“The lights are slowly and peacefully going out,” I whispered. “I don’t know where they’re going.” “They ought not to be allowed out after nine o’clock,” Hervey said. “I don’t know what kind of parents they can have,” Brent whispered. “Will they come back, I wonder?” Hervey said. “Not if they’re anything like you,” I said. “They’ll probably stay out all night.” “Oh, the lights are going out,” we could hear the girl say. “Where’s Mr. Sorronto?” I guess she lived around there; anyway she seemed to know the man. “He—he’s gone out too,” Pee-wee said. “You mean the fat man?” She said, “The meter needs a quarter in it. We have one like that in my house.” “I’ll put a quarter in,” Pee-wee said, “and he can give it to me when he gets back. Where’s the meter?” “Some little hero?” Brent whispered. All the while the light was getting dimmer and dimmer, and the kid kept fumbling around in his pocket. “I got a quarter,” he said. He could just about see the passageway that led down to the cellar, it was so dim by that time, but he started for it very proud and swagger-like. We could hear him tramping down the stairs as if he were going to kill a couple of dragons like the “shivellers” of old. “He thinks he’s a knight of the square table or something or other,” Warde said. “Sir Writing-pad or whatever his name was.” Pretty soon, zip, up went the lights again and we knew our young hero had tracked the quarter meter to its lair. He came swaggering back again and sat down at the table. “He can even make lights out of quarters,” I said. In about five minutes the two of them got up and the waiter gave Pee-wee a check. I guess that was what reminded him that he only had nine cents in his pocket. All of a sudden he looked funny—kind of blank. “I’ll give you five cents,” he said to the boy, “and you can get the quarter from the boss when he comes back. I put a quarter in the meter.” “You payer de mun,” the boy said, very suspicious. “I paid it already to the meter,” Pee-wee said. “You payer de mun now; no go meet ’er,” the boy said. Pee-wee kept fumbling in his pockets; he looked awful funny. Then he sat down again and the girl sat down too and they just sat there looking at each other. “I have to wait till the man comes back so he can give me the quarter I dropped in the meter,” Pee-wee said. “Anyway, we’re not in a hurry, are we? Because anyway, he’ll be back very soon. And anyway I ought to wait and tell him what I did, hey? That’s only right. If I paid that boy now and went away the man might wonder who was tampering with his property and going into his cellar and everything. Scouts, they have to be careful about those things—I have to tell him what I did—See? You see how it is?” “I think it’s poky sitting here,” the girl said. “We can hear the music here all right,” Pee-wee said. “You can always hear music better at a distance—you ask anybody.”