"Anybody that's afraid can get out and walk," I said. "We've got aprivate car and a private yacht too. We're a rich patrol. I don't thinkwe'll notice that crowd up at Temple Camp any more. We've got SubmarineSam looking like a mamma's boy. A life on the ocean wave for us."
"We're going sideways," Westy said.
"Frontways and sideways, what do we care?" I said.
"Railroad travel is all right, but ocean travel for me," Will said.
"What are you kicking about?" Pee-wee yelled. "We've got both."
"If a stray airplane would only drop on us now we'd be happy," I said.
"You want too much," Pee-wee shouted. "We can't have _everything_."
CHAPTER XXXVI--THE OTHER ENDING
Now if you want to know all about that, I mean what happened, you canfind it in the Bridgeboro paper of the next day. Even newspaperreporters came from New York to find out about it. And they had articlesand pictures and everything.
That was the first time in a good many years that the creek had backedup into the marsh. Always that creek flows into the river. But the riverwas so full that it made the creek back up, and I should worry about allthat business, because this is vacation and I'm not thinking aboutgeography. If the creek wanted to back up it's none of my business.That's between the creek and the river and the uncivil engineers, and Iwouldn't trouble my young life about it.
But, anyway, once a long time ago when a creek ran through that marshthere were some scows there. Some people called them barges. Anyway,they were canal boats. They used four of those to lay the tracks acrosswhen they ran the line up to town. The other three were pretty rotten,but the one that was made out of cedar was all right. The marsh kept theseams tight. As long as the hull was tight nothing could keep it downwhen the water rose. It would take more than those old rusty tracks topress it under water. Lucky for us our car was right on it. Afterwardsthey found that the other three barges had water in them up to the levelof the water outside, and when the water rose it flowed right into themand they stayed on the bottom. That shows what cedar is.
So you see we got our car out of the marsh all right and when somethinggoes wrong it's better not to begin grouching till the next day--that'swhat I say. Wait a couple of days, that's better. Even if you wait ayear it won't do any harm.
SOME MEN THREW US A ROPE AND PULLED US ASHORE.]
It was a dandy bright morning and the tide was just about full. We wentdrifting around the bend, just as nice as could be, flopping around thisway and that, and I guess we must have looked pretty funny from theshore. Anyway, nobody saw us till we got to the Court House grounds. TheCourt House lawn runs right down to the river, and there are trees thereand benches. The county jail is there, too, and the prisoners can seethe river--a lot of good it does them. I'm glad I'm not a convict,that's one thing. But, gee whiz, I came near to being one. The onlyreason I'm not one is because I didn't commit a crime.
Now as we passed by there, who should we see sprawling under a tree nearthe shore but the five deserters from my patrol, Dorry Benton, BadManners, Charlie Seabury and the Warner twins.
I said, "Look at those five deserters, will you?"
The inventor wanted to know what a deserter was. "It's a fellow thateats two helpings of dessert," I told him.
"Give them a call," Westy said; "they don't see us."
We all started shouting together, and then they looked up.
_Good night!_
"What do you call that?" one of them yelled. "Look what's going by, willyou!"
I shouted, "Good morning, it's a beautiful afternoon this evening, isn'tit? Have you done your good turns yet?"
They all jumped up and stood on the shore, staring.
"What in the dickens----" one of them began.
"Will you look at that!" another one said.
"Where did you fellows come from?" Charlie Seabury called. "How did youget that car on a boat?"
"You forget we have brains," I shouted, "even if we do belong in thesame patrol with you. We're just going for a little sail; we'll be backin a couple of months. How did you like the movies?"
"Well--I'll--be--jiggered!" Hunt Manners shouted, just staring at us.
I said, "Oh, don't be jiggered so early in the morning. We're justmaking a strategic retreat from Cat-tail Marsh while the mosquitoes arehaving breakfast. You know what strategy is, don't you? You've heard ofthat?"
"We're going across the ocean," the inventor called.
"They'll bump into the bridge at Hanley's Crossing," I heard one of themsay to another.
"What do we care for a few bumps?" Will Dawson called. "Did you enjoyyour sodas? So sorry we couldn't join you, but our ship was sailing."
"That shows what you get for not taking my advice," Pee-wee screamed atthem. "You stick to me and you'll have adventures. You said you weredisgusted with this old car. Now you see! It's good I didn't go toTemple Camp with the Ravens. Now you see! Ya-ha, ya-ha!"
"We can rave all right without the Ravens," I said.
"Where are you going?" Dorry Benton called.
"Oh, we're not particular," I called back. "We're going till we stop andthen we won't go any further. It's so dull hanging around Bridgeboro. Weshould worry where we're going."
"We don't know where we're going but we're on our way," Will shouted atthem.
"I'm captain," the inventor shouted.
