Percy Keese Fitzhugh

“ One thing, Harry was sure right when he said that when it comes to a showdown a scout is a scout—I have to admit it. Anyway, it seemed kind of natural like, to be walking through those woods; it seemed just like at Temple Camp. You wouldn’t have known there was a village within a couple of hundred miles. Gee, I’m not saying anything against the Cadillac, but I like to hike; I’d rather hike than ride in a machine. I guess that’s because I’m a scout, hey? Especially I like hiking through the woods. Sitting on a porch, that’s one thing I hate. I hate algebra, too. ”

“ All the while, Pee-wee was shifting from one foot to another and scowling at Harry, and looking uncomfortable.
“Scouts seldom go wrong, Miss West,” Harry said to the girl; “even in the darkness of night, they cannot be foiled. Their senses are so highly developed, and they are so alert, that missing a train, for instance, or getting onto the wrong train, are things unknown to them. A scout is unerring. He can even identify a tree among thousands of other trees, in the dense forest——”
“Isn’t that perfectly wonderful!” Elsa West said. ”

“ For about half a minute, Harry just stood there thinking, and then he said, “I’m hanged if you’re not right, Pee-wee. How did you happen to evolve 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 than he is anything else. He may be a motor-boatist or a motorist or a tennis player, 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 a showdown, a scout is just a scout and that’s all there is to it. Am I right?” ”

“ Harry said.
“Anyway, you bet I’ll be glad to see Brent and those fellows,” I told him.
“I only hope we find them,” Harry said.
“I only hope we find the treasure,” Grove spoke up.
Harry said, “Yes, we’ll have to get on the job now and remember that we’re out for buried gold.”
It was fine going from Watertown to Steuben Junction, even if the road was bad. Because anyway, even if motoring is a lot of fun, that isn’t what scouts think most about. What they think most about is the woods. And we went through dandy woods. I was glad we had to go slow, because we like to be in the woods. ”

“ Pee-wee shouted.
“Roy is right,” Harry said. “We should not forget the poor, honest, hardworking burglars who never receive credit. They help the homeless, and feed the hungry and give poor boys a little whiff of the fresh country air, and for this they are denounced and misjudged. Never speak unkindly of the poor, charitable, kind-hearted burglar.”
Honest, that fellow is crazier than the rest of us. Poor little Skinny didn’t seem to know what to think. ”

“ Believe me, a scout is a friend of eats.
“You won’t get me to help chop it down,” Grove said.
“I’ll stick up for you,” Willie Wide-Awake sang out.
“I seem to have a large minority,” Harry said; “how about you, Brent?”
Brent said, “Oh, I vote for the original ending. I’m a friend to everything that’s different. I say, let’s not find the treasure—let’s beat the story books at their own game. If Roy ever writes up all this nonsense, why the readers will think that we’re all going to end up millionaires.”
“They’ll get left,” Pee-wee said; “we’re just plain scouts. It—it came to a showdown.” ”

“ Gee whiz, I could hardly keep a straight face. Grove had to look out of the car, he was laughing so hard. I was afraid Skinny’d blurt something out, but he didn’t. I guess he thought we were all being arrested.
“Sometimes a feller sets right down on a thing and never knows it,” the constable said.
“Very true,” Harry said. “I know a man who sat on a committee and never knew it. Judge lives just around the corner, you say?”
The constable said, “Yes, but I tell you now, he won’t be able to give you no clews. He’s a good jedge, but when it comes to solving a case, he can’t see very deep.” ”

“ Justice Winters said; “there’s no use trying to get the better of a man like Judge West. Which would you prefer to do; accept the money, or have me hold you on a technical charge of appropriating a rag dummy, until I can notify the Judge?”
“You’d—you’d better take the check, Harry,” Pee-wee piped up; “it wouldn’t be safe to try to foil a man like Judge West—safety first, Harry—we’d better take the check.” ”

“ Ellsworth says it’s best to begin a story with conversation. He says conversations are even better than bananas to begin with. But, gee whiz, I like bananas. If I began with conversation that means I have to begin it with Pee-wee Harris, because he always does the talking in our troop. He can even talk and eat a banana at the same time.
He said, “Do you mean to tell me a railroad car can’t have a dark past?” ”

“ Now this is the way I thought about it, because I know Harry Donnelle. I remembered what he said about how a fellow might just as well take an auto trip in one direction as another, and I didn’t believe he was bothering his head much about finding buried treasure. That’s just the kind of a fellow he is—happy-go-lucky. I guess that’s why everybody likes him. But, cracky, I’m always game for an auto trip and I was crazy to have Skinny (that’s little Alf) go on one, because he had never been in an auto or had any fun like that. ”

“ He showed me the nice leather seats and the shock-absorbers.”
“We’ll need some shock-absorbers before the day’s out, I’m thinking,” Harry said; “this is some swell scout outfit—not! Got into the wrong car! Look up the street and see if you see the sheriff coming. Pee-wee, don’t ever mention the name of scout to me again. ‘A scout is observant!’ Excuse me, while I smile.”
“Well,” Brent said, all the while trying not to laugh, “we’re out for adventure; we have to take what comes.”
“We don’t have to take other people’s machines,” Harry said. ”

