“Did you ‘holler’ then?” questioned Dick.

“No,” Dave Darrin admitted honestly.  “I used up all my breath telling that unknown, unseen fellow just what I thought of him.”

“If you want to know what I think of the fellow,” uttered young Prescott, “it seems to me that the unknown chap is clever and bright enough to be capable of better things than stealing supper from other people.  This tie-up is about the most ingenious thing I’ve seen in a long time.”

“Maybe I’d appreciate it more,” retorted Darry, “if I could see it as you do, on another fellow.  Are you going to hurry up and cut away this rope?”

“Not if you are able to wait calmly while I untie it,” Dick answered.  “It’s surely a good piece of rope.  It will go part way toward paying for the steaks.”

With that Prescott began to untie the knots.  When his fingers ached from this from of exercise, Greg took his place.  Meanwhile, Tom Reade explored the thicket where Dave had seen the plate of steaks.  There was no sign of the food taken from the camp.  This Tom made out by the aid of lighted matches, as the long shadows were now falling in the woods.

“I’m glad, now, that you didn’t cut the rope,” said Dave, as at last he stepped free.  “We’ll save his rope, for I hope to find that fellow again.”

“What will you do to him if you catch him?” grinned Reade.

“Maybe I’ll need the rope to lynch him with,” uttered Darry grimly.

Tom threw back his head, laughing heartily.

“Our dear, savage, blood-thirsty old Darry!” Reade laughed.  “You talk as vindictively as a pirate, but if you found your enemy hurt you’d drop everything else and nurse him back into condition.  Darry, you know you would!”

“Let’s get back to camp,” urged Greg.  “Supper is ready, but no one has had any yet.  My stomach feels like an empty balloon.”

“All right, then,” agreed Darrin gruffly, “though I’d sooner catch that fellow than eat.”

“That word, ‘eat,’ sounds like a poem!” sighed Greg, tightening his belt as the quartette turned campward.

“So you didn’t get a single glimpse of your—–­your annoyer?” asked Prescott.

“Not what you could call a glimpse,” Darrin responded.  “Two or three times I caught sight of the fellow’s shirt sleeves as he passed the rope around me.  His shirt sleeves were of a light tan color, so I suppose that is the color of his entire shirt.  That, however, is the sole clue I have to the scoundrel’s description.”

“I’d like to meet the fellow,” mused Dick.

“Maybe you’ll have that pleasure,” hinted Darry with the nearest approach to a smile he had yet shown.

“You mean you’d like to see me tied up in the same fashion, and then discover whether I could keep my temper under such circumstances?” laughed young Prescott.

“Never mind what I mean,” Dave retorted.

They were soon in camp, now, after calling to Dan and Harry two or three times in order to locate their way.  At last, however, they came in sight of the glowing embers of fire and the rays of the two lanterns that Dan had lighted and hung up.