By that time we had drifted past them and it was too far to call andthey just stood there, gaping. It was awful funny to see them.
They knew that we couldn't get any further than Hanky's Crossing becausethe tide was too high for us to go under the bridge there, and I knewthey'd hike down there as fast as their legs would take them.
Sure enough, they were there waiting for us when we came flopping along.And a lot of other people were there, too. Gee whiz, everybody had heardabout us by that time. We floated right up against the bridge--bump. Andthen some men threw us a rope and we fastened it to the old barge andthey pulled us ashore. Everybody stared at us like the natives stared atColumbus Ohio when he landed on San Salvador.
We just walked ashore and I didn't pay any attention to that bunch ofquitters and I said, "This seems to be a nice place. We take possessionof it in the name of the Boy Scouts of America. Are there any ice creamstores here?"
"This is Hanley's Crossing," a little girl spoke up.
I said, "It's all right; wrap it up and we'll take it home."
Oh, boy, some excitement! We told our story and you ought to have seeneverybody stare, especially those five fellows. I guess they envied us,all right.
I said, "It serves you fellows right for leaving us. We should havestayed all separated together. Now you see what comes from not having ascout smile. The face with the smile wins. You should apologize to thenext rainstorm you see. While there's life there's adventure."
"Do you think we'd let a marsh foil us?" Pee-wee said.
"Do you think we'd desert the poor, defenseless cat-tails for an icecream soda?" Will said.
"You never can tell where a game of checkers will end," said Westy.
"Or a car," I said.
"If we have to go through fire and water we'll win," Pee-wee said.
"Hurrah for the silver-plated foxes!" I shouted.
Everybody stood around staring at us and laughing.
A man said, "Well, the bridge stopped you."
"That's different," I told him.
He said, "Oh, I see."
"Whatever happens is all right," I said "Let's hear you deny that."
Pee-wee said, "Adventures are things that happen that aren't supposed tohappen."
I said, "Sure. Some people follow adventures, but adventures follow us.That's because we're scouts."
"We always have adventures," Pee-wee said.
"Have you got any with you?" a fellow that was standing there wanted toknow.
"We'll have some more by to-morrow," I told him. "Call and inspect ourstock. Have you got any scouts down here?"
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One of the men who was laughing said, "Not a one."
"You're lucky," I told him.
He said, "Well, you kids had quite an experience."
"That's nothing," Pee-wee said. "You don't call that an experience. Thatwas just a ride."
"Worse things than that are going to happen," the inventor piped up.
But not in this story, believe me. One fire and one flood are enough.Another chapter and we might have a world war and an earthquake--that'swhat my sister said. She said adventures are all the time waiting forus. "Let them wait," I told her; "what do we care?" My father said onegood thing about us, anyway, and that is we don't shoot people likeSubmarine Sam does in the book. We shoot the chutes, that's about all weever shoot. But just the same, we have a lot of fun. In the next storyI'll tell you how we got lost in a ferris wheel.
But I can't bother to tell you now how we got our car back to VanSchlessenhoff's field, for we've got enough on our hands getting ourmushroom farm started down there by the river, and besides, we've got togo to Temple Camp. We've got to get up there in time for the lakecarnival. Maybe I'll tell you about that, too. Gee whiz, I know a lot ofthings to tell you. And I bet you'll be surprised how we got our old carback to the field.
Anyway, I'll tell you this much now. When we did get it back there wechained it down and built a stockade around it and blocked the wheelsand locked the brakes and put paper weights on the roof.
Safety first. That's what I say.
THE END
This Isn't All!
Would you like to know what became of the good friends you have made inthis book?
Would you like to read other stories continuing their adventures andexperiences, or other books quite as entertaining by the same author?
On the _reverse side_ of the wrapper which comes with this book, youwill find a wonderful list of stories which you can buy at the samestore where you got this book.
Don't throw away the Wrapper
Use it as a handy catalog of the books you want some day to have. But incase you do mislay it, write to the Publishers for a complete catalog.
THE ROY BLAKELEY BOOKS
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THE LITTLE WASHINGTONS
Their thrilling battles and expeditions generally end in "punishment"lessons read by Mrs. Parke from the "Life of Washington." The culpritslisten intently, for this reading generally gives them new ideas forfurther games of Indian warfare and Colonists' battles.
THE LITTLE WASHINGTONS' RELATIVES
The Davis children visit the Parke home and join zealously in the garnetof playing General Washington. So zealously, in fact, that little Jimalmost loses his scalp.
THE LITTLE WASHINGTONS' TRAVELS
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THE LITTLE WASHINGTONS AT SCHOOL
After the school-house battle the Washingtons discover a band of gypsiescamping near the back road to their homes and incidentally they securethe stolen horse which the gypsies had taken from the "butter and eggfarmer" of the Parkes.