Roy Blakeley   By: Percy Keese Fitzhugh (1876-1950)

Being the true narrative of his adventures and those of his troop on land and sea and in the mud particularly in the mud. Taken from the Troop Book of the 1st Bridgeboro Troop B. S. A. and arranged by himself with the assistance of Pee wee Harris and

PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH

AUTHOR OF

TOM SLADE, BOY SCOUT, TOM SLADE AT TEMPLE CAMP, ETC.

ILLUSTRATED BY HOWARD L. HASTINGS

PUBLISHED WITH THE APPROVAL OF THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA

1920

Illustration 1

"I began sinking as low as my waist"

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. TROUBLES OF MY OWN THE BIG CONCLAVE II. SWATTING THE SPY III. SWATTING THE SPY CONTINUED IV. THE PLOT GROWS THINNER OR ELSE THICKER V. LOST VI. THE TIGHT PLACE VII. WEETONKA, THE TERRIBLE CHIEF VIII. RESOPEKITWAFTENLY IX. THE LOST LETTER X. THE RAVENS XI. LOST XII. ARTIE'S ADVENTURE XIII. TRACKING XIV. THE SLACKER XV. DURING NOON HOUR XVI. NOBLE RAGS XVII. THE TWO CROSSES XVIII. SCOUT LAW NUMBER THREE XIX. THE END OF THE MEETING XX. MOSTLY ABOUT SKINNY XXI. SOMETHING MISSING XXII. SHOWS YOU WHERE I DO THE TALKING XXIII. IN THE WOODS XXIV. TREASURE ISLAND XXV. THE SHORT CUT XXVI. IN MY OWN CAMP XXVII. THE GENTLE BREEZE XXVIII. JOLLYING PEE WEE XXIX. JIMMY, THE BRIDGE TENDER XXX. GONE XXXI. THE CAPTAIN'S ORDERS XXXII. I MAKE A DANDY FRIEND XXXIII. SO LONG SEE YOU LATER

CHAPTER I

TROUBLES OF MY OWN THE BIG CONCLAVE

Well, here I am at last, ready to tell you the adventures of our young lives. Right away I have trouble with Pee wee Harris. He's about as easy to keep down as a balloon full of gas. We call him the young dirigible because he's always going up in the air. Even at the start he must stick in his chapter heading about a conclave.

Hanged if I know what a conclave is. It's some kind of a meeting I guess. He said it was something like a peace conference, but believe me, the meeting I'm going to tell you about wasn't much like a peace conference. I told him I'd use my own heading and his too, just to keep him quiet. I think he's got his pockets stuffed full of chapter headings and that he'll be shooting them at me all the way through like a machine gun.

I guess I might as well tell you about Pee wee before I tell you about the conclave or whatever you call it He's Doctor Harris's son and he's a member of the Raven Patrol. He's a member in good standing, only he doesn't stand very high. Honest, you can hardly see him without a magnifying glass. But for voice good night!

He sings in the Methodist Church choir and they say he can throw his voice anywhere. I wish he'd throw it in the ash barrel, I know that. He always wears his belt axe to troop meetings, in case the Germans should invade Bridgeboro, I suppose. He's the troop mascot and if you walk around him three times and ruffle up his beautiful curly hair, you can change your luck.

Well, now I'll tell you about the meeting. We had a big special meeting to decide about two things, and believe me, those two things had momentous consequences. Momentous that's a good word, hey?

One thing, we wanted to decide about our campaign for collecting books for soldiers, and another thing, we wanted to decide how we could all go up to Temple Camp in our cabin launch, the Good Turn.

This large arid what do you call it launch I mean commodious launch is a dandy boat, except for one thing the bow is too near the stern. If we were sardines instead of boy scouts, it would be all right, but you see there's twenty four of us altogether, not counting Captain Kidd, our mascot he's a parrot.

So I got up and said, "How are we going to crowd twenty four growing boys and a parrot into a twenty foot launch?"

"It can't be did," Doc Carson shouted. "Then some of us will have to hike it on our dear little feet," I said.

"Or else we'll have to get a barge or something or other and tow it," Artie Van Arlen said.