“It’s a sudden idea,” Pee-wee said.
“Oh,” said Scout Rivers.
“That’s why you can’t see it,” said Scout Delekson.
“Do you know what I’m going to do? Will you say that you’re with me? Even if I go to—to—foreign shores?”
“Are we going to China?” Scout Rivers asked.
“No, we’re going across the lake; shh, don’t say anything. Have either one of you got an onion?”
Neither of them had an onion but they looked at Pee-wee as if they were ready to follow him to the ends of the earth.
“When the pilgrims started to come to America, everybody stood around crying,” Pee-wee said; “but that isn’t what I want an onion for. Did you ever hear of invisible writing? If you write with onion juice it won’t show, but if you hold the paper over a fire the writing will come out plain. Shh.”
The patrol stared, but did not utter a word. They realized that they were in for something terrible; they stared fearfully but were brave.
“If you take an onion to school with you,” Pee-wee said, “you can write notes to the feller across the aisle and he can hold them over the radiator and then read them. But don’t ever tell anybody; don’t ever tell any girls because they can’t keep secrets.”