"Of course!" Frank said. "If we don't, he'll go back to camp and tell about seeing us here; then they'll swarm down on us, and it will be all off with the whole bunch of us. We've got to get him!"
"But how?" asked Pat.
In the short silence that followed all three boys cudgeled their brains for some idea which might serve, but the case was assuming a hopeless aspect when a shrill voice in pretty good English came from the tree.
"Hi, there!" cried the voice.
"If that's Jimmie, made up as a little brown man," Pat said, "I'll beat him up when he comes aboard."
"More likely to be Jack," said Frank.
"Hi, there!" repeated the voice from the tree.
"That's not Jimmie, or Jack either," Ned said. "What do you want?" he asked.
The reply came in the form of a feline growl which might have issued forth from the throat of a wild cat.
"What does the badge say?" asked the voice, then.