Then Frank, for the first time, laughed. Since Lanky had managed to get beyond the reach of the black beast, and seemed uninjured after his close call, the humorous side of the adventure struck the other boys. “Now will you be good, Lanky?” jeered Bones. “He’s got you nailed there in that tree good and fast. What word shall we take to your folks at home? Want to send ’em any message? Expect to get your meals by aeroplane or kite? He’s going to camp right there till you oblige him by coming down, believe me, Lanky.” “Cut that chaff out, Bones, and be thinking up some scheme to coax the old sinner away!” called back the beleaguered one, who had climbed higher in the tree and could see his chums plainly as they sat upon the fence nearby. “Huh! I suppose now you’d like me to step over there and call him away; wouldn’t you, Lanky?” demanded Bones. “But all the same I’m not goin’ to do it. There’s only one way you can get out of that tree.” “Then tell me,” cried Lanky, eagerly. “Grow some wings and fly!” answered Bones, with a loud laugh. Frank saw that the situation, while not desperate, had its unpleasant features. He knew something about the persistency of bulls in general. He had heard of one that kept a farmer in a tree all night, and a good part of the next day, nibbling the grass whenever he got hungry, and always guarding the tree so that there was no chance whatever for escape. And the man might have died from weakness had not a neighbor happened to hear his shouts and shot the bull. Lanky must be saved in some way or other, but just how to go about it was the question. At first Frank thought he might coax the bull by dropping over the fence at some distant part of the field. He tried it, but with no success whatever. The cunning bull declined to nibble at the bait. It was just as if he had decided that a boy in the tree was worth two in the field keeping close to the fence so that it could be scaled. “It’s no go, Frank!” called out Bones, after the other had ventured as near to the animal as he deemed safe, without drawing his attention a particle. “You’ll have to try another dodge; or else Lanky’s going to stay in that tree till Christmas rolls around, or the Glorious Fourth.” “For goodness sake, think up some way of getting him off, Frank!” called out the impatient prisoner of the lone tree. “I’ve got a scheme!” cried Bones. “Yes, you have!” Lanky answered in some derision; for he failed to have any great amount of faith in anything Bones Shadduck originated. “Well, this one’s a corker, I tell you,” the boy on the fence went on, eagerly. “All right, let’s hear it, and speak low so the bull won’t get on,” Lanky suggested, with mock respect. “Besides it’ll give Frank and me a heap of fun watching you, Lanky.”