in that way.

Anyway, you can bet those two fellows didn't get away. The men took them into the baggage car and that was the last we saw of them, because after the train started we had to stay in our own car, on account of the engine being between us and the train. That was the only thing that kept Pee-wee from giving a movie show.

But the fireman came in to see us, because he knew how to climb all over the engine. He told us that those fellows had handcuffs on, and he got all our names and addresses, because he said we'd have to come back and be witnesses. But we never did, because the fellows confessed. Gee whiz, I would have liked to go back again. Maybe it wouldn't have been so much fun though, hey? I guess maybe I wouldn't have liked to. It's no fun seeing people sent to jail. But anyway, one sure thing, they had no right to steal a Pierce-Arrow. Even they wouldn't have had any right to steal a Ford.

But anyway, who'd want to steal a Ford?

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote B: Phenomenal is probably what the man said.]



CHAPTER XXX

OUR PATROL "SING"

So you have to admit that there were two thieves that really got caught in the movies. Mr. Ellsworth says that movies with thieves and robbers and pistols and things are no good. But if it hadn't been for that movie outfit, good night, where would we have been, I'd like to know? And where would those thieves have been?

Anyway, pretty soon the excitement was all over, except that Pee-wee kept things going. Nothing but an earthquake would stop him. It was pretty bright in our car on account of the headlight from the engine. We moved along so slowly that I guess I could walk just as fast. The fireman paid us a good visit. He was an awful nice fellow. He could bend his left thumb way back. He said he would be an engineer pretty soon. Jiminy, I hope he's one by now.

He told us that the engineer was going to push us as far as Flimdunk Siding and leave us there and that another train would pick us up the next day. He said both our couplings were rusted out and no good and one of them would have to be fixed before we could be taken on.

He said, "We can't push you far like this; 'tisn't safe and we have to just crawl."

"Flimdunk suits us all right," I told him; "we're not particular. Columbus didn't know where he was going anyway, and to-morrow's Columbus Day. We should worry."

He said he guessed Number 23 would pick us up.

"Good night!" I told him, "that means more adventures. I suppose that's the skiddo special. Probably we'll be dumped off a cliff. All in the game."

He laughed and said that probably we wouldn't have any more trouble, because Number 23 made a quick run straight to Jersey City.

"What does it want to go to Jersey City for?" Wig asked him.

He said, "Well, it doesn't stay there long."

"I don't blame it," Connie piped up.

He told us that when we got to Jersey City a Northern local would pick us up and drop us at Bridgeboro.

"All right, just as you say," I told him.

Anyway, we weren't going to worry about it. When we got home we'd get home, that was all. And when we didn't, we wouldn't.

After the fireman went away, we fixed two seats facing each other and sprawled all over them. I guess we were getting pretty sleepy.

"Shout to the engineer to turn off that headlight and we'll go to sleep," Wig said.

"Let's make some turnovers first," Pee-wee said.

"All right, you make them," I said.

Then followed a big chunk of silence.

All of a sudden Connie started singing:

"We stood on the bridge at midnight."

"Keep your feet off me," I said; "what do you think I am? A door-mat?"

"Let's make up another verse," Wig said.

"Let's put Flimdunk in it!" Pee-wee shouted.

Pretty soon all of us were singing:

"We stood on the bridge at midnight, We stood on the bridge at midnight, We stood on the bridge at midnight."

Then somebody sang:

"We came near getting a bunk, We came near getting a bunk."

Then we all sang:

"We stood on the bridge at midnight, We came near getting a bunk; We came near getting a bunk; We came——"

"We flashed them POTS!" Pee-wee yelled.

"Now we're on our way to Flimdunk," Westy said.

So pretty soon this is what we were all singing:

"We stood on the bridge at midnight, We came near getting a bunk; We flashed them POTS for an S—O—S, Now we're on our way to Flimdunk."

Gee whiz, I have to admit we're a crazy bunch in our patrol.



CHAPTER XXXI

FLIMDUNK SIDING

After a little while, Pee-wee fell asleep, but the rest of us stayed awake, because we wanted to see what kind of a place we were going to stop at.

For about fifteen or twenty minutes the engine pushed us awfully slow, then we stopped, and a couple of men went between our car and the engine and did something to that long iron bar. We watched them from the platform. Then one of the men went through our car to the other platform and the other one stayed on the platform near the engine. Another man started along the track with a lantern.

