“Hungry after eating three or four loaves of bread and a lot of canned beans!” grinned Frank. “Did Ned go away with him?”
“Of course, he went away with him.”
“Then there’s some deviltry afloat,” Frank declared. “Some one out there in the thicket told us to ‘beat it while the beating was good,’ and then ducked away. I’ll bet it was the same person.”
In answer to numerous questions, Jimmie and Frank related their experience in the pines.
“Now, what are we going to do about it?” asked Harry with a troubled look on his face. “There certainly is mischief afoot.”
“The first thing to do,” Jack replied, “is to scatter and see if we can find Ned. He’s been lured away, and may be in trouble.”
“We’re the original trouble-getters!” Harry grumbled. “I believe we’d get into a mixup of some kind if we went to a Sunday School picnic.”
“And the strangest part of it all is,” Frank went on, “that the boy who told us to ‘beat it’ proved to be a Boy Scout!”
“Anyway,” Jimmie declared, “he answered our challenge correctly.”
While the boys consulted together, anxious for the safety of their chum, a shout came from the summit above.