But anyway, I could see a lot of fellows there and I knew they were all from our troop and that they were waiting to open the bridge for General Grant.

Pretty soon Captain Savage took his pipe out of his mouth and began speaking, only he didn't notice me only kept looking straight ahead.

"You know how to port a helm?" he said.

I told him no--not on a big boat like that anyway.

Then he said, "Wall, there's lots o' things you got to learn, youngster.

And there's one thing about tug cap'ns that you got to learn, see?"

I told him that was what I wanted to do--learn--

"Wall, then, I'll tell you," he said-this is just what he said--"I'll tell you, you are in a mighty ticklish place 'n I don't just see how you're going to get out of it."

For a minute I was kind of scared.

"I ain't sayin' you're not a brisk lot, you youngsters, because you are, and no denyin'. All I'm sayin' is you're in a peck of trouble--that's all."

Then he didn't say anything only looked straight ahead out of the window and kept on smoking. Gee, I felt awful funny.

Then I said if we did anything that wasn't right, cracky, we didn't mean it anyway, that was sure, and we'd do whatever he said. And I said I knew it wasn't right for us to break into Uncle Jimmy's shanty, because I couldn't think of anything else we'd done that was wrong.

Then he said, "'Tain't so much wrong, as 'tis a conflict of rules, as the feller says. Yer see, the trouble is tug-boat captains are a pretty pesky, ugly lot, as yer can see from me, and when it comes ter services, it's give or take. Now I was thinkin', that if you youngsters don't let me tow you up as far as Poughkeepsie next week, I'll just have to write and notify the authorities about Uncle Jimmy and make a complaint. I kinder don't like to do it by reason of him being an old veteran, but it's up to you youngsters. Either scratch out that rule of yours, or else see Uncle Jimmy lose his job. Take your choice, it's all the same to me."

G--o--o--d night! Jiminy, I didn't know what to say to him. I guess I just stood there staring and he looked straight ahead out of the window and smoked his pipe, as if he didn't care either way.

Pretty soon he said, "I'm going up to Poughkeepsie next Sat.u.r.day with a barge, and I'll give you youngsters till Friday to decide. You can send me a line to the barge office or the Pilots' a.s.sociation, or else you can leave me and old Uncle Jimmy fight it out between our two selves and Uncle Sam."

The fellows opened the bridge for General Grant to go through and Captain Savage let me out on one of the cross-beams, without even stopping. He didn't even look at the fellows as the tug went through, only looked straight ahead of him and puffed away on his pipe, as if he didn't even know that there were such things as scouts. We just stood there watching the tug churning up the water, as she went faster and faster until she was gone around the bend.

"He's a kind of an old grouch," Pee-wee said.

"It's good you happened to think about how he used that word desert,"

Doc said.

Then Connie said he wouldn't want to be his son, and Artie said he wouldn't want to be around the house with him on a rainy Sunday, and I let them go on knocking him, until they got good and tired and then I said, "Do you know what he wants to do?"

"I bet he wants us to go and be witnesses against Uncle Jimmy," Pee-wee said; "he'll never get me to be a witness, you can bet."

"Wrong the first time, as usual," I said; "he wants to tow the house-boat up as far as Poughkeepsie for us next week."

Well, you should have seen those fellows.

"What did you tell him?" Pee-wee yelled.

"I told him that I was sorry, but that scouts couldn't accept anything for a service--not even favors."

"You're crazy!" Pee-wee shouted; "did you tell him that?"

"Sure I did," I said, very sober, "and he got so mad he's going to have old Uncle Jimmy sent to jail--just because I told him we couldn't let him tow us to Poughkeepsie."

"You make me tired!" Pee-wee screamed, "do you mean to say that if a fellow does a good turn to another--an old man--and it turns out to be a good turn on somebody else, and he says--the other one that has a boat--that he'll make a lot of trouble for the other one we did a service for--do you mean to tell me that the other one has a right to say he'll make trouble for him, and if he does we haven't got a right to let him do a good turn to us, so that the other one we did a good turn for can get under a bridge--it's a good turn to let him do us a good turn, isn't it? Let's hear you deny that?"

"You're talking in chunks," Doc said; "pick up the words you spilled and straighten 'em out."

"Hold him or he'll fall off the bridge," Artie said.

"Do you mean to tell me that we haven't got to let him pay us back so as to save Uncle Jimmy?" Pee-wee fairly screeched.

Oh, boy, you should have seen him.

"There is yet time," I said, just like an actor, sort of. I said, "There is yet time to fool him--I mean foil him. We have till Friday to accept his offer."

"Who's got a pencil?" Pee-wee shouted.