“ About fifty feet ahead of us that trail ran between two big rocks, only they were farther apart and looked different than they did from up on the cliff. And right there in the trail between them lay a man with a soldier’s uniform on. He was lying face down, and we knew he must be dead, because his arms were spread out and one of his legs was lying up over a corner of rock, kind of crazy like. No matter how badly injured a man may be, even if he’s unconscious, he never lies sprawling like that. There’s kind of a way that a dead person lies. ”

“ Harry said, “and dig in around the roots.”
“The gold dust will be pretty well mixed up with the earth right plunk under the tree. It’ll be pretty hard to get at. But there are plenty of us to do the work and we’re all scouts—except me. We’re not afraid of work. We’ve got a wireless outfit to get, and a bicycle painted green. Are you all game for a hard day’s work to-morrow?”
Brent was sitting there on the ground with his knees drawn up and he just said, “We’re all scouts when it comes to a showdown.”
“Righto,” Harry said; “when it comes to a showdown.” ”

“ Now, who are you, anyway, and who did you throw out of this car, and where did you get this car, and where did you get this here license plate that you’re using?”
Harry said, “Well, it’s a long story and really it would be a shame to tell it, unless we were all sitting around the camp-fire. We’re a band of adventurers and we’re on our way to see what will happen next. Our specialties are murder, burglary, treasure hunting and food, when we can get it. Going to be warm to-day, don’t you think so?” ”

“ Pee-wee said, “You’re crazy; black is the only color for secrets. Look at that pirate in the movie play. Didn’t it say he kept the dark secret about where the treasure was for years and years?”
“He kept it so long it faded,” I told him. “Dark secrets are all right for old sailing ships, Kid, but when it comes to railroad cars—nix.”
The three of us were sitting on the rock, looking at the old railroad car that had just been moved down to the field for us. Mr. Temple got that old car for us, so we could use it for a troop-room. ”

“ Harry said; “you’re the cause of my downfall. I was an honest young man until I met you.”
“You make me tired!” Pee-wee fairly screamed.
Just then somebody, gee whiz, I don’t know who, because everyone was laughing so, but anyway, somebody started to lift the back seat of the Cadillac when Pee-wee tumbled pell-mell into the car and pushed him out and sat plunk in the middle of the seat himself.
“There’s going to be—a—a—what-d’ye-call-it—a revolution!” he said.
“I’ll join it,” Brent said.
“Put me down,” Harry told him, “the more adventures the better. I like revolutions.” ”

“ Pee-wee said it would be contempt of court not to keep it, and that a scout must obey his superiors. Skinny said if we didn’t take it, maybe we’d all have to go to jail. Harry said it might be fun to go to jail, because that was one of the things he had never done.
I said, “The longer you put it off, the more you’ll enjoy it; lots of people are in too much of a hurry to go to jail.”
Cracky, we didn’t know what to do, because a scout is supposed not to take anything for a service. ”

“ Now I’m coming to the first adventure of that trip and it’s mostly about Pee-wee, but it has something to do with being hungry, too. That’s one thing Scouts like better than dinner and that’s supper. Especially Pee-wee is always hungry; Harry says he’s a whole famine all by himself.
It was dark when we left Albany, because we had to stay there to get our radiator fixed, and while the machine was in the garage, we went to the movies. It was nice skimming along the road to Utica, and we could smell the country. Gee whiz, when that smell gets in the air, I always begin thinking about Temple Camp. ”

“ Here, Grove, take this jewelry box; look out for it, it’s got a pearl necklace inside. Take these silver spoons, too. The sun’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 bad now, would it?”
Jimin-etty! You should have seen that constable—you just ought to have seen 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 a man may sit down on something and never know it. Let Pee-wee take those things—he’s the doctor. ”

“ Kids, our fortunes are made—that’s a balsam poplar, and I’ll bet a doughnut, there’s as much real gold underneath it as there is gold light up on top. The seed of that tree pushed its way up out of a bag of gold, and Alf gets his bicycle. We’ve hit it rich! What do you say, Roy?”
Gee whiz, I could hardly tell what he was saying, because I was watching that squirrel. He came half way down the trunk and just stopped there upside down, looking at us. And he looked at the tent, too, as if he didn’t know what to make of it. And then he cocked his head sideways, just as if he was listening to Harry. ”

“ I went into the big library situated in the dark morass on Fifth Avenue. Groping my way along its dark passages, I escaped the savage bookworms and ferocious authors who frequent its silent lairs, and made my way unobserved to the underground cave where the newspaper files are. Shh!
“There I examined the New York Chronicle of March eighth and ninth and tenth, eighteen ninety-five. You remember that old Hickory wrote his letter on March seventh? Well, here’s a sort of condensed version of a newspaper article that I found. ”

“ Don’t lose any sleep over it.”
“The automobile ought to have a name,” he said.
I said, “All right, we’ll call it the good ship Cadillac; that’s the kind of a machine it is.”
“There ought to be a mutiny,” he said.
“The only thing to mutiny will be the carburetor, or maybe the magneto,” I told him, “and then we’ll have to put in at some desert island and hunt for a garage.”
“Will the whole troop go?” he asked me.
“Not while Harry Donnelle is conscious,” I said. “I don’t think he’ll take more than three or four of us.”
“That leaves plenty of room for the treasure,” Pee-wee said. “Who will it be? ”