WALTER HARRIS, SCOUT
All of a sudden, somebody was standing near me on the platform and
clutching my arm. It was Pee-wee.
"Look out you don't fall, Kid," I told him.
"I didn't tell any of them," he whispered. "Listen, I've got an idea. I
was--all the while I was trying to use my brains. But anyhow, I don't
know just how we can do it, but you can find a way, so then really it'll
be _your_ idea. Shh--I want the fellows to think it's your idea; see?
Shh! Why can't we use the movie apparatus, some way; why can't we? And
flash it to them."
"You said it!" I fairly yelled.
"Shh--h," he whispered; "I always voted for you; listen, it's _your_
idea, see? Because I don't know just how----"
Oh, boy, I just grabbed that kid around the neck, till I could feel his
curly head right tight close to me.
"What should I '_shh_' about?" I shouted. "You little brick! What are
you whispering about? _Pee-wee's hit it!_" I just fairly shouted. "We're
all right. Get in the car," I yelled at him, and I gave him a push.
"Telling your patrol leader to shut up, are you?"
Then I called him back again, I just couldn't help it, and I grabbed him
around the neck and I just held him that way.
"You _bully_, _tip-top_ little scout," I said; "you--you little Silver
Fox! You--you've saved all of us."
"And we can _always_ stick together, hey?" he said.
"Sure,--oh, sure," I told him; "you bet!"
Gee whiz, all we needed was the idea. All the rest of the ideas came to
us quick enough.
"There's oil in the movie lamp," Wig yelled.
"Break one of the windows," I said; "_quick_."
"What for?"
"Never mind what for. Get a piece of glass," I hollered. "Pick out two
long sticks--hurry up."
It didn't take us long to decide just how we'd do.
"Two _long_ ones," I said; "don't be listening for trains."
Crash went a window. "I've got a good piece," Pee-wee yelled.
"All right, blacken it with the movie lamp," I told him.
Oh, boy, we were some busy crew. The wood that had been nailed up under
the car in Brewster's Centre was in long strips, and we hauled a couple
of the longest ones out double quick. It wasn't exactly my idea, what we
did; it was all of our ideas, I guess. We planned it out while we were
hustling.
One of those long strips we stuck out of the window and then held it up
outside. One end of it was inside the car, resting on the seat, and the
other end pointed up as straight as we could hold it outside. It reached
up past the roof. Two of us held it that way, while two others did the
same thing with another one through the window just opposite. So you see
those two long strips stuck up, one on either side of the roof. They
didn't stand up straight on account of sticking down through the
windows, but they slanted away from each other up above. It took four of
us to hold them that way.
[Illustration: SPRAWLING RIGHT ACROSS THAT SHEET WAS THE WORD _STOP_.
_Roy Blakeley's Camp on Wheels._ _Page 150_]
While we were doing that, Pee-wee had the little movie lamp turned up so
it smoked and he held the piece of glass over it until it was all black
with soot. Pee-wee was all black with soot, too. A scout is thorough. In
two minutes more, I guess, he would have been disguised as a negro.
"Turn it down," I said; "that's enough. Are you game to climb up on the
car? Get the sheet and the rope, quick."
Pee-wee was game for anything. You never saw him back down, did you? Not
even--but never mind. That's a thing of the past. In five seconds that
little monkey was up on top of the car with the screen cloth and the
rope that we always used to hang it from. I called up out of the window
for him to look out.
"I don't see any trains," he shouted down.
"I mean look out for yourself," I said. "Tie the rope across from one
stick to the other as high as you can reach," Wig shouted; "and be
careful when you stand up."
"That's nothing," Pee-wee shouted.
In less than half a minute the sticks stood up all right without being
held, and we knew that they were tied together and bent enough toward
each other so that they would stand up good and solid. Then we told him
to sit down, because we didn't want him standing and reaching up to fix
the sheet.
"I'll go up," I said.
When I got up on the roof, Pee-wee and I hooked the sheet to the rope
all the way across and tied it to the sticks at the bottom, so it
wouldn't blow. Then we dangled the end of rope down past the window just
below, and the fellows tied the movie apparatus to it, and we hauled it
up. There was a kind of a tank lying flat on the roof and fastened
tight, and we stood the apparatus close against that, and kept close to
it ourselves to keep from slipping and falling off. Jiminies, I've heard
of tramps riding on the tops of cars like that, but believe me, I
wouldn't want to be on the top of one while it was going.
With my little finger I printed the word STOP in good big black letters
on the smoked glass.
"Listen," Pee-wee said; "shh; do you hear a train?"
I listened. "I guess it's just the fellows down in the car," I said.
"Have you got matches?"
"I've got four pockets full of them," he said. Even then I had to laugh.
A scout is thorough.
"Listen," he said; "I think it's a train."
Away off I could hear a rattling sound, very low and quick--_tkd_,
_tkd_, _tkd_, _tkd_, _tkd_, _tkd_, _tkd_, _tkd_; then all of a sudden a
long, shrill whistle. And I could hear it again, very low, echoing from
the mountains.
"_She's coming!_" Connie shouted up.
"We should worry," I hollered down.
But just the same my hand trembled as I put the piece of glass into the
apparatus, and held it there in place.
There wasn't any sign of light anywhere, the cloth stayed as dark as
pitch.
"What's the matter?" Pee-wee asked, all breathless.
"It doesn't work," I said. I could hardly speak, and cold shudders were
going all through me.
Away far off, there came a big patch of light on one of the mountains,
so that we could even see the trees off there. It was from the headlight
of a locomotive that we couldn't see yet. I guess it was coming around
the mountain.
"All right?" Westy called up out of the window.
"It doesn't work, Westy," I said.
I could hardly speak, my throat felt so queer, sort of.