"Some nerve," Grove said.
Harry just sat there listening, awful interested like. Then he said,"Well, I suppose it belongs to him as much as to any one else. How wouldyou like to get a shot at him?"
"He should worry," I said; "scouts aren't supposed to kill things."
Harry just kind of kept humming and listening.
I said, "You've had a lot of adventures, that's one sure thing, but doyou like to kill things?"
"I've killed a lot of time in my life," he said.
"Time isn't alive," Skinny piped up; "animals are alive."
"So are trees if it comes to that," I said.
Harry just kind of sat there for about half a minute, leaning his armson the steering wheel and looking all around in the woods. I guess hewas kind of dreaming like.
All of a sudden he said, "Well, this isn't hunting for buried treasureis it? No scout rule against that, is there?"
"Believe me, buried treasure is our favorite nickname," I told him.
"Nice and quiet in here," he said; "I hate to hit into open country.Look at that old oak; be a pretty rich tree-toad that owns that chunk ofreal estate, hey?"
All of a sudden little Alf piped up, in that funny way he has. He said,"Trees are friends, that's what it says in the scout book."
He meant the handbook. I guess his speaking up like that kind of, youknow, roused us up out of our dreaming. Anyway, Harry said, "Guessyou're right, Alf old boy." Then we started along.
CHAPTER XXXI--WE RECEIVE DARK TIDINGS
After a little while, Pee-wee shouted, "Oh, I see Steuben Junction! Isee a house!"
"That's it," I told him; "I knew there was a house in Steuben Junction."
"Do you see the white house?" he yelled.
"Sure, I can even see the President sitting in one of the windows,"Grove said; "it's the White House all right."
"I see it," Alf said.
"Sure, right in among the trees," I told him; "it's a kind of a lightshade of white."
Harry said, "Well, we seem to be approaching the desert island. Now forthe bags of gold."
"I'm going to buy a wireless outfit with my share," Pee-wee said.
"I'm going to buy a bicycle with mine," Alf said; "I'm going to get onepainted green."
"I think I'll get a pound of sugar with my share," I said.
Grove said he was going to get a camping kit. Harry said that maybe he'dget an egg with his share, and if he had any left, he'd donate it to thepoor starving garage keepers. He said, "So you see, there's a couple ofbillion dollars spent already. We've been very extravagant. I'm sorry wespent it all before we got it."
Pee-wee said, "The time for us to dig up that treasure is at night--inthe darkness."
"In the which?" Harry asked him.
"In the dead of night," Pee-wee said; "that's the way Captain Kidd usedto do."
Harry said, "I don't think the night is likely to be very dead with thisbunch around. It might get sick though."
"Good night, I wouldn't blame it if it did," I told him.
"We'll make torches, hey?" Pee-wee said, all excited.
"Have we got anything to strain the gold in?" Harry asked. "You're theproperty man, Pee-wee."
"I got the coffee strainer from the kitchen," the kid said; "I brought arolling-pin, too. Because you know sometimes they roll gold."
"You should have brought a couple of dishes along, in case we shouldwant to plate it," Harry said, all the while laughing. I guess you knowby this time that we were all crazy--not exactly crazy, but insane. Weshould worry.
Steuben Junction was about as big as New York. I mean New York beforeColumbus landed. It was so big, you could have it sent home C. O. D.,but anyway, there was a nice man there; he was the man that kept thestation. He gave us a letter that Brent Gaylong had left with him--geewhiz, it sounded just like Brent.
This is what it said, because I kept it:
On board Good Ship Flivver making port.
Yo ho, Messmates:--
After a rough and stormy voyage, made port of Steuben Junction safely. Natives-friendly. Were tossed at the mercy of rocks and breakers on road through woods. Water ran out--of radiator. Had to take some out of springs to keep from famishing. Springs were no good anyway. They wouldn't spring--not even in the springtime. Had to man pumps--tires were leaking so badly. Cap blew out--also two tires.
