CHAPTER XII

ARTIE'S ADVENTURE

Then I heard one of the fellows shouting "Look who's here!" and I saw
the fellow who had been sitting on the steps coming toward the float
and I could tell it was Artie Van Arlen. Then I could hear Pee-wee
dancing on the cabin roof and screaming, "The plot grows thicker! The
plot grows thicker!"--good night, the kid was almost having a fit.

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble," I said to Artie, "would you
please relate your adventures, I see that you're not dead."

"Well, not so you'd notice it," he said, "but I guess I came pretty
near it."

Then I could see he was all in and must have had a pretty hard time of
it, but I couldn't help kidding him, because I was feeling so good to
know he was safe. Believe me, that fellow had some adventure.

"It was lucky for me," he said, "that you tied this crazy canoe or
whatever you call it-"

"That is an Indian dugout, if anyone should ask you," I said, "and if I
wanted to sell it to an antiquary--"

"A what?" Pee-wee shouted down from the cabin roof.

"An antiquary," I said; "comes from the Latin word aunt and the Chinese