nce binding--you're so smart. That
shows how much you know about scouting. I suppose you don't know you can
signal for miles and miles. Can't you do other things by distance too?"

"That's a fine argument," Warde Hollister said.

"I invented it," the kid shouted.

That girl said, very sarcastic like, "I must say you were very brave to
kill that wooden figure. I'm not afraid of snakes, but I'd certainly be
afraid of a wooden figure. Tell me, did you ever kill a rag doll?"

There were two or three girl friends of hers there and they all started
to titter.

"Was it our fault if that colored man was made of wood?" Pee-wee said.

She said, "Oh, mercy, no. But when you were binding the poor bandit
weren't you afraid he'd _bite_ you? He was only a hundred feet or so
away, you know. Are you afraid of mice, too?"

"No, we're _not_ afraid of mice," Pee-wee said. "And we're not afraid of
bugs either. Girls are afraid of June bugs."

"That's because they're black," she said.

"Scouts aren't afraid of anything, they don't care what color it is----"

"Purple or lavender or pale white or dark black, what do we care?" I
said.

"Do you see that hill away over there in the east?" the kid shouted at
her. "That's Blakeley's Hill. That's miles away. We came from there in a
bee-line. Do you think that we let anything stand in our way?
We're--we're--invincible. Houses--we go right through them. Even the
movie people followed us, so now you can tell. Rivers--do you think
that river stopped us? Do you know what the points of the compass are?
We came straight west, just as straight as an arrow. Now we're going up
on that ridge, where that big tree is. If you want to follow us, you
can. Then you can see just how we do it. You'll see us--you'll see us go
right through houses. I'm not blaming girls that they don't have
adventures----"

She said, "Oh, isn't that too sweet?"

"And who are you going to kill next?" another one of those girls wanted
to know. "Some terrible black man?"

"The blacker the better," I said.

"Do you see that tree off there on the ridge?" Pee-wee asked her. "We
have to climb right up that. There are snakes up there."

She said, "Oh, isn't that terrible?"

"I'm not saying you can't do things," the kid said; "because girls know
how to sew and cook, I have to admit that. But when it comes to----"

"To being invincible?" she said.

"Now you just shut one eye and look at that big tree up there," Pee-wee
sai