"The plot grows thicker," I said; "what's going to happen now?"

"Search me," Connie said; "look around and see if you see Flimdunk anywhere—not inside the car, you crazy Indian."

I was looking inside the car for it.

"How could we tell it if we saw it?" Connie asked us.

"Can't you tell a village when you see one? It'll look like a young town," Westy said.

"The fireman didn't say anything about a town anyway," I told them; "he just said Flimdunk Siding."

"Maybe that man is swinging the lantern so the town can get off the track," Wig said; "anyhow, I bet something is going to happen."

It was pitch dark all around, except that the headlight of the locomotive made a long shaft like a searchlight 'way far ahead, and we could see the man walking along the track in that shaft, swinging his lantern. Our car was all bright, too. It seemed awful lonesome where he was going, far ahead in the dark. The locomotive kept going pfff, pfff, pfff, just like a horse stamping his foot, because he's in a hurry to start. It seemed kind of as if it didn't want to wait.

"Have we come to the siding?" I asked the man on the platform.

"You'll have to take the switch," he said.

"We wouldn't take anything that didn't belong to us," Connie said; "you'll have to give it to us if you want us to take it."

"I don't care so much about having one, anyway," I said. I guess that man thought we were crazy.

"We'll give you the run," he said.

"I wouldn't blame you for doing that if we took the switch," Wig told him. Gee, he had to laugh.

Pretty soon the man who was far ahead began swinging his lantern around in a circle. Then the engine gave a kind of a quick, shrill whistle, and we started again. We went a little faster than before and then, all of a sudden, we saw the engine standing quite a way off, and already the men on our car were turning the hand brakes. Our car was rattling along all by itself. In about half a minute, kerlick, kerlick, it went on a switch and then the men began yanking on the brake handles for all they were worth.

But I knew that old car all right, and its brakes were pretty near as bad as its couplings.

"Oh, merrily, merrily on we roll," Connie began singing.

"What's the matter with this plaguey old boat?" one of the men said, all the while bracing his feet and pulling and pulling on the wheel.

"It likes to go off on a hike by itself," I said; "you should worry. When it stops, it stops."

"Well, it better stop pretty soon," he said, "or else——Here, get hold of this wheel, you kids, and pull."

"Them brakes got about as much bite in 'em as a ki-oodle," the man said; "how old is this old scow? 'Bout a hundred, I guess."

"This old car is all right," I told him; "a scout must have respect for age—page something-or-other-scout handbook. We may be old ourselves some day. What do we care, yo ho?"

He said, "Well, I hope the brakes on your tongue will work better than they do now."

"The pleasure is mine," I told him.

Two of us were pulling away as hard as we could, helping one of the trainmen, two were helping the man on the other platform, and Pee-wee was sleeping peacefully inside with his head on the floor and one of his legs sprawled up over the seat.

As well as I could see, we were rolling merrily along a track that branched away from the main track. I thought that, because I couldn't see the full blaze of the engine's headlight any more, and I knew we were verging away from the railroad.

"Talk about prodigal sons," Westy said; "when this old car gets back home, they ought to kill the fatted calf for it."

"Good night," I told him; "if the fatted calf gets on the track, he'll be killed all right."

"Oh, boys, where do we go from here?" Wig began singing.

But those trainmen didn't seem to think it was much of a joke. All of a sudden, we went rattling through an opening in a fence and I saw a couple of big white things near us.

"They're tents," Westy said.

By now the car was slowing down and pretty soon it stopped right in front of a big dark thing—a kind of a building. If we'd have gone fifty feet more, we'd have bunked our nose right into it.

The trainman said, "That's the craziest old set of brakes I ever saw. You'll have to be contented to stay right here, that's all; twenty-three'll back in after you."

"Contented is our favorite nickname," I told him; "is this Flimdunk, with the fence around it? It's a good idea—the place can't run away. I hope they'll like us."

"Do you think we're intruding?" Westy said.

I guess those trainmen set us down for a lot of idiots. Anyway, they didn't have to tell us so, because we admit it. They said that the brakes were worn off so much that they didn't press hard against the wheels, only sort of gentle, like. They were nice polite brakes.

One of the trainmen said he'd leave us a lantern so we could see to talk; then they went back out through the fence and I could see their lanterns making circles in the dark. Pretty soon we could hear the engine puffing and all of a sudden, it gave a loud, shrill whistle. It sounded as if the train was coming very slowly up toward the switch, but in about a couple of minutes we could hear it rattling along, farther and farther away, and going faster and faster.

