der those
conditions? Pretty soon we'll have a full patrol and no island under
us; we'll be in the water. That's perfectly agreeable to me and all
the rest of us. But does Keekie Joe know how to swim? We really have
no _grounds_ for forming a patrol. See?"

"Do you call that an argument?" Pee-wee thundered. "It shows how much
you know about geography because look at an ice cream soda! Does that
corrode? Let's hear you answer that? Or erode or whatever you call
it. A chunk of ice cream floats in the soda, doesn't it? Maybe after
a while it melts, but this land isn't ice cream, is it?

"That shows how much you know about logic. This island has been here
ever since early this morning, hasn't it? And it's just as big as it
was, isn't it? An island is an island and the water won't melt it
unless it's hot--like a lump of sugar in a cup of coffee. You've got
to stir it up to melt it. Is North America corroding? Or Coney
Island? Is this island any smaller than it was?"

"No, it isn't, and that's the funny part," said Townsend. "We've
explored the coast but we haven't explored the depths. Let's have that
little shovel a minute, will you?"

CHAPTER XIII

"STOP"

The ice cream soda argument was not a good one at all, for no lump of
ice cream ever remained long intact where Pee-wee was. Whether it
melted or not, it disappeared. And why this freakish little island did
not rapidly dissolve was a mystery.

By all the laws it should have melted away, leaving the deserted tree
to topple over and form a new obstruction to boating. But there it was
floating more easily as the tide rose, with apparently no intention of
allowing itself to be absorbed by the surrounding waters. It is true
that a belt of muddy water bordered its wild and forbidding coast and
that its shore line was of a consistency suitable for the making of mud
pies, but its body seemed as solid and resistant as a rock.

Pee-wee always claimed that it was he and he alone who discovered the
mysterious secret of Merry-go-round Island; he and he alone who
penetrated its unknown depths. In this bold exploration a courageous
sardine sandwich played an important part and out of sheer gratitude
Pee-wee, from that time forward, was ever partial to sardine
sandwiches, regarding them with tender and grateful affection.

He was standing near the apple tree holding the traffic sign like a
pilgrim's banner beside him and, as has been told, eating