"I think I heard a groan!" remarked Step-hen, in an awe-struck voice, that trembled in spite of his effort to seem brave.
"So did I," declared Allan; "and it was over yonder to the left."
Accordingly the six boys went helter-skelter into the underbrush, making all the noise an elephant might in pushing through the woods. Perhaps it was only the result of their eagerness to reach the companion, who seemed to be in trouble; and then again, a racket like that might frighten away any wild beast that had attempted to carry their stout bugler away.
"Stop again, and listen," said Thad, half a minute later. "We must be near the place where that groan came from. Hear it again, anybody?"
"Help! oh, help! they're eating me alive!" came in a muffled voice from some unknown place near by.
Thrilled by the words, and half expecting to see some savage monster struggling with their fellow scout, the six boys stared about them in dismay. Not the first sign could they see of either Bumpus or the attacking beast.
"Where under the sun can he be?" exclaimed Giraffe.
"Perhaps it was a big eagle, or a hawk; and it's carried him up into a tree!" suggested Step-hen; and strange to say, no one even laughed at the silly idea.
"Allan has guessed it!" cried Smithy, who had chanced to see a little smile chase across the face of the boy from Maine.
"Where is he, then?" asked Thad, wheeling on his second in command.