"So long, old flyer," Westy called.

I said, "Listen! Listen to the sound it makes—tk-ed, tk-ed, tk——It seems as if it's saying, 'twenty-three for yours,' doesn't it?"

"Skiddo, flyer!" Connie shouted; "anyhow, you were foiled by the Boy Scouts."

That word foiled reminded us of Pee-wee, so we went inside and looked at him. I guess the stopping of the car had shaken him up some. His head was way underneath the seat, one of his arms was halfway up on the seat and one of his legs was on the movie outfit in the aisle.

It was a sight for a painter. I mean a sign painter.



CHAPTER XXXII

EXPLORING

"What do you say we explore the neighborhood?" Wig said.

"What do you say we put a block in front of the wheels?" I said. "Safety first."

"This seems to be a kind of a walled city, like China," Connie said. "I can see a kind of a shadow. Do you suppose that's the fence going all the way around?"

"Sure it is," I told him; "all we have to do is shut those big gates and the car will never get away. Only China isn't a city, if anybody should ask you."

"What's the difference?" he said. "Nobody's likely to ask me."

"This is a very mysterious place," Westy said; "I, for one, would like to know where we're at." That's just the nice way he talks. It's caused by his bringing up.

I said, "Oh, dear me, I for two, would be delighted to ascertain."

"Where do you think we are?" he said.

"That's easy," I told them; "I know where we are."

"Where are we?" Wig wanted to know.

"We're here," I told him.

"Yes, but what is this?"

"It's a place, that's all I know," Connie piped up.

"Come on, let's wake up the kid," Wig said; "and take a stroll around. It looks to me like a ball field or something like that. Anyway, those are tents over there."

We didn't dare to start out without Pee-wee, so we shook him up and dragged him up and down the aisle and played football with him, and at last he let out a long groan and we knew we had him started.

"Wh-a-a-t—where—am I?" he yawned.

"We were just going to have a game of one o'cat with you," I told him; "wake up, it's twenty years later; the peace treaty has just been signed."

"Who signed it?" he gasped.

"I did," I said; "come on, get up."

If you can once get him on his feet, he usually stays up. I said, "We're in a land of mystery; we've got Alice in Wonderland tearing her hair from jealousy. I think we're in somebody's back yard."

"Where's the train?" he asked.

"It went down the street to get a soda," I said.

That opened his eyes all right. "Can you get sodas around here?" he shouted.

We got hold of a chunk of wood and blocked one of the car wheels and then started out. We couldn't see very well in the dark, but we made out that the high fence went all the way around a great big flat field. There was a kind of a wide road around near the fence. The tracks ran right up under that building that we had seen ahead of us, into a kind of a tunnel. We saw it was an ice-house, and I guess ice was loaded onto cars there.

The two white things that we had seen were tents and there was a light in one of them, but we didn't go in. There were little buildings around, but they were closed up. There was a kind of a big platform with a railing around it. In another place there was a long shed full of cows. There were kind of things like mess boards all around, only some of them were too high for mess boards.

"I give it up," I said

"It's a cross between a barn-yard and a picnic ground," Connie said.

Westy said, "I think it's an aviation field."

"Sure," I told him; "how stupid of me. And the cows are aviators."

"What do you say we follow the fence around?" Westy said.

"What do you say we don't?" I said. "Come on, let's go back and I'll cook some fritters and then we'll get our suits off and have a good sleep, and to-morrow we'll see what we see."

We were all pretty sleepy, so we decided to do that. If we had taken a little hike all the way around near the fence, the terrible thing that I am going to tell you about now, would never have happened. You had better get ready for it, because it's one of the most terrible things that I ever told. When you hear about it, you'll turn cold and your hair will stand up. Even now whenever I think about it, I just shake. That's the word—shake.

Yah, hah! You thought I was going to tell it in this chapter, didn't you?



CHAPTER XXXIII

OUR YOUNG HERO

Now it was so dark that we had some trouble finding our car, and before we got to it, we passed a funny kind of a little shack with a high porch in front. It didn't look exactly like a place to live in—gee, I couldn't tell you exactly what it did look like. But anyway, it was all closed up. As we passed it, we heard voices inside, but we were too sleepy and hungry to pay any attention.

All of a sudden our young hero paused and, you know, stood riveted to the spot where he stood. Anyway, if he wasn't riveted he was nailed down.

