CHAPTER VIII
PLANS OF CAMPAIGN
Table of Contents Gee whiz, I can be sober when I have to. I could see all right enough that we had a chance to do something big. I wasn't going to start fooling about it. I knew if old Mr. Bagley's last will was in that chasm and we could find it, oh boy, there would be some excitement. His son would get all that land that Temple Camp wanted and he would sell it to Mr. Temple. You can see where we would fit in-oh boy! Talk about good turns!
"There are only two things bothering me," I said.
"There are six things bothering me," Dub said, "and all of them when are we going to eat and if so, what?"
"Those are the same twenty things that are bothering me," Sandy said.
I said, "Pee-wee can't even speak, he's starving to death."
All of a sudden the kid piped up, "The reason I don't speak is because I'm disgusted-"
"Good," I said, "I hope you'll be disgusted for the rest of your life."
"If I kept on going around with you I'd be disgusted twice at the same time," he said.
"Fancy that," I said to him. "If you don't like going around with us, you can go my way and I'll go yours."
"You start out in the morning," he shouted, "without any lunch and look where we are now, with no village anywhere around and nothing to eat."
"Do you expect me to get a village and bring it here?" I asked him. "Is it my fault there isn't any village here? Did I make the map of the Catskill Mountains? I'll leave it to Dub. We're having a fine hike with detours. What are you kicking about?"
"I can't eat detours!" the kid shouted.
"Well you couldn't eat a village either," I said; "so what are you talking about?"
"Will you fellows listen?" Dub said. "For just two seconds will you listen? We've got a big chance, haven't we? We've got a chance to do something that will knock Temple Camp off its feet. Suppose we can find that will! First will somebody please tell me what one of those dispatch containers is like. I'd like to know whether one would last all this while-whether it would be preserved."
"If you're talking about preserves," I said, "you'd better ask Pee-wee. He knows all about preserves."
"Are you going to be serious when there's a real mystery or not?" the kid yelled. "Now we've got a chance to do something, are you going to have some sense or not? Are we going to get something to eat I don't know how, and are we going to try to find that oilskin cover or whatever you call it, or are we just going to stay here talking crazy and acting like fools-which?"
"We are going to plan our campaign at once, ain't it," I told him. "The answer is no we do, by an unanimous minority."
"Listen," said Sandy, kind of sober like. "It's noon-time and we thought that by this time we'd be at a village or some place or other. We've got a chance to do something big. Are we just going to fool around or what? I'd like to hunt for that thing, only we've got to have something to eat, that's sure."
"It's even more than sure, it's absolutely positive," Pee-wee piped up.
I said, "All right then, listen-"
"Are you going to be serious?" Pee-wee shouted.
"Now listen," I said, "and no more fooling. Hunting for that thing means work. You don't think we can go down there and just pick it up, do you? All right then. How about eats? There are a lot of things to be considered if we're going to do this and what we need first of all is a leader-"
"I thought you were going to say that," Pee-wee shouted.
"You wanted me to be serious, didn't you?" I said. "All right then, listen. I'm willing to hunt for that oilskin container, only if we do we're going to do it right. We're going to start out like Columbus did, only different."
"There you go," Pee-wee shouted.
"All right," I said. "We're at Beaver Chasm, aren't we. And it's time for lunch. We're about two miles from Bagley Center and we're about five miles from camp. How long can we hold out without eats?"
"Maybe five minutes," Dub said.
"Maybe three at a pinch," Sandy said.
"I can't hold out at all," Pee-wee piped up; "not even at a pinch."
"A fine lot of Scouts!" I said. "Now I'll show you what a fine Scout I am. The brook down there in the chasm has run dry but there will be water standing in pools between the rocks and all places like that. Further along is a place they call the Giant's Basin-all rock. There will be water in there, I bet you. And that's just where all the fish go when the brook runs dry. I bet in places down there we'll be able to scoop them up in our hands-please shut up till I finish."
"This is what I say let's do. Let's go down in the chasm and find a hollow place where some fish are and let's scoop some up and cook them-I've got some matches."
"I can even get a light from the sun," Pee-wee said, all excited.
"The sun is too far to go for a light," I told him. "Even if you went scout pace you wouldn't get back in time for lunch. After we've had something to eat-"
"That shows you how we've got resources," Pee-wee said. He was talking for the benefit of Dub and Sandy because they were new fellows at camp.
"Sure," I said, "and we can fry some resources or boil them in ice water. I say let's eat and after that let's hike back to camp and get permission to start out again to-morrow and camp for a couple of days in the chasm. We can bring a tent and some provisions and everything and we won't say anything to any one why we're going to do it and if we find that oilskin container we'll be the big noise at Temple Camp. Now that's the way I say to do. We'll go back this afternoon and get ready for to-morrow and you fellows can leave it to me about getting permission to come back and camp here."
"Do you promise you won't let any other Scouts in on it?" Pee-wee asked me, all excited. "Now's our chance, if we only keep still!"
I had to laugh, Pee-wee talking about keeping still.
CHAPTER IX
HERCULES HARRIS
Table of Contents I guess you're in a hurry for the next day to come, but anyway you'll have to wait till after we've had our lunch because we were good and hungry. Mostly I have eats come between the chapters so as you won't be interrupted. Oh boy, the things that happen between the chapters are even more than the things that happen in the chapters. Between chapters we have ice cream cones and everything, but they're not a part of the story.
It was nice and dim down there in the chasm. We couldn't go down the side, so we went to the end where it sloped down sort of and we went in the way the brook does-I mean the way it comes out. Only then there wasn't any brook. It was all rocks in the chasm. I guess that chasm is about a half a mile long. Where it's widest there is grass growing but everywhere else there are rocks. When there's any water in there it kind of wriggles in and out among the rocks.
Just like I thought, there was water in the Giant's Basin. That's a deep pool made by rocks. It was full of killies, just like I knew it would be. Because when the brook dried up the fish would have to go where there was water. They were all crowded in it and we could scoop them up in our hands-jiminies it was easy. We found an old tin dipper that I guess used to be used to drink out of and we hammered it flat with a stone so it was kind of like a frying-pan. Then we started a fire and I fried killies and they were good. Sandy kept cleaning them with his knife while I kept frying them and Dub kept getting wood for the fire. I bet you can guess what Pee-wee was doing-honest that kid could cause a shortage in the Atlantic Ocean. You have to eat a lot of killies but that's easy.
Afterward I took a long stick and felt around on the bottom of the pool. There were other places like that pool, only not so big. There were lots of crevices between rocks too. All of a sudden I began to think we did stand a pretty good chance of finding that lost will. Because I'll tell you why. If the dispatch container fell out of the old man's pocket into the water it would have been carried along and most likely get wedged in somewhere between rocks. Or else it might get into one of those pools. I didn't bother my head thinking how the wallet or whatever you call it, got out of the old man's pocket because I believed it fell out before his coat was taken off. And I didn't worry about how his coat happened to be off, either.
I said, "To tell you the honest truth the only thing that makes me think we won't find anything is because Pee-wee is mixed up in it. You fellows don't know because you've never been up to camp before, but Pee-wee is the big hero of about three million things that never happened. I'm sorry it wasn't him that tried to start the world war because then it never would have happened. You see how the wind died down when we started out on a windmeter hike. But if it wasn't for Pee-wee I'd think we might find that oil-can or oil container or whatever you call it. It looks good to me. Only there's no use hunting around. We ought to come and camp here a couple of days or so and work spasmodically-"
"You mean systematically!" Pee-wee yelled.
"What difference does it make what I mean?" I shot back at him. "It's actions...
