Though they treated Pee-wee's find as something of a joke and attached no significance to it, still the discovery of these old papers which had now no meaning for anybody kept recurring to them as they made their way to the old camp. But the consensus of opinion was that these old mildewed remnants of another time were unimportant. "What good is a letter when the fellow who sent it is already home?" Doc Carson asked. "What use is a leave of absence that expired two or three years ago?" Connie Bennett added. "If that fellow's away yet, he's overstaying his leave, that's sure," said Roy. "What good is a Sunday dinner that somebody ate a couple of years ago?" Doc queried. "Maybe he's up there eating it yet," Will Dawson suggested. "That's the way our young hero would do," said Roy. "Do you mean to say it isn't important--that dinner?" Pee-wee demanded. "Sure, all dinners are important," Roy said. "But one two years old isn't much good. If it was only six months old I wouldn't say anything, but _two years_--" "You're crazy!" vociferated Pee-wee. "Sure," said Roy, "one dinner is as important as another if not more so. Deny it if you can." "Anyway I'm going to see that girl," Pee-wee said. "At dinnertime?" Roy asked slyly. "I'm going to find out who that fellow is, I've got his finger prints here, too, on this card--" "G-o-o-d night," laughed Roy. "The boy scout Sherlock Home Sweet Holmes. I suppose you'll have that poor girl in Atlanta Penitentiary before you get through." "Let's see the finger prints?" Westy asked. Pee-wee showed him the card and there, sure enough, was a finger print on the face of it and two on the back. It looked as if someone with greasy hands had taken the card up as one usually holds a card.... CHAPTER VII THEN AND NOW Within ten or fifteen minutes more they were in the old camp. They entered the reservation territory at its western edge and cutting across soon came to the concrete road which runs north and south through the middle of the camp. This is the Knickerbocker Road which traversed the reservation territory before ever Camp Merritt was heard of, and bears its scanty traffic now through that pathetic scene of ruin and desolation. It is the one feature of the camp that was not of its temporary character. Up this road through Dumont to the south, there once passed a never ceasing procession of autos, encountering guards and sentinels for a mile south of the camp. The atmosphere of military officialdom permeated the public approaches for miles in both directions. If one were so fortunate as to have a pass, he could by dint of many stops and absurd inquiries and parleys, succeed in reaching the large gate posts on which was printed UNITED STATES RESERVATION. Through this the Knickerbocker Road, being especially privileged, passed without challenge, straight through the middle of the camp and out of its northern extremity, then through the pleasant little town of Haworth.