n at this, facing them,
his legs sticking out through the space in the middle. Then he opened
the large book as if making ready to close somebody up in it as one
presses a flower.

He contemplated Pee-wee with a rather curious frown as he listened to
what Ham and then Peter (greatly agitated) had to say.

Our young hero, indeed, presented anything but a creditable picture. The
old gray sweater used by the man who took care of the furnace in
Pee-wee's home, the cap which he held, and his grimy face, made him look
like a terrible example of hoodlumism; a trolley-car hoodlum, an
apple-stealing and stone-throwing and hooky-playing hoodlum; a
hole-in-the-ball-field-fence hoodlum. Nor did the terrible scowl with
which he now challenged fate and the world help to make him look like
the boy on the cover of the scout manual; the boy that Peter knew and
worshipped.

"Well now," drawled Peace Justice Fee, casting a tolerant side glance at
Pee-wee, "you tell me this whole business and you tell me the _plain
truth_. See?"

"Sure I will," Pee-wee said; "I'll tell you all my adventures--"

"Never mind about your adventures, and watch out, because the first lie
you tell--" The justice held up a warning finger. "Now answer me this,
never mind anything else; we'll drop a plumb-line right down to the
bottom of this thing and have no beating round the bush--"

"I beat lots of bushes for rabbits," Pee-wee vociferated.

"Well, don't beat any here. Now" (the justice spoke slowly and
emphatically, shaking a long finger with each word),
"_who--owns--that--car_? Careful now."

"Mr. Bartlett, where I live--in Bridgeboro."

"Sure of that?"

"Sure I'm sure; didn't I--"

"Never mind what you did. Now what's this Mr. Bartlett's full name?
Now--_now!_" he added warningly, "just you answer the question I ask you
and leave the rest to me. If you tell the truth you won't get in any
trouble."

Pee-wee, somewhat awed, at last subsided. "Mr. James Bartlett," he said.

[Illustration: PEE-WEE BEFORE THE JUSTICE OF THE PEACE.]

Without another word, Mr. Fee drew in his long legs, arose, went over
to where a book was hanging, looked in it, then took the receiver from
the old-fashioned box telephone on the wall. The party waited, greatly
awed by this show of calm efficiency, and ability to get right at the
heart of the matter. Pee-wee was particularly elated, for presently his
identity and whereabouts would be established and explained. He
lis