The old man was smoking a pipe and he blew out a lot of smoke--it was kind of like a barrage.

Then he said very stern and gruff, "Well, sir?"

Oh, boy, wasn't I shaky! But I started right in, and when you once get started it's easy, that's one sure thing.

I said, "Maybe you'll only be more mad when I tell you but I heard you say something about Uncle Jimmy deserting. Twice you said that. And I thought maybe you might be a veteran, hey? Maybe that's a crazy thing to think, hey?"

All he said was, "Well, sir," and he blew a lot of tobacco smoke at me and looked at me with a frown, all fierce, but I wasn't scared.

"I only kind of deduced that," I said, "and anyway I've got to admit you've got reason to be mad."

Even still, all he said was, "Well, sir," and he held his pipe so I thought maybe he was going to chuck it at me--good night!

"Anyway, if you were a soldier, maybe you'll understand, that's all.

Uncle Jimmy, that's what we call him, he went away to the Grand Army Convention--that's where he went. I'm not saying he had a right to go, but one thing, big boats like yours never come up this way, so the bridge doesn't have to be opened very often--sometimes not all summer. It's kind of just bad luck for him, that's all. But, one thing sure, I know how it is to be away when I ought not to be, I do. And I'm no better than he is, that's one sure thing. I'm a boy scout," I told him, "and my scoutmaster says you have no right to make bargains about things that are wrong. But anyway, maybe you wouldn't think this would be trying to make a bargain with you and sticking up for somebody that did wrong. So I thought I'd ask you if you'll please promise not to write to the government people, and I'll promise you to open the bridge for you in ten minutes. He's lame, Uncle Jimmy is, and he got that way in some battle, and he has to use a crutch. And that's the reason they gave him a job. I see your tug is named General U. S. Grant, and maybe he was fighting with General Grant, hey? You can't tell.

"We can't find the key-bar, but about a month ago, the old key-bar fell in the river, and I know where it is. Maybe you think I'm crazy, but I'm dive and get it for you, if you'll only promise not to tell on Uncle Jimmy, because he couldn't help going. Maybe you don't understand, but he just couldn't. I've got the swimming badge and that's for diving too. All you have to do is to give me some rope, so I can take one end of it down and then you can haul it up and the key-bar will be tied to it. You can be dead sure. Because what a fellow has to do, he can do.

Only you have to make me the promise first 'cause that'll help me to do it."

CHAPTER x.x.xI

THE CAPTAIN'S ORDERS

Maybe it wasn't a very good speech, but anyway, he was nicer than he was before and he had an awful funny twinkle in his eye.

Then he said, "So you know how to dive, huh, sonny? Can you keep your mouth shut?"

"Sure, you have to keep your mouth shut when you dive," Pee-wee yelled up from the rowboat, and then the old man just had to laugh.

"I mean when you're on land, sonny," he said.

"Sure I can," I told him.

"Well, then" he said, "if any of you scout kids goes about sayin' as how Uncle Jimmy went away to the convention, and I ever meet you in your old skiff, by the Big Dipper I'll run you down and cut you in half, that's what I'll do! Do you hear?" he shouted. "If you ever run afoul of the General Grant in the bay or anywheres else, by thunder, I'm Cap'n Savage, I am, and once upon a time I was Major Savage, and I should be at that there convention myself, instead of standing here blowing away at a better soldier than me!"

"Don't you care, we'll forgive you," Pee-wee shouted up.

"Keep him quiet, will you?" I called down to Westy.

"Ask me something easy," Westy said.

"And so you think you can dive," old Captain Savage said, "or is that just boy scout talk? Do I stand a chance of getting upstream and down again to-night, or not. Where do you say that key-bar is?"

You can bet I knew just exactly where it was. It was under the east span of the bridge and just underneath about the fifth or sixth plank from the centre. I knew it was hard bottom down there, too. So Captain Savage and the other man he had gave me a thin rope and we fastened one end on the deck. I tied the other end of it around my waist in a loose French sailor's knot, so I could pull it off without any trouble under water.

Then I dived. I had to come up a couple of times without it, but the third time I got hold of it lying on the rocks, and quick as a flash I loosened the rope from my waist and tied it onto the keybar. Then I came up, sputtering.

"Pull," I sputtered, "you've got it; only pull easy." Then I scrambled up on the deck. Believe me in less than a minute the tug-man and Westy and Pee-wee were on the bridge and had the key-bar fixed in its socket.

Then we started to push and around she went--slow at first; then faster.

Oh, boy, wasn't I glad to see old General Grant march through. Just as I was going to get in the rowboat, Captain Savage stuck his head out of the window and shouted, "Here you, youngster; you come in here. We have to overhaul accounts."

"Scouts don't accept anything for a service," Westy shouted.

"I ain't a-talking to you," Captain Savage shouted; "you other feller, scramble aboard and come up here! Don't they learn you nothin' about obedience in them thar scouts--huh? you scramble up on board here like I tell you!" Oh, boy, I knew he meant me.

CHAPTER x.x.xII

I MAKE A DANDY FRIEND

That was the first time I ever rode in a tug-boat, and believe me, it was great. I stood right beside the wheel in that little house and pointed out the channel to Captain Savage all the way up to North Bridgeboro.

That's one thing I sure know--the channel. Anyway, if you don't know it, follow the abrupt sh.o.r.e. But with a tug-boat, good night, you have to be careful because a tug 'draws so much water. He was going up there after a lumber barge, he said.

First, he didn't say anything, only smoked, and it was like a fog in there. Pretty soon he said: "So you youngsters don't take nuthin' fer services, huh?"

"We have to do a good turn if we see a chance," I told him.

Then he wanted to know all about the scouts, how they were divided into troops and patrols and everything, and after I told him all that, we got to talking about our vacation and about Temple Camp, and especially about the house-boat. I asked him if he thought a three horsepower engine would drive the house-boat up the Hudson, so we could get as far as Catskill Landing in a couple of weeks.

He said, "It would be more like a couple of years, I reckon."

"Good night!" I said, "if it takes us two years to get there and we have to be home inside of a month, I see our finish. I suppose it costs a lot of money to get towed."

He said, "Wall now, whin I bring in a Cunarder and back her into her stall, it stands them in a few pennies."

"You said something," I told him.

"'N I don't suppose your troop has got as much money as the Cunard Line," he said.

"Gee, we've only got about four dollars now," I told him; "I suppose we couldn't get towed as much as a mile for that, hey?"

"Wall, four dollars don't go as far as it used ter," he said; "maybe it would go a half a mile."

Then he, didn't say anything, only puffed and puffed and puffed on his pipe, and kept looking straight ahead of him, and turning the wheel ever so little. After a while he said there wasn't water enough in our river to drown a gold fish, and he didn't know why we called it a river at all. He said he couldn't imagine what the tide was thinking about to waste its time coming up such a river. He said if a bird took a drink in the river while he was upstream, it would leave him on the flats. He was awful funny, but he never smiled.

Ill.u.s.tration #5

"Roy dived after the key-bar"

When we got up to the mill at North Bridgeboro, he got the barge and started downstream with the barge alongside. All the while he kept asking me about the scouts, and I told him about Skinny, and how we were going to take him up to Temple Camp with us, so he could get better, maybe.

Then for quite a while he didn't say anything, only puffed away and pretty soon we could see the bridge and I knew we'd have to open it again.