"Sounded to me," ventured Landy, "like it was out there on the river. Say, p'raps it might have been some poor duck just going down for the last time!"
"Shucks!" grunted that unbeliever, George; "he'd never be able to let out such a whang-doodle yell in that case. I ought to know, because I've near drowned myself twice, and all I could do was just to gurgle and kick and grab."
"How about that loon Elmer wath telling uth about?" suggested Ted, softly. "From all he thaid I reckon it'd let out jutht thuch a noithe ath that."
"Elmer, you heard it, didn't you?" demanded Landy.
"Not the kind you mean, boys; I give you that straight," replied the other.
"But it came from out there on the river, didn't it?" persisted Landy, who seemed to have that notion imbedded in his brain pretty strongly.
"Then where did it come from?" asked Landy.
"I didn't tell you, boys," went on the patrol leader; "but knowing that six in the tent would make it stuffy, I planned to sleep out here under the stars, just as I've done many a night, you know. And so I was in a pretty good position to hear where that whoop came from."
"Tell us, Elmer, tell us right away," demanded Landy, impatiently.
"The tent!" said Elmer, without hesitation.
"Say, he means that one of us let that yell out," remarked Landy.
"Not guilty!" chirped Ted immediately, holding up his right hand as he spoke.
"Noddings doing, poys, mit me," Adam ventured to say, positively.
And thus, all at once, they awakened to the fact that one of their number was absent, though no one save Elmer had noticed this before.
Landy rushed to the tent and looked in. The fire was by this time giving out enough light to make it possible to see the entire interior.
Landy crawled inside, and almost immediately came forth again.
"Say, he ain't there! Ty's disappeared, fellows! Mebbe he's been taken with a fit, and jumped into the river!" he cried, in tones that were filled with horror.
"Elmer, what have you got to thay about that?" demanded Ted, who had noticed the significant fact that the patrol leader did not seem to share the alarm of the rest; indeed, he even smiled as though amused.
He strode back of the tent, while the other boys waited with wondering eyes. In a minute Elmer reappeared, nor was he alone. He had hold of a shrinking figure, also clad in pajamas, and these of so violent a color that they instantly recognized them as belonging to the boy who had clung so long to that red sweater.