stop here?" Hervey asked.
"Sure, they'll go down the path when they want to hunt for him. They'll
never get down here. The mountain is with us now."
"I didn't drop my whistle," the little fellow piped up, as if that were
his chief concern.
"Good," said Tom, in an effort to interest him and put him at ease.
"That's a dandy whistle; tell us about it. Because we're your friends,
you know."
"Am I going to see my mother and father?"
"You bet. Away down there is a big camp where there are lots of boys and
you're going to stay there till they come and get you."
"They sent me to the spring to get water and I took my whistle so I
could soak it in the water, because that makes it go good. I made it
myself, that whistle."
Tom, his clothes torn, his face and hands bleeding from scratches, sat
upon the edge of a big rock with the little fellow drawn tight against
him.
"And when you whistled we came and got you, hey? That's the kind of
fellows we are. And I bet I know how that nice sweater got frayed, too.
A little bird did that."
"I left it hanging on a tree near the spring when they sent me to get
water," the boy said, "and I left it there all night." He poked his
finger in the frayed place as if he were proud of it.
"And I'll show you who did it," Tom said; "because that little thief is
right down there in that big camp. And I'll show you the turtle you
carved your initials on too. Because he came to our camp, too. There's
so much fun there. And you're going to step very carefully and hold on
to me, and we're going down, down, down, till we get to that camp where
there is a man that knows how to make dandy crullers. I bet you like
crullers?"
A camp where even birds and turtles go, and where they know how to make
crullers, was a magic place, not to be missed by any means. And little
Anthony Harrington was already undecided as to whether he would rather
live there than at home.
CHAPTER THE LAST
Y-EXTRA! Y-EXTRA!
The ragged little newsboys in the big city shouted themselves hoarse.
"Y-extree! Y-extra! Anthony Harrington safe! Rescued by Boy Scouts!
Y-extree! Mister!"
And those who bought the extras learned how the kidnappers of Anthony
Harrington allowed him to purchase for nine cents a turtle from a little
farm boy whom he met at the station at Catskill. And of how that turtle
walked off and gave the whole thing away. Llewellyn and Orestes got even
more credit than Tom Slade, but he did no
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