That he, Pee-wee Harris, mascot of the Raven Patrol, First Bridgeboro
Troop, should have come to this! That he should be carried away by a
pair of inhuman wretches, to what dreadful fate he shuddered to
conjecture. That _he_, Scout Harris, whose reputation for being wide
awake had gone far and wide in the world of scouting, should be carried
away unwittingly by a pair of thieves and find himself in imminent peril
of being added to that ghastly galaxy of "dead ones." It was horrible.

Pee-wee curled up under the robe so as to disarm any suspicion of a
human form beneath that thick, enveloping concealment and even breathed
with silent caution. Suppose--_suppose_--oh horrors--suppose he should
have to sneeze!




CHAPTER VI

A MESSAGE IN THE DARK


Pee-wee seldom had any doubts about anything. What he knew he _knew_.
And what is still better, he knew that he knew it. No one ever had to
remind Pee-wee that he knew a thing. He not only knew it and knew that
he knew it, but he knew that everybody that he knew, knew that he knew
it. As he said himself, he was "absolutely positive."

Pee-wee knew all about scouting; oh, everything. He knew how and where
tents should be put up and where spring water was to be found. He did