t
taken any of them into his confidence.

When it was but an hour from sunset he mentioned the matter to the
rest.

"Does anybody happen to know where Will set out for?" was his
question.

No one did, for both Bluff and Jerry shook their heads in the
negative, while the last named remarked:

"He was busy working at something or other this morning. I didn't get
on to it, and meant to ask him, but forgot all about it. I saw him
fasten a piece of rope around him and enclose a tree out there. It
made me laugh at the time, and only that Bluff called me just then I
would have joshed him about trying to play Indian, and tying himself
face on to a tree."

Frank chuckled at hearing that.

"You've given me a clue already, Jerry," he observed. "I remember that
Will seemed set on getting a picture of that osprey nest he had
discovered. You know the old trick some South Sea islanders practice
when climbing cocoanut trees is to have a loop around the trunk and
their own body, then barefooted hoist themselves bit by bit, always
raising the loop as they go."

"Whew! and so Will thought he could do the same thing, did he, and get
up to the first limb high above his head. But say, Frank, what if
something has happened to him?"

Jerry looked uneasy when he said this, and Bluff, too, picked up his
hat as though ready to set out in search of Will.

"We must look into this, that's a fact, boys!" declared Frank;
whereupon they hurried out of doors.

"Listen!" cried Frank almost immediately. "Seems to me I heard a call
some distance away and along the shore. Yes, there it is again, and I
reckon that's our chum giving tongue. He must be in difficulty and he
needs help, so come on," at which the three of them started to run at
full speed eastward.

CHAPTER VI

THE HOME OF THE OSPREY

"Coming, Will!" shouted Bluff as he ran back of Frank.

"This way, along the shore!" they plainly heard a voice call from some
distance away.

Of course anxious thoughts chased through the minds of the three boys
as they hurried along. Will was evidently in trouble. Bluff,
remembering the ospreys, pictured him lying at the foot of a tall tree
with perhaps one of his legs broken. That would be an awkward
condition of affairs to be sure, with their camp so far removed from
real civilization.

Jerry, too, was imagining something of the sort, and wondering if they
would have to make a litter in order to carry poor Will back to the
cabin.