revealed On the way home from troop-meeting, he gave me a free lecture. Gee, I wish you could have heard him. “Suppose that pirate chief in the movies hadn’t kept the—you know—the tell-tale papers,” he said; “what would have happened? Do you think I’d let this letter be pasted in the troop-book? No siree! Look at that fellow—Ralph Rogers—in the Fatal Vow. He let the other fellow have the mortgage and see what happened. His old gray haired mother was turned out in the snow. No siree; safety first, that’s what I say. Suppose a descendant of that robber——” you I “Don’t make me laugh, Kid,” I said; “let’s go in Bennett’s and get a couple of cones. What do you say?” That’s one thing that Pee-wee was strictly up-to-date on—ice-cream cones. When it comes to ice-cream cones, even dark adventures have to stand in line. Believe me, many’s the ice-cream cone that dropped in its tracks—I mean dripped—when he gave it a mortal blow. I had to laugh to see him hiking alongside of me, with his belt-axe dragging his belt way down and his compass dangling around his neck like a locket. His pockets are always stuffed full of Lyric programs and clippings about missing people that he intends to find, and directions out of papers about how to do in case he should meet a lion or an elephant—on Main Street, I suppose. If he should bunk into a rattlesnake on his way to school all he’d have to do would be to haul out a clipping and then he’d know to “stare right at it with glaring eyes and it would retreat in terror.” Honest, he’s a scream. He read in “Boys’ Life” that a grizzly is afraid of bright red, so he has a red glass in his flashlight. He’s not taking any chances. Be Prepared. Be Prepared. I wish you could see that kid. He always carries an onion with him, because he thinks if you stick a pen in an onion it will write invisible and then if you hold the paper over a fire the writing will come out clear. He’s got his pockets full of invisible writing. I never saw any of it come out good and strong yet. The only thing that comes out good and strong is the onion. Oh boy! CHAPTER IV—WE MEET IN THE DEN, AT BENNETT’S One thing he always carries with him, and that’s an old piece of storage battery out of an automobile. He found it on the
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