Breakers broke pretty nearly everything, including brakes. Leaks gained fast--carburetor flooded. Mutiny on board. Seaman Wide-Awake in irons. Also chains and wheels. Tried to clutch a floating log, but clutch wouldn't work. Ship in dry dock in back of stationery store.
Are starting to follow railroad tracks into woods. Will leave sign alongside tracks where you are to turn in. Will blaze trees to our camp. Follow signs. Look out for spies--keep away from ice-cream parlor. Suspicious. Beware of poisoned gum drops. The treasure will be ours, but have a care. Efforts are being made to foil us--two Spanish onions were seen in Steuben Junction, loitering near post office.
Hurry, B. G.
When we had read the letter, Harry said, "The plot grows thicker; wehaven't a minute to spare. We must moor our ship and be on the trail. Iwonder where that stationery store is. I think that Brent has not toldus all. You'd better keep your hand on that rolling-pin, Scout Harris,and hang onto that coffee strainer, in case we should want to sift anyevidence."
CHAPTER XXXII--WE HIT THE TRAIL
I guess we were all pretty excited on account of at last being right upin the neighborhood of that treasure, and near the very place where thetrain with that old car of ours was held up.
Anyway, you would have said we meant business if you had see Pee-weeunloading the auto in that shed behind the stationery store. Brent's carwas in there, too. Our young hero had two shovels and a pickaxe and acouple of big burlap bags, and he looked like a striking miner as hetrudged up the road with all that junk over his shoulders. Pretty soonwe took some of the things from him. But he kept the rolling-pin and abig saucepan; hanged if I know what the saucepan was for.
We had a couple of scout belt-axes along, but no camping stuff, becausewe hadn't thought that we'd stay up there very long.
Pretty soon we hit into the railroad tracks and followed them north. Iguess the people who saw us thought we were crazy. Harry said Pee-weelooked like Don Quixote, with all that junk hanging from him.
Harry said, "It will be easy to find Brent's sign and to follow hisblazing in the woods, but how are we going to find out where the hold-upoccurred? That's the question."
"We're going to hunt for a tree like the one we have a description of,"Grove said.
"That seems about the only thing to do," Harry said; "the tracks aren'tgoing to tell us anything."
Steuben Junction was in a kind of opening in the woods; it was like alittle village in a clearing, sort of. Part of those woods we had comethrough in the auto. In the part where the tracks ran north of thevillage the woods were awful thick and were right up close to the trackson both sides. It was a single track road.
We knew that Brent didn't know anything except just what we had told himabout that big balsam poplar, and we thought that he wouldn't havebothered his head about that in looking for a good place to camp. Wethought he'd just wait for us.
When we had gone a little distance from the village, we divided into twoparties, and each kept in the woods a little way off from the tracks,one party on the west side and the other party on the east side.
Harry said, "Well, there's one good sign and that is that none of thetrees in this woods are poplars, except a few dead ones. What we have todo is to hunt for a big, tall, husky stranger. That old giant of thenorth doesn't die as easily as most of the poplar family."
"That's a good name for it," I said; "the Giant of the North."
"Maybe even if one
grew it would be dead by now," Grove said.
"Even still we might find it," Harry said.
"Would it stand up if it got dead?" Skinny wanted to know.
"If there's one here it won't be dead," Harry said; "he's a pretty oldcustomer, that tree; old 'Rough and Ready.' Only it's like hunting for aneedle in a haystack."
Grove said, "I wish we could reduce the area of search." Isn't that apeach of a sentence? Believe me, he's some highbrow, Grove is.
All of a sudden, Pee-wee stopped short. Gee whiz, I thought he had foundthe treasure.
"Break it to us gently," I said.
"I know how to reduce the area of search!" he shouted.
"All right, go ahead and reduce it," Harry told him.
"Listen--all listen!" the kid said. "I have a--you know--one of thosethings----"
"An inspiration?" Grove asked him.
