Chapter 1 of Pee-wee Harris on the Trail, Pee-wee Harris on the Trail by Percy Kees-Hits-Hugh The lone figure. The night was bleak and cold, all through the melancholy cheerless day the first chill of autumn had been in the air. Toward evening the clouds had parted, showing a steel-colored sky in which the sun went down a great red ball, tinting the foliage across the river with a glow of crimson, a sun full of rich white but no heat. The air was heavy with a pungent fragrance of burning leaves. The gutters along Main Street were full of these fluttering red memorials of the good old summertime. But there were other signs that the melancholy days had come. Down at the Bridgeborough Station was a congestion of trunks and other luggage, bespeaking the end of the merry play season. In saddest of all, the windows of the stationery stores were filled with pencil boxes and blank books and other horrible reminders of the opening of school. Look where one would these signs confronted the boys of Bridgeborough, and there was no escaping them. Even the hardware store had straps and tin lunchboxes now filling its windows. The same window where fishing rods and canoe paddles had lately been displayed. Even the man who kept the shoe store had turned trader and gathered up his display of sneaks and scout moccasins and exhibited in their places a lot of school shoes. Sensible footwear for the student, he called them. Even the drugstore where mosquito dope and ice cream sodas had been sold now displayed a basket full of small sponges for the sanitary cleansing of slates. The faithless wretch who kept this store had put a small sign on the basket reading for the classroom. One in all the merchants of Main Street had gone over to the Board of Education, and all signs pointed to school. But the most pathetic sight to be witnessed on that sad chill autumn night was the small boy in a threadbare grey sweater and shabby cap who stood gazing wistfully into the seductive windows of Piffle's home bakery.   All they saw was a shabby cap in an ill-fitting sweater which bulged him back as if something were being carried in the rear pocket. And there he stood, the poor little figure heedless of the merry throngs that passed, his wistful gaze fixed upon a four-story chocolate cake, sort of edible skyscraper with a tiny dome of a glazed cherry upon the top of it. And of all the surging throng on main street that bleak autumnal night, none noticed this poor fellow. Yes, one, a lady sitting in a big blue automobile saw him, and her heart, tenderer than the jelly rolls and Piffle's window, went out to him. Perhaps she had a little boy of her own. End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 of Pee Wee Harris on the Trail This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Pee Wee Harris on the Trail, by Percy Keys, fits you. Chapter 2 of Pathetic Sight We shall pay particular attention to this sumptuous automobile, which was such as to attract attention in modest Bridgeboro. For one thing it was of a rich shade of blue, whereas the inhabitants of Bridgeboro, being for the most part dead, their favorite color in autos was black. The car indeed was the latest Super-6 hunk-a-junk touring model, a vision of grace and colorful beauty, set off with trimmings of shiny nickel. The hunk-a-junk people had outdone themselves in this latest model, and had produced the car of a thousand delights. That seemed a good many, but that is the number they announced, and surely they must have known. When one sat in the soft, spacious rear seat of the hunk-a-junk touring model, one felt the sensation of sinking into a, what shall I say, one had a sort of sinking spell. You will pay particular attention to the luxurious rear seat of this car, because it was destined to be the couch of a world hero, rivaling Cleopatra's famous barge, which you will find drifting around in the upper-grade history books. This was the only Super-6 hunk-a-junk touring car in Bridgeboro, and it belonged to the Bartlett's, who on this momentous night occupied its front seat. Do look at that poor little fellow, said Mrs. Bartlett, to her husband. Stop for just a second.  Oh, what's the use stopping, said Mr. Bartlett, good humorably. Because I'm not going to the Lyric Theater, and have that poor little hungry urchin haunting me all through the show.  Just see how he looks in that window.  Poor little fellow, he may be starving for all we know. I'm going to give him twenty-five cents. Have you got the change? You mean I'm going to give it to him, laughed Mr. Bartlett, stopping the car. He's just eating the things with his eyes, said Mrs. Bartlett, with womanly tenderness. Look at that shabby sweater. Probably his father is a drunken wretch. We'll be late for the show, said Mr. Bartlett. I don't care anything about the show, his wife retorted. Do you suppose I want to see the bandit of Harrowing Highway or whatever it is? If we get in time for the educational films, that's all I care about. You gave money for the starving children of France.  I can't see his face, said Mr. Bartlett, but he looks as if he had the Woolworth building in his back pocket. Little boy misses Bartlett, called in her sweetest tone. Here is some money for you. You go into that store and gracious me, it's Walter Harris. What on earth are you doing here, Walter? I thought you were a poor little... I thought you were hungry. The sturdy but diminutive form in the curly head and frowning countenance which stood confronting her were none other than those of Pee Wee Harris, B.S.A., boy of special appetite or Boy Scouts of America, whichever you please.  That's the time you guessed right, he said. I am. End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 of Pee Wee Harris on the Trail. This is a LibriVox recording. While LibriVox recordings are in the public domain, for more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Pee Wee Harris on the Trail by Percy Keyes fits you. Chapter 3 Three Good Turns Give him the money, laughed Mr. Bartlett. I will do no such thing, said his wife.  Wherever did you get that sweater? I don't believe he's had anything to eat for half an hour, said Mr. Bartlett. Well, how is my old college chum, Pee Wee? You make her give you the 25 cents, Pee Wee. A scout can't accept money like that, said Mrs. Bartlett, reprovingly. It's against their rules. Don't you know that? Pee Wee cast a longing glance back at the window of Piffle's Bakery, and then proceeded to set Mrs. Bartlett right on the subject of the scout law. It depends on what you call rules, see, he said. And what you call hungry, added Mr. Bartlett. If you kind of want to do a good turn, I haven't got any right to stop you, have I, Pee Wee said? Because good turns are the main things. Gee whiz, I haven't got any right to interfere with those. I haven't got any right to accept money for a service, but suppose there's a jelly roll. There is, said Mr. Bartlett, but in two minutes there isn't going to be.  I was going there anyway, Pee Wee said. I want to see the bandit of Harrowing Highway. It's in five reels. Well, you come along with us, said Mr. Bartlett, and then you'll be doing two good turns. You'll be doing a favor to Mrs. Bartlett by buying a jelly roll, and you'll be doing a favor to me by making a party of three to see the bandit of Harrowing Highway. What do you say? Three's my lucky number, said Pee Wee, and then suddenly the thinking himself he had it. But I don't mean I want to get three jelly rolls, you understand. Yes, we understand, said Mrs. Bartlett. So it befell that Pee Wee, alias Walter Harris, scout of the first class, and quality, if not quantity, found himself riding luxuriously down Main Street in the rear seat of Mr. Bartlett's big hunk of junk touring car, eating a jelly roll with true scout relish, where it was now closed eight o'clock and Pee Wee had not eaten anything since supper time. Having completed this good turn to Mrs. Bartlett, he proceeded to do a good turn to himself by bringing forth two sandwiches out of the pocket usually associated with a far more dangerous weapon. This was his emergency kit, which he always carried, morning, noon, or night. He always carried a couple of sandwiches, the same as motorists carry extra tires. While he ate he talked. Gee whiz, I'm crazy to see that picture, he said. We usually go for the educational film, said Mrs. Bartlett. I don't like anything that's got education, and Pee Wee said. Even when I go to vaudeville I don't like educated monkeys and cats and things. I like bandits and things like that. What's your favorite thing? Well, I like scouts, said Mr. Bartlett. Mine's ice cream cone, said Pee Wee. Is this a new car?  It's a hunk of junk. I like hot frankfurters, too. I can tell all the different kinds of cars because the scout is supposed to be observant. Do you like gum drops? I'm crazy about those. But where did you get that sweater, Mrs. Bartlett asked? Do you want me to tell you about it? It belongs to a man that takes care of our furnace. He's got a peach of a tattoo mark on his arm. My mother told me I had to wear a sweater, so I grabbed that as I went through the back hall. I always go out through the kitchen. Do you know why? I think I can guess, said Mr. Bartlett. And the cap, Mrs. Bartlett asked. You know the burglar that came to our house? No, I never met him, said Mrs. Bartlett. I bet you don't like burglars, eh? He left this cap. He didn't get anything, and I got the cap so that shows I'm always lucky. My mother doesn't want me to wear it. She wish she hates burglars. Anyway, it's good and comfortable. My father says if he comes back for it, I have to give it to him. Well, you certainly don't look like Walter Harris, the boy scout I have always known, said Mrs. Bartlett.   Oh, how dreadful, said Mrs. Bartlett. I know worse things than that, said Pee-wee. Well, tell us about the scouts, Mr. Bartlett encouraged him. Shall I tell you all about them? Surely, begin at the beginning. That's law one. It's about honor. Do you know what that is? I've heard of it, said Mr. Bartlett. A scout has to be honorable. See, that comes first of all, before eating. Eating is all the way through it. Oh, I see. The scout has to be so kind of, you know, so honorable that nobody could suspect him.  