"Here comes the bus," Westy said. "Do you go up in that?"
"I guess I"ll walk," Blythe said.
"Well, we"ll be up there to-morrow, sure," Doc Carson rea.s.sured him; "some of us anyway. Even if we don"t come to stay we"ll be up there, so you look for us."
"I"m fair and square," Blythe said. "When you come you can look the place over and then say--"
"You should worry about that," Roy interrupted him.
"Maybe your people--"
"You leave our people to us," Roy said. "My father believes in camping and fun--he inherits that from me. Scouts know how to pick out fathers all right."
Their new friend smiled again, with a kind of simple pleasure at Roy"s nonsense, "I"ll look for you," he said. Then they parted.
"He"s got some walk all the way up to Camp Merritt," Doc Carson said.
"Do you suppose he hasn"t any money?"
"Looks that way," said Westy.
"I kind of like him," Doc said. "I guess he"s in hard luck all right.
I"m glad we met him."
"I"m the one that did it," Pee-wee shouted. "Didn"t I say for us all to go into Bennett"s? Now you see!"
"All we have to do is to follow you," Roy said, "and adventures come around wanting to eat out of our hands."
"And I--I"m the one to show you where there"s money too," Pee-wee said.
"I"m a capital or whatever you call it."
"You"re the smallest capital _I_ ever saw," Roy said.
CHAPTER IV
PEE-WEE FIXES IT
The concerted a.s.sault which the scouts made upon their parents for permission to proceed with their plan ended in a compromise. Late that same afternoon Mr. Ellsworth, scoutmaster of the troop, drove up to the old camp in his auto and looked over the situation. He talked with Blythe also and was evidently not unfavorably impressed, for he returned to Bridgeboro quite converted to the enterprise.
"He"s a queer kind of a duck," he said to Mr. Blakeley, referring to Blythe. "I think he"s out of luck and rather discouraged. He doesn"t say much. I think he took this job in desperation not knowing exactly how he was going to go ahead with it. He expects to get three hundred dollars for what he"s undertaken. He means to divide evenly, he said, but of course that will leave him with only twelve dollars, if the whole troop goes up. He doesn"t seem to have any grasp of things at all.
"I proposed to him that he keep one hundred dollars for himself and give the boys the other two hundred. This fellow has lost his grip and I doubt if he"ll do much work, but of course it"s his job. It"s as much to help him as anything else that I"d like to see the troop go up there. It ought to be fun camping in the ramshackle old place; I"d rather like it myself."
"This Blythe, he doesn"t belong around these parts, does he?" Mr.
Blakeley asked.
"No, I believe not, but I think he"s all right. I size him up for a disheartened member of the big army of unemployed who stumbled on this opportunity. He has a look in his eyes that goes to my heart. He needs to be out-of-doors, that"s sure. If the troop doesn"t give him a hand he"ll have to pa.s.s it up. The boys want a little money and here"s a good chance to earn it and do a good turn at the same time."
"You liked him, eh?" Mr. Blakeley asked.
"Yes, on the whole I did. He"s an odd case and I can"t altogether make him out, but I liked him. I don"t think he"s very well, for one thing."
"Well I guess it"s a good chance for the boys," Mr. Blakeley said.
That, indeed, was the consensus of opinion of the men higher up and there was another demonstration of the remarkable power which the scouts had over their parents.
"We know how to manage them all right," said Pee-wee to Roy. "I told your father I"d see that you got back all safe; I told him to leave it to me."
Pee-wee"s responsibilities, according to his own account, were many and various. He promised Doc Carson"s mother that he would personally see to it that Doc wore his sweater at night. He gave his word to Mr. Hollister that Warde would not over-eat--Pee-wee was an authority on that subject.
He distributed his promises and undertook obligation with a generosity that only a boy scout can show. He advised Mrs. Benton, Dorry"s mother, not to worry, that her son should be the subject of his especial care.
He magnanimously volunteered to be responsible for the safety of the whole troop. And he announced that Mr. Ellsworth"s judgment was the same as his own precisely.
With such a.s.surances the troops" parents could not do otherwise than surrender unconditionally, and Pee-wee of the Ravens was the hero, the George Washington, of the expedition.
At all events he carried his little hatchet with him, and it pulled on his belt so that he had to be continually hoisting it up and tightening his belt so that before the expeditionary forces had gone far he looked not unlike a bolster tied in the middle.
CHAPTER V
PEE-WEE"S DISCOVERY
The next morning the troop started on their hike to the old camp.
Excepting their tents they carried full camping equipment, blankets, cooking utensils, first aid kit, lanterns, changes of clothing, and plenty of those materials which Roy"s magic could conjure into luscious edibles. The raw material for the delectable flipflop was there, cans groaning with egg-powder, raisins for plum-duff, savory bacon, rice enough for twenty weddings and chocolate enough to corner the market in chocolate sundaes. Cans of exasperated milk, as Pee-wee called it, swelled his duffel bag, and salt and pepper he also carried because, as Roy said, he was both fresh and full of pep. Carrots for hunter"s stew were carried by the Elks because red was their patrol color. A can of lard dangled from the end of Dorry Benton"s scout staff. Beans were the especial charge of Warde Hollister because he had come from Boston.
Most of the scouts had visited Camp Merritt during the war when it was seething with activity, and when watchful sentinels stood on every road of approach, challenging the visitor and demanding to see his pa.s.s. They had been familiar with the boys in khaki, strangers in New Jersey mostly, who filled the streets of Bridgeboro. But they had not visited the old camp since it had become a deserted village.
It seemed strange to them that the place which had so lately swarmed with life, and had a sort of flaunting air of martial energy and preparation, should have become the lonely biding place of one poor soul and that its only service now was to stand between that poor stricken derelict and starvation.
If they had taken their way up the Knickerbocker Road along which auto parties and pedestrians had once thronged to see the soldiers, they would have found the going easy, but instead they followed the river northward, for five or six miles, then cut through the country eastward which would bring them to the western extremity of the old camp.
In this last part of their journey they fell into an indistinct trail, much overgrown, running through an area of comparatively wild country.
This, indeed, had been a beaten path between the camp and the villages to the west. It had known the tread of many an A. W. O. L.[1] soldier, yet it had not been altogether a secret path, but rather one of convenience. At all events it had been well clear of the main entrance on the Knickerbocker Road, and this conspicuous advantage had given it a certain popularity.
At the time of the boys" journey this path would probably have been indistinguishable to any but scouts. It brought them soon to an old tumbled-down building which had never been more than a mere shack, and was now so utterly dilapidated that living in it would be quite out of the question. Some remnants of a roof remained in a few shreds of curled, rotten shingles, the foundation was intact, and the sides though bulging and full of gaping crevices were still standing.
"Oh look at the house, it"s all ruined like Reims Cathedral," Pee-wee shouted. This, indeed, was its only point of resemblance to Reims Cathedral. "Come on inside," he continued, leading the way, "it"s a dandy place, it"s all caving in."
"I suppose they want about a thousand dollars a month rent for this place," said Westy Martin.
"Sure," said Roy, "it has all modern improvements, free shower-baths when it rains and everything."