Tom Slade on Mystery Trail

ey stared at the wre

gested Doc, at last. "Do y

n," urg

g back now and again till the tattered mass becam

s never heard of again. I often heard my father speak about it

gets it back from you," said Connie

little hammer,"

ght," said Doc, "and that's what made people think he had got past that point-b

go was it?"

well known of Tom that he could

years, I thin

he condition it's in," said Garry, "but anything less

lost here at differen

that wa

skeleton might look like that in

any buzzards

Doc. "Look at Buzzard's

" said Garry. "You might as well say that Pike'

uppose that aeropl

he frame'll be as good as that for ten y

eye as if that wreck had been there for about s

ur keen scout eye and opening it in

time but the man lived for a wh

, my fraptious boy," said Doc. "The ske

rm-eaten?" Tom asked. "It had some carving o

t notice the carving,

en't any hickory trees anywh

punk scout-I must

irst-aid," said T

it was hickory

tly, "and it's being all worm-eaten proved i

to make the best

id, as he pushed along through the underbrush, "but

me day and carve things on it, either,"

ee years after he fell," said Doc reflectiv

d. "It's a mystery,

ad brought him there lent a new gruesomeness to their discoveries. And who but Tom Slade would have been able to keep an open mind an

cout," said Doc. "The rest

things. Yet if he could have looked into the future and seen there the extraordinary explanation of his discovery and known the strange adventures it would lead to, he

do you suggest, Tom?" Garry asked

st be nearly a mile farther on by now, and t

loud," s

ogethe

was no other sound, and they waited. Then, from somewhere far off came the faint answering of a human voice. It would never have been distinguishable save in th

in a kind of awe, eve

ing help,"

we can cut across and get there quicker. We'll chop our way through here. Let

n, his thick shock of hair down over his forehead-no more elated by triumph than he would have been discouraged by defeat, and as the brighter, more

rily. "Didn't you bring us here? Didn't you bring us all the way from Tem

talking marks last summer," said Tom, "and I

omebody was dying?" demanded Doc. "There's a whole lot of

they made fun of him a

t hasn't been used for a long time-see those spider webs

paratively open land which must have been very high for they were surprised to see, far below, several tw

omething more which the boys could not understand. They called, telling the speaker not to come

ll, sometimes going astray, then pausing to listen for the

nes not far distant, and knew that it must verge to the east as Tom had said and th

they called cheerily that they were scouts and for t

ond the radius of its flickering light they could see a dark figure hurrying toward them; then a face, greatly distraught in th

you. Let go-what's the matter? Wer

fellow of perhaps ei

of the tro

id the y

the lantern up; "I thought--D

k his head;

im in my lif

st for a minute I thought--I

res in the spring, with a spick and span tent in the background, a model lunch basket near by and a canoe crowded in. His nobby outfit was

t I counted seven-little bits of ones. I tried to get to them, but I got lost. You can't go to them. It looks as if you can, but you can't. They

oc. "We're s

ery different, then

said Doc. "

ff this hill; I've

ry, putting his arm over the boy

tional, and Garry, better than any o

" he said; "I spilled all the o

ur name?"

I'll show you the place."

s lantern up to the w

r at camp,"

, apparently bu

t-the silent evidence of departed pets. Several fishing rods lay against a tree. Close by was a makeshift fireplace. On a rough bunk inside the shack lay a m

arm-I think it's broken," said Je

tic stroke or something of that nature. He wondered if the injury to the arm had not been incidental to the man's seizure and sudden fall. People sometimes lingered in an unconscious condition for days

ing everything available under the head while Connie hurried back and

s how to get the patient away down to Temple Camp where medical

the verge of collapse, decided that it would be quite useless to signal for help, since it would m

they were coming and to have a doctor at camp. They believed that in the daylight they could carry the patient back over the

a little fire and sat about it chatting while they counted

thing of his history, but they got it piecemeal and had to

r father?"

entric-know what that is? If we hadn't come trout fishing it would have been all right. I co

stalking, don't

can't sneak up to them. You have to

was something of a sportsman

ntains and I have twenty-seven pigeons and two dogs-and I can have anything

, down the Hudson?" Garry asked in surprise. "

I like our boat best. If there's a war we're going to give it to the g

ng in their boat for the trout fishing of which the old gentleman was fond. How the pair had happened to penetrate to this

ch fish and I could send my pigeons back to James-he's our chauffeur-and I'd get bette

g you know,"

gered in his memory perhaps as the scene of woodland sports of his own boyhood, touched the four boys and s

but he died. That's because I was sick and my brain didn't work good. My other carr

of the pigeon and of how th

here," Jeffrey said hopelessly.

e he caused a straight thin column of thick smoke to rise high into the air and by inverting the deserted pigeon coop

HAVE

igil, watching for just such a message. Three times the words were spe

derly preparations for departure which followed were the cause of gaping amazement. He clung to Garry, as the others got his uncle onto the stretcher, and walked along at his

everybody fell for Garry almost at first sight. What they did notice was that he appeared to shun

y anyway, and thoroughly s

hit which he had apparent

ry," he said, l

ed his shoulde