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. CHAPTER XXXVI UP THE TRAIL