He got up, and threw himself down again as many as half a dozen times, considerably to the amusement of Wee Willie, who was slyly watching him. Finally Perk found a seat on a convenient log, and sat there, staring away toward a little uplift of land that might be called a forest knoll, where the trees stood up far above the balance of the timber.
Wee Willie, watching, saw the fat chum suddenly start, and bending forward stare very hard at something. His features were working, too, as though Perk might be laboring under a fresh spasm of excitement.
“Well, I just expected it’d happen!” Wee Willie heard him mutter.
“What happened, Perk?” demanded the other, lifting his head.
“Why, there he is right now, perched in that beechnut tree up on the knoll yonder. You can see the dark mass move if you look sharp! Of course he’s spying on the camp; and I bet you he’s got it all fixed to visit us this very night!”
CHAPTER VII
THE CLIMBER OF THE BEECH TREE
“Ginger! there is something big and black up in that tree, as sure as you live!” exclaimed Wee Willie, excitedly.
Both Elmer and Amos also stared. Apparently they found it necessary to agree with what the tall chum had just said. It looked as though humble Perk had scored again; somehow he seemed to be connected with almost everything that had happened to them thus far; when as a usual thing such events took delight in passing him by.
“There, didn’t you see him move?” he added, with a tinge of triumph in his voice. “Just think of his nerve, climbing that tree to watch what we do. If he’d been a signal-sender in the old Boy Scout days at Chester, before the troop busted up, he couldn’t have picked out a better location. I bet you he’s watching us right now. What ought we do about it, Elmer?”
Considerably to the astonishment of the speaker, Elmer was heard to give an unmistakable chuckle, as though something amused him.