“I wouldn’t trust my weight on any double whipping,” said another fellow. “The binding wouldn’t stand salt water—not unless you tarred it.”
“If my little snow-white hand is going to grab that loop, it’ll be spliced,” said the first speaker.
Another boy came out and said he could jump the gap without any rope at all; it was only seven feet, and what was the use of a rope anyway? Then someone said that Pee-wee would do it scout pace, and there was a great laugh. The group went on up the street.
Then out came the renowned Pee-wee himself in hot pursuit of them, running a little, walking a little, according to his habit.
Two more boys came out and one of them said it was going to rain to-morrow. Tom wondered how he knew. Then three or four of the Ravens appeared and one said it would be a great stunt if they could work that on the Silver Foxes at midnight.
Tom didn’t know what the Silver Foxes were (he knew there were no foxes in Bridgeboro), and he had no notion what “that” meant, but he liked the idea of doing it at midnight. He would like to be mixed up in something which was done at midnight himself.
But his trusty pal, Mr. Ellsworth, did not appear. Whether he was absent that evening, Tom never knew. The last ones to emerge from the Library basement, were a couple of boys who were talking about dots and dashes.
“You want to make your dot flares shorter,” one said.
“Shall I tell you what I’m going to say?” the other asked.
“No, sure not, let me dope it out.”