Roy Blakeley: Lost, Strayed or Stolen by Percy Keese Fitzhugh

  Produced by Roger Frank and Sue Clark

  TONY'S OLD LUNCH WAGON CAME LUMBERING OVER TOWARD US.]

  ROY BLAKELEY

  LOST, STRAYED OR STOLEN

  BY

  PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH

  Author of

  TOM SLADE, BOY SCOUT, TOM SLADE AT BLACK LAKE, ROY BLAKELEY, ETC.

  ILLUSTRATED BY HOWARD L. HASTINGS

  PUBLISHED WITH THE APPROVAL OF THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA

  GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS : : NEW YORK

  Made in the United States of America

  COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Table of Contents

  LAW AND THINGS MORE THINGS (I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO CALL IT) PEE-WEE STARTS THE BALL ROLLING WE TRY DIPLOMACY WE GO OVER THE GROUND SCOUT STRATEGY THE INVITATION RECONNOITERING NAPOLEON AND WATERLOO MINERVA SKYBROW TAKES COMMAND WE FIND A WAY THE GRAND DRIVE BEGINS AFTER THE BATTLE SOMETHING MISSING A SCOUT TWO--SEVEN! SUSPENSE MR. ELLSWORTH CALLS SERVICE A PROMISE FOOTPRINTS IN THE SHACK ADVENTURES OF CIGARETTE SAM THE THREE OF US THE TALK OF THE TOWN IN THE DARK ON OUR WAY "FINDINGS, KEEPINGS" THE STANDING ARMY SITTING DOWN PEE-WEE IN ACTION SLIGHT MOMENTUM BZZZZZZ WE SEPARATE ONE ENDING CEDAR THE OTHER ENDING

  ROY BLAKELEY, LOST, STRAYED OR STOLEN

  CHAPTER I--LAW AND THINGS

  One thing, anyway, I wouldn't say anything against the scout lawsbecause they are good laws, that's one sure thing. Even fellows thatdisobey them have to admit that they are good. If there weren't any wecouldn't even disobey them, so gee whiz, I'm glad they are in theHandbook. That's what they are for.

  I don't mean we want to disobey them. But anyway, this is what I mean,that even fellows that disobey them ought to be glad they are there,because if they weren't there they couldn't disobey them. That's whatPee-wee Harris calls logic. He says he knows a lot about logic, becausehis uncle has a friend whose brother is a lawyer.

  There are twelve of those laws, and the one I like best is law numbereight, because it says a scout has to be cheerful and smile a lot. Ialways smile except when I'm asleep, and I'm not asleep much, because ascout is supposed to be wide awake. When I'm asleep I never disobey anyof those laws.

  I'll tell you some more about the scout laws, too, only this isn't goingto be a law book, you can bet. A scout is always supposed to do a giventask. His dinner is a given task. He's supposed to do a good turn everyday. Maybe you think those are hard, but they are easy. If a scout in mypatrol had some gumdrops and I ate half of them so he wouldn't get sick,that would be a good turn. See?

  A scout is supposed to save life, too. Once I saved Wig Weigand's life.He nearly died laughing at Pee-wee Harris, and I got there just in timeto push the kid off the springboard into the water so he had to stoptalking. That's one thing I'm crazy about. I don't mean talking, I meanswimming.

  Especially a scout is supposed to be observant. That's one thing aboutthe scouts my sister doesn't like. She's crazy about tennis, my sisteris; tennis and strawberries. She's crazy about Harry Donnelle, too; he'sa big fellow. That's why she doesn't like it about scouts beingobservant--I should worry.