There are a lot of other laws, too. Well, here we are at the Lyric, said Mr. Bartlett. So let's go in and see what the bandit of Harrowing Highway thinks about honor. Leaving the car in front of the theater, the three elbowed their way through the long crowded lobby, and soon Pee-wee Harris' scout was no longer in Bridgeboro, but among rugged mountains where a man with a couple of pistols in his belt, and a hat as big as an umbrella, rained up a spirited horse and waited for a caravan, and all that sort of stuff. End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of Pee-wee Harris on the Trail. This is a LibriVox recording. While LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Pee-wee Harris on the Trail by Percy Keys fits you. Chapter 4 The Five Reeler And meanwhile, something very real happened. Two men in khaki, but without any pistols in their belts, rose slowly up to the front of the Lyric Theater in a big blue touring car and stop. It was one of those palatial cars of a thousand delights, a new Suprasix hunkajunk touring model. A couple of policemen, safeguarding the public's convenience, had moved the Bartlett car beyond the main entrance in the interest of latecomers, and it was in this vacated space at the second medley of blue and nickel was now thoughtlessly parked. No cars came along after it, so there it remained with a little group of admirers about it. The few loiterers in the lobby glanced curiously at the two young men. These strangers strode in laughing in a way of mutual banter, as if their sudden decision to see the show was quite amusing to themselves. No one recognized them. They must have come from out of town. They wore khaki suits with clapping brimmed hats of a color to match, and their faces were brown with the wholesome, permanent tan of outdoor life. They seemed greatly amused with themselves, and their breezy manner and negligee, which smacked of the woods, attracted the attention of Bridgeborough's staff of unpaid censors who hung out in and about the Lyric's lobby. But little, apparently, did the strangers care what was said and thought of them. One of them bought the tickets to a hearty indignation of the other, and they disappeared into the terrible fastnesses along Harrowing Highway, where they tumbled boisterously into a couple of seats off the center aisle, right within pistol shot of the bandit, as one of them laughingly remarked to the other. In the last reel, the bandit was captured by a sheriff's posse, the young school teacher from the east, whom he had villain-lessly kidnapped, was set free and went to live on a ranch, with a hero who also carried several pistols, and the detective, whom the millionaire had sent from the east and who likewise carried several pistols, became a train robber and nearly killed the millionaire when he met in the middle of the desert, carrying pistols, and who killed him instead and was, in turn, mortally wounded by the partner he had ruined and who had left nothing but several pistols. And then Scout Harris fell asleep and swept through the first part of the educational films. In a kind of jumbled dream, he saw President Harding, with pistols, receiving a delegation of ladies, all armed, and then he felt a tapping on his shoulder.  Pee-wee was too sleepy to answer. His mind was awake to but two things, ice cream and pistols. In a kind of stupor, he looked to make sure that Mrs. Bartlett was not armed and then dragging himself from his seat, he stumbled up the aisle through the lobby, crossed the sidewalk and tumbled into the rear seat of the big car that seemed waiting to receive him. He was just awake enough to realize that the night was cold and he pulled the heavy blanket over him and was dead to the world. Many adventures awaited this redoubtable young scout, but one terrible ordeal he escaped. In this he was, as he said, lucky. For the very next picture on the screen after he had made his half-conscious exit showed a lot of children in Europe being fed out of the unicefant hand of Uncle Sam, and Pee-wee could never have stayed in his seat and quietly watched that tormenting performance. Chapter 5 of Pee-wee Harris on the Trail This is a LibriVox recording. While LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Pee-wee Harris on the Trail by Percy Keyes Fitzhugh. Chapter 5 Robbers Scout Harris never knew exactly when he passed out of the realm of dreams into the realm of wakefulness. For in both conditions pistols played a leading part. He was aware of a boy scout holding Secretary Hoover at bay with two pistols, and Mr. Ellsworth, his scout master, rescuing the statesman with several more pistols, and then he was very distinctly aware of someone saying, How many pistols have you got? Twenty-seven, another answered. I've got forty-three and two blackjacks, said the first voice. You're wrong, said the other. I jotted them down, the first voice replied. We should worry, the other one laughed. At this appalling revelation of seventy pistols between them, to say nothing of two blackjacks, there seemed indeed very little for the speakers to worry about. But for Scout Harris, whose whole stock of ammunition consisted of a remnant of sandwich and the almost naked core of an apple, there seemed much to worry about. Pee Wee realized now that he was awake in being born along at an excessive rate of speed. He knew that he was in Bartlett's big hunk of junk car, and that the dark figures with all the firearms on the front seat were not Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett. Trembling, he spread the robe so as to more completely cover his small form, including his head. For a moment he had a wild impulse to cast this covering off and scream, or at least to jump from the speeding car. But a peek from underneath the robe convinced him of the folly of this. The jump would be to lose his life, to scream, well, what chance would he have with two bloodthirsty robbers armed with seventy pistols and two blackjacks? There were a few Boy Scouts who could dispatch an apple core with such accuracy of aim as W. Harris, but of what avail is an apple core against seventy pistols? He could not hear all that was said on the front seat, but the fragments of talk that he did here were alarming in the last degree. Best way to handle them, said one of those dark figures. I've got a couple of dead ones to worry about, said the other. Pee Wee curled up smaller under the robe and hardly breathed. Indeed, two dead ones was something to worry about. Suppose he should be the third. One for me, but I'm not worrying about him, said the other. We'll get away with it, his companion commented. Then followed some talk which Pee Wee could not hear, but he felt certain that it was on their favorite topic of murder. Then he overheard these dreadful yet comparatively consoling words.  Take them if you want to, but what's the use killing? That's what I said to him. Steel, oh sure, that's just what I told him, the speaker continued. Steel up, step on it, the other interrupted, we're out in the country now. The big super six hunk-a-junk car darted forward and scout Harris could hear the purring of the big engine as the machine sped along through the solemn darkness. A momentary cautious glimpse from under the big robe showed him that they were already far from the familiar environs of Bridgeboro, speeding along a lonely country road. Now and then they whist past some dark farmhouse or through some village in which the law-abiding citizens had gone to their beds. Occasionally Pee Wee, peaking from beneath the robe, saw cheerful lights, shining houses along the way, and in his silent terror and apprehension, he fancied these filled with boy scouts in the full enjoyment of scout freedom. Scouts who were in no danger of being added to some bloody list of dead ones, that he, Pee Wee Harris, mascot of the Raven Patrol, First Bridgeboro, troop, should have come to this, that he should be carried away by a pair of inhuman wretches to what dreadful fate he shuddered to conjecture, that he, scout Harris, whose reputation for being wide awake had gone far and wide in the world of scouting, should be carried away unwittingly by a pair of thieves and find himself an imminent peril of being added to that ghastly galaxy of dead ones. It was horrible. Pee Wee curled up under the robe so as to disarm any suspicion of a human form beneath that thick enveloping concealment, and even breathed with silent caution.  End of chapter five. Chapter six of Pee Wee Harris on the Trail. This is a LibriVox recording, or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recording by Catherine Phipps. Pee Wee Harris on the Trail by Percy Keys Fitzhugh, a message in the dark. Pee Wee seldom had any doubts about anything. What he knew, he knew, and what is still better, he knew that he knew it.  He not only knew it and knew that he knew it, but he knew that everybody that he knew knew that he knew it. As he said himself, he was absolutely positive. Pee Wee knew all about scouting, oh, everything. He knew how and where tents should be put up, and where spring water was to be found. He did not know all about the different kinds of birds, but he knew all about the different kinds of eats, and there are more kinds of eats than there are kinds of birds. How the Bridgeborough Troop would be able to get along without their little mascot was a question, for he was their fixer. That was his middle name, fixer. And of all of the things of which Pee Wee was absolutely positive, the thing of which he was the most positive, was that two thieves connected with the crime wave were riding away in Mr Bartlett's big hunk of junk touring model and carrying him a little scout model along with them. What should he do?  Then someone would find the message and come to rescue him. But with what should he wait his fluttering message so that it would fall in the road? Pee Wee was a scout of substance and had amassed a vast fortune in the way of small possessions. He earned the cap of a fountain pen, a knob from a brass bedstead, two paper clips, a horse's tooth, a broken magnifying glass, a device for making noises in the classroom, a clock key, a glass tube, a piece of chalk for making scout signs and other treasures. But these were in the pockets of his scout uniform and could be of no service to him in his predicament. The only trinket which he had was the fragment of a sandwich. Having reduced this by a generous bite to one half its size, he wrote his note as well as he could without moving too much. One deadly weapon he had with him and that was a safety pin. With this he now pierced the piece of sandwich to the heart, linking it forever with that note written tremblingly in a moment of fallen hope and utter darkness under the kindly concealment of the buffalo robe. And here is the note. I am being kidnapped by thieves who are stealing Mr Bartlett's car. I don't know where. If anybody finds this, please take it to my house. Bridge borer Walter Harris Scout. Having cast this last message out upon the road, he withdrew his arm cautiously back under the robe and lay as nearly motionless as possible prepared for the worst. If he should never be heard of again, it would seem both touching and appropriate that this memento of him should be a morsel of food which he loved, fastened with a safety pin which was the weapon that he always carried. End of chapter 6. Chapter 7 of Pee Wee Harris on the Trail. