Fantasy Football Challenge - Football Fanatics Library

Fantasy Football Challenge - Library of Books for Football Fanatics

Fantasy Football Challenge presents
The Adventure Club Afloat

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"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 aloft into the greenish radiance of the lamp. "All round. North, east, south and west. Land or sea. Adventures, Perry, are for the adventurous. Now, here we are, three able-bodied fellows fairly capable of looking after ourselves in most situations, tired of the humdrum life of Summer resorts. What's to prevent our spending a couple of months together and finding some adventures? Of course, we can't go to Africa and shoot lions and wart-hogs--whatever they may be,--and we can't fit out an Arctic exploration party and discover Ingersoll Land or Bush Inlet or Chapman's Passage, but we could have a mighty good time, I'd say, and, even if we didn't have many hair-breadth escapes, I'll bet it would beat chasing tennis balls and doing the Australian crawl and keeping our white shoes and trousers clean!" "We could be as dirty as we liked!" sighed Perry ecstatically. "Lead me to it!" "It sounds positively fascinating," drawled Joe, "but just how would we go about it? My folks, for some unfathomable reason, think quite a lot of me, and I don't just see them letting me amble off like that; especially in--um--such disreputable company." "I should think they'd be glad to be rid of you for a Summer," said Perry. "Anyhow, let's make believe it's possible, fellows, and talk about it." "Why isn't it possible?" asked Steve. "My folks would raise objections as well as yours, Joe, but I guess I could fetch them around. After all, there's no more danger than in staying at home and trying to break your neck driving an automobile sixty miles an hour. Let's really consider the scheme, fellows. I'm in earnest. I want to do it. What Perry said is just what I've been thinking without saying. Why, hang it, a fellow needs something of the sort to teach him sense and give him experience. This thing of hanging around a hotel porch all Summer makes a regular mollycoddle of a fellow. I'm for revolt!" "Hear! Hear!" cried Perry enthusiastically. "Revolution! _A bas la_ Summer Resort! _Viva_ Adventure!" "Shut up, idiot! Do you really mean it, Steve, or are you just talking? If you mean it, I'm with you to the last--um--drop of blood, old chap! I've always wanted to revolt about something, anyway. One of my ancestors helped throw the English breakfast tea into Boston Harbour. But I don't want to get all het up about this unless there's really something in it besides jabber." "We start the first day of July," replied Steve decisively. "Where for?" "That is the question, friends. Shall it be by land or sea?" "Land," said Joe. "Sea," said Perry. "The majority rules and I cast my vote with Perry. Adventures are more likely to be found on the water, I think, and it's adventures we are looking for." "But I always get seasick," objected Joe. "And when I'm seasick you couldn't tempt me with any number of adventures. I simply--um--don't seem to enthuse much at such times." "You can take a lemon with you," suggested Perry cheerfully. "My grandmother--" Joe shook his head. "They don't do you any good," he said sadly. "Don't they! My grandmother--" "Bother your grandmother! How do we go to sea, Steve? Swim or--or how?" "We get my father's cruiser," replied Steve simply. "She's a forty-footer and togged out like an ocean-liner. Has everything but a swimming-pool. She--" "Nix on the luxuries," interrupted Perry. "The simple life for me. Let's hire an old moth-eaten sailboat--" "Nothing doing, Sweet Youth! If I'm to risk my life on the heaving ocean I want something under me. Besides, being seasick is rotten enough, anyhow,

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