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_!”