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The
Christian Conqueror’s Camping Club
Adventure #1
“The Katydid Caper”
Danny Baer
Written – 1988
©2002
XI.
“Could you believe it? All that time we were looking for guys, and it turns out that our rustlers were girls.” Johnny said excitedly.
“Shhh,” Mike held his finger to his mouth. “You want to let everybody at church know?”
We walked around the side of the church so as not to be so noticeable.
You see, just about the time Beanie had told us that very morning that the rustlers were female instead of male Mike’s Dad called out of the back door, and Mike had to leave.
“Let’s not tell anyone a thing until we can decide what to do,” Mike said as he left. “We’ll talk about this evening at the revival. Beanie you’re coming as our ‘V.I.P.’, aren’t you?”
“Yea, I guess so.” Beanie said reluctantly.
We all knew that Beanie was really thinking about the Lord, and getting saved, and thought sure if we could get him come to ‘V.I.P.’ night (which means ‘Very Important Prospect’) we thought that maybe, just maybe, he would get saved.
Well, there we all were— Mike, Johnny, Ronnie, me, and, thank the good Lord, Beanie—standing at the side of the church talking about our newest discovery.
“No wonder we couldn’t figure out what was going on,” Johnny continued, “we were looking for guys. Can you believe it?”
“It ought to be a lot easier to find a couple of girls, shouldn’t it?” Ronnie asked.
“Not really,” Mike answered, “If you remember there were a lot more ladies who were visitors during that day than men, and we never did figure out who some of them were.”
“Oh yea,” I said, “We are really in a pickle now.”
Beanie piped in, “And we don’t have any mustard.”
All of us burst out laughing at when just about the same time the church bell rang out telling us that we better get inside.
“Now don’t forget. We will tell no one until we figure out what to do,” Mike reminded us as we climbed the stairs into the church.
We all went up to the third row from the front and sat down with Beanie on the end. We had decided earlier that if we were up toward the front and Beanie sat near the aisle, he may be more likely to respond when the preacher gave the invitation. Not that we wanted to trick him into getting saved. You can’t trick someone into getting saved, anyway. We just didn’t want anything to stand in his way.
The service was pretty good. I noticed that Mike kept yawning because he worked with his Dad all day and didn’t get any sleep. When I got to Johnny’s my Mom was waiting, and I went to sleep in the car on the way home. I spent most of the day in my room lying on my bed. Mom thought that I was sick, and when I told her that I was feeling OK, but that I was up all night she threatened not to allow me to camp out again. To make sure that didn’t happen I worked really hard to get up as soon as she called me for supper, and to be really pleasant instead of being my old grumpy self when I first get up.
When the preacher was preaching, I caught a glimpse at Beanie a few times. He was really listening. I don’t think that he took his eyes off of the evangelist. The sermon was about the rich man, and Lazarus. The preacher finished the message with a story about when he was a kid that his dad was an alcoholic and had died. He said that he knew that his dad did not go to Heaven. I knew what that meant, and so did Beanie. As he wiped away a tear from his eye, I realized that he was thinking about his alcoholic dad, and what just might happen to him some day. I just knew Beanie was ready to get saved, and I was right.
As soon as the song leader started singing the invitation hymn, “Just As I Am,” Beanie took off for the altar. He knelt down, and all of us guys knelt around him. Our youth leader, Brother Dave, had his Bible open and was going over some scripture with Beanie. I could just barely hear him where I was, but it didn’t matter because I knew exactly what he was saying. I had heard it many times before.
Brother Dave began telling him that the Bible tells us that “All have sinned.” That means that each one of us has done bad things in our lives. He then said that “The wages of sin is death.” Because of our sin we have earned death which will mean that we will be eternally away from God. He continued with “But God commended his love toward us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” That was my favorite verse, and I could see that it really got Beanie because not very many people loved him.
Brother Dave then told Beanie that we cannot earn the salvation that Jesus bought for us. “The gift of God is eternal life.” It is ours for the asking if we would only accept Jesus as our Lord, and Savior. He then finished with a verse where he substituted Beanie’s name for some of the words. “That if Beanie shalt confess with Beanie’s mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in Beanie’s heart that God raised him from the dead, Beanie shalt be saved.”