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Catherine Phipps. Pee Wee Harris on the Trail by Percy Keyes Fitzhugh. Locked Doors. Like the groundhog, Pee Wee did not emerge again until the occasion was more propitious. For fully an hour, the car ran at high speed which afforded him some hope that the strong arm of the law might intervene. But the strong arm of the law was apparently under its pillow in delicious slumber.  At last the car slowed down and Pee Wee could feel that it was turning into another road. His unwitting captors were evidently either nervous or sleepy for they talked but little. The car proceeded slowly now and when our hero ventured to steal a quick glimpse from under his covering, he perceived that they were going along a road so dark and narrow that it seemed like a leafy tunnel. The somber darkness and utter silence of this sequestered region made the deed of these outlaws seem all the blacker. There was now no doubt whatever of the criminal nature of their bold enterprise. For surely no law-abiding civilized beings lived in such a remote wilderness as now close them in. Soon the car came to a stop and Pee Wee's thumping heart almost came to a stop at the same time. Suppose they should lift the robe. What would they do? And quite as much to the point, what should he do?   No, he would not do that. A scout is supposed to be cautious. He would remain under the buffalo robe. Presently he heard the unmistakable sound and felt the unmistakable feeling of the car being run into some sort of a shelter. The voices of the thieves sounded different, more hollow as voices heard in small quarters indoors, a little suggestion of an echo to them. Pee Wee Harris, scout, did not know where he was or what was going on but he felt that four walls surrounded him. The plot was growing thicker and it was suffocating under that heavy robe, now that there was no free air blowing about it. Where's the stuff? One of the men asked. On the back seat, said the other. Pee Wee trembled. Oh no, I guess it's on the floor, the man added. I think I put the silver cup under the back seat. Pee Wee shuddered so they had been stealing silver cups. Either there or, oh, here it is. Pee Wee breathed again. Then he heard no more voices but he heard other sounds. He heard the creaking of a heavy rolling door. He heard a sound as if it were being bolted or fastened on the inside. Then he heard the slamming of another door and a muffled metallic sound as of someone locking it on the outside. Then he heard footsteps, fainter, fainter. Then he heard a sound which seemed to him familiar. He could not liken it to anything in particular, but it sounded familiar, a kind of clanking metallic sound. Then he heard a voice say, Let me handle her. Give her a shove. Hold her down. That's right. Pee Wee's blood ran cold. They were killing someone out there. Some poor captive maiden, perhaps. Then he heard no more. End of chapter 7. Chapter 8 of Pee Wee Harris on the Trail. This is a LibriVox recording. Or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Catherine Phipps. Pee Wee Harris on the Trail by Percy Keyes Fitzhugh. A discovery. The ominous sound of doors rolling and of clanking staples and padlocks told Pee Wee all too conclusively that he was a prisoner and he was seized with panic terror at the thought of being locked in a dungeon where he could hardly see his hand before his face. As to where he was, he had no guess more than that he was miles and miles from home. But along with his fright came a feeling of relief that he was no longer in company of those two scandals who were unwittingly responsible for his predicament. They would probably not return before morning and he would have at least a little breathing spell in which to consider what he should do if indeed he could do anything. The departure of his captors gave him courage and some measure of hope. Freedom he did not hope for, but a brief respite from peril was his. Time. Time. What the doomed crave and pray for. That at least was his. He had presence of mind enough to refrain from making any sound, for the thieves might still be in the neighborhood for all he knew. The last he had heard of them, they had been talking of handling her and giving her a shove and he did not want them to come back and handle him. So he sat on the rear seat of the big hunker junk car ready to withdraw beneath the robe at the first sound of approaching footsteps. If he had been free to make a companionable noise to whistle or to hum or to listen to the friendly sound of his own movements, he would have felt less frightened. But the need of absolute silence in that dark prison agitated him and in the ghostly stillness every creek made the place seem haunted. If he could only have seen where he was, he knew now something of the insane terrors of dark and solitary confinement. So strongly did this terror hold him that for a minute or two he dared not stir upon the seat for fear of causing the least sound which the darkness and strangeness of the place might conjure into spectral voices. There is but one way to dispel these horrors and that is by throwing them off with quick movement and practical resolve. He jumped down out of the car and groping his way through the darkness stumbled against a wall. Moving his hand along this he found it to be of rough boards. Indeed he had a more conclusive proof of this by the fact that a large splinter of the dried wood pierced his finger paining acutely. He pulled it out and sucked the bleeding cut then wound his handkerchief around it. One discovery at least he had made. The building whatever it was was old. The smell of the board sides informed him of that much and there was no flooring. He now stood thinking wondering what he should do next and as he paused he heard a sound near him. A sound as of quick low breathing. In the open such a sound would not have been audible but in the ghostly darkness of that strange prison he could hear it clearly when he listened. Sometimes he could distinguish the momentary pauses between the breaths and sometimes the faint sound seemed continuous. As he listened in silent awful terror the thumping of his heart seemed to interrupt the steady low sound. It was not normal breathing surely but it was the sound of breathing. He was certain of that. He thought it was over near the car. End of chapter eight. Chapter nine of Pee Wee Harris on the Trail. This is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Catherine Phipps. Pee Wee Harris on the Trail by Percy Keys Fitzhugh. The tenth case. The thought that there was a living presence in that spooky dungeon struck terror to Pee Wee's very soul. He could not bring himself to move much less to speak but he could not stand idly where he was and if he should stumble over a human form in that unknown blackness what could be more appalling than that? Was this uncanny place a prison for poor injured captives? Was there lying just a few feet from him? Some suffering victim of those scoundrels? What did it mean? Pee Wee could only stand listening in growing fear and agitation. Who's there? He finally asked and his own trembling voice seemed strange to him. There was no answer. Who's there? He asked again. Silence. Only the low, steady sound punctuated as it seemed by his own heartbeats. Who is, is anybody there? Then suddenly in a kind of abandon he cast off his fears and grubbed his way with hands before him toward the low sound. Presently his hand was upon something round and small. It had a kind of tube running from it. He felt about this and touched something else. He felt along it. It was smooth and continuous. And then he knew and he experienced infinite relief. His hand was upon the spare tyre on the rear of the car. The air was slowly escaping in irregular jerks from the valve of this tyre making that low sound now hardly audible, now clearer and steadier. That escaping air will sometimes cause when passing through a leaky valve. The darkness and Pee Wee's own thumping heart had contributed to the horrible illusion and he smiled in the utter relief which he experienced by the discovery. But one other discovery he had made also which gave him an inspiration and made him feel foolish that he had not had the inspiration before. The little round thing that he had felt in about the centre of the tyre was the red tail light of the car. He realised that now and this discovery reminded him that he could have all the light he wanted by the mere touching of a switch.  He was so relieved and elated that he could afford to be generous with self accusations. One thing sure, it shows how when you hunt for a thing you'll find something else. So if you're mistaken it's a good thing. This was logical, surely, and he now proceeded to avail himself of the benefit of his chance discovery. Presently this dank, mysterious, spooky dungeon would be bathed in welcome light. Pee Wee climbed into the front seat and moved his hand across the array of nickel dials and buttons on the instrument board. There seemed to be a veritable multitude of little handles and indicators for the control of the hunker-junk Super 6 touring model, not even a wireless apparatus with which Pee Wee's scouting experience had made him familiar had such a variety of shiny little odds and dens. Having no knowledge of these things, he moved his hand among them cautiously, fearful lest some inadvertent touch might cause the car to go careering into the board wall. He bent his head close to the instrument board in search of printed words indicating the purpose of the various buttons, but the darkness was too dense for him to see anything but the shiny nickel. At the same time his wandering foot, conducting an exploration of its own, came against a little knob. Pee Wee never knew precisely what he did to cause the startling occurrence which followed. There were two switch buttons side by side, and in one a small key had been left. Evidently he decided that this was the lighting switch. He was just able to decipher the word ignition above it, but alas the word ignition means spark on an auto, whether he purposely, in curiosity, stepped on the button in the floor he never knew. In nine cases out of ten it would have required more effort to start the hunker-junk touring model, but this was the tenth case. In a frantic effort to stop the power, or perhaps in groping with his hand, he pulled down the spark lever and the six-cylinder brute of an engine awoke to life. Out of the exhaust pipe and back poured the fatal volume of gaseous smoke which spells death, horrible and suffocating, when locked and barred doors and windowless walls enclosed the wretched, gasping victim as in a tomb. End of chapter nine. Chapter ten of Pee Wee Harris on the Trail. This is a LibriVox recording, or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recording by Catherine Phipps. Pee Wee Harris on the Trail, by Percy Keyes Fitzhugh. A race with death. In close confinement, it is all over in a minute in these cases. The victim is poisoned and suffocated like a rat in a hole. Surprising as it may seem, this deadly poison works faster than its victim can act, and with darkness for its ally the only hope lies in presence of mind and quick action. Pee Wee Harris was a scout. Laugh at him and make fun of him as you will. He was a scout. He was at once the littlest scout and the biggest scout that ever scouting had known. He boasted and bungled, but out of his bungling came triumph. He fell. Oh, such falls as he fell, but he always landed right side up. He could save the world with a blunder, and then boast of the blunder. He was not a motorist. He was a scout. Wrong, all right, and he was usually wrong. He was a scout. He was a scout with something left over. Like a flash of lightning, he jumped into the car and shut off the switch, but the imprisoned air was already heavy with the deadly fumes and his head shutting off the switch would not save him. Nothing would save him unless his mind and body acted together with lightning swiftness. Say that he made a bull of it in starting the engine, and you are welcome to say that of him. But after that, the spirit and training of the scout possessed him.  