"I believe we could get away with the lame one," whispered Skinny, "only they have about eaten it all up; so what's the use? Besides, the other one looks as big as a house." "If we only had a rope, Skinny," said Benny, "you could creep up behind and lasso them, the same as you did the robber out near Starved Rock." "Bet your life I could," he replied, "but we haven't got one. Fellers, don't you ever go out again without a rope. You can't ever tell when you will need it." "Great snakes!" said Bill, thinking of the chicken Skinny had been going to give him. "I'm starving to death. Let's heave some rocks at 'em, anyhow, and then run." He picked up a big stone as he spoke and was going to throw it, when Hank caught his arm. "Wait," said he. "I know a trick worth two of that. I'm going to shoot 'em." "Shoot them?" I gasped in surprise. "What with?" "With my camera. You fellows stay here out of sight and caw like a crow if they make any move before I am ready for them. If I can only get behind that clump of bushes back of them without their seeing me, I'll take their picture." "Aw, cut it out," said Bill. But Hank was gone, and after a little we could see him running through a field out of sight of the men, so as to come into the ravine from the other end. Pretty soon we saw him crawling in, creeping from bush to bush, in sight only for a second at a time. There was not a sound except the voices of the men, who were talking about something, and the ground might have opened and swallowed Hank for all we could see of him. We waited a long time and began to get nervous, not knowing what had happened, and I saw Bill feeling around for another stone. Then all of a sudden Hank stood up above the bushes he had told us about. He looked toward where he knew we were hiding and put one finger to his lips. Then he tossed a stone toward the men and dropped down out of sight again before it could fall. "Great snakes!" whispered Bill. "If he's goin' to throw, why don't he do it, and not give a baby toss like that?" Skinny held up one hand warningly as the pebble fell into the brook right back of the men, making a little splash and gurgle, as if a frog, or maybe a trout, had leaped out after a fly. When they heard it both men jumped up and stood there in the sunshine, looking toward the sound. We couldn't see Hank, but knew that he was somewhere in the bushes taking their picture. You almost could have heard our hearts beat for a minute, not knowing what would happen. Then the men sat down again and went on talking. We waited five minutes to give Hank a chance to get away, and crawled back the way we had come. When we reached the road we heard a crow cawing in the woods and knew that he was safe. "You answer, Benny," said Skinny. "You do it best." He gave three caws so real that I almost thought it was a sure enough crow. Hank joined us and we hurried down the road toward home, hoping that the dinner would not be all eaten up.