INVASION

Pee-wee had the floor; he had the whole green; I guess he had nearly the whole town. Anyway, he had all the peanut brittle there was left.

“We caught a bandit,” he shouted. “He’s got footprints. He’s up in the top car of the ferris-wheel in Riverview Park. He’s bound with ropes. Even Detective Pinchem didn’t catch him, but we did.”

“Who put him up there?” somebody shouted.

“We did!” Pee-wee yelled.

“What’s he doing up there?” a man called.

“He’s trembling with fear,” the kid shouted. “He fired seven hundred shots and got away with two dollars——”

“You mean seven hundred dollars,” I said.

“We foiled him!” the kid shouted.

“He’s all wrapped up in tin-foil,” I said.

The cop said, “What’s all this nonsense, anyway?”

I said, “Are you the police department?”

He said, “Well, I think I am.”

“You’ve got to be sure of it,” Pee-wee shouted. “We can’t deal with the civilized population.”

“Do you think we’re afraid of you?” that girl said, very scornful like.

“Hurrah for Pee-wee Harris,” Dorry shouted.

“Do you think we’re afraid of a boy named Pee-wee?” she said. “It sounds like a canary bird.”

Pee-wee pointed the big horn right plunk at her and shouted through it, “Do you call me a canary bird?”

I nearly died laughing.

She said, “If I had a name like Pee-wee I wouldn’t talk about dealing with the civilian population.”

“That name doesn’t belong to me,” he yelled.

“He only rents it,” Hunt said.

“His right name is Sir Harris, R.R.—Raving Raven,” Dorry said.

“What’s your name?” Pee-wee hollered at her through the horn.

“It’s Dora Dane Daring,” she said. “So there, Mr. Smarty. And I’m a girl scout.”

“Girls are afraid of snakes,” he shouted.

She said, “Well, they’re not afraid of canary birds.”

“They’re afraid of black men and—and—bandits,” he yelled. “Didn’t you ever hear of wild canary birds? That shows how much you know about botany—I mean zoology.”

By that time everybody was screaming. Even the whole police department was laughing. He said, “Well, now, what’s all this about? Have you youngsters been dreaming or what?”

“What,” I said; “you guessed right the second time.”

I guess if it hadn’t been for Westy maybe that fellow with the cap would be up on the top of the wheel yet.

He said to the policeman, “I’ll tell you how it was if these fellows will keep still.”

I said, “Let’s have a large chunk of silence.”

So then Westy told him all about our meeting Detective Pinchem and how he was looking for a fellow that had robbed an auto party and how he had stolen a boat and left it in the marshes. He told him all about what happened at the old ferris-wheel and how I had found footprints there and how they showed that some one had come from the river. Most all the people that crowded around listening were serious. Two or three men said they guessed it was the auto bandit all right. The policeman said they’d soon find out.

A lot of people said they were going to see what happened and one or two of the patrol wanted to go back because, one thing, you don’t see bandits captured every day. Maybe whole weeks might go by and you’d never see one captured in a ferris-wheel. But that shows how you never can tell. You might chase a bandit on a merry-go-round but you’d never catch him.

“We should worry about the bandit,” that’s what I told the fellows. “Because we’ve got troubles of our own. We’ve got to make Carson’s Hill yet and then the woods up the ridge and we’ll have to go slow and use our compass in there. Look at that big tree up there waiting for us,” I said. “It’s got all dressed up for us since we started.”

And, honest, it did look that way because it was all gold. But, anyway, you’ll find out in the next chapter that gold isn’t the only color. There are blue and green and yellow and strawberry and orange and banana and grape-fruit and peaches and russet apples—those are my favorites. Gee whiz, I don’t know whether I’m talking about fruit or colors! But one kind of vegetable I like, and that is onions.

Anyway, the color I was going to speak about is black. And believe me the next chapter is the darkest one in this book.

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