“Why not?”
“Because Andy has given orders that no one but himself is allowed inside that shed, except on certain occasions.”
“Is he afraid the big bird will get away?” asked Nat.
“What big bird?” inquired Sandy quickly. He took a tighter grip of Jack’s arm, and the other men in the group, each of whom held one of the young captives, seemed waiting for Nat’s reply.
“Oh, we know you’ve got some kind of a monster bird in that shed,” went on Nat. “We heard it flying over our camp, and we came out here to see it.”
“Is that all you came for?” asked Sandy.
“That’s all,” put in Jack. “We wanted to solve the mystery of the strange noises, and the queer marks in the snow.”
“What queer marks in the snow?”
Jack told Sandy what he and his chums had seen, relating in detail how they had tried, on several occasions, to penetrate to the camp, and how, at length, they had made the trip on the sled.
“Now why don’t you go tell Andy, who seems to be the head of this crowd, what I say, and ask him to let us go?” went on Jack. “We meant no harm, but we’d like to see the bird.”