"I give it up!" the boy whispered back.
"Why didn't you bring the kid along with you?" asked Frank. "We all want to see him. His grandmother has been telling us about him."
"Its a right smart walk for a little one!" Buck answered.
"You're welcome to come down and see him," Mrs. Brady said. "I'd be proud to give you all a snack in the morning."
"Suppose we do go and see the kid?" asked Oliver. "I'm curious to know all about the little shaver!"
"I'm for it!" Frank exclaimed.
"And I'll be the first one there!" Jack put in. "I always liked kids—from Washington! No one will molest the camp while we are gone."
"I wouldn't leave it alone, if I were you," advised the old lady.
"There's a heap of bad people come into the mountains sometimes.
Don't all leave at once."
"That's good advice, mother," Ned said. "Two will go and two will remain here. In a short time the two out in the hills will return, and then there will be a good-sized guard for what little stuff we have."
"All right," Jack declared, "if any one is going to stay here, it will be me! Come to think of it, I'm too blamed tired to walk another step to-night. Eh, Oliver?"