“We should have some sort of speaking tube,” he assented. “I might rig up one of the string telephones we used to make with tin baking powder boxes that served both as transmitter and receiver.”
“Can you do it?” asked Cora.
“I guess so.”
“I know something better than that,” Paul put in. “There’s a toy telephone that comes now, made of string, but the baking powder boxes are replaced by wooden cylinders with parchment tightly stretched over one end. You can hear quite well with them.”
“Where can we get it?” asked Cora.
“I have one,” Paul said. “I bought it just before we left to come up here, intending to give it to a kid cousin of mine, but I forgot to mail it. You can use that if you like.”
“Just the thing!” exclaimed Jack. “The dear girls can’t get along without us after all; can they?”
“Oh, don’t flatter yourself that we’re as fond of you as all that,” laughed Belle. “But we do like to have you within call—especially up here.”
“Why, have you seen any suspicious characters lurking around?” asked Walter.
“Nary a lurk,” responded Cora. “We’re just getting ready for emergencies.”