Pee Wee Harris, scout, tore his handkerchief from around his cut finger, unscrewed the cap of the radiator, dipped his handkerchief into the hole, bit off two small pieces of the warm, dripping cloth, and stuffed them into his ears. The wet handkerchief, he stuffed into his mouth. And so Scout Harris gained a few precious moments, only a few, in which to make a desperate effort to find a way out.  Roy Blakely, Silver Fox Patrol, and not in this story, thank goodness, said, long after these adventures were over, that a handkerchief stuffed in Pee Wee's mouth was a good idea, and that it was a pity it had been removed. But Pee Wee Harris was a scout. He was a couple of scouts, and he saved his life by scout law and knowledge. And there you are. Acting quickly, he now groped his way around to the rear of the car. It was odd how quickly his mind worked in his desperate predicament. His eyes stung and his throat pained him, and he knew that he had won only the chance of a race with death. But what more does a scout want than a fighting chance? His wits, spurred by the emergency, were now alert, and he recalled that the men who had stolen the car had rolled one door shut and slammed another. So perhaps the rolling door had been barred inside. Where the small door was, he did not know, and there was no time now to make groping exploration of the sides. The rolling door must be in back of the car. He knew that. He was dizzy now, and on the point of falling. His wrists tingled, and his head ached acutely. Only his towering resolve kept him on his feet. Groping from behind the car, he touched the boards, and felt along them for some indication of the door. Presently, his hand came upon an iron band set in a large staple through which was inserted a huge wooden plug. This he pulled out, and hauling on the staple, slowly rolled open a great wide door. A fresh gust of autumn wind blew in upon him, a cleansing and refreshing restorative, as if it had been waiting without to welcome the sturdy little scout into the vast, fragrant woods which he loved. And the bright stars shone overhead, and the air was laden with the pungent scent of autumn. It seemed as if all nature, solemn and companionable, was there to greet the little mascot of the Raven Patrol, first Bridgeborough Troop B.S.A. The car of a thousand delights had so far afforded very few delights to Pee Wee Harris. End of Chapter 10. Chapter 11 A Rural Paradise Pee Wee looked about him at an enchanted scene. He seemed to have been transported to a region made to order for the Boy Scouts of America. That a pair of auto thieves should have brought him to this rural paradise seemed odd enough. As he gazed about and looked up at the quiet star-studded sky, his fears were all but dispelled. For were not the friendly woods and water near him? They seemed like rescuing allies now, in the soft enveloping arms of those silent woods he would find safety and shelter. And so he should find his way home through their dim concealment. The building in which the car had been left was an old weather-beaten shack, which, judging from the sawdust all about, might once have been used as an ice-house. This seemed likely, for it stood near the shore of a placid lake in the black bosom of which shone a myriad of inverted stars and through which was a golden path of flickering moonlight. The ice-house, or whatever it was, had never been painted and the grain stood out on the shrunken wood like veins in an aged hand. At a respectable distance from the woods near the shore where Pee Wee stood was a sizable village or young town, big enough to have traffic signs and parking zones and a main street and a movie show and such like pretentious things. Between this town and the shore were a few outlying houses, but mostly sparse woodland. To the north the woods were thicker. The lights of this neighboring town formed a cheery background to the dark silent lakeshore. This town was West Ketchum, and the chief sensation in West Ketchum during the last few years had been the destruction by fire of the public school, a calamity for which every boy went in mourning. Across the lake Pee Wee could see other and fewer lights. These belonged to a smaller village in which nothing at all had ever happened, not even the burning of its school, far from it. The school stood there in all its glory, under the able supervision of Barnabas Wise and Birchle Rodney, the local board of education. About in the center of the lake Pee Wee saw a small red light. Sometimes there seemed to be two lights, but he thought that one was the reflection of the other in the water. The light seemed very lonely, yet very inviting out there. He supposed it was on a boat, perhaps someone was fishing. But in all this surrounding beauty and peacefulness, Pee Wee saw no sign of the murder of any captive maiden. His eagle eye did see where a boat had been drawn up on shore, and if any shoves and other cruel and abusive handling had been administered by those scoundrels with seventy pistols, it must have been to that poor defenseless boat. Or perhaps they were out in the middle of the lake at that very minute sinking their victim. Anything might happen, in the mind of Scout Harris. End of Chapter 11 Recording by Stephen Winterburn Chapter 12 of Pee Wee Harris on the Trail This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Stephen Winterburn Pee Wee Harris on the Trail By Percy Keese Fitzhugh Chapter 12 Enter the Genuine Article At another time Pee Wee would have delighted to linger in this Scouts Utopia, but his chief thought now was to take advantage of his fortunate escape. He had not the faintest idea where he was, more than that he was a full two hours ride from home. That would be a long and lonely hike, even if he could find his way in the darkness. He tried to recall the names of the various lakes in New Jersey and in the neighboring state of New York, and he recalled a good many, but that did not help him to identify this one. So he started up toward the town in the hope of identifying that. The village petered out toward the lake. There were but a few houses. It was about eleven or twelve o'clock or after, and the good people in the straggling cottages thereabout had put out their lights and retired to slumber before that wicked hour. There was a stillness and gloom about these uninviting dark houses, a cheerlessness not to be found in the densest woods. They made Pee Wee feel lost and lonesome, as the dim silent wilderness could never do. Soon he reached the town, and there in the center of a spacious lawn was something which, in his loneliness and uncertainty, seemed the picture of gloom. The ruin of a building which had been burned to the ground. What a fire that must have been to witness, better far than the bandit of Harrowing Highway. Over a partly fallen arch, under which many reluctant feet had passed, Pee Wee could just make out the graven words. West Ketchum Public School. West Ketchum. So that was where he was. But he had never heard of West Ketchum. The fame of this lakeside metropolis had not penetrated to Surging Bridgeboro. At least, it had not penetrated to the surging mind of Scout Harris. He tried to recall West Ketchum on the map of New Jersey in his school geography. But evidently West Ketchum had scorned the geography. Or else the geography had scorned West Ketchum. Undecided what to do, Pee Wee lingered a few moments among the mass of charred timbers and desks ruined and laid low, and broken blackboards all in an indiscriminate heap. I bet the fellers that live here are glad, he said to himself. That isn't saying they have to believe in fires, except campfires. But anyway, after it's all over they've got a right to be glad. The situation of the school seemed to have been a sort of compromise between the claims of the lake and the claims of the town. It was not too far from the town, and not too far from the lake. Perhaps it had been built within sight of the lake, so that the West Ketchum student body could see it while at their lessons. A kind of slow torture. Pee Wee had never before seen the familiar realities of school life thus brought low and lying in inglorious disorder at his feet. It gave him a feeling of triumph, and had a fascination for him. Damp-smelling books were here and there among the ruins, histories, arithmetics, algebras, and grammars. He could tread upon these with his valiant heel. A huge roll-call book, ah, how well he knew it even in the darkness, lay charred and soggy near the assembly room piano. Junk Heap had always had a fascination for Pee Wee, and had yielded up some of his rarest treasures. But a school with all its disciplinary claptrap reduced to a junk heap. He could not, even in this late hour and strange country, tear himself away from it. But another influence caused him to hesitate. What should he do? There were hardly any lights in the town now. He was a scout, and he could not reconcile himself to the commonplace device of going to someone's house and asking for shelter. His scout training had taught himself reliance and resource, and here was the chance to apply them, to go home, to find his way without anyone's help. The lonely road called to him more than the dark houses did. But how about the car? Mr Bartlett's stolen car? Would it be the way of a scout to go home and tell about that? He had come in the car, Providence had made him its guardian, and he would take it back again and say, or words to this effect, Here is your super-six hunk-a-junk car, Mr Bartlett. They tried to steal it, but I foiled them. I was disguised as a buffalo-robe. There was only one difficulty in the way of this heroic course, and that was that he could not run the car. Never again would he touch one of those frightful nickel things on the instrument board. So, wishing to handle this harrowing situation alone, with true scout prowess and resource, he kicked around among the ruins of that tyrannous and fallen