The other shook his head as though puzzled.
"I thought I knew every animal you could find in these woods, and the sound of his grunt or squeal, but that's a new one on me," he remarked.
"I tell you," said Lil Artha, after listening again intently; "it must be a pig, that's what. There, didn't that sound just like a big grunt, and wasn't it followed by a squeal? One of Bailey's hogs had sneaked out of its pen and is rooting around. Perhaps it's got into trouble. We'd better investigate this thing a little, don't you think, Elmer?"
"I think so a heap," replied the young scout leader; "because that last grunt didn't have a piggy sound at all to me, and I give it to you straight."
"Then what do you reckon it was?" demanded Lil Artha, with added interest.
"More like a groan," remarked Elmer, starting on again.
"A groan—you mean a real human groan?" exclaimed the tall boy. "Say, now, that would mean somebody might be hurt over there."
"Then the sooner we find out the better." Elmer answered over his shoulder.
They had little difficulty in tracing the course of the sounds. And the further they advanced to the left of the path the louder the singular combination of sighs, groans, and grunts became.
"I know this place, all right," whispered Lil Artha, presently. "I've been here more'n a few times, Elmer. There's the queerest hill just beyond you ever saw. It's got one face shaved off just like it had been split, and half of it carried away. Us boys call it Echo Cliff. I've been up on it lots of times. Gee, it's sure a jump down to the tree tops below!"