Читать книгу Roy Blakeley's Adventures in Camp - Percy Keese Fitzhugh - Страница 6

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One thing, I bet it was Pee-wee Harris that the lieutenant heard talking, while he was hiding on shore. Anyway, it was Pee-wee that I heard first when they were on their way back—that’s sure. You know how plain you can hear voices on the water. And believe me, before those fellows were half way out I knew all about the bandit of Red Hallow. That was the fellow in the movies, I suppose, and he must have been some bandit, because he saved a school teacher from about twenty other bandits, and shot them all. I guess everybody was shooting pistols at everybody else, like they mostly do in the movies. Pee-wee was sticking up for the poor school teacher, and it made me laugh because he hasn’t got much use for school teachers on account of they’re always keeping him in for talking. Anyway, what fun is there in everybody shooting pistols at each other. Me for stalking, that’s what I say.

When Mr. Ellsworth came on board he said, “Well, Roy, alone in your glory, eh?” I didn’t say anything and I hoped he wouldn’t ask me any questions, because anyway, I wasn’t going to lie, that’s one sure thing. I asked him how the fellows liked the movies and he said, everybody got shot so they were all satisfied. He was just joking. He asked the fellows if they’d like to meet a lot of bandits in real life, and they said, “Good night, no.” And then he said it was funny how they liked to meet them in the movies and all the fellows had to admit it was crazy. You wouldn’t catch Mr. Ellsworth stopping us from going to the movies, but he always makes us feel silly afterward.

Pretty soon Grove Bronson, who is one of the Raving Ravens, came up to me and gave me a newspaper with a whole lot of ears of corn in it, and said we were going to have it for Sunday dinner.

Pee-wee said, “They’re dandy big ears all right, and here’s some cans of tongue.”

“Good night,” I told him, “I thought we had tongue enough with you here.” Oh, you ought to have seen little Skinny McCord laugh. His face was all thin on account of his not being very strong and he never had much food until he got in with us, either. But it was fun to see him laugh whenever we got back at Pee-wee.

“There’s some heads of cabbage, too,” he said; “Doc’s got them.”

“Heads and ears and tongues,” I said; “you ought to have brought some potatoes, so we’d have eyes.” He thinks I’m funny, but I just say those things to make him laugh, so as he’ll feel good.

Then I took all the stuff into the galley and put it in the food locker. I was just crunching up the newspaper that they brought the corn in, and was going to throw it out of the window, when I saw a heading that read: Fishermen Have Harrowing Adventure. Oh, boy, didn’t I sit down on the barrel and read that article through! First, I looked to see the date of the paper and I saw it was a couple of days old. After I read that article I cut it out, because I knew I was going to tell you about all these things. So here it is now for you to read:

FISHERMEN HAVE HARROWING ADVENTURE

The fishing schooner Stella B arrived in port to-day with two castaways, who had drifted for three days in an open boat in the stormy waters off Rockaway. The two men, Mike Corby and Dan McCann, hail from Jersey, and were carried out to sea in their twenty-two foot launch from about a mile south of Sea Gate, where they were fishing.

Their engine broke down and their small boat, beaten by the waves, was leaking rapidly when they were picked up. One of the men was unconscious from lack of nourishment and the other in a state of utter exhaustion from bailing, in an all but futile effort to keep the frail little craft above water. After being resuscitated, one of the men gave a vague account of having encountered a waterlogged life-boat containing several people who had perished from exposure, and of certain papers and possessions found on one of them.

Later when a reporter made an effort to see the men for confirmation of this statement, neither could be found. Both are said to have carried considerable money on their persons, but this was explained by the exceptionally large catches of fish which they sold, during their fishing trip. No means of tracing them is known since the boat, in which one of them resumed his journey home after repairs, had no license number.

Maybe you think I didn’t read that article twice. And it made me wonder a lot of things about that fishing trip. One thing, it looked as if they might have had more adventures than Lieutenant Donnelle had told me about, and maybe he didn’t want to tell me everything—that’s what I thought. Anyway, he didn’t say anything about a life-boat, that’s sure. But maybe he forgot to.

Just the same I wondered if maybe he had any other reason for being in such a hurry and so excited, kind of. Then I remembered how he said he would tell me all about it some day. Anyway, I said, he’s had a lot of adventures, that’s sure. You bet I’d like to have a lot of adventures like that.