ph, was aware of the poor
wretch shuffling along beside him.

"Wot'd they say ter yer? Wot'd yer tell 'em?" he asked fearfully.

"I didn't tell them anything," Pee-wee said. "As long as the fellers
got away they won't blame you. Anyway, if you'd have been there they'd
have been caught, because you didn't know those detectives because
they're strangers around here."

"How'd _you_ know them?" Keekie Joe inquired.

"Gee, scouts are supposed to know everything," Pee-wee informed him.

Keekie Joe gave a side glance at Pee-wee as he shuffled along at his
side. He was rather interested in a class of boys who knew all
officials on sight; here indeed was something worth knowing. "Yer
spotted 'em?" he asked incredulously.

"_Sure_ I did," said Pee-wee with great alacrity; "because scouts are
supposed to be observant, see? I saw them in Northvale once. But,
believe me, I didn't holla. _Oh, no_! I ran over and told the fellers
and they all got away, so as long as you didn't leave them in the lurch
it was all right. So now will you join the scouts? They always carry
licorice jaw-breakers in their pockets," he added as a supplementary
inducement; "anyway _I_ do--lemon ones too, and strawberry ones."

"How many is in your gang?" Joe asked.

"Nobody yet," said Pee-wee, "because I haven't got it started. But if
you'll join in with me we'll start one. You're supposed to hike and
run a lot but if you want to run after fire engines and ambulances it's
all right." He said this because of the favorite outdoor sport of
Barrel Alley of trailing fire engines and ambulances. "So will you
join?" he added.

They paused on the frontier of Joe's domain in the rear of the big bank
building which fronted on Main Street. Here was the makeshift sidewalk
of barrel staves whence the alley derived its name. "You have to be,
kind of, you have to be a sort of a--kind of wild and reckless to join
the scouts," Pee-wee pleaded. "Maybe you're kind of scared on account
of thinking that you have to be civilized, but you don't; you don't
even eat off plates," he added with sudden inspiration. "We cook
potatoes just like tramps do, right out in the woods; we hold them on
sticks over the fire. So now will you join? If you will you'll be
elected patrol leader because there's only one to vote for you and I'm
the one and I'm a majority. See? So if you come in right now you'll
be sure to have a majority and I'll buy some Eskimo pies, too.