He said, all excited, “To-morrow morning early we’re going to go to Bagley Center and tell the police—that’s the nearest village. Oh boy, we’ll get the reward because I saw a bulletin in the Catskill Post Office and I think it’s a thousand dollars, anyway there were a lot of naughts—”
“Maybe the naughts were upside down,” I said. I had to laugh he was so excited.
“There was a five and a lot of naughts,” he said, “and now I’m sorry I didn’t count them. Then after we get the reward we’ll find the will and Mr. Bagley will get his land and he’ll sell it to Temple Camp—and do you know what let’s do?”
“Break it to me gently,” I said.
“We’ll have about a thousand dollars anyway and we’ll build a troop cabin in that new land, away off in the woods, and we won’t let anybody come there. We’ll be kind of different from everybody at camp, hey? Maybe we’ll let visitors come to see us—because I bet a lot of people will want to see us, hey, especially girls. Even we’ll be double heroes.”
Then he came up for air and he didn’t say any more till we got to camp, only trudged along beside me very important. He was starting in being a hero already. When we got to camp he went marching up and started trampling out the little fire. I guess Dub and Sandy thought he was crazy.
“What’s the idea?” Sandy wanted to know.
“I’ll tell you as soon as the fire is out,” Pee-wee said, very mysterious like.
They looked at me and I just said, “Ask the kid, he’s the big hero to-night.”
“I found the place where those bandits are hiding,” Pee-wee said. “We have to be careful and not have any light. To-morrow morning we’re going up to Bagley Center to tell the police.”