"Exactly so," Harry said; "they may be under----"
"Underground," the constable said. "They may be buried in the woods downnear the station. I'm goin' ter hev a search made there to-morrer.Leastways, me and my depyties ain't goin' ter be fooled. We ain't sayin'nuthin', but we had a rough little tussle with them two swabs down terthe station, and we landed on top, by gum! And we'll land on top inregards to this here stolen vallybles--by gum!"
"Bully for you, and a couple of hips for Crystal Falls," Harry said;"you may be on top already. Who knows. You're not telling all you know."
"That's what I ain't," the constable said. "Well, here we are at thejedge's."
CHAPTER XVI--WE ASTONISH MR. HOLMES
Harry said, "So this is the judge's house, hey? Nice house--windowsn'everything. Well, Constable, I hope you'll get that five hundredreward. Funny thing about the Boy Scouts, they don't care anything formoney. Can't seem to drum the idea out of their heads. But when it comesto foiling burglars and all that sort of thing, why that's theirfavorite outdoor sport. And stolen property, they just eat it alive! Letme see if I can't root out some truck from under that seat; sorry todisturb you."
We all climbed out and the constable said, "They ought ter hev sechcrazy notions drummed out uv their heads. _Hello_! What's that?"
Harry said, "This? Oh, it's just a punch bowl; hold it a second, willyou Roy? Don't drop it. Here, Grove, take this jewelry box; look out forit, it's got a pearl necklace inside. Take these silver spoons, too. Thesun's getting hot, Constable; it's going to be warm this afternoon.Here, somebody take this silver teapot. Cup of tea wouldn't go half badnow, would it?"
Jimin-_etty_! You should have seen that constable--you just ought to haveseen him. He just stood there gaping, while Harry handed the things out."So you see you were on top after all; hey Constable?" he said. "And aman may sit down on something and never know it. Let Pee-wee take thosethings--he's the doctor. The rest of us will follow. Come along up,Constable, we're going to make Mrs. West give us each a cup of iced teafor a reward."
Honest, I couldn't tell you which was funnier to look at, Pee-wee orthat constable. Harry didn't smile at all. There stood the kid, holdingthe big silver punch bowl in his two arms, and the silver teapot and thespoons and things, and the plush jewelry box piled inside it. I neversaw him look so small as he did with that big load.
I NEVER SAW HIM LOOK SO SMALL AS HE DID WITH THAT BIGLOAD.]
And the constable--_g-o-o-d night!_ There he stood, gaping at Pee-wee,while the rest of us began laughing, all except Harry. He acted just asif nothing had happened at all. "Now, if there's anything else missingin town," he said, "just let us know, and we'll get it. Speak whilewe're here, because in about fifteen minutes we're off for buriedtreasure. You see we used to make a specialty of German spies, but nowthere aren't any; things are dull since the war. Any little job-lot ofmysteries you want unravelled? No? Oh, very well. We make a specialty ofmurders and kidnappings and Bolsheviki plots; we like Bolsheviki plotsbest of all. But we're not proud. We're always willing to take a littleburglary case to accommodate some one. All right, Pee-wee, forwardmarch--up the steps--and lookout you don't slip! Won't you join us,Constable? The more the merrier."
CHAPTER XVII--WE LET OUR YOUNG HERO DO THE TALKING
Gee whiz, I had to laugh; there stood Pee-wee with his arms around thebig bowl and the other things piled inside it, away up to his neck. Helooked awful funny.
"You leave it to me," he said; "I know how to talk to a judge, becausemy father knows a man whose brother was a judge."
"Trust us," Harry told him; "we won't say a word."
"You have to handle judges a special way," our young hero said.
Pretty soon the door opened, and there stood a girl about--oh, I don'tknow, I guess she was about sixteen.
"Here's your stuff," Pee-wee said; "we brought it back to you." And hemarched into the house with the rest of us after him. "Where shall I putit down?" he asked her.
