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ROY BLAKELEY’S TANGLED TRAIL
[Illustration: PEE-WEE WENT DANCING AROUND WAVING THE BURNING PAPER.]
ROY BLAKELEY’S
TANGLED TRAIL
by
PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH
Author of
the Tom Slade Books, the Roy Blakeley
Books, the Pee-Wee Harris Books,
Westy Martin, etc.
Illustrated by H. S. Barbour
Published with the Approval of
the Boy Scouts of America
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers : : New York
Made in the United States of America
Copyright, 1924, by
Grosset & Dunlap
CONTENTS
I Greetings
II On the Shelf
III Hervey and the Camp
IV Tracks
V Plans
VI We Start
VII The Fall of Scout Harris
VIII Foiled Again
IX The Sound of Merry Laughter
X The Plot Grows Thicker—the Mud Too
XI An Intermission
XII Girls and Wasps
XIII “The Shiveller”
XIV Hands Off
XV Stung
XVI Jelly Cones
XVII Ancient History
XVIII A Story of the Past
XIX We Meet a Stranger
XX A Rare Species
XXI Thirty-four Cents
XXII Our Favorite Outdoor Sport
XXIII Hunting for Trouble
XXIV The Flapper and the Flopper
XXV Resources and Things
XXVI Flop Number Two
XXVII The Black Sheep
XXVIII Through the Mist
XXIX Eyes to See and Ears to Hear
XXX The Three of Us
XXXI The Voice in the Night
XXXII Hervey All Over
XXXIII Hervey’s Serenade
XXXIV Tom Fixes It
XXXV To the Point
ROY BLAKELEY’S TANGLED TRAIL
CHAPTER I
GREETINGS
Hello, everybody, this is the first story I wrote in a long time, only I
haven’t written it yet. I mean when it’s all written it will be the
first one I wrote in a long time.
That’s because my fountain pen got broken on account of stirring coffee
with it in camp. Pee-wee Harris said that needn’t make any difference
because a scout is supposed to be able to write with a charred stick
whittled to a point.
He says that’s the way pioneers wrote. He thinks the word pioneer comes
from the word pie. He says that’s the way he writes. No wonder his
stories are such black mysteries, that’s what my sister says. He says
scouts are supposed to write on birch bark. But believe me, paper is
good enough, I tried birch bark. But anyway I like birch beer. I’m crazy
about root beer too, only it reminds me of cube root and that reminds me
of arithmetic.
Maybe you don’t know what cube root is; you’re lucky. Cube root is the
number which taken three times as a factor produces a given number
called its cube. I should worry. Because anyway this story isn’t about
cubes, it’s about rubes and boobs and a lot of things and some roots but
no cubes. You get those in school and school is closed up or I wouldn’t
be writing this story.
Anyway I began this story twice. Gee whiz, I thought I was going to
strike out. The first time I started with a long description of Temple
Camp, and my father said it made him sleepy. Then after I went camping
over Sunday I started again, and coffee came out of my fountain pen, and
my sister said that a story like that would keep everybody awake, and I
told her that’s more than some stories do.
So then I cleaned my fountain pen out and started again, and this is my
third start, and my pen’s working fine. Only I’ve got to go downstairs
to supper now so I have to end this chapter.
My sister says the place to end chapters is just when something very
exciting is happening. But my mother says the place to end them is just
when the dinner gong sounds. Anyway to-night we’re going to have
chocolate pudding and that’s exciting so you’ll be in suspense while I’m
eating chocolate pudding and after that I bet you don’t know who you’re
going to meet.