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. .h.i.t 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?"