THE LAST DESTINATION
That morning the grove was over-run with treasure hunters. Fuller and
Ray had every lady in the house searching. They were a queer looking
group of adventurers, but they seemed to enjoy it immensely. It was well
on toward dinnertime when dear old Mrs. Alison called for Pee-wee to
come over and inspect a discovery she had made on a large poplar. She
was beaming delightedly through her gold specks at a steel knitting
needle which she had stuck into a little point where the bark curved in.
“Oh, I’m afraid it’s too good to be true,” she said sweetly.
As Fuller moved the needle in and out there was a slight metallic sound.
“It’s hitting something,” he said. “Yop, sure enough, there’s a nail or
something in there. Get a crowbar, Scout, and we’ll jab around here a
little. I think we’re on the track of something. Bring a chair for Mrs.
Alison to sit on, too.”
The old lady seemed as proud and delighted as a child, while she waited.
The others were all expectancy. As for Hope, she danced up and down
impatiently. It was the only kind of dancing she thought of now. Pee-wee
returned, laboring under a big armchair and wrestling with a crowbar.
Following him came Mrs. Skimper, drying her arms on a towel and calling
to Mr. Skimper who was in the woodshed. An excited little group stood
about while Fuller jabbed with the crowbar, and thrills went through
poor old Mrs. Alison when he struck a rock.
“Guess we’ll have to dig,” he said.
“Oh, I can’t wait,” she said.
“Oh, please do hurry,” said Hope; “here, let _me_ dig. You’re just as
slow as you can be!”
“It would be really quite thrilling,” said old Mrs. Wade.
“It is really something that I never dreamed of,” said Mrs. Stillmore.
“I’ve read of such things,” said Miss Gaunt, an elderly spinster; “I
believe Stevenson wrote of them, but I have never attended a treasure
hunt. Really my nerves are on edge.”
She did not have to suffer long from this racking suspense. In a very
few minutes, if you will believe it, a tin box stood upon the edge of
the excavation the boys had made.
“There you are, Mr. Skimper,” said Fuller; “all things come round to him
that waits—and digs. Mrs. Alison, you and I will have to fit up a
schooner and take a flyer down to the Spanish Main. They used to plant
gold down there like Farmer Goodale plants crops. What do you say, Mrs.
Stillmore? Are you willing for Hope to be kidnapped by pirates? Then
Scout Harris will come and save her life.”
“He saved my life already,” said Hope soberly.
“I tell you what we’ll do!” Pee-wee shouted. “It’s an inspiration,
because buried treasure and kidnapping go together, you can ask
anybody—”
“Positively,” said Fuller.
“We’ll—we’ll—kidnap you and take you back to the farm just like a real
adventure as long as they’re going to close up here anyway, and I tell
you how we’ll do. (He paused for breath.) Your mother will be playing
cards in the parlor and you’ll be on the lawn or maybe you’ll be in the
window, hey? And we’ll sneak up and get you and make you go back to the
farm with us and you’ll make believe you don’t want to go—”
“I do want to go,” she said; “and mother and I are going, _so there._
And I don’t care anything about the people there at all. I just want to
have adventures with you and go tramping in the woods.”
“Would it—would it be all right if we kidnapped you to-morrow morning?”
Pee-wee asked, greatly enthused.
“Don’t you think the afternoon would be better?” Hope said excitedly.
“Oh, I just long to be kidnapped,” said poor old Mrs. Alison.
“Don’t you care,” Pee-wee said consolingly. “And we’ll hike to the
farm,” Hope said, “and then Mr. Goodale can come afterward and get
mother and our trunk. Will that be all right? Oh, _please_ say it will.”
“I don’t think we have any other kidnappings on hand for to-morrow,”
said Ray. “Do you think it would be all right, Fuller? It means having a
destination.”
“That’s the trouble,” said Fuller.
“You’re crazy!” Pee-wee shouted. “Because anyway, Hope is my pal and I
liked her a lot before I ever knew you, and I say let’s kidnap her
to-morrow. Don’t you know that treasure hunting and kidnapping go
together?”
