Chapter IV: Tells About the Paper I Found

One thing, I bet it was Pee-wee Harris that the lieutenant heard talking, while he was hiding on shore. Anyway, it was Pee-wee that I heard first when they were on their way back--that's sure. You know how plain you can hear voices on the water. And believe me, before those fellows were half way out I knew all about the bandit of Red Hallow. That was the fellow in the movies, I suppose, and he must have been some bandit, because he saved a school teacher from about twenty other bandits, and shot them all. I guess everybody was shooting pistols at everybody else, like they mostly do in the movies. Pee-wee was sticking up for the poor school teacher, and it made me laugh because he hasn't got much use for school teachers on account of they're always keeping him in for talking. Anyway, what fun is there in everybody shooting pistols at each other. Me for stalking, that's what _I_ say.

When Mr. Ellsworth came on board he said, "Well, Roy, alone in your glory, eh?" I didn't say anything and I hoped he wouldn't ask me any questions, because anyway, I wasn't going to lie, that's one sure thing. I asked him how the fellows liked the movies and he said, everybody got shot so they were all satisfied. He was just joking. He asked the fellows if they'd like to meet a lot of bandits in real life, and they said, "_Good night_, no." And then he said it was funny how they liked to meet them in the movies and all the fellows had to admit it was crazy. You wouldn't catch Mr. Ellsworth stopping us from going to the movies, but he always makes us feel silly afterward.

Pretty soon Grove Bronson, who is one of the Raving Ravens, came up to me and gave me a newspaper with a whole lot of ears of corn in it, and said we were going to have it for Sunday dinner.

Pee-wee said, "They're dandy big ears all right, and here's some cans of tongue."

"Good night," I told him, "I thought we had tongue enough with you here." Oh, you ought to have seen little Skinny McCord laugh. His face was all thin on account of his not being very strong and he never had much food until he got in with us, either. But it was fun to see him laugh whenever we got back at Pee-wee.

"There's some heads of cabbage, too," he said; "Doc's got them."

"Heads and ears and tongues," I said; "you ought to have brought some potatoes, so we'd have eyes." He thinks I'm funny, but I just say those things to make him laugh, so as he'll feel good.

Then I took all the stuff into the galley and put it in the food locker. I was just crunching up the newspaper that they brought the corn in, and was going to throw it out of the window, when I saw a heading that read: _Fishermen Have Harrowing Adventure_. Oh, boy, didn't I sit down on the barrel and read that article through! First, I looked to see the date of the paper and I saw it was a couple of days old. After I read that article I cut it out, because I knew I was going to tell you about all these things. So here it is now for you to read:

FISHERMEN HAVE HARROWING ADVENTURE

The fishing schooner Stella B arrived in
port to-day with two castaways, who had
drifted for three days in an open boat in the
stormy waters off Rockaway. The two
men, Mike Corby and Dan McCann, hail
from Jersey, and were carried out to sea in
their twenty-two foot launch from about
a mile south of Sea Gate, where they were
fishing.

Their engine broke down and their small
boat, beaten by the waves, was leaking
rapidly when they were picked up. One of
the men was unconscious from lack of
nourishment and the other in a state of
utter exhaustion from bailing, in an all but
futile effort to keep the frail little craft
above water. After being resuscitated, one
of the men gave a vague account of having
encountered a waterlogged life-boat containing
several people who had perished
from exposure, and of certain papers and
possessions found on one of them.

Later when a reporter made an effort to
see the men for confirmation of this statement,
neither could be found. Both are
said to have carried considerable money on
their persons, but this was explained by the
exceptionally large catches of fish which
they sold, during their fishing trip. No
means of tracing them is known since the
boat, in which one of them resumed his
journey home after repairs, had no license
number.

Maybe you think I didn't read that article twice. And it made me wonder a lot of things about that fishing trip. One thing, it looked as if they might have had more adventures than Lieutenant Donnelle had told me about, and maybe he didn't want to tell me everything--that's what I thought. Anyway, he didn't say anything about a life-boat, that's sure. But maybe he forgot to.

Just the same I wondered if maybe he had any other reason for being in such a hurry and so excited, kind of. Then I remembered how he said he would tell me all about it some day. Anyway, I said, he's had a lot of adventures, that's sure. You bet I'd like to have a lot of adventures like that.