ushing the button. Boy, I was kind of shaky!

Pee-wee said to her, "You'd better be ready to run."

I said, "I'm ready to go scout-pace for ten miles. I'm glad a scout can
run."

I guess that big army all rolled into one with the brass buttons must
have known it was our crowd because he didn't come right away. Gee whiz,
I pictured him getting madder and madder every second. I was ready to
jump from the porch to the middle of the street. Pee-wee had one leg all
ready for a good starter. All the while Dora Dane Daring kept pounding
on the door and pushing the button.

All of a sudden the door opened. That's the end of this chapter.

CHAPTER XXV

PEE-WEE'S LOSS

Pee-wee gave a sudden start, then stopped. We all kind of stood back a
little. Westy and Dorry stayed by the railing. We were all ready to
retreat in disorder. There was that great big man filling up the whole
doorway and his brass buttons shining. He looked like the Allied Army.
She just shouted right in his face,

"Stand aside and let these boys pass, in the name of the Girl Scouts of
America!"

_G-o-o-d night_, as sure as I'm writing this, that great big colored man
stood out of the way and in she marched waving Pee-wee's belt-axe. We
all followed after her, kind of scary.

"You'd--you'd better look out," Pee-wee whispered to her. "He can lock
us in here and have us all arrested. Maybe--you can't tell--maybe he
meditates treachery. What--what are you going to do?"

"We're going to devastate his country, Private Canary Bird Pee-wee,"
she said. "Now you see what the Girl Scouts of America can do. Maybe
sometime _you'll_ want to know how to break through hostile territory
and then you'll remember Dora Dane Daring, won't you? Do you think _I'm_
afraid of a _butler_?"

"You'd--you'd better look out," Pee-wee said; "safety first."

As we went through the hall he kept looking all around as if he expected
to see sharpshooters behind all the doors. It was a dandy house, with a
nice big wide hall and it had a moose's head for a hat rack. First I
guess we were all pretty scared.

The kid walked on tiptoe through the hall, and he kept whispering to me,
"This is just like--it's just like burglary. Girls are reckless. We'd
better look out. Do you hear a footstep upstairs? I hear a bell ringing.
I bet he's calling up the police, hey?"

That girl led the way into a dandy big dining room and then all her
friends began laughing again.

She said, "We'l