  But anyway, you needn't think that scouts are always smiling. Lots oftimes I laugh, _he he_, but I'm not happy. That's because we have a lotof trouble on account of not being able to keep our meeting place in onespot very long. Gee williger, Washington had a lot of headquarters andwe only have one headquarters, but we have our headquarters in as manyplaces as he did. Gee, there are a lot of people that have to move thesedays, but they don't have to move the houses they live in, that's onegood thing. When you have to take your house with you, that's no fun.Housing problems are bad enough, and transportation problems are badenough. And besides, I hate problems anyway, especially in arithmetic.But, gee whiz, when you get a housing problem and a transportationproblem all rolled into one-_good night!_

  CHAPTER II--MORE THINGS (I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO CALL IT)

  Now that chapter was about law and this one is about geography, kind of.Maybe I'll have one about civil government, too. I bet you'll skip thatone, hey? Anyway, I'm glad we don't have uncivil government in school,because I guess that's worse. There's a civil engineer in our town andhe's not so civil. A scout has to be civil, that's another law.

  I guess before I tell you any geography, I'll tell you some history.That's my favorite study--history. I got nine points in that last term.

  A couple of years ago, Mr. Temple, he's rich, he owns a lot ofrailroads--a couple of years ago he gave us an old railroad car to usefor a scout headquarters. That car used to stand on a side up atBrewster's Centre, and it was used for a station until the railroadbuilt a new station.

  Then Mr. Temple told the railroad people to bring it down to Bridgeboro,where we live, but instead of doing that they took it 'way out west bymistake. Anyway, we were glad because we happened to be in it. I said,"I don't care how far it takes us as long as it doesn't roll down thePacific slope and dump us in the ocean."

  We had a lot of fun riding around the country in that car, because therailroad made a lot of dandy mistakes, and it was pretty nearly a weekbefore we came rolling merrily, merrily on we go, into Bridgeboro. _Goodnight_, that was some ride. That shows you never can tell, becauseeverybody said they never thought that old car had enough spirit tobreak loose and go tearing around the country. It had a kind of a fit,that's what Westy Martin said; he's in my patrol. The reason all thathappened was because there was some kind of a mistake on a way-bill.That way-bill did us a good turn, all right.

  So after we got back home all safe and sound, that old car stood on thetracks down at the Bridgeboro station and all the commuters werelaughing at it. A lot we cared, because even people laughed atChristopher Columbus when he got home.

  So now I'm going to leave that old car standing on the tracks atBridgeboro station, because I have to go downstairs to supper. Oh, boy,I hope the six thirty-four express doesn't come along and bump into itwhile I'm eating. I bet you're all nervous and excited, hey?

  CHAPTER III--PEE-WEE STARTS THE BALL ROLLING

  I guess the railroad men weren't going to take any more chances withthat car. Anyway, they put it on a track and then Mr. Corber--he'ssection superintendent--he asked us what we wanted to do about the car.He asked us where we wanted it put. Believe me, that wasn't an easyquestion to answer, because you can't put a railroad car anywhere youwant to put it. A railroad car is like a scout, because it can follow atrack, but if there aren't any tracks how is it going to get anywhere?But one thing, you can bet we didn't want to have our scout meetingplace down right next to the railroad station, because scouts aresupposed to study nature and a lot of fun we'd have studying commuters.

  Pee-wee said, "The station is all right; I vote to leave the car rightwhere it is."

 
; "That's because it's near Bennett's," I told him, because he usuallyparks all through vacation at Bennett's Confectionery. He's the one thatput the scream in ice cream. Harry Donnelle endowed a stool in Bennett'sjust for Pee-wee--it's kind of like a bed in a hospital or ascholarship, or something or other like that.

  The rest of the fellows said, "No, siree, the river for us! We want itmoved down near the river! Let's move it to Van Schlessenhoff's field!"

  Now comes the geography part; it's about Bridgeboro and that field. Mr.Van Schlessenhoff had a lot of land but he cut it all up. It's a wonderhe didn't cut his name up, too, hey? He could have got a whole lot ofnice little names out of it. Once he owned most all of Bridgeboro, thatman did. He owned nearly the whole alphabet, too. Jimmy, he takes upnearly the whole telephone book, that's what Connie Bennett says.

