He just began patting me on the shoulder and he kind of put his otherarm around Westy's shoulder.
"We were lucky they didn't ask us anything more," Westy said.
I said, "We're always lucky, we are. We were born on the seventh day ofthe seventh month, and we always eat seven helpings of dessert."
He started across the way with his arms over our shoulders, and, geewhiz, we had to go.
"Where are we going?" Westy wanted to know.
"We're going to get those sodas," Charlie said. "How about it?"
"Nobody can stand up and say he ever saw me refuse a soda," I said.
CHAPTER XXIX--THE STANDING ARMY SITTING DOWN
So that's the story of how the inventor came into our young lives,matches, Submarine Sam and all. He gave up smoking the day after hestarted it; I guess it interfered with his inventions. Anyway, it wasonly an experiment, that's what my father says, and he says all greatinventors have to make experiments. His right name that we got from theHome was Alexis Alexander Sparks. It was so long that we decided to cutit up and use it in pieces. My mother called him Alexis, my sistercalled him Al, Harry Domicile called him Madam X, and most of the troopcalled him Sparksey. Mr. Ellsworth called him A.A.S.--always aftersubmarines. My mother is a matron of that Home and she fixed it so wecould send him back when we wanted to. But we never wanted to. The onlyperson in Bridgeboro who calls him by his full name is Minerva Skybrow,because it reminds her of the history of Greece. Gee whiz, I don't wantto be reminded about that. History and practical bookkeeping--_goodnight_. I like unpractical bookkeeping better. Anyway, Alexander theGreat conquered Bridgeboro, and as long as we're talking about wars andthings, I'll tell you about the Siege of Cat-tail Marsh. That's whatcomes next, and you don't get it in school. Don't you care.
Now before I tell you about the horrible things that happened in ourinnocent young lives I'll get rid of the two other patrols in our troopso we won't have to be bothered with them. One patrol is enough, that'swhat I say. Especially the Silver Fox Patrol--that's mine. But one scoutfrom the raving Ravens we got wished on us and that was Pee-wee Harris.I guess you know him. If you don't you're lucky.
But first I have to get you across Willow Place over to theSneezenbunker land. The next Saturday Mr. Jenson's locomotive gave ourcar another shove right across where the repair shop had stood, and itwent across Willow Place fine and dandy, because we had dug the oldtracks out and sort of cleared the way. Mr. Jenson said he wouldn't pushthe car any further because he thought the trestle over the marsh wasn'tsafe. He said he wasn't going to take any chances. We said, "All right,every little bit counts." So there was our home sweet home on theSneezenbunker land, and the Sneezenbunkers didn't care, because thereweren't any of them any more anyway. They were all dead. The TrustCompany owns that land, and I said I guessed they'd trust us therebecause that was their business. They told my father it would be allright. But, gee whiz, we wanted to get down by the river. I said,"Foiled again, but what care we? We'll stay here till somethinghappens."
The next thing that happened the Ravens and the Elks (they've gotforty-two merit badges, the Elks), they started up to Temple Camp;that's where we always go in the summer. My patrol decided to stay homeuntil August, anyway, and camp in the old car and try to get it moveddown to the river. Pee-wee is in the Ravens, but he's got about as muchpatrol spirit as a stray cat. He belongs everywhere, especially wherethere are eats. No one patrol can hold that kid. He said he was going tostay with us.
ROY HANDED THE BOX OF MATCHES TO THE JUDGE]
I said, "You can't do that on account of your patrol; they'll have tovote on it."
They voted on it all right, and every single one of them voted for himto stay. Elected by a large unanimity, hey? It wasn't a vote; it was acensus.
I said, "What do you fellows think the Silver Fox Patrol is? A SalvationArmy Home? Haven't we got enough on our hands with Alexander the Great?"
That's all they cared about. Jiminies, my patrol is easy.
So the ones that were left in Bridgeboro were the following, only theyweren't much of a following, because every one of them goes his own way:
First comes me--I mean I--correct. I'm patrol leader. If you want toknow what I look like, look on the cover of this book. Maybe you thinkI'm always happy like that, but, believe me, if you had to manage thatbunch you'd look sad. That picture was taken just after I got throughsubduing a strawberry sundae. Life is not all joy, quoth he; that's whatI say.