"Listen! Hark!" he said.

"We're harking," I said; "what is it?"

"Shh-h," he whispered and held his hand to his ear.

"What's the matter; have you got an earache?" Connie asked him.

"Break it to us gently," I said; "let us hear the worst."

"Shhh, listen!" he said. "Somebody's being killed."

"How tragic!" Wig said.

"It isn't tragic at all," Pee-wee said; "listen——it's true."

"Have it your own way," I told him.

"In that little house," he whispered, all the while going back on tiptoe; "hark—shh."

We all followed him back, giggling, because we had been through things like this before with our boy hero. Believe me, Dauntless Dan of the Dauntless Dan Series has nothing on Scout Harris. In front of the little shack we all stood stark still, listening.

"Do you hear it?" Pee-wee whispered. "It's a bitter struggle."

The first sound that I noticed was a sound as if a chair was falling over. Then I heard a man's voice say, "I'll choke you till you tell me. Are you ready to speak?" Then another voice said, "Never!"

Pee-wee said, "Shh, what did I tell you?"

We were all pretty interested by that time. Pretty soon a kind of a high, squeaky voice said, "Do you think I'm afraid of you—you big——" Then it seemed as if the voice was just kind of choked off, because there were stifled cries, sort of, and all the while a gruff voice saying, "Are you ready to take that back? This is your last chance—I'll teach you——" And all the while that other voice kept crying and yelling, and it seemed just as if the person must be struggling.

"It's a child," Westy said, all excited.

"He's strangling it to death," Pee-wee whispered, so scared and excited, that his voice was hoarse. And just then we could hear a long kind of a gurgle and a man's voice saying, "I'll teach you! I'll teach you!" And then the two voices seemed to be mixed up together.

"Wait here," Pee-wee said, and off he started, pell-mell for the tent where there was a light inside.

In ten seconds he was back with a couple of men, and shouting, "In that shack! In that shack! A man is murdering somebody in that shack! Hurry up!"

By that time we were all pretty scared, I guess. The two men vaulted up on to the platform and pushed the door open and we stood outside looking up over the edge of the platform. All of a sudden Westy said, "What—do—you—know——"

That was all he could say. He just vaulted up himself with the rest of us after him. And there we all stood in the doorway, only Pee-wee pushed his way inside.

Jiminetty! I almost fell in a fit, I laughed so hard. "Save me," I said to Westy, "before I fall off the platform."

But Westy was laughing too hard to save anybody.

Right there in front of us in a little room, there was a man in his shirt sleeves sitting on the side of a kind of a sleeping bunk. Sitting on one of his knees was one of those big funny-looking dolls with a black face and a big, square mouth that works by a hinge. The doll was straddling the man's knee and one of its legs was dangling down on either side.

"What's the big idea?" the man said.

Both of the other men were laughing so hard, they couldn't speak, but one of them pointed at Pee-wee. Our young hero just stood there, panting, all out of breath, and gaping like an idiot.

"I—I—eh—I didn't know you were a ven—a ven——-" he blurted out. "I thought you were murdering somebody—I—I did."

The man just looked at him and smiled; then he began to laugh. He said, "I consider that a compliment, my young friend; you're welcome. Sam, tell the young gentleman he is welcome."

The big fancy doll said, "You're welcome." And, gee whiz, it sounded just as if it came out of his own throat. Pee-wee just stood there staring at Sam, and Sam sat there on the ventriloquist's lap, staring very bold at Pee-wee.

"Tell the young gentleman we were having a rehearsal," the man said; and Sam said, "We were having a rehearsal."

Pee-wee just stood there not saying a word, and gaping at Sam and at the man. All of a sudden we heard a cat meowing right near.

"Look out, you're stepping on the cat," the man said to Pee-wee. Pee-wee moved his feet as if he were in a trance and looked down.

But there wasn't any cat at all.

Gee, that man was a wonder.



CHAPTER XXXIV

THE TRAIN

That man's name was Pedro De Vail, and he was French, only he was born in Hoboken. He was the greatest ventriloquist in the whole world. He said so, and gee whiz, he ought to know. Westy said that when he said anything, it counted for a whole lot, because he could say it in half a dozen different voices. But, oh, boy, Pee-wee lost his voice entirely. Anyway, Mr. Pedro said it didn't make any difference, because he had a lot of voices to spare. I guess he kind of liked Pee-wee.