"We don't need to hunt on both sides of the track," the kid shouted,"because I can do a deduction--a good one. Do you remember that bullethole in the side of the car? If the bullet came through there and hitthat man Thor, then he must have been riding with the seat frontways,and if that seat was frontways on a train going south, it means he musthave been on the left side of the car. We don't need to bother aboutlooking in the woods on the other side of the track at all. _All_ comeover on this side. I reduced the airplane of search--I mean the area."
For about half a minute, Harry just stood there thinking, and then hesaid, "I'm hanged if you're not right, Pee-wee. How did you happen toevolve that in your noodle? You're a bully little scout." Then he said,"I've often noticed that if a fellow is a scout, he's a scout more thanhe is anything else. He may be a motor-boatist or a motorist or a tennisplayer, he may be a catcher or a pitcher or a sodalogist----"
"What's that?" I asked him.
"An ice-cream soda specialist," he said. "But when it comes to ashowdown, a scout is just a scout and that's all there is to it. Am Iright?"
"Thou never spakest a truer word," I told him. "Being a scout is like a1916 Ford--you never can get rid of it."
"That's the idea," Harry said; "a scout's a scout and there you are."
"He's a friend to everything that lives," little Alf sang out; "it saysso in the book."
"That's what he is, Alf," Harry said.
So then we all kept to the one side of the track, and we were saved alot of trouble by Pee-wee's deduction. The kid is sure great ondeduction--and movies. And his favorite hero is apple pie. Gee williger,I guess we could pretty near feed Austria with the war tax he pays downat the Lyric Theatre. Harry says if Pee-wee were to stop eating, theprice of everything would go down. Anyway, he controls the wheatmarket--eating nine wheat cakes at a sitting. But he's great ondeduction.
One thing, Harry was sure right when he said that when it comes to ashowdown a scout is a scout--I have to admit it. Anyway, it seemed kindof natural like, to be walking through those woods; it seemed just likeat Temple Camp. You wouldn't have known there was a village within acouple of hundred miles. Gee, I'm not saying anything against theCadillac, but I like to hike; I'd rather hike than ride in a machine. Iguess that's because I'm a scout, hey? Especially I like hiking throughthe woods. Sitting on a porch, that's one thing I hate. I hate algebra,too. My father says it's good to know algebra, even if you don't want tobe especially good friends with it. I'll let it alone if it'll let _me_alone--that's what I told him. Anyway, it was dandy in those Woods.
CHAPTER XXXIII--WE MEET A FRIEND
Pretty soon we saw a stick stuck in the ground near the track on ourside. It was split a little way down and another stick was crossways init. One end was peeled and it meant that we should go the way thatpointed. That's a scout sign, If you ever see one like that, go where itpoints and maybe you'll get something to eat.
But anyway, we didn't have to go far, for almost right away we heard avoice, and it was Brent's. They had their tent up quite near the tracksand we saw it almost as soon as we saw the stick.
It was a peachy place for a camp. Brent was sitting on a rock, makingsome kind of a birch-bark thing, and those kids were sitting around him.Cracky, they were all crazy about that fellow.
Little Willie Wide-Awake piped up, "_Oh, here they are! Here they are!_"
Harry said, "Hello, you old grouch; we got your letter. Hello, kids;well, here we are at last, after many ups and downs and thrillingadventures."
"When it comes to ups and downs, you haven't got anything on us," Brentsaid; "did you come up that road through the woods? We were hoping youwouldn't find us so easily."
"If you were any nearer the track, you'd get run over," Harry said.
Brent said, "We were hoping you'd search for days and days and not findus, and then just as you were starving--just as Pee-wee was breathing hislast--little Bill here, would come and place a gum drop between hisemaciated lips. Everything seems to go wrong on this trip."
"Same old Brent," Harry said; "well, here we are, ready to search forthe treasure."
"It's all over except the shouting," Brent said.
"You don't mean you've found it?" Pee-wee piped up.
"Take a good look at this tree," Brent said; "come off here a littledistance where you can see it."
We all went about twenty feet from the tree and took a good look at it.
"What do you say?" Brent said.