Good night! You should have seen that kid.

CHAPTER x.x.xIII

SO LONG-SEE YOU LATER

So that's about all I can tell you now, but pretty soon I'll tell you about our cruise up the Hudson and all about the fun we had on the house-boat and on Captain Savage's tug. Oh, boy, he turned out to be one fine man. And I'm going to tell you all about Skinny too, and about the fix we got into about that tramp that slept in the house-boat. You remember that fellow, don't you. Some scare we had, believe me.

And you'll hear about Temple Camp and Jeb Rushmore, and you'll get to know us fellows a lot better. Gee, I hope you'll like us. Mr. Ellsworth says I'm a pretty good author, only I took such a long run there wasn't any s.p.a.ce left to jump in. I should worry. Some authors don't run at all, they only walk. Believe me, you have to drag some of them with a rope.

Anyway, we've got acquainted now and that's something. In the next story there's going to be some girls--and some snakes, too. Especially one snake. Gee, but girls hate snakes--snakes and mice. Anyway, Mr. Ellsworth told me to write just the same as I talked, so if it's no good, maybe that's the reason. You should worry. Maybe you'll like the next one better, hey?

Anyway, you'll like Temple Camp, that's one sure thing.

THE END

Other books by Percy Keese Fitzhugh (7 Sep 1876 - 5 Jul 1950). Note that characters from each series crossover to or are mentioned in the others.

1 - Pee-Wee Harris - 1922 2 - Pee-Wee Harris On The Trail - 1922 3 - Pee-Wee Harris In Camp - 1922 4 - Pee-Wee Harris In Luck - 1922 5 - Pee-Wee Harris Adrift - 1922 6 - Pee-Wee Harris F.O.B. Bridgeboro - 1923 7 - Pee-Wee Harris: Fixer - 1924 8 - Pee-Wee Harris As Good As His Word - 1925 9 - Pee-Wee Harris: Mayor for a Day - 1926 10 - Pee-Wee Harris and The Sunken Treasure - 1927 11 - Pee-Wee Harris On The Briny Deep - 1928 12 - Pee-Wee Harris In Darkest Africa - 1929 13 - Pee-Wee Harris Turns Detective - 1930

1 - Roy Blakeley - 1920 2 - Roy Blakeley's Adventures in Camp - 1920 3 - Roy Blakeley Pathfinder - 1920 4 - Roy Blakeley's Camp On Wheels - 1920 5 - Roy Blakeley's Silver Fox Patrol - 1920 6 - Roy Blakeley's Motor Caravan - 1921 7 - Roy Blakeley Lost Strayed or Stolen - 1921 8 - Roy Blakeley's Bee-line Hike - 1922 9 - Roy Blakeley at The Haunted Camp - 1922 10 - Roy Blakeley's Funny-Bone Hike - 1923 11 - Roy Blakeley's Tangled Trail - 1924 12 - Roy Blakeley on the Mohawk Trail - 1925 13 - Roy Blakeley's Elastic Hike - 1926 14 - Roy Blakeley's Roundabout Hike - 1927 15 - Roy Blakeley's Happy-Go-Lucky Hike - 1928 16 - Roy Blakeley's Go-As-You Please Hike - 1929

1 - Tom Slade - Boy Scout - 1915 2 - Tom Slade At Temple Camp - 1917 3 - Tom Slade On The River - 1917 4 - Tom Slade With The Colors - 1918 5 - Tom Slade On A Transport - 1918 6 - Tom Slade With The Boys Over There - 1918 7 - Tom Slade' Motor-cycle Dispatch Bearer - 1918 8 - Tom Slade With The Flying Corps - 1919 9 - Tom Slade at Black Lake - 1920 10 - Tom Slade On Mystery Trail - 1921 11 - Tom Slade's Double Dare - 1922 12 - Tom Slade On Overlook Mountain - 1923 13 - Tom Slade Picks a Winner - 1924 14 - Tom Slade At Bear Mountain - 1925 15 - Tom Slade: Forest Ranger - 1926 16 - Tom Slade At Shadow Isle - 1928 17 - Tom Slade In The North Woods - 1927 18 - Tom Slade in the Haunted Cavern - 1929 19 - Tom Slade Parachute Jumper - 1930

1 - Westy Martin - 1924 2 - Westy Martin In The Yellowstone - 1924 3 - Westy Martin In The Rockies - 1925 4 - Westy Martin On The Santa Fe Trail - 1926 5 - Westy Martin On The Old Indian Trail - 1928 6 - Westy Martin In The Land Of The Purple Sage - 1929 7 - Westy Martin On The Mississippi - 1930 8 - Westy Martin In The Sierras - 1931