Even the girl couldn't help laughing, the kid looked so funny. Then shebegan wringing her hands, kind of happy like (you know the way they do),and shouted, "_Mother! Oh, Mother! Come down! Everything is here,they've brought it back!_"
Her mother came downstairs all excited, and I guess she must havethought it was kind of funny, too, to see us all standing around, andthe punch bowl, with everything piled inside it, on a table, and Pee-weestanding right beside it like a guard.
She said, "Oh, Constable! How _did_ you do it? How can we _ever_ thankyou? You don't mean that these boys--stole----"
"I don't know nuthin' 'bout it, Miss West," he said; "it seems thesehere youngsters recovered it. I don't know what sort of clew they workedon. Looks as if they was pretty clever, I got to admit. Looks like some_p-u-r-t-y_ shrewd _de_-tective work, I got to allow."
Then Harry spoke up and said, "Mrs. West and Miss West, it is theprivilege of the Boy Scouts to restore your valuable property which wasstolen. Doubtless you have heard of the Miracle Man; allow me tointroduce him, Mr. Walter Harris, known far and wide as Pee-wee theSleuth. Tell them, Walter, of how we got on the trail of this treasure,of the clews we followed, and of how you ferreted out the secret ofwhere the valuables lay hidden. It is really a wonderful story, Mrs.West."
"Oh _do_ tell us," the girl began crying; "I know you're justwonderful--Mr. Harris."
All the while, Pee-wee was shifting from one foot to another andscowling at Harry, and looking uncomfortable.
"Scouts seldom go wrong, Miss West," Harry said to the girl; "even inthe darkness of night, they cannot be foiled. Their senses are so highlydeveloped, and they are so alert, that missing a train, for instance, orgetting onto the wrong train, are things unknown to them. A scout isunerring. He can even identify a tree among thousands of other trees, inthe dense forest----"
"Isn't that perfectly _wonderful_!" Elsa West said.
All the while, Pee-wee was wriggling his neck in his collar and shiftingfrom one foot to another and trying to catch Harry's eye.
"The manner in which these young scouts were able to recover yourvaluables, Mrs. West," Harry went on, very sober in that funny way ofhis, "is truly remarkable. I was not with them when they discovered thefirst clew--I think it was a shock absorber; was it not, Walter? But I amglad that I can share in the honor which is his--and theirs. The BoyScouts are nothing less than wonderful, Mrs. West. Their great accuracyof vision---- But I will let the Miracle Man tell you in his own words.Come Pee-wee."
I think Pee-wee would have killed Harry Donnelle if he had had himalone. He just stood there, scowling and shifting, and then he began.
He said, "Well, I'll tell you how it is about the Boy Scouts. They makesome dandy mistakes. Other fellers don't make such good mistakes--see?You have to admit that there are good mistakes, don't you?"
"Oh, positively," Harry said.
Mrs. West whispered to her daughter, "Isn't he too cute?"
"Some of the worst things that ever happened are good, aren't they?" thekid went on. I could hardly keep a straight face. "Suppose a house burnsdown. That isn't good is it?"
"We follow you," Harry said.
"But if somebody gets rescued, that's good."
"Oh, it's splendid," Elsa West said.
"Even if you get into the wrong automobile it might be good," our younghero said. "Maybe, kind of, there might be times when the wrong thing isbetter than the right one. That doesn't stop anybody from being a hero,does it?"
Harry said, "Not at all."
"Well then," Pee-wee said, "do you know Shakespeare?"
"I never met him," Harry said.
"Don't you know he's dead?" the kid shouted.
"I didn't even know he was sick," Harry came back.
"He was smarter than you are," the kid hollered at him, "and he said,'_All's well that ends well_' because it's in my copy book. That meansit's good to make a mistake, if you can do a good turn. See? What's thedifference between two Cadillacs? Even suppose we got into the wrong oneand drove away a
nd then found----"
By now everybody there was laughing and Mrs. West kept whispering to herdaughter that Pee-wee was "excruciating" and "just too cute." I guessthey were beginning to see how it was.
"There's your valuable stuff," the kid said; "that's the main thing,isn't it?"
