Percy Keese Fitzhugh

“ A VOICE It was a jungle of underbrush, that’s what Harry said. Pretty soon the trail just fizzled out in the bushes. We poked around with our lanterns and found a spring there. I guess the wood between there and the summit must have been where the party got lost. Sometimes we could hear the crackling and sometimes we couldn’t, but we could smell the burning brush all the time.
“Guess we’re pretty near the summit,” Harry said; “let’s call that we’re coming. The breeze will carry our voices.” ”

“ Harry said; “we’d need a reservoir. Come on!”
“But if we could find the spring,” Will said, “we could follow the trickle and get into a brook lower down. How are we going to find our way down the other side of the mountain? It’s worse than this side. The west side of the mountain is always worse.”
“The fire won’t climb down as fast is it climbs up,” Harry panted; “it doesn’t work that way. The mountain itself acts as a wind shield. We’ve got to get over the top blamed quick. I’ll find a way down. Don’t let’s waste time here!”
Will just said, “The best trail in the world is a brook. ”

“ There wasn’t much time, because we were all going to hit the trail for Newburgh after breakfast.
I said, “Harry, that freak fellow in the circus is the same fellow who’s picture was in the paper; he’s Horace E. Chandler, I’m positive.”
He said, “I told you if you ate too many of those flapjacks last night, you’d be dreaming dreams.”
“All right,” I told him, “you remember about Marshal Foch; how you said he was a calf?”
“Let’s have a squint at the picture,” Harry said; “these remarkable discoveries of yours are getting to be a bad habit. A leopard is bad enough, but a what-is-it!” ”

“ Only this morning we had a bag of peanuts together; he and I and little Ruth. He’s just as plain and democratic as he can be. But you see my position isn’t easy. I’m human and yet I’m not. I don’t know where I fit in. The animals are kind of leary; you can’t blame them. And the freaks are as stuck up as poor old Marshal Foch was. Sometimes I wish I was back in the jungle.”
Jingoes, I didn’t know how to take him at all, and I could see Dorry was just staring at him as if he didn’t know whether he was jollying us or not. ”

“ Harry said. “In the wilds of Catskill village he is known by the natives as Skeezeks—Skeezeks the Bold. Allow me to introduce him.” Then he grabbed me by the hair and shoved me right out in front. Then he said, “Like all true heroes, he is modest. But perhaps you will wish to see Marshal Foch. We shall be sorry to part with him.”
Then they all followed Mr. Costello and Harry to the barn. Mr. Costello walked as if the whole world was looking at him. He looked awful funny, all dressed up that way in the country. I bet he was hot. I didn’t go, because I wanted to look at that cage wagon. ”

“ I told him, “I thought maybe you meant as far as Kingston or Poughkeepsie, But Bridgeboro! Oh boy!”
“Of course, we wouldn’t get very far from the Hudson,” he said, “and we could jump on a West Shore train most anywhere, if you kids got tired.”
“The only thing we’ll jump on will be you—if you talk like that,” I said; “Silver Foxes don’t jump on trains. But how about the other fellows—the Elks and the raving Ravens? United we stand, divided we sprawl.”
He said, “Let them rave; I’m not going to head a whole kindergarten. Eight of you are enough. Who do you think I am, General Pershing?” ”

“ All I wanted was for him to get away from the tree so I wouldn’t have to be too near him, and then I’d shinny down and hit the trail for camp.
But just then I had another thought. Maybe you won’t believe me, but I felt sorry for that wild animal. I knew how I’d feel if I was in such a fix as that. If I had only had a pistol I would have shot him, but boy scouts don’t carry pistols—only in crazy story books. We never shoot anything, except the chutes in Coney Island, and you can’t call that cruelty to animals. ”

“ Harry said, “Oh, you were one of those fellows, eh? Glad to see that you got back to the States all right. I came to see you, but I didn’t know who you were; that is, I didn’t know you had been in France. You’re Horace E. Chandler, I think, aren’t you? I’m glad to see that you’re human; there seems to be some question. Will you have a cigarette?”
Gee, it was awful funny to watch the two of them. Jib Jab just stared at him while Harry lifted himself up on the edge of the exhibition platform and lighted a cigarette, kind of off-hand and friendly like. ”

“ Judge Dot just said very stiff like, “I’ll bid you good night, sir.”
“Happy dreams, Shorty,” Jib Jab called after him. Then he said, “That’s the trouble with all these freaks—uppish, especially the giant. Why he looks down on everybody. Ma’s about the best of the lot. Shorty thinks he’s the whole circus just because he has three rings on his hands. Same with Skinny. I’d rather be back in the jungle than living with this bunch. Half the time they don’t speak to me. You see I’m not a regular freak; they look on me as a kind of a butt-in.” ”