Then Brother Dave bowed his head, and Beanie, between his sobs, asked Jesus to forgive him of his sins, and come into his life, and save him.
What a wonderful time it was. All of us guys hugged each other and took turns hugging Beanie. We all were crying—not because we were sad or sissies or anything like that—but because we were happy. There were times that we never thought Beanie would get saved.
At the end of the service Pastor John had each of those who got saved that night give a testimony. When the microphone got to Beanie he stammered around a bit and didn’t know quite what to say. Pastor John just told him to say what the Lord had done for him.
“Oh, that’s easy,” Beanie spoke up, “He saved me.
“Do you have anything else to say, Willard?” Pastor John continued.
The rest of us guys wished that he would never have asked Beanie that. Not just because that Pastor called him Willard, which made us snicker, and get some pretty stern looks from our parents, but because about then Beanie spoke up, and said, “Yea, there’s one more thing. I wish you folks would pray for me and the other fellows as we try to catch some rustlers.”
XII.
“Now young man, what is all this business about rustlers?”
Dad did not look as if he was all too happy. I wasn’t really overjoyed myself. After Beanie had said what he said—about the rustlers I mean—Pastor John closed the meeting in prayer, and us boys took off for outside as soon as we could. We all met Beanie, and wanted to hug him, and hit him at the same time.
“Beanie,” Johnny began, “We’re all really glad you got saved, but we wish you wouldn’t have said anything about the rustlers.”
“I’m sorry guys,” Beanie said. “I really didn’t mean to mess things up for you. Do you really think that we could get in trouble?”
“It’s probably just as well Beanie,” Mike answered. “We wanted to know what to do, and now we know. We’ll tell our parents the whole thing.”
After that we all just split up and headed for our cars. From the car I could see Pastor John talking with Mike and Ronnie’s Dad and then call my father over for a few minutes. After they talked together, Dad walked over to the car. Then I could see Pastor John go over and begin talking to Johnny’s mother.
It was a long a quiet ride home—quiet, that is, except for when Dad got into the car, and said, “We will deal with this when we get home.” Dad said it in his “No one better make a sound if you know what’s good for you” voice. My older brother, and sister sat with me very still in the back seat, and the only sound all the way home was my little brother sitting up front on Mom’s lap saying “I want ice cream” about a hundred times during the three-mile trip.
As usual, when I was in trouble, I went straight to my room when we got home. I knew that there was no use in trying to avoid it. I had been in trouble plenty of times before. For a while it seemed that there was not a Sunday night that went by without me getting in trouble for talking, and ending up getting a spanking, or what my dad called a ‘blistering,’ when I got home. I had grown up a lot in the past couple of years since I got saved and had cut down quite a bit on my trips to the bedroom after church.
Well, there I sat, and Dad wanted to know what’s was going on. I knew that the only thing to do was to tell him. I started at the beginning, and for the next hour or so I told him the story that I’ve just told you.
After I got done, he gave me a lecture about keeping things from the police, and the danger of taking the law into our own hands. He went on about how those rustlers might be desperate people who have to do that sort of thing to live, and how they might be just desperate enough to hurt someone who might get in their way.
“You see Pete, we never know how people will react when they are caught doing wrong. As a Christian we should react with remorse. In other words, we should be sorry for the wrong things we do. You and the other boys have done a serious wrong. You may have gotten hurt, and do you know what else?”
“What, Dad?”
“You may have gotten Beanie killed.”
That statement hit me like a rock, but I knew that Dad was right. All the sudden the foolishness, and danger of what we had done hit me. My heart, which was already beating very fast, started beating even faster, a lump came up in my throat, and even though I tried to hold them back for a while, tears started running down my cheeks.
“I’m sorry Dad, I’m really sorry. I don’t know what we would have done if anything happened to Beanie. We really wanted him to get saved Dad. You do believe me, don’t you?”
