Justice Dopett, who had resolved many puzzling questions, seemed to regard this one as a poser. “I bet it’s a teckinality, hey?” said Pee-wee. “Yes, it’s a technicality,” said the judge, amid much laughter. “I think the best thing for you boys to do is to—” “I know what you’re going to say,” Pee-wee vociferated, “and we’re not going to go home no matter what, because we’re not quitters, because you know all about scouts, you made a speech and said so, and we’re going to drive to Temple Camp anyway, no matter what, because we started. No siree, I don’t care about teckinalities or anything, we’re going to drive to Temple Camp and I’m going to stay here till Townsend gets back and if they keep him there, I’ll get a habis corpse because he couldn’t help it if the goat ate his license, could he?” “What was it, a Ford car?” an amused travelling man asked. “He didn’t eat the car, he only ate the license,” said Pee-wee. “Oh,” said the man. “And I didn’t have any supper either,” said Pee-wee. CHAPTER XXIII WHERE IGNORANCE IS BLISS What Justice Dopett might have tried to persuade Pee-wee to do if there had been more time, one cannot predict. Apparently he did not relish the idea of leaving the little hero from his home town alone at the spot. But there was Townsend to be considered. The situation seemed unusual. And moreover, though the law’s delays are well known, the engineer of an express train is not usually in favor of dilatory tactics. At first the justice seemed disposed to stop over himself but he revised this friendly inclination and wrote a note “to whom it might concern” on an official letter-head which he had in his wallet. That note is still a treasured possession of the new Alligator Patrol. Like the Declaration of Independence it is shown to the curious at the Bridgeboro Scout Headquarters, and tenderfoot scouts contemplate it with reverence and awe. It stated that Townsend Ripley and Walter Harris were personally known to the writer, that they were scouts, and that to the certain knowledge of the writer the elder of the two boys had qualified and received a New Jersey license to drive an automobile. It stated further that this license card had been “unavoidably lost en route” (that was the phrase Pee-wee liked best) and that another had not yet been issued. The writer requested that his personal certification of Townsend Ripley’s authority and competency to drive a car be accepted till the hoys reached their destination. It was signed with the imposing official signature of Justice Dopett, of the State Supreme Court and if it had been the Emancipation Proclamation of Lincoln, Pee-wee could not have guarded it more fearfully.