d now.

"Take it down in the bilge and treat it," he said, very sober like, to
one of his patrol.

"Don't let it spend a cent," I called after him.

But I didn't go because I could see he would rather have Ravens help
him. You can't blame him for that. In about half a minute they came
upstairs and they had a lot of the excelsior all damp, but not exactly
wet, and I don't know how they got it that way, except I know there
was bilge water down under the flooring. They're a lot of crackerjacks
on signalling, I'll say that much for them. There was a stove in the
main cabin with a stovepipe going straight up through the roof like a
smoke stack and there was a damper in it right near the stove.

"Get a handbook or a pocket code," somebody said, "so he'll have the
signs right near him."

"He doesn't need any signs," Pee-wee shouted, disgusted like.

Well, this is the way Wig did it, and after he got started, most of us
went up on the roof to see if we could read it. But that's mighty hard
to do when you're right underneath it.

By the time the fellows came upstairs with the damp excelsior (that's
what they call the smudge) Wig had a good fire started in the stove.

"Lay that stuff down here," he said; then he said to me, "What do you
want to say?"

"Just say I'm safe, Wig," I told him. "Say for them not to pay any
attention to what they hear."

I only waited long enough for him to get started, just so as to see
how he did it, then I went up on the roof and watched the long black
smoke column. Cracky, I was glad it was moonlight, that's one sure thing.

As soon as he had a good fire started he stuffed some of the damp
excelsior in and shut the door, and told Artie Van Arlen (he's their
patrol leader) to hold a rag over the crack in the door, because the
black smoke was pouring out that way, especially because the damper in
the pipe was shut.

I didn't stay there long, because the smoke was too thick for me and
when I saw Artie bind a wet rag over Wig's eyes and mouth, I knew then it
was going to be mighty bad in that little cabin.

"Have another ready," I heard him say; "better have three or four of
them."

Then he put his hand on the damper in the pipe and turned it and then
the smoke in the cabin wasn't so bad. He just turned it around quick and
kept turning it around and that let little puffs of smoke through, and I
heard the fellows up on the roof shouting, "Hurrah!" so I knew it was
working all right. He