Randy vaguely wondered how Trevor knew that this was a young forest, but he believed him, especially because Trevor had vowed to read The World Book Encyclopedia from Volume A to Z and was already on Volume S.

The four friends had been together since kindergarten and had all now finished fifth grade. Randy Ables, a smart, blonde-haired boy who made good grades, usually came up with the creative ideas. They were then taken over by Trevor Williams, a brown-haired boy who also made good grades and was a computer genius.

The two twins, Aaron and Susan Frankson, were also a big part of the team. Aaron was extremely strong and helped with all of the group's major projects. Susan, Aaron's twin sister, helped a lot with planning and was also very intelligent.

The foursome swung over a stream and trudged through the marshy areas in search of the four perfect trees.

Three hours later they still hadn't found the four trees. They had found lots of trees in twos and even three in a neat triangle, but no squares.

Suddenly Randy found four perfect trees in a small clearing. It was bordered on one side by a large lake, on another side was a swamp, and the other two sides were bordered by heavy foliage with only one small, natural opening which was very hard to see. It was the ideal place to build the fort... to build Fort Eagle.