If I should die Westy Martin would inherit my throne. He's kind ofsober, that fellow is. He's got eleven merit badges. He's assistant.Next comes Dorry Benton. I wouldn't say anything against him only he'svery saving. He does six good turns every Monday, and then he doesn'thave to bother for the rest of the week. His favorite fruit is mashedpotatoes. Next comes Huntley Manners--Bad Manners, that's what we callhim. He's got the bronze cross. They've got a parrot up at his house.Gee whiz, I guess the parrot doesn't get a chance to talk much with himthere. Then comes Charlie Seabury. Then comes Brick Warner, he's got redhair. Ralph Warner is his brother--it isn't his fault. They're twins.Last but not least comes Alexis Alexander Sparks, S. B.--scout bandit.
Then comes Pee-wee Harris, last but the most of all. But he isn't in mypatrol. Thank goodness for that.
So now you know the brave warriors who stood the Siege of Cat-tail Marshand took possession of the Bridgeboro River. You can just imagine ussitting there in the car, after the other two patrols have started forcamp. Little we knew what was going to happen. And a lot we cared.
CHAPTER XXX--PEE-WEE IN ACTION
We had some fun in that car while it was on the Sneezenbunker land, andtwo or three of the fellows said maybe it wouldn't be so bad to keep itthere. That was because it wasn't so far from Bennett's. But most ofthem said it was too near the center of civilization. Gee whiz, that wasthe first time I ever heard anybody call Main Street, Bridgeboro, thecenter of civilization.
I said, "I vote for Van Schlessenhoff's field down near the river."
Dorry Benton said, "I vote for it, too. But how are we going to get thecar down there? That's the question."
"We can carry it by a vote," Hunt Manners said.
"We ought to be able to carry a vote, we've got two platforms," I toldhim.
Westy said, "Maybe if Mr. Jenson thinks the old trestle isn't strongenough, still he might be willing to give the car a start if we're notin it. It isn't the car he's thinking about, it's we fellows. Then wecan walk down afterwards."
Gee whiz, I had never thought of that before. We got kind of used tohaving our meeting place there on the Sneezenbunker land, and it wasn'tso bad. But now that we got to thinking about the river, good night, wecouldn't get the idea out of our heads.
I said, "Let's go down to the river and look around and decide how we'llhave things down there, in case we can get the car moved. Maybe we canuse the shack where we found the inventor, as a kind of a branchheadquarters."
"Can we catch fish down at that river?" the kid wanted to know.
I told him, "Sure, we can catch canned salmon and fishballs andbaseballs and everything. When we go down there we'll let the fish knowwe're coming, we'll drop them a line."
So then we all started along the tracks down to the river to kind oflook around down there and make plans.
I said, "I hope the field is still down there; I hope Mr. VanSchlessenhoff didn't put it in the market. Anyway, the river won't bethere."
"What are you talking about?" Pee-wee yelled..
"I'm talking about whether ice cream should be fried or roasted," Isaid.
"You're crazy," he shouted.
"I admit it," I told him. "If I wasn't I wouldn't be talking to you."
"Why won't the river be there?" he began shouting.
"Because it flows past Bridgeboro," I told him. "Did you ever hear of ariver staying in one place? It takes an east-westerly course and flowsinto New York Bay. You learn that in the third grade."
&nbs
p; "You're so smart--where does it rise?" he yelled.
I said, "It rises in the morning, that's more than you do."
"What do you mean, in the morning?" he fairly yelled.
"In the northwestern part of the morning," I said. "That's why a riverhas a bed. You rise from your bed, don't you? Posilutely. That showsyour ignorance. I suppose you don't even know that Great Neck is southof Rubber Neck."
"You're crazy!" he yelled. "You think you're funny, don't you?"
Gee whiz, that's my favorite outdoor sport, jollying Pee-wee.
