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ROY BLAKELEY'S BEE-LINE HIKE
by
PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH
Author of
Tom Slade, Boy Scout, Tom
Slade at Temple Camp,
Roy Blakeley, Etc.
Illustrated by R. Emmett Owen
Published with the Approval of
the Boy Scouts of America
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers : : New York
Made in the United States of America
[Illustration: "DON'T GRAB IT YET," I SAID. "WAIT. DON'T LET GO."
_Frontispiece--(Page 164)_]
Copyright, 1922, by
Grosset & Dunlap
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I WE LOSE A MEMBER 1
II MISSIONARY WORK 4
III A SOLEMN PLEDGE 10
IV WE START 18
V A STUMBLING BLOCK 25
VI A PROPOSITION 31
VII FAMINE 37
VIII REEL ADVENTURE 44
IX DIPLOMACY 50
X THE BEE-LINE 55
XI EATS 61
XII BLACK OR WHITE 66
XIII BANDITS AND THINGS 73
XIV THE HAUNTED WHEEL 78
XV A SCOUT IS OBSERVANT 82
XVI SUSPENSE 87
XVII THE HERO 91
XVIII ONE, TWO, THREE, GO! 95
XIX UP IN THE AIR 101
XX SEEING THINGS 105
XXI FETTERS 113
XXII INVASION 120
XXIII FOILED! 125
XXIV DARING DORA DANE 134
XXV PEE-WEE'S LOSS 139
XXVI THE SHERO 144
XXVII THE NEW SCOUT 149
XXVIII THE LEDGE 155
XXIX THE LAST HOPE 162
XXX A GOOD TURN 167
XXXI TOMBOY 171
XXXII BEE-LINES AND THINGS 176
XXXIII FROGS AND HATS 179
XXXIV A LITTLE BIT OFF THE TOP 188
XXXV LOGIC 192
XXXVI THE SIEGE 198
CHAPTER THE LAST (THANK GOODNESS)
IT HASN'T GOT ANY NAME 206
ROY BLAKELEY'S BEE-LINE HIKE
CHAPTER I
WE LOSE A MEMBER
Now I'm going to tell you about the bee-line hike. Maybe you'll say you
don't believe everything I tell you about it, but one thing sure, it's a
straight story. It wasn't so long, that hike, but--_oh, boy!_
Now the first thing I have to do in this story is to get rid of Charlie
Seabury. That's easy. Then the next thing I have to do is to tell you
about Pee-wee Harris. Gee whiz, I wish we could get rid of him. That kid
belongs in the Raven Patrol and when those fellows went up to Temple
Camp they wished him on us for the summer. They said it was a good turn.
Can you beat that? I suppose we've got to take him up to camp with us
when we go. Anyway the crowd up there will have some peace in the
meantime, so _we're_ doing a good turn, that's what I said.
So this story is just about my own patrol and Pee-wee Harris, and some
buildings and a couple of valleys and a hill and some pie, and a forest
and some ice cream cones and a big tree and a back yard and a woman and
a ghost and a couple of girls and ten cents' worth of peanut brittle.
It's about a college, too. Maybe you think we're not very smart on
account of being kind of crazy, but anyway we went through college in
ten minutes. So you can see from that how bright we are. That's why we
call ourselves the Silver Foxes.
Now Charlie Seabury (he has seven merit badges) has a grandfather who
lives out near the Mississippi and his grandfather asked him to go out
there and spend the summer. No wonder they call that man grand.
Charlie came to me because I'm patrol leader, and he said, "Shall I go
out there and spend the summer?"
I said, "Sure, you might as well. If you hang around here all you'll
spend is nickels."
He said, "But when you start up for camp you'll want a full patrol,
won't you? You can't count Pee-wee in the Silver Foxes."
"Talk of something pleasant," I told him. "You go ahead out west and
leave the patrol to us. We'll find a new member and when you come back
in the Fall you can start the new patrol that Mr. Ellsworth is always
talking about."
He said, "Good idea; what shall we call it?"
"Call it the police patrol or whatever you want to, I don't care," I
told him.
He said, "Well, I guess I'll go. My grandfather has a big apple orchard
and everything, and I can go swimming in the Mississippi. I'll write to
you."
"How is that going to get me any apples?" I asked him. "Go ahead, the
sooner the quicker, and I'll have fewer Silver Foxes to worry about. Let
your grandfather worry for a while."
So that's the end of Charlie Seabury in this story. We lost a scout and
his grandfather lost an apple orchard. I should worry. Maybe, later,
you'll hear about the Laughing Hyenas that he started. But believe me,
there are laughs enough in this story without bothering our heads about
that new outfit.