Read Ebook: Roy Blakeley: Lost Strayed or Stolen by Fitzhugh Percy Keese Hastings Howard L Howard Livingston Illustrator

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Ebook has 1036 lines and 42842 words, and 21 pages

Illustrator: Howard L. Hastings

ROY BLAKELEY

LOST, STRAYED OR STOLEN

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

GROSSET & DUNLAP

Table of Contents

LAW AND THINGS MORE THINGS 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

One thing, anyway, I wouldn't say anything against the scout laws because they are good laws, that's one sure thing. Even fellows that disobey them have to admit that they are good. If there weren't any we couldn't even disobey them, so gee whiz, I'm glad they are in the Handbook. 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 what Pee-wee Harris calls logic. He says he knows a lot about logic, because his uncle has a friend whose brother is a lawyer.

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

I'll tell you some more about the scout laws, too, only this isn't going to be a law book, you can bet. A scout is always supposed to do a given task. His dinner is a given task. He's supposed to do a good turn every day. Maybe you think those are hard, but they are easy. If a scout in my patrol 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 time to push the kid off the springboard into the water so he had to stop talking. That's one thing I'm crazy about. I don't mean talking, I mean swimming.

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

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 that one, 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 and he'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 of railroads--a couple of years ago he gave us an old railroad car to use for a scout headquarters. That car used to stand on a side up at Brewster's Centre, and it was used for a station until the railroad built 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 by mistake. 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 the Pacific slope and dump us in the ocean."

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

So now I'm going to leave that old car standing on the tracks at Bridgeboro 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 it while I'm eating. I bet you're all nervous and excited, hey?

I guess the railroad men weren't going to take any more chances with that car. Anyway, they put it on a track and then Mr. Corber--he's section 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 easy question to answer, because you can't put a railroad car anywhere you want to put it. A railroad car is like a scout, because it can follow a track, 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 meeting place down right next to the railroad station, because scouts are supposed 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 right where it is."

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

The rest of the fellows said, "No, siree, the river for us! We want it moved 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 wonder he didn't cut his name up, too, hey? He could have got a whole lot of nice little names out of it. Once he owned most all of Bridgeboro, that man did. He owned nearly the whole alphabet, too. Jimmy, he takes up nearly the whole telephone book, that's what Connie Bennett says.

Years and years and years and years and years and years ago--even before I was born--that man's father had a sawmill down by the river. He never said anything but just sawed wood. When he died he was awful poor. He didn't leave anything to his son but his name, that's what my father said. Gee whiz, that was enough.

Anyway, Mr. Van Schlessenhoff is a mighty nice man. He owns some lots and things, and he wouldn't sell one of his fields for the town to build a 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. There is an old railroad track from that field right up to the Bridgeboro station, so they could send lumber away. It's all old and rusty and broken in lots of places, and the piles are all kind of rotten where it goes across Cat-tail Marsh. Up in town it's all buried in the dirt, sort of, but you can see the old rails good and plain where they go across Main 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 the yards in back. You can pick out those rusty old rails underneath the long grass all the way across the Sneezenbunker land and almost right up to the station. One Saturday we picked them out all the way, just for fun. I guess there wasn't much to Bridgeboro when those tracks were used.

So that's all there is about history and geography in this story. The rest 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 and see Mr. Van Schlessenhoff and ask him if he'd be willing for us to move our car down to his field by the river, and have it there for a meeting place.

He was awful nice. He said he'd be glad to do it because he liked the boy scouts, but that there was one reason why he couldn't. He said that reason 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, and he said, "You take my advice, Mr. Van Schlessenhoff, and don't put that field in the market. You leave it where it is, right down there by the river; that's a dandy place."

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

I made a map. It isn't much good and it doesn't show all the streets in our town, but it shows the streets that old track crosses. On Main Street, almost opposite the station, is Bennett's. I put that in because I thought maybe you'd like to know where it is. It hasn't got anything to 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; I guess Main Street didn't amount to much either. There wasn't any building where Slausen's is, that's sure. And Tony's Lunch Wagon wasn't there, that's sure. They didn't have any big grammar school in Bridgeboro then. Those were the happy days.

Now the first night after we got home after our wild ride, we had a troop meeting to see if we could think up any way to get our car from the station over to Van Schlessenhoff's field. Because what's the use of having a home if you haven't got any place to put it? Be it never so humble, 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 that he'd be a committee to go out and look at the tracks. All he wanted was a chance to go over to Bennett's.

I said, "This is no time for ice cream cones with the transportation problem staring us in the face. It's bad enough to be put out of your home, but to have your home put out, that's worse. You don't suppose the railroad 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 them began shouting.

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

"If they held you they ought to hold the car," I said. Crinkums, that fellow weighs about a ton. Then Hunt Ward began singing:

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

Ralph Warner , he said, "I promised my mother I'd never run away from home."

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