empire, and tried to devise some plan. Suddenly he heard a sound near him. He paused in the darkness, his scout-heel upon a poor defenseless crumpled spelling-book. Thus he stood in mingled triumph and agitation, his heart beating fast, every nerve on edge. Who, who's there? he said. He moved again and was startled as his foot slipped off the charred timber on which he was walking. The brisk autumn wind was playing havoc among the debris, blowing damp pages over faster than anyone could turn them. It played among a burned chest of old examination papers, scattering them like dried leaves. Correct or incorrect, they were all the same now. Peewee liked this roving unruly wind, having its own way in that dominion of restriction. He liked its gay disregard of all this solemn claptrap. But now he heard clearly the sound of footsteps among the ruins, footsteps picking their way as it seemed to him, through the uncertain support of all that various disorder, groping, careful footfalls. Who's there? he asked, and the only answer was a gust of wind. Could it be those thieves in search of him? Or might it be the ghost of some principal or teacher lingering still among these remnants and reminders of authority? Step, step, step. Then from around the corner of a charred upended platform appeared a face, a face with a cap drawn low over it, and presently a dark form emerged. Who, who are you? Peewee stammered. I'm a teacher, as was here, the stranger said. You needn't be scared of me, kiddo. I was just kind of looking around, Peewee explained apologetically. Here's a pencil furrier, the stranger said. I just picked it up. Peewee accepted this as a flag of truce, and felt somewhat reassured. A man who would give him a pencil surely meant no harm. He had as much right to be there as Peewee had. If you were a teacher here I shouldn't think you'd say as was, Peewee ventured. But gee whiz, he added. I don't care how you say it. No teacher had ever before called him kiddo, and he rather liked it. Maybe you taught manual training, hey? Peewee said. Because they're kind of different. That's where you hid it, said the stranger. Manual training? Right the first time, and I'm just sort of collecting some of my junk. That's one thing about me. I'm good at guessing, Peewee said. I kind of knew you were that, manual training. That's my favorite study, because it isn't a study at all. I made a birdhouse I did in manual training, a dandy big one. Birdhouses is a good thing to make, said the manual training teacher. Peewee could not see his new acquaintance very well or the bundle which he carried. If the teacher had been after his junk he seemed to have been fortunate in finding it, for he had collected a considerable amount of booty. Indeed, he had but a minute before succeeded in disinterring the safe which had been in the principal's office, but here he had met with disappointment. He had, however, hid upon a microscope of some value from the equipment of the student laboratory, and he had found a lady's handbag which he seemed to think worth keeping. What are you doing here? he asked of Peewee. End of Chapter 12 Recording by Steven Winterburn Chapter 13 of Peewee Harris on the Trail This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Steven Winterburn Peewee Harris on the Trail by Percy Kease Fitzhugh Chapter 13 A Friend in Need Do you want me to let you into a secret? Peewee said. I know where there's a stolen automobile. Maybe you'd like to help me take it back to its owner, hey? If you do you'll get an honorable mention in our troop book. I was carried away in it by two thieves who didn't know I was in the car, because I was disguised sort of, under the buffalo robe. Do you want to help me foil them? The manual training teacher seemed interested, but a bit incredulous. He looked Peewee over and said, what's all this? Maybe you don't believe me, but it's true, Peewee said. Do you know how to run a car? Anything from a fliver up, said the stranger. Psh, said Peewee. This one is a way, way up. It's a super-six hunk-a-junk. It belongs to a man where I live in Bridgeboro, New Jersey. Well, what are you doing here? the manual training teacher asked. I was kind of kidnapped accidentally. They did it, but they didn't know it. They've got pistols and blackjacks and things, and I heard them talk about stealing. I bet I'd have heard a lot more, only my head was under the buffalo robe. If you'll help me, we can circum. What do you call it? You know, circum. The teacher did not know, but his interest was aroused at this whispered tale of armed bandits and of a big stolen car. Peewee completed the tale in breathless excitement. He told all from the beginning. They locked it in, he concluded, and went away, but one of the doors, the big one, was locked on the inside and I opened it. Anybody can take the car out. These men have gone away across the lake. If you'll drive it to Bridgeboro, you can stay at my house and have breakfast, and I'll tell Mr Bartlett that you helped me. And gee whiz, they'll thank you a lot. Maybe you know about scouts because manual training teachers know a lot about scouts on account of scouts making birdhouses and all things like that, and so maybe you know about good turns. That'll be a peach of a good turn. And if I tell about it, you'll get a kind of a medal from our troop with your name on it. What's your name? Mine's Walter Harris, but the fellows in my troop call me Peewee, but I should worry about them. Will you help me? What's your name? Mr Swiper, said the stranger, rather thoughtfully. Let's go and look it over. He was certainly considering the proposition, and Peewee accompanied him back to the lake, keeping up a running fire of enthusiastic encouragement and representing to him the delight and self-satisfaction of circumventing a pair of scoundrels. They've got pistols and everything, he said as a clincher, and if they'd steal a car they'd kill somebody, wouldn't they? Seventy pistols is a good many, said Mr Swiper incredulously. Sure it is, said Peewee excitedly. It's more than Jesse James had. I guess they belong to a big band of thieves, hey? Maybe they've got a, uh, a haunt on the other side of that lake, hey? Now you can see it's good to go to the movies, hey? Because we could never circum… foil them if I hadn't, hey? They drove it right away from in front of the theater. Anyway, he added excitedly as he trod it along. I'm glad I met you because now I don't have to wake up the police or anything, hey? And I bet Mr and Mrs Barlett will be surprised when they see us bringing it back, won't they? I'll show you where we have our meetings. Mr Swiper was not carried off his feet by Peewee's excited talk. He was thoughtful and preoccupied. That's one thing I have no use for, thieves, Peewee said. Gee whiz, I never took a ride with thieves before. But anyway, it's going to be all right now. We'll just toot the horn in front of the house when we get there, hey? And I'll say, I'll say, here's your car, Mr Barlett. And then I'll introduce you to him, hey? And I bet he'll, anyway, you wouldn't take anything, would you? Money or anything like that? Don't insult me, said Mr Swiper. I didn't mean it, Peewee said apologetically. Scouts are like that. They won't take anything for a service, but eats don't count. You can take eats. But I mean money. Don't speak of money again, said Mr Swiper. End of Chapter 13. Recording by Stephen Winterburn Chapter 14 of Peewee Harris on the Trail This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by John Brandon Peewee Harris on the Trail by Percy Kease Fitzhugh Chapter 14 Saved Thanks to Peewee, the door of the rustic lakeside garage stood invitingly open. I won't. I won't say anything about money. Gee whiz. You wouldn't have any fear. Peewee said, making a play for his companion's good will. Gee, I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't. But you could take a medal, couldn't you? A scout good will medal? He added anxiously. Maybe, said Mr Swiper. Gee, you'll have to take it, said Peewee. Our scout master will make you. Before entering the building, Mr Swiper made an inspection of the lonely neighborhood and looked out across the still dark lake. That's where they went, he asked. Sure, they won't see us. Peewee said reassuringly. But the manual training teacher was not going to take any chances with a crew of ruffians, not he. Even if they should see us or hear us, Peewee encouraged, they wouldn't dare come after it because it isn't theirs. They thought nobody would ever find it in here. It's good I was on the inside, hey? That's the place to be, said Mr Swiper. You bet it is, said Peewee. Were you ever locked in a place? To this purely personal question, Mr Swiper made no reply. Instead, he walked about the car carefully, then climbed into the front seat and turned on the dash-light. He seemed to know what he was doing. Peewee did not wait but excitedly climbed in beside him. Gee whiz, a fella's got to have nerve to steal a car, hasn't he? He asked, unable in his elation to keep still. That's what, said Mr Swiper briefly. It, it kind of sort of makes us feel like thieves taking it, Peewee commented, looking about him rather fearfully. But anyway, we've got a right to. That's one sure thing, haven't we? Sure. And it's all right? That's one sure thing, oh boy, I'm glad I met you. You'll get as much credit as I do, that's sure, anyway. We've got a right to take it away from the thieves, I hope. Gee, nobody can deny that. Anyway, I guess you don't feel scary. Guess they won't follow us, said Mr Swiper. Not if they know what's well for them.  You bet they do, said Peewee, delighted at his new friend's rather generous contribution to the job. The engine now purred softly. The silent shifting into reverse gear told the young rescuer that a practiced hand was at the wheel. Slowly the big car backed out of a building and around till it headed into the dark overgrown road. You didn't put the lights on, Peewee said. Time enough for that, said his companion, who seemed quite accustomed to driving in the dark. Presently the big super-six hunk-a-junk touring model was rolling silently along through the woods, rescued, saved, soon to be restored to its rightful owner by W. Harris, scout, B.S.A.  There was nothing in particular about him, save a long diagonal scar on his face, which Peewee thought might have been caused by some tool in the ruined manual training room. The young man had also very short hair. It was so short, in fact, that it seemed almost like no hair at all. It was like a convict's hair. End of chapter 14, recording by John Brandon Chapter 15 of Peewee Harris on the Trail This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by John Brandon Peewee Harris on the Trail by Percy Key, Swiss Hue Chapter 15 in Camp The light which Peewee had seen across the water was not on a boat as he had supposed. It was on a small island, the very name of which would have delighted his heart, or it was called Frying Pan Island, because of its rough similarity of form to that delightful accessory of camp life. If Scout Harris could have eaten a waffle out of such a frying pan, he would have felt that he had not lived in vain.  