Now that afternoon that we followed the tracks down to the river itwasn't so easy as it was on that Saturday that Mr. Ellsworth went withus, nor on that Sunday that Westy and I followed the old rails downthere, tracking the inventor. The reason for that was that it was acouple of months later, and a couple of months make a big differencewith cat-tails, because they grow even faster than cats. Now pretty soonyou'll see how the cat-tails turned out to be tales of adventure--youjust wait and see.
That Saturday when we first followed the old tracks across the marsh thecat-tails were not so high and we could see, kind of, how the trestlewas built underneath the tracks. The tracks were just high enough to beout of the marsh. And the cat-tails were just a little above the tracks.They grow awful thick, cat-tails do. I know all about them, because wepick them and dry them and sell them for punk sticks to drive mosquitoesaway. We get a nickel a bunch for them--no war tax.
Now where the old tracks go across the marsh they are on a woodentrestle part way, and the rest of the way the trestle is sort of solid.Some places you can look down and see the marsh underneath and someplaces it's solid so you can't do that. It's a kind of a ramshacklething, because it was never used for passengers, but only to haul lumberand stuff that came up the river in scows and barges.
Even in the beginning I guess the whole thing was just kind of throwntogether. Anyway, the old tracks were all half rusted away. The old linewas just about good enough to support that old-fashioned car of ours andthat's about all, except in the place where the trestle was solid; Iguess it was stronger there. Anyway, the mosquitoes down there arestrong enough. Don't say a word. They carry machine guns, thosemosquitoes. But in the field close to the river it's dandy.
So now I'm going to start another chapter. I bet you think the trestleis going to break down under our car--I bet you're hoping it will.
Just you wait.
CHAPTER XXXI--SLIGHT MOMENTUM
The afternoon that I'm telling you about was a couple of weeks after theother two patrols went up to Temple Camp. They went on the Fourth ofJuly. They went off on the Fourth, that's what we said.
By that time the cat-tails down in the marsh were all grown up thick andtall, and when we got past the Sneezenbunker land where the marshbegins, we had to just push our way through them because the trestle wassort of buried in them. They were so tall that they were up to ourheads. Where the trestle was open they grew right up between the tracks,and we had to watch where we were going to keep from walking off thetrestle.
Now that framework trestle ran down about as far as the middle of themarsh, where the marsh was deepest, and there the wood under the trackswas solid. There was marshy stuff, like moss, kind of, growing betweenthe cracks in the boards, and the cat-tails were close in all around sowe could hardly see what was under us. It was like that for maybe fivehundred feet or so, and then the tracks were on a trestle again tillthey ran onto the solid land of Van Schlessenhoff's field.
We spent a couple of hours down there in Van Schlessenhoff's field,digging the earth away from the old tracks. Now those tracks ended rightclose to the river.
But we didn't want the car to go quite as far as that, so we spent therest of the day fixing up a kind of a thing to stop the car. We dugholes and planted big heavy beams, and then put other beams downslantingways, just the way bumpers are built in the terminal of therailroad.
The next afternoon we waited for the milk train. I said to Mr. Jenson,"We've got the tracks all cleared and dug out for our car and we wantyou to give it a shove," I said. "We built a bumper down by the river soas to be sure the car will stop if the brakes don't work, because thebrakes are not much good."
He said, "Suppose the trestle collapses?"
I said, "That's up to us. We'll stay off the car till it stops. Safetyfirst. If we lose the car it will be our fault and we won't blame you."
He said, "I haven't got much faith in that old trestle. It's all up anddown like a scenic railroad in an amusement park. It's all spongyunderneath it."
I said, "But we'll promise to stay off the car till it stops."
He said, "Well, and suppose the marsh should flood like it always doesin the summer. What then? You'll be under water."
"We'll shut the windows and the doors," Alexis piped up; "and we'll havea tube going up to the top."
"Sure," I said, "we'll take a couple of tubes of tooth paste with us."
"Twenty thousand leagues under the marsh," Charlie Seabury shouted.
I said, "When we once get past the marsh everything will be all right.The tracks go a little up hill through the field, and that field isnever flooded. We'll be high and dry there."