Mrs. West was awful nice. She said, "_Indeed_ it's the main thing, andhow can we ever thank you? But tell us all about how it happened. Idon't care anything about mistakes or accidents. You've brought us backour things--and it's wonderful."
"That's just what I said," Pee-wee told her; "you should worry about howwe did it. Didn't we prevent the burglars from going away with thosethings? Sure we did. Because we went away in their car. See?"
Then Harry said, smiling in that nice way he has; he said, "It was justone of those happy little errors that only scouts know how to commit,Mrs. West." Then he told her just how it was, and she said it was, youknow, some kind of a word--_providential_. That means lucky.
"Oh, and father will give you five hundred dollars just as he said,"Elsa West spoke up, "and you deserve it."
"We foiled them," Pee-wee said.
"Indeed you foiled them," Mrs. West told him, smiling all the while;"and you're going to stay and have some refreshments and wait for thejudge to come home. He'll be _so_ glad to see you, and he'll give you acheck, just as he said."
"How about that, Pee-wee?" Harry said. "We shouldn't want to make anymore mistakes, eh?"
Gee whiz, I knew that Scout Harris wouldn't make any mistake about that,anyway. Trust him for that.
"That's one thing about scouts that you don't know about," he said,"because anyway, they can't do that on account of a rule. They can'ttake a reward for--of course, I don't mean they can't---- Now, if somebodyhappened to give a scout a--say a piece of pie--that would be all right.If it's just kind of--you know--something to eat--but I mean money."
Mrs. West said, "You shall have a whole pie all to yourself. I'm gladthat there is no rule against that, at least. While you're eating it,you can tell us all about the scouts, because I'm _very_ interested."
"So am I," said Elsa; "so you must all come in the dining-room thisinstant so we can serve you all, and if you're _real_ scouts, you canprove it by showing us that you have appetites, and Mr. Harris can giveus a lecture."
Oh, boy! Believe _me_, Mr. Harris gave them more than a lecture. He gavethem a demonstration.
CHAPTER XVIII--WE ARE IN SUSPENSE
Cracky, that's one thing I'm crazy about--lemon meringue pie. _Mm--mm!!_There's only one thing I like better than a piece of lemon meringue pie,and that's two pieces. My mother says you shouldn't eat the crust, butshe doesn't know the rule about a scout being thorough. Always leaveyour camp site clean. It's the same with your plate.
Most of the time we were at that house, Harry Donnelle was talking withElsa West. Gee whiz, I bet she liked him a lot, hey? He told her hecouldn't play the victrola, because he had never taken any victrolalessons; that fellow's crazy.
Anyway, they were sorry when we started off, and Elsa said she hopedwe'd find the buried gold. She said that was one thing she'd like tobe-a boy. Gee whiz, I couldn't blame her, because anyway, we have a lotof fun. She said she wasn't afraid of rain.
We left the auto there in charge of the constable, and he said he'd callup the Department of Motor Vehicles and find out who had the licensenumber that was on that car. Because one thing sure, it didn't belong tothose thieves. Harry said we should worry about it and that we might aswell let that constable do something to earn his salary. I guess it tookhim the rest of that day to get over his shock. I guess he thought wewere crazy when he saw we wouldn't take the reward, but that's the wayit is with us. But, of course, we don't count eats. You can give us allthe eats you want to.
Harry said, "Well, as long as we've been mixed up with burglars, let'stake our machine to a garage and get up against some _real_ robbers.They'll probably tell me I need everything renewed except the smell.Come ahead."
We had to get somebody to tow us to the nearest robbers' den and then wefound that Harry's machine needed a "complete overhauling." That's whatthey always tell you. But anyway, they didn't get away with it, and inabout an hour we were rolling along the road for Utica.
"Do you know what I'd like to do to you?" Pee-wee shouted at Harry.
"No, break it to me gently," Harry said.
"I'd like to hit you a good rap on the---- Why didn't you let me do thetalking from the start?"
"If you hit me and I should ever find it out----" Harry said.
"You don't know how to talk to a judge's family," Pee-wee said; "youhave to use logic. Do you know what that is?"
"No, what's that?" Harry asked him.
