SCOUT HARRIS FIXES IT
Perhaps you will say that Pee-wee was not a good scout to speak with such impudent assurance to his elders. But you are to remember what I told you about Pee-wee, that everything about him was tremendous except his size. He was not always the ideal scout in little things. He was a true scout in the big things.
When he reached the shack he found Pepsy waiting for him and he poured forth his grievance into her sympathetic ears. “I’ll fix him all right,” he said; “he’s a coward, that’s what he is, and he needn’t think I’m afraid of him. I’ll get even with him all right. Whenever I make up my mind to do a thing I do it, that’s one thing sure.”
“Only we didn’t make a success of our refreshment parlor,” Pepsy ventured to say, “but just the same we’re going to because—”
“What do I care about it?” Pee-wee vociferated. “I know a way to get two hundred and fifty dollars and that’s more money than we’d ever make in this old place. And I’ll have you for my partner just the same. I’m going to get two hundred and fifty dollars all at once.”
“Can I see it when you get it?” Pepsy asked.
“You can have half of it because we’re partners,” Pee-wee said, recovering something of his former spirits as this new prospect opened before him.
“Can’t we have the refreshment parlor any more?” Pepsy asked wistfully. “Because, honest and true, we’re going to make lots and lots of money in it; I know a way—”
“Listen, Pepsy,” Pee-wee said. “Do you know what the Morse Code is? It’s the language they use when they telegraph. Scouts have to know all about that. Do you remember when I said hide Kelly’s barn last night? That’s what that first feller said to the other one who was stuck. Didn’t you notice how his little red light kept flashing away up the road? That’s what it meant. They’re hiding in Kelly’s barn and nobody knows it.
“There’s a sign in the post office and it says they’ll give two hundred and fifty dollars to anybody who tells where they are. Do you think I’d tell Beriah Bungel?” he added contemptuously. “I’m going to tell a man named Sawyer, he’s the county prosecutor, he lives in Baxter City. Only we have to go right away. I’m going back with the mail car to Baxter. Do you want to go? If you do you have to hurry up.”