Tom Slade on Mystery Trail

id Garry, as they climbed the slope which

nes, hey?"

ood old-fash

boo ghosts,

l you want to," said Connie, "

!" called Doc. "Believe me, this

ow

s-reduced to a common d

again they paused to listen to a light patter growing fainter and fainter, or a sudden noise as of some startled denizen of the wood seeking a new shelter. Ghostly shadows flitted here and there in the m

d, trying to locate an owl which seemed to be shrieking its complaint at this intrusi

brook, I gue

effort and resourcefulness were now imperative, and mindful, too, though sca

here all alone with so

mething," an

e wasn't even a ghost of it, as Doc remarked. But the sound of the water guided them now and they worked

enough to squeeze through, the others following and carryin

ging thoroughfare, I

. "I don't seem to hav

nd dishevelled, at the brook which tumbled ove

up, do you know t

" Tom said. "I must have come another way before. I don't

ted in the dense woods and shocked the still night, but no ans

hance as a snowball in a

look for a trail. If there's anybody here they'll be upstream; it's too steep from here down. An

the oil in this one

e forest they had just come through and they picked their way along

his place in a thousand years; that

st three thousa

ad paused and was holding h

etty straight line," he said.

, but he added, "They are in a pretty strai

Tom, to the others. "Do yo

long the edge; of the wate

re with your

hich sometimes send a thrill over the discoverer-a human footprint. There upon that lonesome mountain, surrounded by the all but impenetrable forest, was that

quite impossible of detection, and it was in vain that the boys sought for others. Y

rubber boot

aybe whoever was wearing that boot slipped off one of those stones and got it wet. That's why i

ope of finding some one, but the remoteness and wildness of the place had grown upon them and the whole chaotic scene seemed so

R WERE EXAMINING-

What d'you say we call again-all together? The

s, calling loud and long, but there wa

aid Tom, "

ian chorus that it left them breathless and

said Doc

ith the distance, which died away and seemed to mingl

ou hea

a tree-toad

a rest, if indeed it came from human lips, then

e. "It's over there to the

ce was impersonal, vague, having scarce more substance than a dream, but it thrilled the four boys and mad

off there," Tom pointed; "we might head straight for the sound or we

through intertwined and over-arching thickets where they were forced to use their belt-axes to chop their way through. Now and aga

breathe easier as it flowed through a comparatively open stretch, and

do you see a streak of white way

. "It's a tent, I gu

ll again,

s, stepping cautiously over wet stones and picking their way over great masses of jag

d upon a great rock and holding his lantern above a c

gh they were. For there, wedged between the two converging walls of rock and plainly visible in the mo

llapsed and fell rattling into the bed of the cleft. He held

believe me," shivered Connie

t to be a tent among the trees, they stopped aghast at seeing among the branches of several elms that most pathetic and complete of all wrecks, the tattered, twis