now there’s going to be something doing again because we woke up. while we were asleep the smoke from the cooking shack died. i guess they were all through cooking supper at camp. the sun had gone down too. the part of the sky where it had gone down was all bright—red kind of. so we knew that was the west.
the roof we had seen wasn’t in line with it, but you can’t exactly say a thing is in line with a bright part of the sky. the column of smoke had been right behind that little roof, maybe two miles from it, so we decided to use that roof for a beacon. that would take us to the road and from there i knew the trail through the other woods.
i have to admit we were all about ready to go home by then. we were all pretty tired after that crazy day. if they would have to send a new troop away on account of there not being accommodations, that would mean the bus would go down to catskill again and i wanted to get to camp in time to send a letter home. i didn’t like to think about a troop being sent away but it served them right for not writing beforehand. every tent and every cabin was crowded that summer.
i said to hervey, “if you want to be the leader all right, but from now on we’re going straight for camp. i admit you’re too much for the rest of us. you ought to live in a volcano or a cyclone or something like that. i’m good and tired. see if you can make a bee-line to that little roof and then we’ll know we’re going straight for camp.”
“and when you get to camp stop there,” warde said.
“i hope he bunks into the pavilion, that’ll be the only thing to stop him,” garry said.
“this time, it’s positively guaranteed,” hervey said; “i’m going straight west till i bunk right into that house.”
“keep your eye on the roof,” bert said, “because that’s the only way we can be sure we’re going right.”
“ready, go” hervey said.
that time we kept going straight ahead without any nonsense—right straight for that roof.
“i’d like to have a picture of our travels to-day,” warde said.
“it would look like the trail of a snake with blind staggers,” i told him. “after to-day i’m going to have some sense.”
“not if you follow hervey willetts,” warde said.
hervey said, “i know a better game; it’s called the flip-flop sprint. did you ever try the razzle-dazzle roam? you have to keep going east while you keep your west eye shut. the hole-in-the-ground hop is a good one too. when shall we try it?”
“we’ll try it day after yesterday,” i said; “think of the west and keep your eye on that roof.”
“absolutely, positively,” hervey said; “we couldn’t go wrong now if we tried.”
“don’t try,” pee-wee shouted.
“be sure that the right way is always the best,” i said. “i don’t care what that song of yours says.”
pretty soon we got to where the woods were not so thick and we could see the road ahead. we couldn’t exactly see it because it was sort of in a hollow but we could see the hollow, and by that time we could see the rest of the house, or most of it.
“we’ll cut right through the woods in back of it,” warde said.
i said, “thank goodness, we’ll be home in fifteen minutes.”
“follow me and you can’t go wrong,” hervey said. “i’m aiming straight for my place at the mess-board.”
“don’t aim for mine,” pee-wee shouted at him. then hervey began singing:
some scouts prefer to hike around,
we don’t,
and cover miles and miles of ground,
we don’t.
and roam and roam and roam and roam,
and roam some more and roam and roam;
and never never go back home,
we don’t.
“look!” pee-wee yelled at the top of his voice. “the smoke! look! it’s way off there!”
we all looked and g-o-o-d night, there was the column of smoke away, way to the north of us, and there, as sure as i’m sitting here writing, was that little house right straight ahead of us, about fifty yards off.
“the plot grows thicker!” i said, just leaning limp against a tree. “we’ve been going farther and farther away from camp all the time. chocolate drop must be burning up refuse. where are we at, anyway?”
“the world is upside down!” garry said.
“it’s inside out,” bert shouted.
“that house right in front of us was in direct line with camp,” warde said.
“the catskill mountains are crazy!” pee-wee shouted. “remember the way they did with rip van winkle? everything is crazy! where are we at? the nearer we get the farther we go. this country is haunted.”
“search me,” i said. “the sun must have set in the east, that’s the only way i can explain it. that house there was in a bee-line with the camp when we started. i’ll leave it to hervey.”
“don’t leave it to him,” pee-wee shouted; “you’ll only make it worse. do you think i want to land on the moon?”
