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 shore 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 dr