CHAPTER XV

THE HERO MAKER

All of a sudden I had an idea and I turned around and said, “Hey, Scout Harris, you know so much about scouting, is the Rotary Club award for one hundred dollars?”

He said, “Yes, but it doesn’t come till the end of the season in the canoe races.”

I said, “Well, then, that settles it, we’re out of luck. United we stand, divided one of us goes home.”

Dub said, “Never mind, let’s go back to the chasm and see those movie people. We can camp in the chasm to-night and when we go back to camp to-morrow, anyway we can say we had a good time. I don’t have to go home till next Saturday.”

“You make me tired!” Pee-wee shouted. “You don’t have to go home at all. That’s what Roy Blakeley’s all the time saying, united we stand, and it hasn’t got any sense to it. All you have to do is to save somebody’s life----”

“Just like that,” I said.

“Save two or three, then you’ll be sure,” Sandy said.

“Don’t you pay any attention to them,” the kid shouted. “Just because they don’t keep their eyes open that doesn’t mean you can’t find a chance to save life and be a hero and get a hundred dollars. You stay with me and I bet you inside of a week you’ll see somebody that needs to get his life saved. On the lake, that’s where you want to stay. You stick with me and I’ll show you. Gee whiz, if you want to stay at Temple Camp and be kind of partners with us you can do it, that’s easy.”

“Sure,” I said, “Scouts risk their lives every evening with matinees on Saturdays and holidays. Just say what kind of a life you’d like to save and the fixer will fix it for you. Did you ever hear the poetry Brent Gaylong made about him?” I said. I guess you fellows that are reading this story never heard it either. Everybody at Temple Camp knows it.

His middle name is Hunter’s Stew, He mixes it. In mixing he can sure outdo, All other Scouts he ever knew, And when a thing goes all askew, He fixes it.

Pee-wee shouted, “Do you bet I can’t show you how to save a life? Do you bet I can’t fix it so you can stay here--do you bet? Even I know some rattlesnakes, where they live----”

“You can’t get the reward for saving a rattlesnake’s life,” I said.

“Will you shut up!” he hollered at me. “I know where they live--a whole nest of them.”

“Why did you never tell me this?” I asked him.

“Because you’re a big fool and will you keep still while I’m talking, doing a good turn to help a brother Scout like it says you’ve got to do a lot you know about it making fun of the handbook--_will you shut up_!”

“I can’t shut up twice at the same time, can I?” I said.

“Will you _keep_ shut up till I get through talking to Dub?” he shouted. Oh boy, he was sure started. When he gets started he shouts right along without ever stopping and that’s why there aren’t any punctuation marks when he talks. “Will you not be a big fool for one minute!” he yelled at me.

“Go ahead,” Dub said. “I’m with you.”

“You stick with me and I’ll fix it for you----”

“Now that we’ve found the bandits,” I said.

“And old man Bagley’s will,” Sandy said.

“I know where there are rattlesnakes,” the kid shouted, “and I know some tenderfoots that are going stalking to-morrow right near that tree and--and--you can--you know how to grab a rattlesnake, don’t you?”

“Sure I do,” Dub said.

“And if that doesn’t work----”

“Then the rattlesnakes will stay all summer and Dub won’t. It’s the same only different,” I said.

“You take the lake,” Pee-wee started up again.

“Take it yourself, I don’t want it,” I said.

“Will you listen to me?” he shouted at Dub.

“Let’s have a large chunk of silence and a very little of that,” Sandy said. “Pee-wee has the floor.”

“I think he has the blind staggers,” I said. “He’s so highly strung from everybody stringing him. Go on, turn on the loud speaker.”

Pee-wee said, “All right, you can laugh----”

“I’m not laughing,” Dub said.

“But anyway,” Pee-wee went on, “if you really want to stay at Temple Camp I’ll find out a way for you to save a life----”

“First you go to the saving bank,” Sandy said.

I said, “Absolutely correct the first time. Then you pick out a Scout that’s dying----”

“_Do you deny I did a lot of things?_” Pee-wee screeched at the top of his voice. “Didn’t I tell MacElton a branch was rotten on a willow tree that sticks out over the lake, _didn’t I_? And didn’t I tell him that tenderfoots were always up in that tree--_didn’t I_? And didn’t that branch break just like I said it would? He hung around that in a boat and he saved little Skinny Bonner from drowning and he got the Gold Medal. So now, you think you’re so fresh with all your crazy Silver Fox nonsensical nonsense! You ought to be named the Jackass Patrol, that’s what Councilor Stone said. If Dub sticks to me next week I’ll show him how he can win the Gold Medal by saving a life and get the Burnside hundred dollars too, because I know a way, already I know a way, and he can stay till the end of the season and even he’ll have some money left for sodas and cones and things.”

“So _that’s_ the idea,” I said.

“No it isn’t the idea,” he screamed at me. “But I know a feller that’s going to be reckless, and I know where he’s going to do it, and when he’s going to do it, and I know how you can save him. Only if you’re going to follow Roy Blakeley around for the rest of the season I pity you.”

“Those are harsh words, Sprout Harris,” I said.

“You stick with me,” Pee-wee said to Dub, “and I’ll show you how. You just leave it to me. Always I do things when I say I will.”

“Even when he fails he succeeds,” I said.

Jiminies, it looked as if the kid had Dub started. He put his arm around Pee-wee’s shoulder and said, “All right, don’t get excited, kid, I’m going to stick to you. I have a nunch things are going to break right for us.”

“If I say I’ll fix it, I’ll fix it,” Pee-wee said.

“What’s the use laughing? Maybe he can,” Dub said. “Anyway I believe something’s going to happen, I just have a feeling.”

“Oh sure,” I said, “something always happens when Pee-wee is on the scene.”

The kid just hiked along, very mad, and very important looking. He didn’t say a word.

“Heroes made while you wait,” I said. Sandy was laughing. I was winking at him. “Harris the hero maker,” I said.

Just the same I could see that Dub was kind of in with Pee-wee. That’s the way it is with Pee-wee, he shouts so loud and says what he can do, and fellows believe him, especially new fellows. Poor Dub, I felt sorry for him.