we all started shouting, “we are shaved! we are shaved! a fraud car! a fraud car on the horizon!” i guess the driver of that ford car thought we were crazy.
“i hope he’ll stop before he runs into the creek,” warde said.
the car was coming along the turnpike at the rate of about a half a million miles a year and i shouted, “hey, mister, whoever you are, please stop before you get here; it was raining last night and the water is wet.”
“stop your fooling,” the kid said.
i said, “do you think i want that car to come plunging into the creek? suppose that driver is blind.”
“she’s coming under full sail,” garry said.
“hurrah!” they all shouted.
“she’s missing in one cylinder,” bert said. then we all started shouting, “saved! at last we are saved!”
just then, good night, that ford car turned off into a side road and we couldn’t see it any more.
“now you see what you get for fooling,” the kid shot at me. “if we had shouted ‘help’ all together as loud as we could he’d have come straight along. you think it’s fun being imprisoned here with nothing to eat; you make me tired. maybe you don’t know that not much traffic comes along this old turnpike; that’s why they don’t have any bridge-tender here.”
“they have tenderfoot bridge-tenders,” i said.
“maybe no one else will come along all night,” pee-wee said, “and then what are we going to do? suppose a wagon or an auto should come along after dark and we didn’t see it coming; it would plunge to death and then i hope you’d be satisfied.”
“that’s right,” warde said, kind of serious, “we haven’t even got a lantern to swing. how could we warn anybody?”
“we can’t even shout if we don’t get something to eat,” the kid said.
“sure,” bert said, “we’ll be so weak we won’t even be able to lift our voices.”
“we’re in a desperate predicament,” pee-wee said, very dark and serious like. i guess he got those words out of the movies.
“maybe we could tie a note to the fish and throw him in the water,” i said. “when someone catches him they’ll find out we’re in distress.”
“no you don’t,” the kid yelled, hanging onto the fish while i tried to take it away from him.
“if we could only send up a signal,” warde said. “it’s all very well joking but if it gets dark it will be mighty bad with this bridge open and no one standing guard at the ends of the road.”
“there’ll be a tragedy,” the kid said.
gee whiz, when i heard warde speak that way i realized that it might be pretty dangerous there after dark. and i was a little scared about it because it seemed that no one came along that road very much and maybe it would be night before anyone came.
i said, “well, if it gets toward night and no one comes either way i’ll take a chance and dive and swim to shore. one of you fellows will have to dive and swim to the other shore too.”
“i’ll do that,” hervey sang out.
“but we’ll wait till it’s necessary,” i said.
now maybe you think that because we are scouts we should have been able to get to shore easily enough, and if it were only a case of swimming that fish wouldn’t have anything on us. but we couldn’t get from that bridge into the water except by diving and diving is dangerous when you don’t know the water you’re diving into. especially near a bridge it’s dangerous because there are apt to be piles sticking up under the surface of the water. so that’s why we have a rule never to dive unless we know about the place where we’re diving. but, gee whiz, if it’s a case of an auto plunging into the water or taking a chance myself, i’ll take the chance every time. and i know that hervey willetts would dive into the hudson river from the top of the woolworth building if anybody dared him to do it.
“anyway, let’s not lose our morale,” i said. “we’re here because we’re here. scouts are supposed to be resourceful; let’s sit up on the railing again and think.”
“as soon as the sun goes down i’m going to dive,” hervey said. “do you see that big maple tree in the woods? as soon as i can’t count the leaves on that top branch any more i’m going to dive. i don’t know how deep it is or what’s under the water, but i’m going to stand guard down the road a ways. what do you say?”
“are you asking me?” i asked him.
“i sure am,” he said; “you’re the only patrol leader here.”
i just said, “well, if you want to know what i’m going to do i’ll tell you. i never broke up a game yet. i’m going to follow my leader wherever he goes. i’m going to take care of the other side of the road. i’m not going to ask where i’m headed for nobody knows. and i’m not going to weaken or flunk or suggest or oppose. and i’m not going to start to ask questions, or hint or propose. there are some scouts here that are not so stuck on this crazy game. but, believe me, it’s more of a game than i thought it was. you were the one that started it. no people are going to lose their lives on account of us. i’m going to follow my leader wherever he goes. so now you know.”
“do you call me a quitter?” pee-wee shouted in my face.
“look out for the fish,” i said.
“i don’t care anything about the fish,” he yelled. “i’m not hungry. i’m in this funny-bone hike and i’ll follow hervey willetts if he—if he—if he—stands on his head on top of a bonfire—i will. so there!”
“he wouldn’t do such a thing, don’t worry,” i said. “he couldn’t keep still long enough. pick up the fish before he flops off the desert island. safety first, that’s our motto. hey, hervey?”
“that’s us,” hervey said. “let’s tell some riddles.”