  Years and years and years and years and years and years ago--even beforeI was born--that man's father had a sawmill down by the river. He neversaid anything but just sawed wood. When he died he was awful poor. Hedidn't leave anything to his son but his name, that's what my fathersaid. Gee whiz, that was enough.

  Anyway, Mr. Van Schlessenhoff is a mighty nice man. He owns some lotsand things, and he wouldn't sell one of his fields for the town to builda school on. So you can see from that what a nice man he is.

  He owned that field down by the river that we were talking about. Thereis an old railroad track from that field right up to the Bridgeborostation, so they could send lumber away. It's all old and rusty andbroken in lots of places, and the piles are all kind of rotten where itgoes across Cat-tail Marsh. Up in town it's all buried in the dirt, sortof, but you can see the old rails good and plain where they go acrossMain Street. You can find those rails where they go across Willow Place,too, and they run right under Slausen's Auto Repair Shop and across theyards in back. You can pick out those rusty old rails underneath thelong grass all the way across the Sneezenbunker land and almost right upto the station. One Saturday we picked them out all the way, just forfun. I guess there wasn't much to Bridgeboro when those tracks wereused.

  So that's all there is about history and geography in this story. Therest of it is all adventure. That's my favorite study--adventure.

  That same night that we got back from our wild ride we decided to go andsee Mr. Van Schlessenhoff and ask him if he'd be willing for us to moveour car down to his field by the river, and have it there for a meetingplace.

  He was awful nice. He said he'd be glad to do it because he liked theboy scouts, but that there was one reason why he couldn't. He said thatreason was because he was going to put that field in the market.

  Then, all of a sudden, up spoke our young hero, Hon. Pee-wee Harris, andhe said, "You take my advice, Mr. Van Schlessenhoff, and don't put thatfield in the market. You leave it where it is, right down there by theriver; that's a dandy place."

  Mr. Van Schlessenhoff laughed so hard that he said he guessed it wouldbe all right for us to go ahead if we could navigate the car, becausemaybe he would leave that field right there and not put it in the marketafter all.

  So you can see how all this crazy stuff was started by Pee-wee. He setthe ball rolling--I mean the car. And oh, boy----

  CHAPTER IV--WE TRY DIPLOMACY

  I made a map. It isn't much good and it doesn't show all the streets inour town, but it shows the streets that old track crosses. On MainStreet, almost opposite the station, is Bennett's. I put that in becauseI thought maybe you'd like to know where it is. It hasn't got anythingto do with our adventures in this story, but it's in the story a lot,just the same.

  When that old track was new I guess there wasn't any Willow Place; Iguess Main Street didn't amount to much either. There wasn't anybuilding where Slausen's is, that's sure. And Tony's Lunch Wagon wasn'tthere, that's sure. They didn't have any big grammar school inBridgeboro then. Those were the happy days.

  Now the first night after we got home after our wild ride, we had atroop meeting to see if we could think up any way to get our car fromthe station over to Van Schlessenhoff's field. Because what's the use ofhaving a home if you haven't got any place to put it? Be it never sohumble, you've got to have a place to put your home.

  We had that meeting right in the car near the station. Pee-wee said thathe'd be a committee to go out and look at the tracks. All he wanted wasa chance to go over to Bennett's.

  I said, "This is no time for ice cream cones with the transportationproblem staring us in the face. It's bad enough to be put out of yourhome, but to have your home put out, that's worse. You don't suppose therailroad is going to leave this car here, do you?"

  "We'll be convicted," Pee-wee shouted. He meant evicted.

  "We won't leave our home, we'll take it with us!" two or three of thembegan shouting.

  "Those tracks are good all the way across Cat-tail Marsh," El Sawyersaid, "because I walked the ties right down to the river."

  "If they held you they ought to hold the car," I said. Crinkums, thatfellow weighs about a ton. Then Hunt Ward (he's in the Elks) begansinging:

  I love, I love, I love my home, But what'll we do with it?

  Ralph Warner (he's in my patrol, he's got red hair), he said, "Ipromised my mother I'd never run away from home."