"It's where you prove a thing by showing how one thing matches withanother--kind of," the kid said.
"Well, suppose you get in the wrong automobile; is that logic?" Harryasked him.
"If there's stolen goods in it, yes," the kid shouted.
"All right," Harry said, "here's another. What's the difference betweena shock-absorber?"
"You make me tired," Pee-wee yelled.
"What's the difference between a pirate and a garage keeper?"
"None!" we all yelled.
It was about five o'clock in the afternoon when we got back to Utica. Itlooked just the same as before; all the buildings were there andeverything. Harry said it hadn't changed a bit.
Now if we had followed the road from Utica to Syracuse, we wouldn't havehad the adventure that I'm going to tell you about. I bet you're glad wetook another road, hey? Anyway, this is how it happened. In therestaurant where we stopped to get some eats in Utica, we met somemoving picture men with a camera. Gee, that's the way it is with HarryDonnelle--he gets acquainted with everybody.
Those men said that they had just come from a place named Lurin, wherethere were a lot of cliffs and things. They said they had been makingpart of a photo-play up there. I bet they have a lot of fun, those men.They told us that if we didn't mind a couple of steep hills, that wouldbe the shortest way to get to Watertown, because it cut off a corner.
One thing about Harry Donnelle, he always wants to do things differentfrom the regular way. Believe me, if you're in an auto the best way isalways to follow the state road. But Harry said that if we hit into theroad north through Alder Creek and Boonville, we'd be able to get toWatertown that night.
"I bet it's a rocky road to Dublin," Grove said.
"Will we fall off the cliffs?" poor little Skinny piped up.
"Not afraid are you, Alf?" Harry said, nice and pleasant like.
I didn't say anything, because we had no camping outfit and it costs alot of money at hotels, and if we could cut out Syracuse and get toWatertown that night, I saw it would be a good thing. Only we didn'tknow anything about the road.
Harry said, "Well, the only way we can know is to find out." That wasjust like him. If you tell him a thing is risky, he wants to do it rightaway.
So about six o'clock we turned into the road going north, that isn'tmarked on the tour map. The first thing we did was to get onto the wrongroad and bunk our noses into Rome.
I said, "If we meet Julius Caesar, we'll ask which is the road forWatertown." There was a dandy ice-cream store in Rome, so Harry said wemight as well do as the Romans do, and have some ice cream. Rome didn'tlook very ancient, but good night, the road out of it was ancientenough.
We went back to Deerfield and hit the road north, and the next thing weran plunk into Old Forge.
"Everything around here is out of date," Harry said; "Ancient Rome andOld Forge. I long for _New_ York."
By that time it was dark. We followed the road south again to AlderCreek, and then hit into the other road north, and went throughBoonville, so then we knew we were all right. Anyway, we were on theright road, only the road was all wrong. Believe me, that cow-path hadsome nerve calling itself a road. After about an hour we passed Lurinand then, good night, some hill! Up, up, up, up, till pretty soon wecould look down off to
the east and see little bits of lights; I guessit was a village.
Anyway, the road ran right along the edge of a steep precipice with onlya kind of a rough fence between. Pretty soon, Harry stopped the car.Skinny was fast asleep.
"Looks pretty bad ahead there, doesn't it?" Harry said to the rest ofus.
By the glare of the headlights I could see that for quite a long wayahead, the road was closer to the edge than it ought to be.
"There's a strip of fence gone," Harry said.
"I think the land has broken away there, that's what I think," I toldhim.
"Well, safety first," he said; "guess we'd better investigate. It may bejust the shadow that makes it look that way, but that road looks tooblamed near the edge to suit me."
"Safety first is right," Grove said.
Harry was just starting to get out and I was just going to tell him thatI'd go, when all of a sudden Pee-wee was outside the car, shouting "I'lltake a squint." And before anyone else could get out, he was walkingalong the road ahead of us.
"Watch your step," Harry called after him, "and don't mistake a hole fora shadow."
"Don't you worry," Pee-wee shouted back.
We could see him moving along very carefully.
"Don't move the car," he called back; "keep the lights still--just wherethey are."