He first recovered the black gum-drop, and having dusted it off, placed it where it would never again go down except inside him. Then he lifted the handbook and casually noticed that it had fallen open at pages four hundred and four and four hundred and five. These were in the section describing scout games, and, as Pee-wee glanced half-interestedly at the headings, his idle gaze was arrested by a particular heading and he read the paragraph which followed it: RELAY RACE One patrol pitted against another to see who can get a message sent a long distance in shortest time by means of relay of runners (or cyclists). The patrol is ordered out to send in three successive notes or tokens (such as sprigs of certain plants) from a point, say, two miles distant or more. The leader in taking his patrol out to the spot drops scouts at convenient distances, who will then act as runners from one post to the next and back. If relays are posted in pairs, messages can be passed both ways. Suddenly, with a wild hallo, he announced to the world at large, “_I’ve got an inspiration! I’ve got an inspiration!_ I’m glad I dropped that gum-drop, because I’ve got an inspiration! I know what I’m going to do! I’ve got a peach of an idea! _Oh, boy_, I know what I’m going to do!” He did not know what he was going to do, far from it. But he knew what he _thought_ he was going to do. “I’m going to—I’m going to start something!” he said in the full exuberance of his new idea. Never in all his life did Scout Harris, Alligator, formerly Raven and Pollywog, say a truer word. He was certainly going to start something. CHAPTER III ANOTHER INSPIRATION “Now I know who I’ll have for a good turn guest! I’ll have somebody I don’t know!” Pee-wee shouted, entering the house. “Is that you, Walter?” his mother called downstairs. “It’s me, and I’ve got an inspiration,” Pee-wee shouted. “Where’s the duffel bag and things that were here in the hall?” “Did you shut the screen door?” his mother called. “Where’s the stuff I laid here?” Pee-wee demanded excitedly. “I left it here ready so as— “Did you shut the screen door, Walter?” “No,—because there’s a fly inside and I want him to get out. Where’s my camping stuff that I left in the hall?” “It’s near your father’s golf sticks, under the hall table. Be sure to wipe your feet.” “Are there any more cookies?” “Not unless you left some. Have you closed the screen door?” “Sure, do you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to start a relay race to Temple Camp and the last feller’ll be my good turn guest. I want the map that’s in the coffee-pot in the duffel bag. I got the idea from a licorice gum-drop that fell down where the pansies are—” “I hope you didn’t eat it,” Mrs. Harris called. “Don’t you know a scout isn’t supposed to waste anything?” Pee-wee shot back.