we are now to accompany our hero in his masterly retreat after the evacuation of snailsdale manor. we need not pause to describe the cowardly attack of the snailsdalions, how they pulled the bunting from the departing float and how our hero, crouching on the edge of the roof behind the enormous sign, hurled volleys of deadly doughnuts at the pursuing legion.
lemon jaw breakers (four for a cent) did duty as dumdum bullets, but the clamoring host, disregarding all the usages of civilized warfare, ate the ammunition and cried for more. among the laughing multitude which enlivened the departure of our heroes, pee-wee saw hope stillmore sitting with several girls in everett braggen’s flivver and laughing with them. probably she intended no disrespect to her little rescuer and former pal; doubtless she could not help laughing.
“come up again some time, kiddo,” a young fellow in white flannels called; “you’re good for the blues.”
“here’s one that’s good for the black and blues!” pee-wee thundered as he dispatched half a muskmelon at the summer youth.
“can’t you stay for the dance?” another called.
“oh, do stay for the dance,” several girls chimed in unison.
“oh isn’t he just too cute!” another sang.
“can’t you stay?” another young fellow called, good-humoredly. “we’re going to have some other celebrities here to-night.”
hope, from her throne in the flivver, waved her hand to him, trying as hard as she could to hide her laughter with her handkerchief. just then everett braggen grabbed an end of bunting from the dismantled float, and with a miracle of dexterity pee-wee grabbed the other end, pulling it from him. using it as a kind of patriotic lasso he hurled it down upon the young despoiler of his hopes. it chanced that a pin which had been used by hope in the work of draping, still lurked in the end of this gay streamer, and this caught in the straw-hat of the young adventurer who had ventured too near the fortress. with a nicety which aroused uncontrollable laughter pee-wee lifted that precious hat to his strategic post and drove his fist through it with heroic defiance.
“last laugh is the best laugh!” he shouted.
ah, those were prophetic words. hope stillmore heard them, and only laughed the more.
these were the last recorded words of pee-wee harris in his brave defeat before the snailsdalions.
“didn’t i tell you i was lucky?” pee-wee vociferated as they drove away from the village. “i can handle more people than that. i can handle all the fellers at temple camp and there are as many as three hundred sometimes. i can handle scoutmasters, too.”
he seemed prouder than if he had won the prize. poor simon was awed by the freedom with which his small companion “handled” these sophisticated, dressed up city folks. he felt that pee-wee was equal to any occasion.
“you can be successful even when you fail,” pee-wee explained to him. “now you can see how it’s better that we didn’t win the prize.”
poor simon did not exactly see that but in his rustic shyness, he greatly admired pee-wee’s ready prowess, a prowess that could not be cowed by laughing girls and white flannel suits. he had immensely enjoyed the affray.
“i’ve been in worse battles than that,” pee-wee said, darkly.
if our hero was indeed lucky, his luck had a strange way of showing itself during the next hour. they traversed the dangerous section of the road, however, without mishap, except that once or twice pee-wee almost stepped over the precipice. carrying out his plan of walking beside one of the wheels and holding a stick against the spokes, he was sometimes very near the edge.
simon wisely drove in as near to the mountainside as he could and there was no room for pee-wee to walk there. the fence was at the very edge of the cliff and was not a sure support. once pee-wee’s foot went over the edge and he caught this rickety fence just in time. he was lucky, then at all events. as an auxiliary safety device he sang uproariously and treated the admiring simon to a series of imitations of the voices and calls of all the creatures of the animal kingdom. he explained that these were patrol calls. simon thought that temple camp, that mysterious mecca of scouts, must sound like a hungry menagerie.
perhaps they were lucky, too, in encountering no vehicles along that narrow, dizzy way.
the fog was so dense that they could not see ten feet ahead, and though pee-wee’s warning voice was as reliable as the faithful oxen, still the boys both experienced a feeling of relief when they came to the end of the fence and saw the sheer descent easing off into a grassy slope. somehow the sight of grass was welcome. it seemed to rise up out of nothing, all steaming like a volcano. it was only close beside them that they could see it at all; ahead it faded away in the dense fog bank. thus the slope beside them seemed to move along with them. the area of it that they could see was covered with spider-webs spread out on the smoking grass like clothes to dry.
“anyway the worst that can happen now is for us to roll down and that isn’t so bad,” said pee-wee. “as long as i know i’m on terra cotta i don’t care.” he doubtless meant terra firma.
“that’s latin for the earth,” he explained.
“we can’t fall off the earth,” said simon.
“we can fall off it and land on it again,” said pee-wee.
simon did not raise a question here. probably he believed that pee-wee could “handle” such a situation.
“i mean off a cliff,” pee-wee explained.
“oh,” said simon.
their progress, now less perilous, was without episode and would doubtless have ended at goodale manor farm despite the enshrouding fog, had not an altogether unforeseen occurrence confounded all their plans. they were travelling leisurely along, the mountain still rising to the right and the land sloping away at their left, when suddenly they heard the barking of a dog a little way ahead of them. pee-wee knew perfectly well that it was a dog barking but he held his hand to his ear and listened with critical attention to determine if by chance it might be a member of the st. bernard patrol which was at temple camp some five hundred miles distant.
“it’s a mut,” said simon innocently. “do you have mut patrols?”
“you’re crazy,” pee-wee said.
the dog, a lone traveller as it proved, soon hove in view. he had probably paused in the road to bark at the unearthly din that pee-wee had been making with his stick and then trotted on again. he emerged out of the fog two or three yards ahead of the oxen, and the oxen, out of politeness perhaps, stopped also. the dog was small and certainly not of the snobbish class of dogs. his tail was wagging steadily and he seemed to be pausing to consider the best and shortest route past this unexpected obstacle. he seemed to be in a kind of nervous hurry, as if intent on some particular business. perhaps he was on his way to the dance at snailsdale manor....