“Yes, Son, I do. And, I accept your apology. I think you’ve learned a valuable lesson. But, do you know that you need to apologize to someone else?”
“Sure Dad, I’ll call Beanie and the other guys tomorrow.”
“Well, that will be fine, but I wasn’t talking about them.”
“I guess I don’t understand.”
“You see Pete, the one you have hurt the most is not one of your friends or even me. The one you’ve hurt the most is Jesus. Whenever we do wrong, we always hurt Jesus the most. He is righteous, and he wants us to be righteous. When we are not, it hurts him deeply. Your sin that you have committed against Beanie was also committed against Jesus. Every sin that we commit was part of the heavy burden that Christ had to bear on the cross.”
“Does that mean that I have to get saved again, Dad?”
“No, Pete. You’re already a child of God, aren’t you?”
“Oh, yes sir.
“Then as his child, we can go to Him, and ask His forgiveness just as you can always come to me and ask my forgiveness. The Bible says in I John 1:9, ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful, and just to forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’
Right then, without Dad saying anything else, I got on my knees by my bed, and asked God to forgive me. Never before had I realized how sin, even in the life of a Christian, could affect Jesus. That was a lesson that I never forgot.
As I prayed, I felt Dad place his arm around me, and I knew that he forgave me. That really felt good. All the sudden I realized that in the same loving way that Jesus was kneeling there beside me, and putting His arm around me, too. I couldn’t feel it, of course, but I knew He was there just the same. I also knew that, just as Dad forgave me, so did Jesus. A wonderful, warm, and clean feeling came over me. I was forgiven!
XIII.
The next morning the sun was just peeking through the curtains in my bedroom when I awoke with the sound of the telephone ringing. My door was open just enough that I could tell that Mom was talking to Johnny’s mother. I couldn’t hear every word, but from what I could make out they were talking about Johnny coming to our house. I couldn’t believe it. I just knew that we would not be able to see each other for weeks. I couldn’t imagine what in the world was going on.
As quick as a wink I was out of bed, and pulled on a shirt, and some jeans. Running into the kitchen I asked Mom, “Did you say that Johnny was coming over?”
“Boy, you sure do have good ears when you want to.” Mom was referring to the fact that she always seems to ask me two or three times to take out the trash, or to feed the dog, or to do some such thing that I would rather not do.
“If you must know, all of the boys are coming over.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. But not to play.”
“Not to play! What are we going to do then?”
“Well, your Dad called Mike’s father, and they have arranged for the five of you to go downtown and talk to the authorities.”
“Why? I thought if anyone would want to talk with us it would be the deputy sheriff from South Webster.”
“‘It seems,” Mom continued, “that these rustlers have hit in other places in the county, and you need to go down to the county sheriff’s office.”
I could hardly believe it. The ‘Christian Conqueror’s Camper’s Club’ had wanted an exciting adventure, and here we were going downtown to talk to the sheriff! We had learned our lesson though, and while we were traveling to town in my father’s car, we talked about how, from now on, we would tell the police any time we got into an adventure where the law was being broken.
During that trip we talked about how exciting the adventure was. Mike had read about the other cattle rustlings in the newspaper.
“I’m sure that it is the same two who took Franklin’s calves,” Mike said sounding like a detective.
Then Beanie took up where Mike left off and changed his voice to sound like Sherlock Homes or something. “The dates of the other thefts match perfectly with the dates of the events in question. Furthermore, the evidence points to the facts which now present themselves.”
“Elementary, my dear Watson?” I asked.
“Not, elementary,” Beanie answered, “In Mike’s case, Junior High.”
We all burst out laughing so hard that my Dad looked at us pretty sternly although I could tell that he was trying to hold back a smile.
The trip to the sheriff’s office was really exciting. Every one of us was a bit scared though. In fact, Ronnie kept asking if we were going to have to go to jail, and Mike kept telling him to keep still.
They led us into a big room with a long table, and the sheriff and a couple of deputies asked us all kinds of questions with a lady there taking everything down. Mike gave them his list of clues, and each of us were asked to tell our part of the story.