“ For a couple of minutes neither of them said anything, only Harry kept looking around at the platforms where the freaks usually were.
Pretty soon he just blurted out, “How’d you happen to hit this job, Chandler?”
Jib Jab said, “Oh, I don’t know; it’s a long story. It’s a pretty good job when you want to lie low.”
“Lie low, huh? Why, what’s the matter?” Harry asked.
Cracky, I never saw Jib Jab so serious before. He said, “Oh, I was just one of the heroes that didn’t get a job, that’s all. I’m a happy-go-lucky.” ”

“ Dorry, if you got the hundred dollars and bought a motorcycle, you’d fall off it and break your neck. You’d never get any fun out of a motorcycle you bought that way.”
“Give me the paper,” he said.
“Here,” I said, “take it.”
I guess neither of us spoke for about a minute. All the while I could hear the cricket chirping, it was so quiet.
“You heard what Harry told him about how they’d had their fun already,” Dorry said; “you heard what he told them—about how they’d had their fun already—didn’t you? Now it’s our turn. ”

“ Harry kept talking to the girls; it was awful funny to hear him. Those other two fellows didn’t have a chance at all. Gee, I was glad of it, because what right did that fellow have to say I was just a kid? That girl that helped us, said we were just wonderful. Cracky, I wouldn’t say that we’re so smart, but when there’s a fire we don’t stand wringing our hands as if they were a fire bell.
When we came into Haverstraw, we found the streets full of people, everybody watching the fire on the mountain. ”

“ Harry Donnelle liked him, that was sure. I guess it was because he was kind of happy-go-lucky, too.
“Buried treasure is all right,” that’s what he said, “and so are missing people, and people lost in the woods and all that; and liberal rewards are very nifty. But if you’re after fifty or so buckarinos, the best thing is driving a grocery wagon or selling the Saturday Evening Post on street corners. You don’t get much adventure mowing people’s lawns, but it’s sure money. The trouble with us is we’ve been speculating in adventure and now we’re going to walk back home. ”

“ How are the young scouts?”
Harry told him we were all well, and asked him if I might go in and say good-bye to my friends.
“They will be proud to receive the young hero and his companions,” he said. And he waved his whip toward the door of the small tent. I kind of liked that man. You can like a person, even if he’s a kind of a faker.
In the side show tent, Lemuel Long was playing checkers with Judge Dot. Over in the corner, Jib Jab sat with his feet up on one of the platforms, smoking a cigarette. He had his bathrobe on and his face was all clean. ”

“ I said, “What’s the name of your patrol?”
“Well,” he said, “we call ourselves the Church Mice, because we’re so poor. First we were going to call ourselves the Job’s Turkeys, but we decided that a church mouse was poorer than Job’s turkey.”
I had to laugh. I said, “I’ve heard of most every kind of an animal’s name used for patrols, but never a church mouse. My patrol is the Silver Fox.”
“That’s a bully name,” he said.
“Anyway,” I told him, “the name hasn’t got so much to do with it. There was a patrol up at Temple Camp named the Pollywogs and they were all nice fellows. ”

“ SEEING IS BELIEVING The fellows were just thinking about sending a couple of scouts to hunt for me when I went running pell-mell into camp, shouting that I had captured a leopard.
“A what?” Westy asked.
“A leopard,” I shouted, “as sure as I stand here. Come and see for yourselves. He’s tied by a rope; he’s got fly paper all over him!”
“How many sodas did you have?” Harry Donnelle asked me.
I said, “That’s all right, you just come and see. It’s a leopard; you can see it for yourself.” ”

“ You’ve got to admit Jib Jab is human. He’s a nice fellow, too. I bet he’d want to see these fellows get the reward.”
Harry said, “Yes, I don’t exactly hold it against him that he’s human; he couldn’t help it I suppose. I’m kind of human myself. But just suppose, for the fun of it, that you’re right——”
“There’s no fun about it,” I told him; “Dorry and I both saw him.”
“All right,” he said; “and you want to sacrifice him to the Church Mice. You want to put them on his trail. How do we know he wants to be discovered?” ”

“ Hey, kids?”
I could see he thought an awful lot of those fellows.
All the while Harry Donnelle was whistling to himself, as if he didn’t care much. Pretty soon he said, “You had your fun; what more do you want? What’s a hundred dollars?”
“It’s a good deal to us,” Gaylong laughed.
“You said something about treasure hunting,” Harry said; “you don’t suppose anybody ever goes treasure hunting on account of the treasure, do you? They go on account of the adventure. So treasure hunting is always a success; even if you only find a tin spoon. You had your hike; you had your fun ”