And a little to the west of the center where an omelet might have nestled in its smaller prototype, three tents were concealed in the enshrouding foliage. Down at the end of the handle of this frying pan was good fishing, but it was marshy there, and sometimes after a heavy rain the handle was completely submerged. From an airplane the three white tents in the western side of the pan might have seemed like three enormous poached eggs. That is provided the aviator had an imagination. It was upon the shore of this little island that the two young men who had driven the automobile from Bridgeboro pulled their boat ashore about ten minutes after they had all unknowingly locked Scout Harris in their makeshift lakeside garage. Considering that they were cutthroats and ruffians, and all that sort of thing, their consciences seemed singularly clear, for they laughed and chatted as they made their way along the few yards of trail which led to their lair, or den, or haunt, or cave, or whatever you care to call it. They were greeted by a chorus of boys who jumped up from around the camp fire where they had been seated making demands upon them for news and booty. How about it? Can we stay here? What kept you so long? Did you get the silver cup? I bet you didn't find it. I bet you ate supper in the restaurant. We made rice cakes. Did you get the cup? Let's see it. They didn't get it. Yes they did. I bet they didn't. I bet they did. Look at the smiles on their faces. I bet we have the town hall wished on us. I bet it's the firehouse. I feel it in my bones. We have to go to school. Let's see the cup. Did you eat? What is this questionnaire? Asked one of the arrivals, the one who had driven the car. Let's hear the worst. Break it gently. We thought your new junk wagon broke down. Don't say anything against the new junk wagon, or he'll never tell us anything. Did you put the baby to bed? Yes, and he locked him in. We kept you so late. We got mixed up with a bandit of harrowing highway. Who's he? He's a villain. A witch. A movie play. That's a nice thing for two scout masters to go and see.   Come on, all together. Follow the welcome silence. We've gone to a lot of trouble today for you kids, said one of the scout masters. We've got the cup, but we had to wait a couple of hours for it. The merchants in the Great Metropolis of Bridgeboro are so slow that a turtle would be arrested for speeding there. Poke up the fire, Nick. We're cold, and I'll tell you all about our adventures. We've made a day of it, huh? The scout whom he called Nick jogged up the waning blaze, while others brought her fresh log, and soon the campfire was roaring a warming, hearty welcome home to the weary scout masters. One of these, who was evidently young enough to be addressed by his Christian name, or they called him Ned, sat on an old grocery box and related the happenings of the day, while the others sprawled about listening. Occasionally his fellow scout master, safety first, they called him, contributed a few words. Well, the first thing we did when we got ashore was to, get out of the boat? A scout asked. There was surely not much constraint between scouts and scout masters in this outfit. We went up to town and saw the school board. At least we saw Mr. Cram. He says everything's upside down, and they don't know what they'll do. Says there won't be any school for a month anyway. Cries of despair. They can't use the town hall, and they can't use the firehouse, and they're talking of using the old Wilder mansion. We told him if there wasn't going to be any school till the middle of October or so, we'd like to bunk right here on the island and study nature. He said, go to it. So there's no school for a month. Murmurs of disappointment. And we've got to chip in and get some more groceries. We squared things with your parents, and most of them are glad to get rid of you. How about that safety first? Corby's sister is giving a party and hopes he'll stay away. Let's see now. Oh yes, we bought some fishing tackle. Then we got some gas and started for bridge borrow after the cup. We went after that cup like Sir Thomas Lipton. The jewelry man didn't have the engraving finished, so we dropped in at a movie show and saw a fellow with a lot of pistols. How many pistols were there, first aid? We counted them off coming back in the machine. There were seventy. Crazy stuff. That's the kind of stuff you kids fall for. Well, after the pistol shooting was over, we got the cup and started back, and here we are. Any questions? Let's see the cup. We left it in the machine. We'll get it in the morning. Now, look here, you scouts.   There are a few dead ones here. Harry, the crack shot? Yes, you. I'm looking right at you. I want you to can all this stuff about killing animals and get busy and do the best scout stunt of the season and win that cup. Understand? I was saying to Safety First on the way home that a fellow gets more fun stealing up on an animal and piking him with a camera than he does poking around with an old air gun that he saw advertised in Boy's Life. That's what. I'm talking to you straight. Now here's a silver cup and it looks pretty swell, all engraved with our patrol names, and we drove all the way to Bridgeboro to get it. That cup's going to stand on the stump of that tree there, where the chipmunk hangs out, and the day we leave this island it's going to the scout that has done the best scout stunt. Tracking, signaling, good turn, cooking, it makes no difference what. The scout that does the biggest thing, he gets the cup. We two scout masters and Mr. Wade are going to be the committee. Now you'd better all turn in and hurry up about it. And Ralph Gordon is not to snore. They're complaining about it over in town. Can we do any kind of stunts we want to? Ask the tall scout, whom they call Nick. Any kind at all. That's good scouting. That's the only rule. All right, then I'm going to start tonight, said Nick. I'm going to row across and get that cup out of the car, so we can all see it. Let's have the key, will you? At this there was a general laugh mingled with shouts from a dozen or so volunteers. I'll go with you. Take me. I'm in on that. I was just going to suggest it. Yes, you were not. Wait till morning, said scout master Ned. It can't be done, said Nick in a funny, sober way. A scout is supposed to have his sleep. That's the most important rule of all. You said so yourself. I can't sleep till I've had a squint at that cup. Come on, Fido. Let's row over. The scout called Fido had won his name because of his dog-like persistence in following trails. It's me, he said. I was just going to propose it when you took the words out of my mouth. I'd like to see a photograph of anybody taking anything out of your mouth, said scout master Ned. Go ahead, the two of you. I wish your people would send you to a private school that opens tomorrow.  Thank you kindly, said Fido. The pleasure is mine, said scout master Ned. End of Chapter 15, Recording by John Brandon Chapter 16 of Pee Wee Harris on the Trail This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by John Brandon Pee Wee Harris on the Trail by Percy Keese Fitzhugh Chapter 16 Footprints So this, then, was the explanation of the bloodthirsty talk which the mighty hero of the Bridgeborough troop had heard under the buffalo robe, as he emerged from the sweet realm of slumber in the automobile. Pistols, peeling, stealing, and dead ones. To steal up to a bird and not kill it. To wake up if you are a dead one. To laugh with wholesome scout humor. At the silly gunplay of the screen. To count the pistols in William I. Smart's five real thriller. A last scout Harris. But we are not to accompany that redoubtable rescuer in this thrilling flight. We are going to row across the lake in which the dying camfire on the little island cast a golden flicker into which the oars, held by our new acquaintance, Nick Vernon, dipped silently, and rose, dripping, as his practiced arms drew the boat through the water, causing a musical little ripple at its bow. Got the key? Fido asked. Do you suppose I'd come away without it? Pull a little on your left. I can just make out the shed. There isn't. Yes, there is. There's just one light in the town. That's Algernon Kirkendall studying his algebra, said Nick. It's just in line with the shed. Rows straight for the light and we'll hit the shore, just right. I lift this seat and steer with it. Crinkums. It's dark on the water, isn't it? So the algebra was of some use in the world after all. Algernon Kirkendall was a scout without knowing it. SN thinks more of that new car that he does of the troop, said Fido. Sure, the car doesn't give him as much trouble, said Nick. Wear a hunk-a-junk troop, and Safety First's troop is a Ford troop. It's small, but it makes a lot of noise. If I ever start a troop, it'll be air-cooled. How about it? Am I headed right? Rows straight ahead, I'll steer. Golly, the water's black. Look. Did you see that fish jump? Look around, the campfire looks good from here. Believe me, the autumn is the time to camp. We're in luck. I love. I love. I love my lessons.  