After about an hour and a half we were allowed to leave, and to tell you the truth, I, for one, was glad to get back to the car.
Once there we all started talking a mile a minute. There’re not many times in a young boy’s life that he goes to the police station or the sheriff’s office. Even though we weren’t in trouble none of us wanted to ever go there again.
Just then I thought of the yearly celebration along the river there in Portsmouth so I said, “Dad, could we go over to see if they have the street fair set up?”
Dad answered, “I don’t see why not,” and turned down toward Second Street.
We looked at each other like we were about to pop. Maybe the rides were already up, and maybe they were allowing folks to start riding them, and maybe, just maybe, we could stop for a while. All of those were big ‘maybes,’ but I could tell that the other guys were hoping the same thing.
To get to the fair, we had to pass by a branch of Ohio University that had been started there in town. There weren’t many students there in the summertime, and just a few cars were parked along the street by the main, and only, building.
Just then I saw it!
“Stop Dad!” I yelled. He screeched on his brakes, and said, “What in the world is wrong with you?”
At least I think that’s what he said because, not really meaning to, I interrupted him, and said, “Fellah’s, that’s it.”
“What’s it?” Johnny was asking, “Do you see the truck?”
“No,” I said, “Not that. But, there is the sticker--the green sticker with black lettering. Look, it’s on every car along this road.”
Sure enough, when we got out of the car, and looked closer, the green sticker that I had seen that night was right there on those cars, too. The stickers were parking stickers for the college. The rustlers were college students!
“And, they are girls,” Mike said. “You know what that means don’t you?”
“Yea,” Johnny said, “They were the two college girls that were with us in church. We know who they are.
XIV.
“You boys stay right here,” Dad said. “I’ll go call the sheriff’s office right now.”
Dad started to cross the street toward a pay phone when a police car just happened to come by. He waved it down, said a few things to the policeman inside, and I saw the officer say something in his radio. After that, dad came back to our car in a hurry.
“The sheriff is on his way. Now are you guys absolutely sure that you know who these rustlers are?”
“Oh, yes sir,” Mike spoke up. “First, we know that they are girls by what Beanie heard. Next, we’re sure they were in church with us that on ‘Bring Your Buddy’ Sunday because we all saw the truck drive away. And now that we know that the sticker Pete saw was one of these from the Ohio University branch. They have to be those two college girls that came with the Davenports.”
“I guess I could call Ken Davenport while we’re waiting to find out if they know where the girls live.” Dad started back across the street toward the phone only to stop because he saw the sheriff’s car coming around the corner. “On the other hand, I guess we could just have the sheriff call him on his radio,” Dad said as he returned.
The sheriff pulled up beside us, and Dad asked him to call Mr. Davenport to find out where the girls lived. The sheriff did just that. Once he found out what the address was, he asked us to get in his car, and we all took off lickety split with his siren a howlin’. All the while he was talking on his radio for some deputies to meet him for backup and talking to us to doubly make sure about our hunch. We went over all the clues like we had just done for Dad.
After Mike stated the conclusion that it had to be those college girls, Johnny added, “We can be real sure it’s them once we see if they have a truck, and a license plate with the letters ‘0,’ and I,’ and other numbers or letters.”
After just a few minutes of high-speed traveling through the city, the sheriff pulled on a road that lies just out of town. We winded around a country road for quite a few miles. It was so curvy, in fact, that I was about to get car sick. It had been a couple of year since I had felt like that, but I remembered exactly what was like, and I wasn’t too happy about going through it again. I decided to ask to be able to put the window down just a bit so I could stick my hand out in the fresh air which always seemed to help me feel better. But, before I could, the sheriff turned off his siren, and slowed down quite a bit. In fact, just shortly after that he came to a complete stop.
“Well, there it is boys.” The sheriff announced. “That’s the Gilbert farm. Mr. Davenport seems sure that the girls are staying there, one of them being the Gilberts’ daughter, and the other being from out of town, and renting a room. Do you see the truck you were talking about?”
