Then something awful queer happened. Maybe it was a half an hour afterward, or maybe not so much—I don’t know. But anyway, I saw a light. And I felt warm, sort of. And I guess I must have been asleep, because I didn’t know what it was on my forehead, and I pulled the end of it and I could see it plain. It wasn’t my scarf, because mine is gray, on account of my patrol being the Silver Foxes. But it was black with stripes across, and I knew it was the scarf of the Raven Patrol.
Then I saw there was a fire very near me—not so very near on account of the wind—but pretty near. And I thought Grove Bronson must be there, because he’s a Raven. Then I guess I must have gone to sleep again, anyway, everything seemed kind of funny and I thought about how Grove Bronson couldn’t get a fire started in the rain, because that’s hard and only a few scouts can do that. Then I sort of could see my mother and she was saying how I must stay home from school, only I knew I was out there in the rain and that it was summer and there wasn’t any school.
Then all of a sudden, I could see a face and it scared me. It was all white and the hair was streaky from the rain. It was Pee-wee’s face. There didn’t seem to be anybody to it, only just a face. Pretty soon, it moved.
I said, “Don’t come near me! Stay away! I’m sick and I’m hurt. You make me scared; don’t come near me! If you’re dead——”
“I just want to put the dry coat over you,” he said; “so I can dry the other one. Don’t you know me—Roy?”
I JUST WANT TO PUT THE DRY COAT OVER YOU.
“Pee-wee!” I just kind of gasped.
He said, “Lie still, don’t sit up. They can see the fire; they’re coming down. It’s holding up now.”
Then I could see the rest of him as he got up from behind the fire. And he came over with another coat that was dry and warm and laid it over me, and took the other one.