"No, but I wish we could. He's been on the job pretty brisk, lately. Just haul the cord, and then I'll be back to explain more," and leaving a stout string in Tom's hands Dutch hurried away. The three chums tried to guess what was to follow, and made all sorts of wild hazards, in the midst of which they were interrupted by hearing from below the cautious imitation of the trill of a tree-toad, thrice repeated. "Lower the cord," whispered Phil, and Tom dangled it from the window. In a few minutes he felt two tugs, which was the signal for hauling up, and he pulled until he had hoisted to his window sill a coil of strong wire. The inseparables were wondering what it was for, when Dutch reappeared. "Anything heavy we can fasten this to?" he asked, as his eyes roved about the room. "There's the alarm clock," replied Sid. "It wakes us out of a heavy sleep, sometimes." "Rotten joke," commented Dutch. "Here, this will do," and he approached the old sofa, holding the coil of wire. "It won't damage it; will it?" cried Phil in some alarm. "Impossible, son! Impossible!" replied Dutch. "I only want to anchor the wire to the sofa. There we are," and he rapidly made a loop in the wire, and strung it around the ancient piece of furniture. Then the other end of the wire was dangled out of the window. It was promptly pulled taut, and seemed to be stretched out for some distance. "That's the stuff!" commented Dutch. "Holly and the rest of the boys are on the job." "But what are you going to do?" asked Tom, much mystified. "You'll soon see," answered Dutch, as he hurried from the room again. CHAPTER XII PLANNING A PICNIC When Dutch returned, after an absence of about half an hour, he seemed in considerable of a hurry. He went directly to the window, out of which there stretched away in the darkness the tight wire, and from the casement dropped a cord. Then he gave a whistling signal, which was answered. Dutch began to haul up on the cord. "Say, look here!" burst out Phil. "What's up, anyhow? Let us in on the joke, as long as you're using our room to work it from." "Sure," agreed Dutch. "It's all ready now, as soon as I get the cord Snail Looper is fastening to this one." He hauled up a thin but strong rope, and once more gave some whistling signals. Then he closed down the window. "Now we'll have to wait about an hour," he explained, "but I'll tell you what's up. You know the proctor has been unusually officious of late, and several of us have suffered." Sid nodded appreciatively.