Part 5 (2/2)

Within ten or fifteen minutes more they were in the old cae and cutting across soon cah the middle of the camp This is the Knickerbocker Road which traversed the reservation territory before ever Camp Merritt was heard of, and bears its scanty traffic now through that pathetic scene of ruin and desolation It is the one feature of the camp that was not of its teh Du procession of autos, encountering guards and sentinels for a mile south of the camp The atmosphere of military officialdom permeated the public approaches for miles in both directions

If one were so fortunate as to have a pass, he could by dint of many stops and absurd inquiries and parleys, succeed in reaching the large gate posts on which was printed UNITED STATES RESERVATION Through this the Knickerbocker Road, being especially privileged, passed without challenge, straight through the middle of the cah the pleasant little town of Haworth

On either side of this road, within the confines of the camp, were board shacks of every size and variety They were for every purpose conceivable and, large and small, they were all alike in this, that they had a ht to the eye of the tried and true camper They were all alike in this, too, that civilian patriots had charged twenty dollars a day to put them up This was in odd contrast to the one poor, hapless soul as to receive three hundred dollars for the work of tearing several of them down

As the scouts, his one hope now, came up onto the central road and hiked southward toward the main entrance, they scrutinized the weather-beaten and less structures on either side for a sign of their friend But no hint of any huestion of life of any kind, save a co wheel of which creaked cheerfully as if to assure these scout pilgriether deserted It see, in that forlorn surrounding What surging life it had witnessed, what hearty, reckless, resolute departures! Oneas it revolved, ”I have seen all, seen the boys coo, and I alone am left in all this hollow desolation”

The boys paused a mo

”That sound would give ht, if I didn't knohat caused it,” one of them said

”Shut your eyes, then listen,” said Westy ”It sounds kind of spooky, huh?”

”Gee whiz, but this is a lonely place,” Roy said ”It reminds you of Broadway, it's so different It's a peach of a place to cahosts up here,” Pee-wee said darkly

”Sure, you'd better look around for finger prints,” Roy said

”Maybe that old windested

”It needs oil anyway,” Roy said

”You host can squeak, can't it?”

”Sure,” said Roy, ”if it's rusty”

But for all their banter the old wind, held thehts as it would not have done elsewhere Perhaps they felt a sort of consciousness of its lonely position and fancied it to be so which they had co to or from the camp? A W O L How many truckloads of uproarious boys had it seen driven away? How ht back? Surely it had seen much that the most loyal citizens had not been perood fun it would be to cliic secrets fron of life that Uncle Sam had left in that forlorn, deserted spot

Had it any tragic secret? That see to no purpose in that waste, because it had nothing else to do

”_Listen!_” said Pee-wee ”Sh-h-h! I heard a noise--up there”

Captivated for the

Then, not far off, a friendly voice accosted thereet the s pity His eyes had an eager, startled look, like those of a frightened ani them was unhed Roy ”Here we are bag and baggage; we thought you were a spook or so”

CHAPTER VIII

PEACE!