She said, “Oh dear; it’s just exasperating. Won’t you please get off the wire. I want Central. Why can’t they help me? We’re in such a dreadful predicament.”
I said, “I guess Central went to the movies or somewhere. I’m a boy scout and I’m in a dark station somewhere or other near Haverstraw——”
“Oh, isn’t that just too provoking!” she said.
I said, “Oh, it isn’t so bad in here, only it’s dark.”
“Is there anything I can do?” she said; “we’re lost on the top of Eagle’s Nest Mountain. Oh, I wonder if you’d be willing to go to Haverstraw and tell my people—Judge Edwards. It’s dreadful! We’ve been here since five o’clock. We haven’t had a thing to eat and we’re nearly perishing. The boys made a mistake about the trail. Oh, it’s terrible! We’re frightened out of our lives. I’ll never, never come up this horrible mountain again!”
I said, “Are the boys scouts?”
She said, “No, they’re regular young men and they’re utterly bewildered!”
I said, “Now I know they’re not scouts. But anyway, you don’t need to worry, because we’ll come up and get you. Trails are our middle names. You should worry about Central. But, one thing, I’d like to know how there happens to be a ’phone up there.”
She said, “Oh, you’re just a dear.” That’s just exactly what she said—honest.
I said, “Mountains aren’t horrible. I’ve met a whole lot of them and they’re all right. Don’t you worry. I was trying to get my sister on the ’phone to tell her Many Happy Wishes, because it’s her birthday, and she’s having a party. She’s just seventeen. We’re on a hike.”