That station stood all by itself, and it was pitch dark all around. It reminded me of the Grand Central Station, it was so different. First we tried the door and it was locked. Then we tried one of the windows and it opened.

I said, “Do you think it would be all right to climb in?”

“Sure it would,” Westy said; “because the window doesn’t open into the ticket agent’s room, only into the waiting room. Go ahead.”

I didn’t see any harm in climbing in, because the window was part open and there was a sign outside that said “Public Telephone.”

“Anyway,” Westy said; “if anybody should come and find us here, we could say we just wanted to ’phone. And we could prove that’s all we wanted, too, by our really getting the number.”

First I didn’t know what we ought to do, but as long as we didn’t have to break anything open, and as long as all we wanted was to ’phone, I decided it would be all right.

So we climbed in and I saw there was a booth in the corner. I dropped a nickel into the ’phone and held the receiver to my ear and waited and waited and waited and waited. Gee, I waited about as long as three whole chapters would be.

Then I heard a girl’s voice. It said, “Hello, hello.”

I said, “I want three, two, one, Bridgeboro, New Jersey, and please hurry up, because my sister’s having a party.”

I guess the wire was crossed, the girl was awful excited, and every time I said hello, she’d say, “Hello, hello, is this you, father?”

I guess she was so rattled, she didn’t know who she was talking to.

By this time I was getting kind of sore at the operator, because I wanted to get my sister the minute of ten o’clock, and she was sort of spoiling my plan. I had just three more minutes to get her, because Westy lighted a match and looked at his watch. Then I said, “Hello, hello.”

The same voice kept saying, “Hello, hello, is this you, father?”

I said, “No, it isn’t. How long does it take to get the operator in this berg?”

The poor girl was almost crying by now. She said, “I’ve been trying for an age to get my father. Won’t you please let me get him? I want my father! Why don’t they give me my father?”

Gee whiz, you’d think I had her father in my pocket. I said, “I’m trying to get my sister, too. If you happen to see her, tell her, will you?”

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.”

“Oh, I’m just seventeen, too,” she said; “and you’re perfectly wonderful. I know you’ll save us. We’re up here at the fire observation station. If you’ll go to my father and go to the police——”

“We should worry about the police,” I said; “the only trail they can follow is a trail around the block. One of us fellows will go to your father’s house and tell him, and meanwhile, the rest of us will come up there. Anyway, I’d like to see that observation station. So now maybe you’ll calm down and tell me how to find the mountain road.”

“Oh, do you think you can?” she asked.

“Sure, we can,” I told her.

Just then somebody must have pulled her away from the ’phone. Anyway, a fellow’s voice said, “Let me talk to him. What is he? Just a kid?” Then he said, “Will you please run to Haverstraw and notify Judge Edwards, 22 Terrace Street, that his daughter and three friends are on the top of Eagle’s Nest, and to please have the authorities notified and a party formed to come here. I will see that you’re suitably rewarded.”

I said, “I’d be ashamed to have the whole town of Haverstraw coming up after me, and scouts don’t accept rewards. We’ll send to Haverstraw and tell Judge Edwards, and then we’ll come up and get you. All you have to do is to sit there and tell riddles till you see us. Which road do you take for Eagle’s Nest?”

Then he said how we should follow the west road from Haverstraw till we got to a big white house with a windmill in front of it. Pretty soon after we got past that, he said, we’d come to a cow path that led through the fields. He said we should follow that till we got into the woods where we’d see picnic grounds and then we’d find a trail that went up the mountain. He said other trails branched off from it, so we’d have to be careful. He said it didn’t go right to the top, and I suppose that’s why they couldn’t find it coming down.

He said, “Did you ever hit a mountain trail?”

“Hit one?” I said. “We give one a knock-out blow every couple of days. So long, we’ll see you later. Tell that girl not to worry.”

Gee whiz, I forgot all about Marjorie.