"That old monarch won't last much longer," he said. "It feels as if a strong wind would blow it over. It seems to be nothing but a shell, and yet it looks as solid as a rock outside. It's funny how some trees decay from the inside. I'm going to climb up and see if there's an opening between those limbs."
He started to do so, with the assistance of the knobby projections, when he was surprised to hear a noise inside the tree that made him suspect some kind of an animal had taken refuge there. He kept on till his head rose above the fork and he saw a great hole extending downward. He was about to ask Madge to hand him a long stick he saw lying on the ground, when, to his astonishment, a rough voice floated upward.
"Is that you, Parker?" were the words that reached his ears.
"Hello! Who are you?" cried Dick.
A muttered imprecation followed, and then silence.
"Who are you?" again asked Dick.
There was no reply. Dick climbed higher after telling the surprised girl that there was a man inside of the tree, pulled out his match safe and flashed a light into the tree. He saw a slouched hat, which evidently covered a head, and a pair of broad shoulders.
"Come on now, I see you. What are you doing in there?" said Dick.
"None of your business," replied a voice from under the hat.
"Maybe it isn't, but it strikes me that you have no business there. So you're a friend of Parker's, eh? Birds of a feather flock together, they say, so I guess you're not a very creditable sort of individual. I'd like you to know that you're trespassing on——"