As long as we were there we made him a call, and I guess he'd be pretty good at stalking, because he could imitate all the animals and birds, and he could make you think he was sawing wood. He said that the place where we were was the Fair Grounds, and that the next day the Firemen's Carnival was going to start there. He said it was going to last three days. He said he always went to County Fairs and Carnivals and things like that. He told us that Flimdunk was about a couple of miles away.

We told him all about our adventures and about the Brewster's Centre car. I said, "As long as we're here, I'm glad of it, because we can take in the Carnival. I hope that train twenty-three doesn't come until late to-morrow; I hope it doesn't come until to-morrow night. Better late than sooner."

He said, "Well, there are going to be big doings to-morrow—races, balloon ascension, murders and everything like that. But I'm afraid you boys are going to be disappointed. There's a train comes through here about four or five in the morning, going east. I think that'll be the one to pick you up."

We went back to our car feeling pretty glum about it. Jiminies, you couldn't blame us. What was the good of being left at a carnival in the middle of the night and taken away again before daylight? That's one thing I don't like about railroads; they do just as they please. They push you and pull you around and take you away again before you want to go.

"Why can't they let us spend Columbus Day here?" Westy wanted to know.

"When did the brakeman say it would come?" Connie asked.

"Hanged if I remember," I said; "but I knew how it would be when I heard that the train would be Number Twenty-three. I'll never trust that number."

"And races and everything, too," Wig said.

"Sure, and a balloon ascension," Connie began grouching.

"Maybe he's mistaken," I said; "we've had pretty good fun, anyway."

"You call it fun, starting away just when the fun is going to begin?" Pee-wee piped up.

I guess we didn't know what to think or what to expect. Anyway, I knew that the train that had left us there would telegraph to some place or other about us, that was all I knew. When another train stopped for us, we'd just have to go.

"Anyway, let's have something to eat and turn in," I said; "we'll just have to trust to luck."

One sure thing, we all felt pretty bad, because the next day was a holiday and there'd be lots of fun at that Carnival. I made some rice cakes and then we fixed the seats and turned in.

I don't know how long I had been asleep, but what made me wake up was the whistle of a locomotive. Westy woke up, too, and we both listened.

"It's coming," he said.

"The game is up," I told him.

Pretty soon we were all awake, listening. The train was backing down along the branch track and coming nearer and nearer to us. We could hear the engine puffing, and the sound of wheels going ker-lick, ker-lick, as the train backed in very slowly. Gee whiz, I was feeling sore.

"Come on out on the platform," Westy said.

"This railroad makes me sick," Connie grouched.

"Why couldn't they wait until to-morrow night?" Wig wanted to know. "I thought we were going to have a good day's fun."

Out on the platform all we saw was a man sitting on the railing in the dark.

"Where's the pesky old train, anyway?" I said.

"Train?" the man said; "what train?"

Then he just reached forward and ruffled up our young hero's hair.

I was all flabbergasted. "Mr. Pedro!" I just blurted out.

"I thought I'd pay you back, that's all," he said.

Oh, boy, couldn't that man imitate a train!



CHAPTER XXXV

THE PROFITEERS

When we went out in the morning the surprise was mutual. Gee, it was especially mutual. There was a crowd outside the car, staring up at it. It must have looked funny standing there with BREWSTER'S CENTRE sprawled all over it. There were all kinds of people in that crowd. One of them was a woman who was a fortune teller. She had on a dress with all spangles on it. Her name was Princess Mysteria. I wanted to ask her when the train would come for us and if we'd have any more adventures, but Westy wouldn't let me, because it cost twenty-five cents. He said he'd rather spend the twenty-five cents for licorice jaw-breakers and then we'd know what was happening to us. Gee whiz, you don't need any fortune teller after eating licorice jaw-breakers.

All around in that place men were opening booths and putting up tents and getting counters ready, so they could sell peanuts and lemonade and ice-cream cones and canes and fancy glass jars and other things to eat and drink—not canes and glass jars. There was a merry-go-round, too, and it had an organ that played We're on our way.

"Jiminies," Westy said; "I don't know where anyone would expect to get to, riding on a merry-go-round."

Pretty soon a man came up to us and asked us how we got there. I guess he was one of the head men of the Carnival.

I said, "Isn't this Flimdunk Siding? We're supposed to stay here until a train picks us up."

He said, "Yes, but this car has no business inside the fence; this is the old ice-house freight siding. They should have left you standing out near the main line."