“Oh absolutely,” said Fuller.
“Let’s settle it by saying eenie, meenie, minee, mo,” said Ray.
“Don’t you mind them, they’re crazy,” Pee-wee said to Hope.
“Oh, _are_ you?” Hope asked.
“Absolutely,” said Fuller.
THE END
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Roy Blakeley Books
By PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH
Author of the TOM SLADE and PEE-WEE HARRIS BOOKS
May Be Had Wherever Books Are Sold. Ask For Grosset &
Dunlap’s List. Every Volume Complete in Itself.
In the character and adventures of Roy Blakeley are typified the very
essence of Boy life. He is a real boy, as real as Huck Finn and Tom
Sawyer. He is the moving spirit of the troop of Scouts of which he is a
member, and the average boy has to go only a little way in the first
book before Roy is the best friend he ever had, and he is willing to
part with his best treasure to get the next book in the series.
The books are all beautifully bound, with fascinating illustrations, and
with irresistible wrappers showing Roy Blakeley and his famous grin.
Roy Blakeley
Roy Blakeley’s Adventures in Camp
Roy Blakeley, Pathfinder
Roy Blakeley’s Camp on Wheels
Roy Blakeley’s Silver Fox Patrol
Roy Blakeley’s Motor Caravan
Roy Blakeley, Lost, Strayed or Stolen
Roy Blakeley’s Bee-line Hike
Roy Blakeley at the Haunted Camp
Roy Blakeley’s Funny Bone Hike
Roy Blakeley’s Tangled Trail
GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, NEW YORK
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Pee-wee Harris Books
By PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH
Author of the TOM SLADE and PEE-WEE HARRIS BOOKS
May Be Had Wherever Books Are Sold. Ask For Grosset &
Dunlap’s List. Every Volume Complete in Itself.
All readers of the Tom Slade and the Roy Blakeley books are acquainted
with Pee-wee Harris. These stories record the true facts concerning his
size (what there is of it) and his heroism (such as it is), his voice,
his clothes, his appetite, his friends, his enemies, his victims.
Together with the thrilling narrative of how he foiled, baffled,
circumvented and triumphed over everything and everybody (except where
he failed) and how even when he failed he succeeded. The whole recorded
in a series of screams and told with neither muffler nor cut-out.
Pee-wee Harris
Pee-wee visits his uncle whose farm is located on a by-road, and
conceives the idea of starting a little shack along the road in which to
sell refreshments, etc. Scarcely has he started this little shack than
the bridge upon the highway burns down and the country road becomes a
thoroughway for automobiles.
Pee-wee Harris on the Trail
Pee-wee gets into the wrong automobile by mistake and is carried to the
country where he has a great time and many adventures.
Pee-wee Harris in Camp
The scene is set in the beloved and familiar Temple Camp. Here Pee-wee
resigns from the Raven Patrol, intending to start a patrol of his own.
He finds this more difficult than he had expected, but overcame all
obstacles—as usual.
Pee-wee Harris in Luck
Pee-wee goes with his mother to spend the summer on a farm, where he
meets a girl who is bewailing her fate that there is no society at this
obscure retreat. Pee-wee assures her he will fix everything for her—and
proceeds to do so—with his usual success.
Pee-wee Harris Adrift
A little spot of land up the river breaks away and floats down stream,
with a laden apple tree growing upon it. Pee-wee takes possession of
this island and the resulting adventures are decidedly entertaining.
Pee-wee Harris F. O. B. Bridgeboro
Pee-wee and his Patrol Leader set off on a trip to Temple Camp in an old
flivver. But Temple Camp is not reached so readily when mishaps and
adventures follow in rapid succession.
Pee-wee Harris: Fixer
Here we see Pee-wee in the role of a radio fan and never before did a
radio cause such side-splitting complications.
GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, NEW YORK
End of Project Gutenberg's Pee-Wee Harris in Luck, by Percy Keese Fitzhugh