Pee-Wee Harris Adrift Part 14

He sat upon the edge of the island, the extreme western coast, fishing for eels, with a string, a bent pin and a salted almond. It seemed that the eels did not care for salted almonds, so Pee-wee endeavored to tempt them with a chocolate bonbon but the bonbon dissolved on the pin, forming a sort of subterranean chocolate sundae, and the eels ignored it.

"I bet I know what's the matter," said Pee-wee; "they're afraid to come near the island on account of the lights." At all events the eels appeared to shun the neighborhood of the party; they were not in society.

Just then Pee-wee had an inspiration. In the light of its consequences it was probably the most momentous inspiration that he ever had. "I know what I'll do," he said. "I'll use a long, long stick that'll reach way, way, way out." And he glanced about him in quest of a "long, long stick" with which to beguile the bashful eels. His inquiring eye lit upon one of the long clothes-line supporters which Townsend had driven into the river bottom to help hold the island in position.

It is necessary to understand the strategical position of this prospective fishing rod. These two poles had been forced down into the muddy bottom just south of the island and the southern edge of the island lay against them and was thus prevented from drifting down with the ebbing tide. The makeshift gang-plank, gay with bunting, held the island off sh.o.r.e and the ropes between the island and the bushes steadied it. This crude engineering was quite sufficient. BUT----

There is a church somewhere in Europe of which it is said that if a certain brick were removed the whole edifice would fall in ruins.

Pee-wee was not even an amateur engineer. That world-stirring consequences could flow from an act so casual and trivial as securing a fishing rod never entered his innocent and pre-occupied mind. He did not know that in the hasty calculations of Townsend all the component parts of this system of props and fetters were necessary one to another. He removed the brick and the cathedral fell and there followed a catastrophe compared to which the World War is a mere incident. If he had pulled the north pole out of the earth the sequel could hardly have been more momentous.

Sublimely innocent of the fact that he was unhinging the universe, Pee-wee arose, advanced to the outer pole and began tugging on it. It did not come up easily for the force of the rapidly ebbing tide caused the island to press against it like a brake. But he succeeded at last and as he dragged the muddy pole across the gra.s.s, the island turned slowly cornerwise to the sh.o.r.e.

In his preoccupation, Pee-wee did not notice this. He tied his fishline to the end of the pole, bent another pin and provisioned it with a stuffed olive, requisitioned from a cutgla.s.s dish nearby. How he intended to support this lengthy pole so that its end might reach the neighborhood of the coy eels is not a part of this narrative for Pee-wee's angling enterprise never reached that point.

He was presently startled by a splash and looking around he saw that the end of the scaffold had slipped off the island. He was now aroused to the imminent peril of the Isle of Desserts and to the terrible responsibility which fell to the clothesline and the bushes.

As the island turned slowly outward the clothes-line strained but held fast. But the rhododendron bushes had not the same heroic quality.

For a few moments they resisted, but the island, now at the mercy of the ebb, tugged and tugged, and presently a ma.s.s of bush gave up the struggle and came away, rope and all. The earthly paradise with its luscious store of cake and chicken salad, its commanding pyramid of sandwiches flanked by icing cakes, its plates of dates and olives and candy of every variety, its mound of jellied doughnuts, and a mammoth freezer full of ice cream, floated majestically down the moonlit river, trailing a huge clump of rhododendron bush after it like the tail of a comet.

CHAPTER XXI

FOILED

And now out of the still and moonlit night arose peal after peal of thunder imparting a note of terror to this world catastrophe. Never before had the thunderous voice of our hero rent the heavens as it did now.

"Help! Help! I'm floating away with the eats."

It is no wonder that the man in the moon smiled at what he saw on the river that night. Seeing the laden board, the pyramid of sandwiches rearing its luscious pinnacle toward heaven, he seemed to wink at Pee-wee--with what purport who shall say? Sufficient that our hero saw him not.

"_He-e-e-elp_! I'm drifting downstream with the refreshments," he called. "_He-e-elp_!"

They heard him amid their revels. Townsend Ripley who had suffered the a.s.saults of the hunter's stew heard him. The scouts who had eaten a "light supper" heard him. Warde Hollister who had pled with Roy for a safety first policy heard him. Minerva Skybrow heard him and paused aghast in the midst of a two-step. For what was a two-step now compared to the one-step which Pee-wee had taken? Roly Poly and Brownie, also victims of the hunter's stew, heard him as they waited patiently, and were struck dumb with terror. Only the man in the moon smiled, and winked at Pee-wee.

"_He-e-e-e-e-e-el-l-l-p! I'm floating away with the eats!_"

But did he really need any help?

They rushed to the sh.o.r.e pell-mell and some hurried to the barn for the only means of rescue--an old disused skiff and a leaky, discarded canoe. Others gazed in wistful silence out upon the glinting water.

"_Hurry! Hurry!_" cried Minerva. "I can see it! Don't you see the lanterns down there?"

"He's on the flats, I think," said Warde.

"He's on the table," shouted Roy.

"He's in the channel!"

"He's in the ice cream!"

"Listen, he's calling!"

"His mouth is full, I can't hear him."

"_Hurry! Hurry! Oh, hurry!_" cried Minerva.

"I'll tell you what let's do," Roy said.

"You told us once," said Warde; "that's enough."

"I saved the ice cream freezer from rolling off," shouted Pee-wee.

"A lot of good that does us," shouted Doc Carson.

"Put it where it will be safe," shouted Townsend.

"All right, I will," shouted Pee-wee.

"Gracious goodness, he isn't going to eat it, is he?" Margaret Timerson asked.

"He'll have to finish whatever else he's eating first," said Doc Carson. "Push that boat off, we have only a minute to act in."

"How long does it usually take him to finish a sandwich?" Minerva asked.

"Three-tenths of a second," said Roy.

"He'll be too frightened to eat," said Dora Daring.

"He's never too frightened to eat," said Connie Bennett.

"He consumes pie while he's consumed with fear," Roy said.

"He consumes everything," said Warde.

"Oh, what will we ever _do_?" Minerva walled, wringing her arms in desperation.

"The thing to do is to reach him before he gets really started," said Doc Carson, who was ever thoughtful and far-sighted. "When he starts he works fast. I don't think he's really begun yet. He believes in fair play and he wouldn't start before ten o'clock--that's refreshment time, isn't it?"

"It was to be," said Minerva.

"That's the time we were waiting for," said Brownie.

"Has he a watch?" Margaret asked.

"Yes, it's usually about twenty minutes fast," said Roy.