They got themselves under control at last, though not without many interruptions, for again and again one of them would start to speak and go off into a peal of laughter.
"I'm as weak as a rag," gulped Billy. "I haven't laughed like this in all my life."
"It would make a hit in vaudeville," chuckled Bart. "Think of us sillies stalking along and going through shadow motions for a nut like that. We're squirrel food, all right."
"Well, after all what could we do?" defended Frank. "We're not mind readers."
"Not even of a scrambled mind like that," interposed Billy.
"And we couldn't tell that he wasn't an officer," went on Frank, not heeding the interruption. "His uniform seemed to be all right, although a bit gaudy."
"That gives us a way out," said Bart. "We can say that we followed the uniform, not the man, and let it go at that. But, oh, boy! if the fellows of our regiment had seen us trotting along behind that lunatic, maybe they wouldn't make our life a burden."
"We'd never have heard the last of it," agreed Tom. "But what they don't know won't hurt them, and it's a safe bet that none of us will ever let out a squeak."
"It's lucky there wasn't any moving picture man handy," laughed Frank. "He'd have had a film that would put all the rest out of business. But now let's get back to the cottage after this unfortunate hike of ours."
"Say," put in Bart, as a new thought struck him, "do you think those keepers could have caught on?"