“ By now all the bold, brave, heroic Silver Foxes began coming closer to get a good pike at the leopard. Every time the animal stirred, they’d back away again. Once the leopard stood up and pulled against the rope and rubbed his paw over his face, and gee whiz, you should have seen that bunch scatter. Dorry Benton went scooting into the well house. ”

“ I just held the lantern and said, “You see what a fine calf this is. He ought to win a prize at the County Fair. He’s disguised as a leopard, but he can’t fool us—I mean you fellows. You can bet boy scouts know a calf when they see one.”
They just stood there about fifteen or twenty feet off, staring. Even Harry Donnelle stood stark still, staring. “What’s the matter?” I said. “Are you afraid of a poor calf? Come down in the front row; I won’t let him hurt you.”
Then Harry came nearer, but the other fellows stood over near the spring house, so they could scoot inside, I suppose. ”

“ I said I didn’t mind being in a parade, but I wouldn’t want to ride in a cage like he had to do.
He laughed and said it was all in the game. He said if he ever broke out of that cage, I’d never capture him until he came back for his money on Saturday night.
I said “Sometimes boy scouts find people; sometimes they hunt for people that are lost. In our magazine there’s always a notice if a scout is lost and all the scouts are on the look out for him.”
“Yes, but those people are human,” he said.
I said, “Gee whiz, I can’t deny that.”
“You never hunted for a what-is-it, did you?” ”

“ There’s a difference between being scared and rattled. That’s one thing scouts don’t get—rattled. I looked down and saw him there and I knew I was in a mighty dangerous fix, but that only made me think harder. It seemed to me that that animal must be a leopard because he had spots, but of course, I knew there weren’t any leopards in America. Africa is where they hang out. ”

“ Costello said.
I told him, “Roy Blakeley.”
“I would like you to ride with Marshal Foch in the parade,” he said, “and later at the performances. I think I will call you Roy the Redoubtable; or perhaps Blakeley the Bold would be better. This is an opportunity of a lifetime to the people of Kingston. It will rejoice the scouts of two continents to see their intrepid young hero riding in triumph with the savage, man eating, beast that he subdued.”
Harry said, “That would be delightful. What do you say, Roy?”
I said, “Good night, I won’t have to ride in the cage with him, will I? ”

“ Judge Dot said, “It’s different with you, Jib; you ain’t human and you can’t say for yourself. You’re in the menagerie class. You got to ride in your cage. You ain’t a regular freak. I never heard of no parade work in a freak contract.”
Madame Whopper said, “I wouldn’ do parade work fer no proprietor, ride or walk, I wouldn’ not even Barnum hisself, I wouldn’.”
Jib Jab said for me to pass him the butter and then he winked at me and he said, “You’re too particular, Ma. Parade work is all right. I like parade work, except I can’t smoke. ”

“ Harry Donnelle says he’s going to hike it all the way home to Bridgeboro. He says we can go with him if we want to. Our time is up Saturday, but we’ll have to start three or four days sooner.
He said for me to sound you fellows, but believe me, there’s so much sound that I can’t. I suppose the other patrols will go back down the Hudson in the house-boat. Every fellow that’s in favor of hiking it home with Mr. Harry Donnelle, will say aye—but don’t say it yet. He said to tell you that we take our lives in our hands——
“Why can’t we put them in our duffel bags?” Westy shouted. ”

“ Jib Jab said.
“How about this old gent you’re named after? Friend of your father’s? I thought as much. Pretty rich, I suppose? Good. Now, Jib, you and I know what it is to go broke. I’ve gone broke forty-eleven times. And we’re both keen for adventure; that’s our trouble, I guess. There’s a fellow over where we’re camping, a young fellow, with a bunch of little tenderfoot scouts. They came up to hunt for you and to get that reward. They’re broke. They need some mazuma to start in with. They need a hundred. Do they get it?”
Jib Jab said, “What do you mean?” ”

“ It had paws and claws on it just like an animal. Then he looked at Jib Jab. I guess he didn’t know what to make of him.
Jib Jab said, “Now for a smoke,” and he lighted a cigarette; “nothing like a quiet smoke after the day’s work is over. Back in the jungle I never had all this bother of dressing and undressing. Civilization is just killing me. Fact is I can’t be tamed. Anybody got a newspaper? I suppose I ought to be thankful I haven’t got my face all plastered up with fly paper. Where’s old Sky Scraper?” That’s what he called the giant. ”

“ Rinaldo Costello, owner of the circus, said that no fear need be entertained by citizens, as the animal would undoubtedly avoid human haunts. He added that little hope is entertained of catching the beast alive, as these animals are always taken when cubs, and when grown, fight to the death all efforts to capture them. The escaped animal, a magnificent specimen of the leopard family, was imported by Mr. Costello at a cost of more than six thousand dollars. ”