Pee-wee could not see his new acquaintance very well or the bundle which he carried. If the teacher had been after his junk he seemed to have been fortunate in finding it, for he had collected a considerable amount of booty. Indeed, he had but a minute before succeeded in disinterring the safe which had been in the principal's office, but here he had met with disappointment. He had, however, hit upon a microscope of some value from the equipment of the student laboratory and he had found a lady's handbag which he seemed to think worth keeping.
"What are you doing here?" he asked of Pee-wee.
CHAPTER XIII
A FRIEND IN NEED
"Do you want me to let you into a secret?" Pee-wee said. "I know where there's a stolen automobile. Maybe you'd like to help me take it back to its owner, hey? If you do you'll get an honourable mention in our troop-book. I was carried away in it by two thieves who didn't know I was in the car, because I was disguised, sort of, under the buffalo robe. Do you want to help me foil them?"
The manual training teacher seemed interested but a bit incredulous. He looked Pee-wee over and said, "what's all this?"
"Maybe you don't believe me but it's true," Pee-wee said. "Do you know how to run a car?"
"Anything from a flivver up," said the stranger.
"Shh," said Pee-wee, "this one is away, way up. It's a super six Hunkajunk, it belongs to a man where I live, in Bridgeboro, New Jersey."
"Well, what are you doing here?" the manual training teacher asked.