A little later he heard a curious scratching at the top of the hollow. He strained his eyes and saw a bushy tail swishing around. "A wild animal!" he thought. "Will it come down on top of me?" He gave a low call and the animal disappeared. But then, after a period of several minutes, it came back again and this time looked down into the hollow tree, longingly. "A wildcat!" Shep was right; it was indeed wildcat that had come to pay him a visit, and the beast seemed to be in anything but a good humor as it glared down upon the imprisoned young hunter. Would the beast spring down upon him? That was the question Shep asked himself. As quickly as he could he raised his hand which contained his jack-knife. "Scat!" he hissed, and, alarmed once more, the wildcat backed away from the hollow and sat down on a limb of the tree to think matters over. As a matter of fact, the hollow tree was one of the wildcat's favorite haunts and it did not know what to make of it to find it thus strangely inhabited. In the meantime the three young hunters who had lost themselves in the woods were doing their best to find their way back to camp. They had reached a small opening and Whopper raised an unexpected cry: "Boys, look!" "Shep's gun, as sure as fate!" ejaculated Snap. "And his game-bag," added Giant. "What can this mean?" "I think" began Snap, and then chanced to glance up into the tree. He caught a full view of the wildcat, and stopping his talk, took quick aim and fired. The wildcat turned over in the air, gave a second whirl, and then disappeared from view. "Where did he go to?" asked Giant, recovering from his astonishment. "Fell into the tree," answered Whopper. "Hark!" They listened and heard a faint cry for help. "Where is that from?" "The tree! Shep must be in the tree!" "And the wildcat's on top of him!" "I'm going to his help!" exclaimed Snap, and began to climb up the hollow tree without delay. When he gained the opening he peered down into it. "Shep! Are you there?" he called out, anxiously. "Yes," was the faint answer. "Is that you, Snap?" "Yes. Is that wildcat alive?" "I guess not. But he has almost smothered me." "How did you get down there?" "Slipped down. Get something and help me to get out." "I will." "Poor Shep! What a place to be in all night!" was Whopper's comment. "I wouldn't go through that for two billion dollars!" "I'm going to cut a pole with a notch on the end," said Snap. "We can pull him up with that." A number of saplings were handy and Snap soon had the pole he desired. Then all three of the boys climbed into the tree and lowered the pole. "All ready?" cried Snap. "Yes," was the muffled answer from the bottom of the hollow. "Take care, or somebody will slip out of the tree," cautioned Giant. "Our footing isn't of the best."