a second laugh, louder than the first.

"I declare he's up in that blessed tree, after all, and yet for the life
of me I can't get a squint at him. Serve the old chap right if we went
and took the dinghy back, leaving him to wade," grumbled Bluff.

Frank was looking around him. He noticed several little things just then.
Among others was the fact that there were scratches on the bark of the
big old oak, as though some one might have scrambled up its trunk
recently. An air-plant lay on the ground, evidently detached during the
progress of that party.

"I'm beginning to smell a rat," Frank said, slowly.

"Then let me in, please. I'm just devoured with curiosity to know what it
all means," pleaded his chum.

"Listen! Don't you hear a strange buzzing up there?" demanded Frank.

"Now that you mention it, I believe I do. Sounds to me like a hive of
bees."

"That's just what it is, and Jerry knew it as soon as he heard it. A hive
of bees in this old live-oak, with perhaps a big store of honey laid up.
Bluff, doesn't that tickle your palate? Well, it did Jerry's, for sure.
He climbed up!"

"After he had shot that deer, then?" asked Bluff.

"Undoubtedly. I remember, now, that honey always appealed to Jerry more
than any other sweet stuff. He was remarking, only the last time we had
flapjacks, that it was a beastly blunder we had none of us thought to
bring a bottle of honey along."

"But he isn't up there, now, for I can see the whole tree. Still he keeps
on chuckling. I can't make it out, Frank. But you know, for I see it in
your face! Where is Jerry?"

Frank deliberately rapped on the trunk of the big oak.

"Hello, Jerry! Anybody at home in there?" he called.

"Only a stranger and a pilgrim, who wants to get out the worst way, and
can't," came in a muffled voice.

Bluff gave a roar of amazement.

"Why, he's inside the tree!" he ejaculated.

"Just what he is. Stepped on some punky, rotten wood above there, that
must have given way under his weight, and our fine chum shot down into
the hollow trunk of the big king," laughed Frank.

"Correct, Frank. Just how it happened. I've tried again and again to
climb up to that hole where I came in, but the plagued walls are too
slippery, and I fell back every time. Please mount the tree, and lower a
coat or something for me to get a grip on," came in muffled tones to
their ears.

Both Frank and Bluff rolled upon the ground with shrieks of laughter.
If the sounds of