  "But you didn't promise her that you wouldn't run away _in_ your home,did you?" Doc wanted to know.

  "That's a teckinality," Pee-wee shouted; "they use those in courts."

  "You mean technicality," I told him; "shut up unless you've got asuggestion to make. We're here to decide how we're going to getsomewhere else. There are a lot of obstacles. I move----"

  "How are we going to move, that's what I'd like to know?" Dorry Bentonshouted.

  "Maybe Mr. Bennett will be able to give us a suggestion," the kidshouted.

  "There you go again," I told him. "Will you forget about Bennett's andget down to business? How are we going to get this meeting place over toVan Schlessenhoff's field?"

  "I was the one who made him say all right!" the kid piped up. "I madehim laugh!"

  "You're enough to make a weeping willow laugh," I told him. "You securedthe field and it's nearly a half a mile away."

  "All we've got to do is to get the car there," he said.

  "Sure, that's all," I told him.

  "The track is good," Westy said.

  "How about motive power?" Doc wanted to know.

  "How about which?" they all shouted.

  "I make a motion----" Pee-wee began screaming.

  I said, "If you don't keep still a minute, I'll make a couple of motionsand you'll land under one of the seats. I want suggestions. If we canonly manage to get this old car across Willow Place, the rest will beeasy. It's down hill all the way across the Sneezenbunker land rightdown to the marsh. If we get her as far as the marsh we'll get heracross all right."

  "The track down there wouldn't hold a locomotive," Westy said.

  "We should worry about a locomotive," I told him; "there are other ways.But how are we going to get her by Tony's? And how about Slausen's onWillow Place? Do you think they're going to get out of the way if wetoot a horn? Tony's lunch wagon is all boarded up underneath, and youknow what an ugly old grouch he is."

  "Maybe if we bought a lot of frankfurters from him," our young herosaid, "maybe then he'd--kind of---- That's what you call diplomacy."

  "Diplomacy is what governments do," Connie Bennett said. "Do you mean tosay that England would do anything for the United States just because webought a frankfurter for King George?"

  "You're crazy!" Pee-wee shot back at him. "Diplomacy is when you're verynice and polite so as to get something you want."

  "Like two helpings of dessert," I told him.

  "But anyway, I know something better than diplomacy," he shouted; "andthat's strategy."

  I said, "All right, as long as everybody's shouting at once and we'renot getting anywhere, let's go over to Tony's and if we can't dip himmaybe we can strat him."

  So that's the way it was, the first t
hing we did to get that car movedwas to go over to Tony's and each buy a frankfurter. There weretwenty-four of us in there at once. Twenty-four frankfurters are a goodmany for one fellow--I don't mean for one fellow to eat, but for onefellow to sell.

  After that we asked Tony if he would just as soon let us take the boardsaway from underneath his wagon so that he could move the wagon away fromover those old sunken, rusty tracks, just about seven or eight feet orso.

  He said, "No mova. Gotta de license. No mova."

  Gee whiz, if that's what you call diplomacy, I like arithmetic better,and that isn't saying much.

  CHAPTER V--WE GO OVER THE GROUND

  The next night Mr. Ellsworth (he's our scoutmaster) came out early fromthe city so he could follow that track with us over to the river and sayif he thought there was any chance of getting the car to the shore.

  Tom Slade (he works in Temple Camp office) went with us. Before he wasgrown up he was in the Elk Patrol, but he's assistant scoutmaster now.He doesn't say much--he's like Pee-wee, only different. He started theElk Patrol, I started the Silver Foxes, and I'll finish them, too, ifthey don't look out. Gee, you can't keep that bunch quiet. The SilverFox Patrol is all right, only it hasn't got any muffler.

  Mr. MacKeller went with us, too, that night. He's County Engineer. He'sgot dandy apple trees up at his house. He went so he could decide if thetrack was safe over the marsh. Because, gee whiz, we didn't want tobreak down and have our summer home in among a lot of cat-tails. I hatecats anyway. My sister has two of them.