I said, "Yes, but this car has something to say about it, too, and it wouldn't stop, so here we are. Don't blame us, blame the car. That's the way it is with railroads, they don't care about anybody's rights."

"That ain't the main entrance you came through," he said; "that gate was open so stuff could be brought in on the freight cars."

"It's all the same to us," I told him; "we're here, because we're here."

He said, "Well, you'll have to pay your admission or be put out."

Connie said, "How are you going to put this car out? If you once get it started it may roll all the way back onto the main track and we'll die a horrible death."

"Yes, and then you'll be sorry," Pee-wee said.

The man said, "Well, this car hasn't got any right on the grounds, that's all."

I said, "Mister, I don't know what we can do, unless we get a couple of those elephants from the merry-go-round to drag it away."

Pretty soon two other men came along and they all stood there talking about what they had better do, and we sat on the steps of the platform, listening to them.

"You seem to be live wires, leastways," one of them said.

"Sure," I told him; "we were struck by lightning when we were kids."

Then they whispered together for about a minute and after that the man who seemed to be a head man said, "Well, as long as the car's here, we'll let it stay here and you youngsters can scamper about and enjoy yourselves. 'Long as the car's standing idle, we'll use it for a concession booth."

They went away talking about it and we started asking each other what they meant, because we were beginning to get a little scared, sort of. We didn't want to give up our car. Pretty soon Mr. Pedro came along and we told him all about it.

He said he was on our side. This is just what he said; he said, "These people are a crew of bandits. Do you know how much I'm paying for that little shanty? Fifty dollars for the three days. Do you know how much the Princess is handing over for the space where she has her little tent? Seventy dollars, cold cash. She says if she'd known it would be anything like that, she'd never have come."

Westy said, "I should think she would have known it, on account of being a fortune teller."

"What they're going to do," he said, "is to turn this car over to that Punch and Judy man and he'll run an indoor show and whack up with them on a fifty per cent basis. Look at me? I have to give an outside show and pass the hat. You're in a robbers' den here, boys; they're all profiteers. You take a tip from me and stand on your rights."

"Sure," I said, "and we'll stand on our car platform, too."

He said, "These fellows know your couplings are in bad shape and will have to be fixed before you're taken away. They know you'll be here all day at the shortest. Why, they're getting twenty cents for a glass of milk down yonder—it's awful. These people will corner the United States currency before the day's over."

Westy said, "But anyway, this car has no right here, we have to admit that."

Mr. Pedro said, "Well, that's a fine legal question and I don't know what the Supreme Court would say about it. As you said, you're here, because you're here. I think that's a pretty strong argument."

"I invented it," Pee-wee shouted.

Mr. Pedro said, "The car has no right here, but you have a right in the car; you're part of the car, see? They can put the car off the grounds (if they know how), but they can't put you out of the car. You can stay in your car and do anything you please in your car, and nobody can stop you. If they start the car they'll have to take the consequences."

"That's what you call technology," Pee-wee shouted; "it's a teckinality.[C] What do you say we give a movie show?"

"Me for some breakfast," I said.

We wrote a couple of notices on pages out of my field book and fixed them on the doors of the car. They said:

"This car is the property of the First Bridgeboro, N. J., Troop B. S. A.

"Trespassing forbidden."

Mr. Pedro came over and told us that if anybody went in that car while we were gone, he'd call up a lawyer in Flimdunk.

As long as we didn't have much left to eat we went over to a shack and got some coffee and doughnuts. Good night! The coffee was twenty cents a cup, and the doughnuts were ten cents each. Then we had a ride on the merry-go-round, and after that we had some ice-cream cones. Those cones were fifteen cents each and even the ice cream didn't go down into the cone, like in Bennett's at home.

Westy said, "The biggest part of those doughnuts were the holes in them."

"Sure," I told him; "the price of holes has gone up; it's simply terrible the high price of emptiness."

Wig said, "I was always crazy to see a robbers' cave and now I see one."

We went out through the main entrance, because we wanted to go to Flimdunk and send telegrams to our homes, so our mothers and fathers wouldn't worry.

"It's only a couple of miles," Westy said.

"There's one funny thing about riding on a merry-go-round," Connie started in; "no matter how long a ride you take, you never have to come back."

"That's because you're already back," I told him.

He said, "Yes, but you go, don't you?"

"Sure you do," Pee-wee said.

"Then how do you get back without coming back?" Connie shot at him.