TELLS ABOUT THE PAPER I FOUND
One thing, I bet it was Pee-wee Harris that the lieutenant heard
talking, while he was hiding on shore. Anyway, it was Pee-wee that I
heard first when they were on their way back--that's sure. You know how
plain you can hear voices on the water. And believe me, before those
fellows were half way out I knew all about the bandit of Red Hallow.
That was the fellow in the movies, I suppose, and he must have been
some bandit, because he saved a school teacher from about twenty other
bandits, and shot them all. I guess everybody was shooting pistols at
everybody else, like they mostly do in the movies. Pee-wee was sticking
up for the poor school teacher, and it made me laugh because he hasn't
got much use for school teachers on account of they're always keeping
him in for talking. Anyway, what fun is there in everybody shooting
pistols at each other. Me for stalking, that's what _I_ say.
When Mr. Ellsworth came on board he said, "Well, Roy, alone in your
glory, eh?" I didn't say anything and I hoped he wouldn't ask me any
questions, because anyway, I wasn't going to lie, that's one sure
thing. I asked him how the fellows liked the movies and he said,
everybody got shot so they were all satisfied. He was just joking. He
asked the fellows if they'd like to meet a lot of bandits in real life,
and they said, "_Good night_, no." And then he said it was funny how
they liked to meet them in the movies and all the fellows had to admit
it was crazy. You wouldn't catch Mr. Ellsworth stopping us from going
to the movies, but he always makes us feel silly afterward.
Pretty soon Grove Bronson, who is one of the Raving Ravens, came up to
me and gave me a newspaper with a whole lot of ears of corn in it, and
said we were going to have it for Sunday dinner.
Pee-wee said, "They're dandy big ears all right, and here's some cans
of tongue."
"Good night," I told him, "I thought we had tongue enough with you
here." Oh, you ought to have seen little Skinny McCord laugh. His face
was all thin on account of his not being very strong and he never had
much food until he got in with us, either. But it was fun to see him
laugh whenever we got back at Pee-wee.
"There's some heads of cabbage, too," he said; "Doc's got them."
"Heads and ears and tongues," I said; "you ought to have brought some
potatoes, so we'd have eyes." He thinks I'm funny, but I just say those
things to make him laugh, so as he'll feel good.
Then I took all the stuff into the galley and put it in the food
locker. I was just crunching up the newspaper that they brought the
corn in, and was going to throw it out of the window, when I saw a
heading that read: _Fishermen Have Harrowing Adventure_. Oh, boy,
didn't I sit down on the barrel and read that article through! First, I
looked to see the date of the paper and I saw it was a couple of days
old. After I read that article I cut it out, because I knew I was going
to tell you about all these things. So here it is now for you to read:
FISHERMEN HAVE HARROWING ADVENTURE
The fishing schooner Stella B arrived in
port to-day with two castaways, who had
drifted for three days in an open boat in the
stormy waters off Rockaway. The two
men, Mike Corby and Dan McCann, hail
from Jersey, and were carried out to sea in
their twenty-two foot launch from about
a mile south of Sea Gate, where they were
fishing.
Their engine broke down and their small
boat, beaten by the waves, was leaking
rapidly when they were picked up. One of
the men was unconscious from lack of
nourishment and the other in a state of
utter exhaustion from bailing, in an all but
futile effort to keep the frail little craft
above water. After being resuscitated, one
of the men gave a vague account of having
encountered a waterlogged life-boat containing
several people who had perished
from exposure, and of certain papers and
possessions found on one of them.
Later when a reporter made an effort to
see the men for confirmation of this statement,
neither could be found. Both are
said to have carried considerable money on
their persons, but this was explained by the
exceptionally large catches of fish which
they sold, during their fishing trip. No
means of tracing them is known since the
boat, in which one of them resumed his
journey home after repairs, had no license
number.
Maybe you think I didn't read that article twice. And it made me wonder
a lot of things about that fishing trip. One thing, it looked as if
they might have had more adventures than Lieutenant Donnelle had told
me about, and maybe he didn't want to tell me everything--that's what I
thought. Anyway, he didn't say anything about a life-boat, that's sure.
But maybe he forgot to.
Just the same I wondered if maybe he had any other reason for being in
such a hurry and so excited, kind of. Then I remembered how he said he
would tell me all about it some day. Anyway, I said, he's had a lot of
adventures, that's sure. You bet I'd like to have a lot of adventures
like that.