"Like finding a needle in a haystack," Russell Steele said. "You must know these woods, all right."
"My fire tower is about five miles from here. I'll take you there and we can radio headquarters. They'll hook you up direct with Washington."
Shading his eyes against the light, Sandy sat up. "What's up, Uncle Russ?"
"Oh, Sandy, you're awake. Good. We'll have to break camp immediately. The Pentagon has been trying to get in touch with me. Very urgent. This is Dick Fellows, Sandy; he's a U.S. Forest Ranger."
"Hi," Sandy said, squinting at the young man who was crouched in front of their tent.
The ranger touched two fingers to his stiff-brimmed hat and grinned. "Sorry to disturb your sleep. You guys must be plenty tired if this is your first day on the trail." He stretched out one hand toward Prince, who was still growling suspiciously deep in his throat. "Your friend here doesn't trust midnight visitors."
Russ released his grip on the dog's collar and gave him a light smack on the rump. "He'll be all right, now that he knows you're not an enemy. He wouldn't have attacked you, in any case, unless you pulled a knife or a gun. Prince has been trained to hold his quarry at bay until help arrives."
Sandy climbed out of his bedroll. "I'd better go wake up the rest of the gang."
"The rest of the gang is already awake," Jerry's voice sang out from the darkness, "lying here quivering with our blankets pulled over our heads."
Quiz Taylor crawled out of the tent on his hands and knees, fumbling in his breast pocket for his eyeglass case. "This moron got it into his thick head that we were being attacked by Indians from the reservation."
Dick Fellows laughed. "He's partly right at that, I guess. My grandpaw was a pure-blood Dakota."
Russell Steele struggled into his boots. "Well, suppose you escort us back to your tepee, chief."
They reached the ranger fire station shortly after three in the morning. It was a tower of tubular steel reaching over one hundred feet into the air. Jerry craned his neck at the small cabin perched on top of it, a boxlike silhouette against the brilliant starlit sky.
"You _live_ up there?" he asked the ranger.
"Certainly," Dick said. "It's very comfortable."
He led the way up the flight of steel stairs that ran around the outside of the tower. When they reached the platform at the top, Jerry looked down and grabbed frantically at the guard railing.