"Well, I'm glad you stumbled into us, too," said Roy, a note of sympathy and sincerity in his voice that there was no mistaking. "We'll have to speak to our mothers and fathers, but don't you worry, we have them trained all right. We have cooking outfits and everything, too. We'll take a hike up there to-morrow. We'd like to make some money, but gee whiz, that isn't the only thing we care about. Camping and all that--that's what we like. Don't we, Westy?" "Where can we find you up there?" Westy asked. "You go up the Knickerbocker Road and right in through the old entrance," Blythe said. "The second shack you come to on your left is where I'm bunking. You'll see me around somewhere." "You do your own cooking?" Artie Van Arlen asked him. "Yes, but I'm not much of a cook," Blythe said. "I--I don't--I won't get anything till the work's finished--" "You should worry about that," Roy said. "I guess I can eat most anything," Blythe. "Can you eat as many as eleven?" Pee-wee laughed. "Can you eat as many as eleven?" Pee-wee demanded. That same elusive, half-bashful, pleasant smile lingered on the stranger's lips again as he said, "--I guess--not--" "Then I can beat you," Pee-wee announced conclusively. "Here comes the bus," Westy said. "Do you go up in that?" "I guess I'll walk," Blythe said. "Well, we'll be up there to-morrow, sure," Doc Carson reassured him; "some of us anyway. Even if we don't come to stay we'll be up there, so you look for us." "I'm fair and square," Blythe said. "When you come you can look the place over and then say--" "You should worry about that," Roy interrupted him. "Maybe your people--" "You leave our people to us," Roy said. "My father believes in camping and fun--he inherits that from me. Scouts know how to pick out fathers all right." Their new friend smiled again, with a kind of simple pleasure at Roy's nonsense, "I'll look for you," he said. Then they parted. "He's got some walk all the way up to Camp Merritt," Doc Carson said. "Do you suppose he hasn't any money?" "Looks that way," said Westy. "I kind of like him," Doc said. "I guess he's in hard luck all right. I'm glad we met him." "I'm the one that did it," Pee-wee shouted. "Didn't I say for us all to go into Bennett's? Now you see!" "All we have to do is to follow you," Roy said, "and adventures come around wanting to eat out of our hands." "And I--I'm the one to show you where there's money too," Pee-wee said. "I'm a capital or whatever you call it." "You're the smallest capital _I_ ever saw," Roy said. CHAPTER IV PEE-WEE FIXES IT The concerted assault which the scouts made upon their parents for permission to proceed with their plan ended in a compromise. Late that same afternoon Mr. Ellsworth, scoutmaster of the troop, drove up to the old camp in his auto and looked over the situation. He talked with Blythe also and was evidently not unfavorably impressed, for he returned to Bridgeboro quite converted to the enterprise.