Oh, boy, I had never seen another tree like that in all my life. Most ofthe trees around there were birches, and it stood there among them justlike a great big giant. I guess the trunk of that tree was four or fivefeet thick. Away up high, oh, about a hundred feet I guess, it went to apoint. There weren't any other trees around there anything like it, oranywhere near as big. Away up high near its top it was all kind of goldcolor, because the sun was beginning to go down. It seemed sort of, asif it paid attention to that great big tree first of all, because it wasso grand.
"It's a poplar, all right," Harry said, sort of low, because I guess weall felt kind of serious to see it standing there. We knew we were goingto hunt for such a tree, and we thought there was a pretty fair chanceof there being one somewhere around there. But now that we all stoodthere looking at it, we just couldn't speak, exactly. I noticed evenPee-wee, just standing there gaping. One thing sure, that great big treewas a stranger in those woods. It seemed proud, but kind of lonelythere. Especially when you looked away up high at it, it seemed lonely.
Harry just stood there looking at it, and shaking his head."Some--old--giant," that's all he said.
"It's got plenty of gold up on top," Brent-said; "now it remains to beseen if there's any gold down underneath--real, honest to goodness, gold.Anyhow, this is where the desperate deed was did. Come over here till Ishow you something."
Just as we were all starting to walk over to the tracks, I saw a bird--abig dark one--flying toward the top of that tree. All of a sudden when hegot near it, he seemed to change to gold color. Then he went in amongthe branches and I couldn't see him. I told Harry and he said, "We're inan atmosphere of gold--everything is gold around here, even the sky. Lookat that squirrel coming down to size us up. Kids, our fortunes aremade--that's a balsam poplar, and I'll bet a doughnut, there's as muchreal gold underneath it as there is gold light up on top. The seed ofthat tree pushed its way up out of a bag of gold, and Alf gets hisbicycle. We've hit it rich! What do you say, Roy?"
Gee whiz, I could hardly tell what he was saying, because I was watchingthat squirrel. He came half way down the trunk and just stopped thereupside down, looking at us. And he looked at the tent, too, as if hedidn't know what to make of it. And then he cocked his head sideways,just as if he was listening to Harry.
"Got your shovels and your axes all ready?" that's what Harry wassaying.
CHAPTER XXXIV--WE CAMP UNDER THE TREE
Brent led the way over to the railroad tracks, then he began poking hisfoot against the big spikes that hold the tracks down on the ties.
He said, "See there? What do you make of that, Sherlock Holmes?"
Harry said,
"I don't see anything unusual. What's the matter?"
Brent went back along the track a little way and began walking along theties. "There's a spike, there's another, there's another, there'sanother," he kept saying, "and here's another--with a different kind of ahead. Notice? More square--see?" He kept walking along. "Now there areone, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight" and he kept walkingalong and counting up to about eleven or twelve "of those square headedspikes. See? They're different from the others and they were driven inafter the others. Can't foil the old Newburgh Sleuth. This is where thetrain was derailed.
"The way I see it is, those robbers ripped up the tracks for about tenor fifteen feet and set the ends apart and spread some leaves over thebreak. When the railroad people spiked the rail down again, they justhappened to use spikes with heads of a little different shape. Thenthere was a lapse of twenty-five years--that's what they usually call it,isn't it, Pee-wee?--and, presto, along came the Boy Scouts. Nothing toit. Right here is where that hold-up occurred--you can take it from theChurch Mice Patrol. Flowers and testimonials should be addressed toFirst B. S. Troop, Newburgh and sent prepaid."
I just blurted out, "Brent, you're a _wonder_!"
"You're _some_ scout," Grove said.
Harry just kept shaking his head and then he said, "Brent, we've got tohand it to you fellows. Pee-wee did a pretty good little stunt indeduction himself, and the fact that these spikes are on the left sidebears out what he said."
Then he told Brent about what Pee-wee had said, and Brent said, "Well,it seems we haven't got anything on Scout Harris, when it comes todeducing."