Oh, boy! Believe me, Mr. Harris gave them more than a lecture. He gave them a demonstration.
CHAPTER XVIII—WE ARE IN SUSPENSE
Cracky, that’s one thing I’m crazy about—lemon meringue pie. Mm—mm!! There’s only one thing I like better than a piece of lemon meringue pie, and that’s two pieces. My mother says you shouldn’t eat the crust, but she doesn’t know the rule about a scout being thorough. Always leave your camp site clean. It’s the same with your plate.
Most of the time we were at that house, Harry Donnelle was talking with Elsa West. Gee whiz, I bet she liked him a lot, hey? He told her he couldn’t play the victrola, because he had never taken any victrola lessons; that fellow’s crazy.
Anyway, they were sorry when we started off, and Elsa said she hoped we’d find the buried gold. She said that was one thing she’d like to be-a boy. Gee whiz, I couldn’t blame her, because anyway, we have a lot of fun. She said she wasn’t afraid of rain.
We left the auto there in charge of the constable, and he said he’d call up the Department of Motor Vehicles and find out who had the license number that was on that car. Because one thing sure, it didn’t belong to those thieves. Harry said we should worry about it and that we might as well let that constable do something to earn his salary. I guess it took him the rest of that day to get over his shock. I guess he thought we were crazy when he saw we wouldn’t take the reward, but that’s the way it is with us. But, of course, we don’t count eats. You can give us all the eats you want to.
Harry said, “Well, as long as we’ve been mixed up with burglars, let’s take our machine to a garage and get up against some real robbers. They’ll probably tell me I need everything renewed except the smell. Come ahead.”
We had to get somebody to tow us to the nearest robbers’ den and then we found that Harry’s machine needed a “complete overhauling.” That’s what they always tell you. But anyway, they didn’t get away with it, and in about an hour we were rolling along the road for Utica.
“Do you know what I’d like to do to you?” Pee-wee shouted at Harry.
“No, break it to me gently,” Harry said.