or that tree and take possession of it in the
name of the Silver Fox Patrol B. S. A. This is the only real boy scout
drive that ever happened--all others are imitations. This is the famous
bee-line hike invented by Westy Martin. We're off!"

So then we raised our banner and started out. It was a big piece of
cardboard fixed onto a scout staff and on it was printed with
shoe-blacking:

THE BEE-LINE HIKE OF THE
SILVER FOX PATROL. GET
FROM UNDER, EVERYBODY
AND EVERYTHING.

Our first mishap was at the end of my lawn, when Pee-wee's garter broke
and a lot of junk fell on the ground when he stooped down to fix it.

"Got a safety-pin?" he wanted to know.

I said, "Pick up your coffee-pot and things and put them in the
megaphone and come ahead. Do you think we're going to start out to
conquer the world with safety-pins?"

CHAPTER V

A STUMBLING BLOCK

Little we thought that inside of an hour we'd be on the road to fame. I
don't mean that we turned to the right or left to get into the road. We
just kind of bunked into fame. That hike was only seven miles long but
in one way it went all the way out to the Pacific coast. Maybe it's in
China by this time for all I know.

While we were going down the hill to get into Bridgeboro, Pee-wee said,
"We ought to look kind of invincible, like conquerors."

I said, "Well, as long as you're the official junk wagon you might as
well carry the standard."

"The what?" he wanted to know.

"The standard," I said; "that's Latin for banner. Didn't you ever hear
of the Standard Oil Company?"

So we gave him the banner, and oh, boy, that kid did look funny,
holding it up. He was scowling as if he thought he could frighten
buildings out of the way. The stuff he had inside of his patented
megaphone kept rattling and he sounded like a junk dealers' convention
as he tramped along.

We decided that it would be best to go into regular formation so as to
look more invincible and scare the civilized civilians in Bridgeboro.

"We'll strike terror, hey?" the kid said.

"I hope we strike a restaurant," Hunt Manners spoke up.

"I don't care what we strike as long as we don't strike our colors," I
told him. "Suppose three fellows walk together, and three others behind
them, and Pee-wee and I will walk ahead because I'm the leader and he's
the standard bearer. Fall in."

"Into what?" th