I couldn’t see much of anything. We were still quite a distance away, and the farm was pretty far from the main road. I could see a few farm vehicles, and what looked like a truck or two.
“You don’t happen to have some binoculars do you sir,” Dad asked. “Maybe the boys could identify the truck a bit better if they could get a better look.”
The sheriff quickly jumped out of the car and opened the truck. One by one he let us guys use the binoculars, and each of us said the same thing. We all saw the truck!
In just a couple of minutes after the last guy got his turn, two deputies drove up in their cars. The sheriff conferred with them, and then came over to us.
“We will need for you guys to go with us for the purpose of identification. We have to have a good reason for arresting someone, and only you fellows have been able to have close contact with this rustling ring. I want you guys to stay in the car, with the windows up the entire time. Understand?”
We all shook our head or said, ‘Yes Sir,’ and climbed into the sheriff’s car again. Then in a line, with our car in the lead, we drove over to the driveway, and started down the lane. The closer we got to that truck the more I was convinced that the truck we saw was the right one. In fact, the thing had not even been washed, and since we were approaching it from its right side, I could still make out the juice stain.
All of us fellows were saying and thinking the same thing.
“That’s the truck all right,” said Mike.
“I see the stain I put on it,” I added.
“I’m sure that’s it,” Johnny offered, “I can barely see the back bumper, but there is a green sticker on it.”
Just then Beanie spoke up, “And would you look there.”
We all looked to the right as we passed a shed, and there, close to the driveway, was a pen full of calves. The closest one had a big “F” brand on its side.
“Sheriff,” Mike said, “That’s the Franklins’ brand.”
“And there are your rustlers,” Dad exclaimed.
Sure enough, right there feeding the calves were those two girls.
“We have them, fellows,” the sheriff said through his radio to the others. “Let’s take them in.”
XV.
“We now induct you, Willard Miller, otherwise known as Beanie, into the Christian Conqueror’s Campers Club.” Mike said very seriously. After all, this meant that now we had Beanie not only as a pesky little friend, but as a Christian brother. Otherwise he couldn’t join the club. We were all very glad for that.
“Let’s say our motto together.”
We all raised our hands like we were holding a sword, and said,
“Preserve the right,
And right the wrong,
We’ll show our might,
And sing our song.”
After we said that Beanie chimed in, “If I have to sing, you guys can just forget it.”
“Don’t worry,” Johnny said, “I’ve heard you sing, and I’d like to forget it.” After we all had a good laugh, we all talked about our first big adventure - the ‘Katydid Caper.’
Everyone had something to say about it, and how we would do things different like telling our parents, and the police if there is someone committing a crime.
“Could you believe the license plate?” I asked.
“You know,” Johnny replied, “I didn’t even get to see it.”
“It said, ‘I O O U’. Those girls were so much in debt to Ohio University they said they were absolutely desperate. That’s why while the Gilbert girl’s parents were away for the summer, they thought up that crazy scheme.”
“It’s a good thing that they were caught when they were,” Mike said. “I heard that they were taking those calves to market the next weekend.”
‘The best thing is what happened at the jail,” Johnny spoke up with some real excitement. “Pastor John and his wife were able to lead the girls to Christ. They both were saved right there in the visiting room.”
That was really great, and we all knew it. Somehow, we knew that what our teacher in Sunday School keeps telling us was right. He said that not everything that happens is good, but that God can take anything, and make something good to come out of it.
“By the way,” Beanie began talking in a tone of voice that we knew it was one of his sneaky questions that only he knew the answer to, “Did you guys know what that Gilbert’s girl’s name was.
“No. What Beanie?” Ronnie had swallowed that leading question hook line, and sinker.
“Her name is Kathryn.”
“So?”
“So, they call her Katy for short. We knew the answer to this mystery all along. Haven’t we been saying ‘Katy Did It’, ‘Katy Did It’?”
When we realized what Beanie was saying we all groaned and jumped on him at once. We tumbled around for a while, and then got out our ‘katydid’ signalers. We laid there and clicked away all the while laughing until our cheeks hurt and having just about as much fun as a bunch of young boys can ever have.
The End
