The Adventure Club Afloat | Page 2

will be some four hundred other fellows here."
"Oh, well, you know what I mean," said Perry impatiently. "You and Steve will be gone, and I don't give a hang for any other chaps!"
He ended somewhat defiantly, conscious that he had indulged in a most unmanly display of sentiment, and was glad that the darkness hid the confusion and heightened colour that followed the confession. Steve and Joe charitably pretended not to have noticed the lamentable exhibition of feeling, and a silence followed, during which the voices of the singers once more became audible.
"_Dexter! Mother of our Youth! Dexter! Guardian of the Truth!_"
"_Cut it out!_" Perry leaned over the windowsill and bawled the command down into the darkness. A defiant jeer answered him.
"Don't be fresh," said Steve reprovingly. Perry mumbled and relapsed into silence. Presently, sighing as he changed his position, Joe said:
"I believe Perry's right about vacation, Steve. Nothing much ever does happen to a fellow in Summer. I believe I've had more fun in school than at home the last six years."
The others considered the statement a minute. Then: "Correct," said Steve. "It's so, I guess. We're always crazy to get home in June and just as crazy to get back to school again in September, and I believe we all have more good times here than at home."
"Of course we do," agreed Perry animatedly. "Anyway, I do. Summers are all just the same. My folks lug me off to the Water Gap and we stay there until it's time to come back here. I play tennis and go motoring and sit around on the porch and--and--bathe--"
"Let's hope so," interpolated Joe gravely.
"And nothing really interesting ever happens," ended Perry despairingly. "Gee, I'd like to be a pirate or--or something!"
"Summers are rather deadly," assented Steve. "We go to the seashore, but the place is filled with swells, and about all they do is change their clothes, eat and sleep. When you get ready for piracy, Perry, let me know, will you! I'd like to sign-on."
"Put me down, too," said Joe. "I've always had a--um--sneaking idea that I'd make a bully pirate. I'm naturally bloodthirsty and cruel. And I've got a mental list of folks who--um--I'd like to watch walk the plank!"
"Fellows of our ages have a rotten time of it, anyway," Perry grumbled. "We're too old to play kids' games and too young to do anything worth while. What I'd like to do--"
"Proceed, Sweet Youth," Joe prompted after a moment.
"Well, I'd like to--to start something! I'd like to get away somewhere and do things. I'm tired of loafing around in white flannels all day and keeping my hands clean. And I'm tired of dabbing whitewash on my shoes! Didn't you fellows ever think that you'd like to get good and dirty and not have to care? Wouldn't you like to put on an old flannel shirt and a pair of khaki trousers and some 'sneakers' and--and roll in the mud?"
"Elemental stuff," murmured Joe. "He's been reading Jack London."
"Well, that's the way I feel, lots of times," said Perry defiantly. "I'm tired of being clean and white, and I'm tired of dinner jackets, and I'm sick to death of hotel porches! Gee, a healthy chap never was intended to lead the life of a white poodle with a pink ribbon around his neck! Me for some rough-stuff!"
"You're dead right, too," agreed Steve. "That kind of thing is all right for Joe, of course. Joe's a natural-born 'fusser.' He's never happier than when he's dolled up in a sport-shirt and a lavender scarf and toasting marshmallows. But--"
"Is that so?" inquired Joe with deep sarcasm. "If I was half the 'fusser' you are--"
"What I want," interrupted Perry, warming to his theme, "is adventure! I'd like to hunt big game, or discover the North Pole--"
"You're a year or two late," murmured Joe.
"--or dig for hidden treasure!"
"You should--um--change your course of reading," advised Joe. "Too much Roosevelt and Peary and Stevenson is your trouble. Read the classics for awhile--or the Patty Books."
"That's all right, but you chaps are just the same, only you won't own up to it."
"One of us will," said Steve; "and does."
"Make it two," yawned Joe. "Beneath this--um--this polished exterior there beats a heart--I mean there flows the red blood of--"
"Look here, fellows, why not?" asked Steve.
"Why not what?" asked Perry.
"Why not have adventures? They say that all you have to do is look for them."
"Don't you believe it! I've looked for them for years and I've never seen one yet." Perry swung his feet to the floor and sat up.
"Well, not at Delaware Water Gap, naturally. You've got to move around, son. You don't find them by sitting all day with your feet on the rail of a hotel piazza."
"Where do you find them, then?" Perry demanded.
Steve waved a hand vaguely