Ditto. We're set till Columbus Day. You mean Election Day. Gee, your ore touched bottom. Here we are. I'll row back. They pulled the boat up and started for the shack. Fido reached at first and called excitedly. It's open. The car's gone. Stop your fooling, called Nick. I'm not fooling. Come and look for yourself. Hurry up. The car's gone. They stood in the big, open doorway in gaping amazement. They walked in. Too dumbfounded to speak. And when they did speak, their voices sounded strange to each other within the dark, empty confines of those old, dried, bored walls. Somebody must have broken in through the small door, said Fido. It's closed and locked, said his companion. How about the fastening on the big one? It's all okay. Nobody's been breaking in, that's sure. You don't mean to tell me that SN would lock the small door and then come away leaving the big one open, do you? Nick asked incredulously. Well, what then? His comrade retorted with greater incredulity. If both doors were closed and fastenings are all right now, could anybody get the car out? They left the big door open. That's what they did. They never did that, said Nick. Look here. Here's a fresh fingerprint on the door. You can smell the oil on it. Here, wait till I light another match. SN did what he always does. He opened the hood and turned on the oil pet-cock and fussed around and then pulled the door shut. Someone must have been inside this place before they got back. Fido Norton was by this time on his knees outside the larger door. Here are footprints, said he. Two, three, here's another one. Give me another match. Those were made by our own fellows, said Nick, inspecting the ground half interested. Can't you see they were made by scout shoes? Do you think a boy scout stole the car? Here are some others, too. SNs and Safety First, I suppose. Why should they step outside the big door, Norton asked? These are fresh footprints, all of them. After they got through, they'd go out through the small door, wouldn't they? This print and this one and this one, he said, holding a match were made by scout shoes. Two, night. Not an hour ago. All the fellows, except us, too, are in camp, said Nick. All right. Fido Norton shot back. They might all be at the North Pole, but these prints were made by scout shoes. Two, night. That's what I'm telling you. All right, said Nick, with a tolerance sneer in his voice. The car was stolen by a boy scout, probably a tender foot. Maybe it was stolen by a girl scout. No, their scout shoe prints had Norton ignoring his friend's sarcasm, and they're not an hour old, not a half hour. That's what I think. Well, actions speak louder than footprints, said Nick. What are we going to do? That's the question. Whatever you say, said Norton cheerfully. End of Chapter 16, Recording by John Brandon Chapter 17 of Pee Wee Harris on the Trail. This is the LibriVox Recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, Recording by John Brandon. Pee Wee Harris on the Trail By Percy Kease Fifth Hugh Chapter 17 Action Well, then, I say let's send up a signal. Said Nick hurriedly. The fellows at camp will see it, and everybody else for miles around will see it. Every signal operator along the railroad line can read it. Forget about scouts stealing cars, and do what I tell you. Hustle up to the police station and tell them about it. So they can't say, we didn't report it, and then meet me at the town hall. What are you going to do? I'm going to use the old search light if it'll work. It hasn't been used since the night of the Armistice, when they lighted up the flag with it. Climb in through the broken window on the side and come up into the cupola. Don't tell Chief Bungalheimer, or he'll say it was his idea. My father's on the town committee is all right. Hustle now, get the police department off your hands, and maybe we can do something. No telling. Remember the side window, the one that's broken, and look out for the ladder. It's rotten. Hurry up, beat it. Fido Norton hurried to the police station in back of the Ezra Corbett store, and aroused Officer Dobson, who was at the desk waiting for out-of-town speeders to be brought in. In a kind of waking dream, the officer heard an excited boy shout. Mr. Ned Garrison's car is stolen from the shed down by the lake. When Officer Dobson was fully aware of this noisy intrusion, the intruder had disappeared. He lost no time, however, in setting the usual machinery in motion. By a continuous series of movements of the receiver rack on the telephone, he aroused Ms. Dolly Bobbet, the night operator, from the depths of a novel she was reading, and notified the police department in East Ketchum across the lake to be on watch for the car. The police department over there said that he would be glad to do that. The police departments of Connors Junction and Rocky Hollow were also notified. A long-distance call to the New York police warned them to be on the lookout. Linksboro on the main road did not answer, had gone to a harvest festival and forgotten to come back. No answer. Lone Haven couldn't get the name of the car, but said it would watch out for a plunkabunk. Wakeville said no car could possibly get through there, as there wasn't any road. Ms. Dolly Bobbet returned to her novel.   The blamed things all rotten away, I guess. Strike a match, and find where the switch is. Look out, you don't slip in the hole. Look at all the confettiant stuff. He added hurriedly as the tiny flame of the match illuminated a small area of the little cupola. War's over, huh? There upon the floor were strewn the gay many-colored little paper particles plastered against the wood by many a rain. Mementos of the night when even West Ketchum arose and poured this zest of fluttering stuff down necks and into windows. Someone who had thought to throw the searchlight on the flag across the street had spilled some of insinuating stuff in the little cupola.  It smelled musty up there, and whenever a match was lighted the spiders started in their webs. A lonely bat settled for the winter, hung like an old stiff dishrag from a beam. Did you find the switch? Nick asked, as he fumbled hastily with the big brass light. All right, wait till I point the lens down. Now turn it. There was no light. Did you turn it? Sure. Pull it out. Maybe it works that way. There was no light. Norton paused in suspense while Nick shook the brass case and jarred the wiring to overcome a slight short circuit, if there was any there. All right, turn it again. There was no light. And the two scouts stood baffled and heavy-hearted in the lonely darkness. End of Chapter 17, Recording by John Brandon Chapter 18 of Pee Wee Harris on the Trail This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by John Brandon Chapter 18, The Message I'm a dumbbell, said Nick, in a quick inspiration. Go down and turn on the main switch. It's in a box on the wall in the vestibule. Just pull the handle down and push it in below. We'll never get any juice up here, with that turned off. Hurry up. Norton descended the ladder, and with lighted matches found his way to the vestibule where the switchbox was. Here was the big switch on which all other switches in the building depended. As he pulled it down, one lonely bulb in the meeting room brightened and cast a dim light in a musty, empty place. It was evidently the only bulb in which the individual switch was turned on.  The place smelled for all the world like a schoolroom. When he reached the ladder, it was bathed in light. Nick was pointing a shaft dazzling brightness downward. It revealed spiders and split rungs on the ladder, and all the litter at its foot, all the rotting framework of the place, and all the disorder was drawn into the light of day. A pile of old law books became radiant, dry, and dull as they were. We've got it, called Nick. Hurry up! This lame thing will reach to the Isle of Yap. What's S? Wait, I'll give them the high sign, first. A long dusty column swept across the dark sky. Attention, everybody, said Nick, what's S? Three dots, said Norton. Three flashes it is. How's that? I'm forgetting my ABCs. What's T? One dash. Is three seconds long enough? Three for dashes and one for dots. Oh! The long column swung slowly to right, then slowly back to left again, then slowly back to right. Peace, a hard one. Here goes. Good for you. Some handwriting. In five minutes or less, Nick had sprawled across the open page of the heavens the words, Stop Blue Car, 50792, Eagle on Front. He paused about a half a minute, then repeated the message. That long, accusing arm crossed stars as it swayed and flashed. It filled the limitless sky like a rainbow, a giant specter it was, swaying in the unknown depths, crossing clouds and piercing realms of darkness, and speaking to those who could understand.  It's a searchlight, she said, but to them it had no meaning. A merry party returning home in the wee hours paused and watched it curiously, but it spoke to them not. At Knapps Crossroads, they saw it, just as the harvest festival was breaking up, and Hank Sparker and Sophie Coyson lingered on their way home to watch it, but it spoke not their language. Did it speak to anyone, this voice calling in the dark? Did anyone understand it? Were there no telegraph operators in any of the stations along the line? They would understand. Was there no one? No one? End of Chapter 18, Recording by John Brandon Chapter 19 of Pee Wee Harris on the Trail This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by John Brandon Pee Wee Harris on the Trail by Percy Kease-Vithew Chapter 19, Page 284 If Pee Wee had stolen a glimpse from under the buffalo robe, at about the time that he was riding under difficulties, his momentous message to the world, he might have noticed a little old-fashioned house nestling among the trees along the roadside. At that time the house was dark, save for a lamp-light, in a little window up under the eaves.  It had come to him by mail a few days before. This boy lived with his widowed mother, Mrs. May Hattable Piper. His name was Peter. But whether he was descended from the renowned Peter Piper who picked a peck of pickled peppers, the present chronicler does not know. At the time in question he was eating the handbook alive. The speeding auto passed. The mighty bridge borough scout pinned his missive to his remnant of sandwich and hurled it out into the dark world. The boy, up in the little room, went on reading with hungry eyes. And that is all there is to that. Peter belonged to no troop, for in that lonely country there was no troop to belong to. He had no scout master, no one to track and stalk and go camping with, no one to jolly him as Pee Wee had. Away off in national headquarters he was registered as a pioneer scout. He had his certificate, he had his handbook, that is all. It is said in that book that a scout is a brother to every other scout, but this scout's brothers were very far away and he had never seen any of them. He wondered what they looked like in their trim khaki attire. He could hardly hope to see them. But he did dare to hope that somehow or other he might strike up a correspondence with one of them. He had heard of pioneer scouts doing that. In his loneliness he pictured scouts seeded around a campfire telling yarns. He knew that sometimes these wonderful and fortunate beings with badges up and down their arms went tracking in pairs. That there was chumming in the patrols. He might sometime or other induce Abner Corning to become a pioneer scout and chum with him. But this seemed a utopian vision, for Abner lived seven miles away and had hip disease and lived in a wheelchair. Peter had a rich uncle who lived in New York and took care of a building and got, oh, as much as thirty dollars a week. The next time this rich uncle came to visit he was going to ask him if he had seen any real scouts with khaki suits and jack knives dangling from their belts and axes hanging on their hips. Peter experimented with the axe in the woodshed but it was so long that the handle dragged on the ground and he could sit on it. He had likewise pinned a hardening and coolage button on his sleeve and pretended it was a signalling badge. A signalling badge. He did not tell his mother what he was pretending for she would not understand. Out in the small barn he had presented himself with this, with much scout ceremony and he had actually trembled when he told himself, in a man's voice, to step forward and receive this token. The car in which scout Harris was being carried reached the lake and still Peter Piper poured over his scout