Roy Blakeley's roundabout hikeFitzhugh, Percy Keese
General
Roy Blakeley's roundabout hike
Fitzhugh, Percy Keese
Adventure stories; Boy Scouts of America -- Juvenile fiction; Hiking -- Juvenile fiction
“Look,” Sandy said. He was holding a little branch of a tree with a nest
on it. And then I knew that the whole business had broken off from the
tree that stuck out away up above us. I could hear a voice up there
calling _help, help_, but it didn’t sound like Pee-wee. All of a sudden
a rotten piece of a branch fell on my head and we heard a crackling
sound up there.
One of those big fellows shouted, “Hang on up there. Get hold of two
limbs so if one breaks you’ll have the other. Hang on and don’t get
excited.”
I knew Pee-wee had caught in the tree, lucky for him, but I knew it was
rotten and might break with him any minute.
I said, “Where’s that canvas that was around your lean-to last night?”
One of the men said, “What canvas?”
“Don’t you know there was a canvas?” I said.
I went running for all I was worth to the lean-to, but I couldn’t find
any canvas anywhere. Dub came running after me and we pulled all the
brush from the roof of the robber’s den or whatever it was, and dragged
it into the narrow place right under the tree.
“There’s a coat of mine in there--hurry up,” one of the men said.
Sandy ran and got the coat and came back dragging some more brush. We
spread the brush right about under the tree, covering up the rocks and
making the ground as soft as we could. Then the two grown up fellows
held the coat stretched out between them ready to try and catch Pee-wee
if he fell. Dub and Sandy got hold of the other two sides of it. It was
a pretty good way and that’s what I wanted the canvas for. Only an
overcoat isn’t big enough. I was wondering what became of the canvas.
Because with just an overcoat if Pee-wee should fall all of a sudden it
would be too quick for them to get in just the right place to catch him.
Even while they were holding the coat spread out there was a sound like
wood splitting up above. Then a kind of a forked shape piece of wood
came down, but it didn’t land in the coat.
“Let’s stand just where that fell,” Dub said.
All of a sudden there was a loud crackling sound and I heard a scream.
But only some leaves and twigs came down. A couple of them landed in the
coat.
“Clinch your fingers and hang on hard,” one of those men said. “Double
your fists tight. Something is starting to bust up there.”
Just then there were more loud screams and Pee-wee yelled, “_Help,
help!_” But kind of it didn’t sound like Pee-wee.
One of the men said, “I’m afraid the whole blamed rotten tree is coming
down.”
Just then, _oh boy wasn’t I scared_, I heard a voice shouting, “I’m
coming down.”
They stretched the coat out tight and kept looking up so they could get
into the right spot quick. But nothing happened, only a twig or
something fell down on Sandy’s face. It hit him plunk in the face
because he was looking up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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