"It was under water three years ago in the spring freshets," Mr. Jensonsaid.
"It wasn't up to our knees," Westy told him. "And it went down in acouple of days."
I said, "We should worry about Van Schlessenhoff's field being flooded.The water would never come up to the floor of the car anyway. Besides,the freshets aren't as fresh as they used to be. They wouldn't putanything like that over on us."
Mr. Jenson just laughed and he said, "They'd put it over you becauseyou'd be underneath. There are a lot of floods up the line this summer."
"Let them stay there," I said. "Only will you please give our car ashove for us?"
Then we all started to shout, "Ah, please, Mr. Jenson." "Go ahead, Mr.Jenson." "We'll do something for you some day, Mr. Jenson."
He just sat there in the window of his locomotive kind of laughing, asif he couldn't make up his mind. We kept shouting at him good and loud,because the men were making so much racket loading milk cans onto thetrain.
After a while he said, "Well, if you'll promise not to yell if thetrestle breaks down, and if you'll stay off the car till it stops, I'llgive it a shove for you."
I said, "Give it a good shove so it will go all the way. We built abumper down there to stop it, so it's all right."
He said, "Well, we won't trust too much to the bumper. If your car goesinto the river, that's an end of it."
"We'll start a mermaid patrol," Pee-wee shouted.
So then Mr. Jenson sent a brakeman over to see if the brakes on the carwere any good. We knew they were kind of broken; I guess that's why theycalled them brakes. We couldn't tell whether they'd stop the car,because the car was already stopped. We'd have to start it to find outwhether they'd stop it. The brakeman said maybe they'd work all right onslight momentum.
"Slight momentum--what's that?" Pee-wee shouted.
"It's Latin for going slow," I told him; "it's the way your tonguegoes--not."
"Slight momentum means not much headway," Westy said. Some highbrow.
I said, "If it means going slow I should think it would be _footway_ andnot _headway_."
"Maybe it will be downway instead of upway," Dorry Benton said.
"We should worry," I told him. "We'll never save any money with the caras near Bennett's as this."
Westy said, "Nothing ventured, nothing had."
"All right," we all shouted, "let's go!"
So that was the beginning of the big adventure. Before so very long wehad Alice in Wonderland tearing her hair from jealousy. We had SubmarineSam beaten twenty ways. We had the Arabian Nights knocked out in thefirst inning. We were lost, strayed or stolen. Also mislaid, misled,mishapped, misguided, mistaken and a few other things. Anyway, we were_missed_.
CHAPTER XXXII--BZZZZZZ
r /> Now you'd better look on the map I made. Maybe it isn't much good, butit's better than the map of Europe. Our car was over about in the middleof the Sneezenbunker land. Because we didn't want to take the rewardfrom the Orphan Home for finding the inventor, my father said we couldoffer Tony fifty dollars to move his wagon for a little while. Fiftydollars would buy five hundred sandwiches. It would buy a thousandpieces of pie. We didn't have any trouble with Tony that time.
Now Mr. Jenson moved his locomotive very slowly past where Slausen'sused to stand, and right across Willow Place. It pushed our car ever solittle. The brakeman stood on the front platform of our car and stoppedit with the brakes. He said they worked pretty good. Then the locomotivepushed the car about a couple of hundred feet so as to give it a goodstart, and then backed away from it.
We all stood there shouting, "Hurrah!" "All aboard for VanSchlessenhoff's field!"
The brakeman was the only one on the car. Now this is just exactly whathappened. The car moved along into the marsh and pretty soon we couldonly see the upper part of it on account of the cat-tails. When it gotto about the middle of the marsh it stopped. We followed along thetracks and when we got to where the car was, the brakeman said he hadslowed it down because the trestle was shaky and he was afraid it wouldgive way. He had slowed the car down too much and it had stopped. Hesaid he was sorry, but he had to go back to his train.
So there was our car, right in the middle of Cat-tail Marsh, with thecat-tails growing up close all around it, and the mosquitoes mobilizingfor a grand drive. We knew Mr. Jenson couldn't help us any more, becausethat trestle would never hold his big locomotive.