handbook by the dim oily smelling lamp up in that little room. The two scout masters rode across and were greeted by their noisy troops and still Peter Piper read his book. The scout of scouts, W. Harris of the nifty bridge borough outfit, was nearly suffocated, then escaped and stood triumphant over the ruins of the West Ketchum school and still Peter Piper's smarting eyes were fixed upon that book. They were riveted to page 284 and he was reading the words, Scouts should thoroughly master these two standard. He read it again and again for his strained eyes were blinking and the page seemed all hazy. He paused to rest his eyes, then read on, but he did not turn the page. For an hour his gaze was fixed upon it. Just on that page. Chapter 20 Stop. Suddenly something. It seemed like a shadow crossed the window outside. If Peter's little room had been downstairs, he might have thought that a specter of the night was passing. He looked up, startled, dumbfounded. And while he gazed, the tall dusky apparition passed back across the window again. Hair frightened and very curious, he raised the little sash and looked out. The night was dark, but the sky was filled with stars. Not a light of man's making was there in all the country roundabout. He concentrated his gaze along the back road and tried to pick out the spot where Peace Justice Fees House was, thinking that perhaps some sign thereabout would furnish the key to this ghostly mystery. But there was not the faintest twinkle there, nor any sound of life. Only solemn, unanswering darkness, somewhere in the woods a solitary screech owl was hooting its discordant song. Is—is anybody here? Peter asked, his voice shaking. There was no answer, nothing but silent, enveloping darkness. Peter groped behind him for the old piece of broomstick, which prompt the window open. And with this in place he leaned far out and gazed toward the little graveyard where his father and his grandfather and all the simple forebears of the lowly neighborhood had gone to their rest. Not a sound was there in that solemn little acre. He strained his eyes and tried to identify the place by Deacon Small's tall white tombstone, but he could not make it out. Suddenly, just above that silent, hallowed little area, a tall gray thing appeared, then disappeared as suddenly. Peter trembled, yet gazed in fascination. He was fearful of he knew not what. Yet he could not withdraw his eyes from that spot.  Was it? Could it be? Hardly had he the chance to think and conjure up some harrowing fear. When the dusky column appeared again, then disappeared, then appeared again, then darkness. Whatever put it into Peter Piper's head he never knew, but quick like those very flashes occurred to him the very words that he had been saying over and over to himself but a few minutes before, saying over and committing to memory. Three dots or flashes. S. Three dots or flashes. S. Three dots or flashes. Again it arose, that ghostly apparition, and filled the dark sky above the little graveyard. This time it remained for one, two, three, four seconds. Peter's hand trembled now for a new kind of excitement, as he groped behind him. Suppose? Suppose there should be three long appearances now. That would be O. Were these signs expressed in ghostly strangeness, just the figments of Peter's excited imagination, just the morse code haunting him and coloring his fancy? He put his finger on the black symbol on the page and waited. Two, three, then a pause. S. T. O. His finger held upon the page trembled as he lighted another match, and still another, and moved his finger to another printed symbol on the page, and the long dusty column over beyond the graveyard came and went. Now for a second, now for several, now for several again, then for one short second. Stop! said Peter, his voice shaking, as if indeed some ghostly specter were upon him. Somebody, somebody was talking to him, some scout in real khaki attire, out in the great world? Peter did not know where to place his waiting finger next. A mighty hand had been raised in the black solemn night, and had said stop. Had sprawled it across the open page of the heaven. Peter waited, as one waits for a spirit to give some sign. He kept his eyes riveted upon the general service code, lighting match after match and throwing them on the floor as the fickle things went out.  A flashlight that would not blow out. Some time he would, maybe. End of Chapter 20. Recording by John Brandon Out of the solemn darkness, someone, somewhere, had called to Peter Piper of Piper's Crossroads, had stolen, like a silent ghost, to his little window, and bidden him watch. Far away that arresting voice may have been, way off in the big world, and none could say how far or near, or where, or how it spoke, calling in the endless wilderness of night. But it spoke to Peter Piper of Piper's Crossroads, to Peter Piper, pioneer scout, and Peter Piper, with the aid of the only scout companion that he had, read it, and was prepared, as it is the way of a scout to be. He did not dare to hope that he was being drawn into the actual circle of scouting. He would not know how to act among those natty strangers. Wonderful as they were, with their pathfinding, and all that. They could hardly penetrate to his humble sequestered little home. Peter Piper of Piper's Crossroads was not going to allow himself to dream any extravagantly impossible dreams. The nickel flashlight and a correspondence with some unknown brother, that was as far as his hopes carried. He had still a lingering and persistent feeling that this whole amazing business was unreal, that he had been dreaming it, or at least reading a meaning where there was none. He knew that he could see trees and the stars in Holly's pond, when there was none there. Might not this be the same. He had expected some time or other to make a signal fire, and give this scout voice a try out with some simple word. He had not expected to be aroused and called to service by this spectral mysterious command. What should he do?  Return to the wholesome realities of stalking and trailing which filled those engrossing pages? Poor Peter Piper felt that he had made a sort of bold excursion from Piper's Crossroads into the realm of miracles, and that he had better not let that weird apparition over beyond the graveyard dupe and mock him. Perhaps he had been seeing things. Yet there were the long and short flashes, and they had spelled that warning message, or else he had gone out of his senses and been dreaming. He hardly knew what to think, now that he had time to think. His credulity soon gained the upper hand. He began to doubt his own eyes, and he was just a bit ashamed of what he was resolved to do. At all events, he would have the delight of doing it, and no one would know. He would act just as a real scout would really act if the message was real and true. Stealing down the creaky boxed-in stairs, he got a lantern from the kitchen and lighted it. The actual performance of this practical act made his experience of the last few minutes seem fanciful, unreal. He was no longer under the spell of that ghostly column, and he was not so sure that he believed in it. To be stir himself upon the authority of such an uncanny warning seemed rather foolish. He almost found it easier now to believe that he had seen some spectral thing in the graveyard. As he emerged from the house, the familiar things about him seemed to mock his vision of a warning message in the sky. The startled chickens in the little henhouse resettled themselves comfortably on their perches, as if not to be disturbed by such nonsense. The calf resting at the end of his pegged rope arose, looked about him and lay down again, as if he would not be a party to poor Peter's absurd nocturnal enterprise. The darkness and the vastness of the wooded country seemed to chill Peter's hopes. Now that the gripping spell was over, he hardly knew what to think. With his jackknife he cut a piece from the rope which held the calf and moved the peg nearer to the animal, which looked curiously on at this unexpected abridgment of its fear of freedom. It almost seemed to Peter that the calf was laughing at him. This piece of rope he stretched across the road, fastening one end to the rotten gatepost, long deserted by its gate, the other to a tree. Then he hung the lantern midway of this line. This seemed as much as his weaning hope justified, but on second thought he stole into the house, took a black tomato crate marker from the kitchen shelf, and on a paper flower bag printed the words, Danger! Road Closed. This he hung upon the rope near the lantern. Then he sat down on the old carriage block, where they used to stand the milk cans and waited. He felt rather foolish waiting there, and he wondered what he should do if a big car with the number 50792 and an eagle on it should really come along. The night was pitch dark. Somewhere in the lonely woods, hard by the screech owl was still calling, and the brisk autumn wind freshening as the night advanced into the wee hours conjured up strange noises in the loose hanging sticks of the old ramshackle fence along the roadside, dried leaves driven by the fitful gusts of wind sounded like someone or something hurrying by. Now indeed Peter's fine hopes melted away, as he waited there in the darkness. To be sure this was a main road, as likely a route as any thereabouts for autos, and in the daytime many passed there. But as he waited there in the deep enveloping night and heard no sound save the haunting voices caused by the wind and the low monotonous singing of the forest life, it seemed unthinkable that any thrilling sequel of his singular experience in his little room could occur. Everything was the same as usual. The crickets chirping, the owl calling, the little graveyard down the road wrapped in darkness. Glory was not going to knock on the humble door of Peter Piper of Piper's Crossroads. Peter glanced down the dark road toward the graveyard. He had always hurried past that spot when coming home from the Crossroads at night. Once he had seen a ghostly figure on the stone wall, which on more careful inspection the next morning proved to be the sexton shovel with his hat on top of it. The little church was around the bend of the road, within the hallowed acre. Suddenly as Peter glanced in the direction where the old leaning gravestones were wrapped in darkness, he saw something which harrowed his very soul and made his blood run cold. One of these stones was bathed in a dim shadowy light. It was startling to see just one stone and no others. It was not a light so much as an area of gossamer brightness that enveloped it. A kind of gauze shroud. Peter gazed, unable to stir. His breaths coming short and fast. Then this dim shroud left the tombstone and glided slowly through the graveyard, shedding its hovering brightness upon a small area of the stone wall as it crossed, and came steadily, steadily over toward Peter Piper.