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The
trouble is it takes a lot of know-how and a lot of expensive material to build
a submarine, and somehow or other we never quite got started on the project,
though Henry and Jeff Crocker drew a lot of interesting plans.
            But one
day Freddy Muldoon came up with some information that changed the whole
picture. Sometimes we call Freddy "Little Bright Eyes" -- which is
his Indian name -- and it isn't just because they're the only part of him that
isn't fat. It's because Freddy frequently notices things that escape everyone
else's attention. It was he and Dinky, for instance, who really solved the
mystery of the money hidden in the old cannon out at Memorial Point when they
noticed the strange gold key dangling from the neck of Elmer Pridgin.
            The
information Freddy came up with was a news item in the Mammoth Falls Gazette .
Nobody else had noticed it, but Freddy reads the whole paper, line by line,
every night, because his father is a linotype operator on the Gazette ,
and Freddy likes to give him the razz-ma-tazz if he finds an error in it.
            The item
Freddy had noticed was an announcement of a White Elephant Auction being held
over in Claiborne for the benefit of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Claiborne
General Hospital. Among the "white elephants" donated for the auction
was a midget two-man Japanese submarine which the Claiborne American Legion
Post had brought back from the Pacific in 1945 as a trophy of war. It had been
gathering lots of rust and very few onlookers, ever since, in front of the
Legion's meeting hall.
            The
auction was scheduled for one o'clock Saturday afternoon, so we had to act fast
if we wanted to get the thing. Nobody could even guess whether it could still
be made to operate, but we all figured we'd just have to gamble on that. If we
could get it cheap enough, and the hull was good, Henry claimed we could
eventually fit it out with all the gear it needed to make it run again.
           
"Let's go where the auction is!" quipped Mortimer Dalrymple, trying
to keep a straight face.
           
"Get a load of the comic," said Freddy Muldoon disdainfully, with the
closest thing to a sneer his pudgy face could manage.
            Jeff
Crocker rapped his gavel on the packing crate he uses for a podium.
           
"How much money have we got in the treasury, Homer?"
           
"Three dollars and eighty-five cents!" Homer Snodgrass reported
without hesitation.
           
"Are you sure?" asked Jeff, incredulously.
           
"Three dollars and eighty-five cents," repeated Homer.
            There
was a lot of discussion about this, and Homer kept insisting that we'd all
forgotten about the seven dollars we'd spent on flowers for Constable Billy
Dahr when he was in the hospital for two weeks after stepping in a bear trap
out by Turkey Ridge. Finally Mortimer moved that we call for a count of the
cashbox, and Homer pulled himself wearily out of his chair.
            "I
don't know whether I've got the strength for this treasurer's job any
more," he groaned. "Excuse me, Mr. President," he said, as he
climbed up onto the packing crate in front of Jeff. We all sat there in silence
while Homer reached up and flipped a switch on the light cord dangling just
above Jeff's head. Then he climbed down off the packing crate and walked over
to the corner of the barn, where we keep our safe. He spun the dial quickly and
opened the heavy door. Then he reached inside and brought out a little remote
control box for a TV set.
           
"Wait a minute!" Jeff cried. "Charlie and Dinky, get the window
shades."
            Dinky
and I pulled the shades down on all four windows, and Mortimer put the crossbar
up to barricade the door. Then Homer pointed the remote control box at the peak
of the barn roof and pressed one of the buttons. The rope ladder, coiled at the
peak of the roof, popped open and the weighted end of it plopped to the floor.
Homer walked over and climbed