THE MYSTERY AT CAMP LENAPE
CARL SAXON
_Author of “Blackie Thorne at Camp Lenape”_
[Illustration: Decoration]
BOOKS, INC.
NEW YORK BOSTON
COPYRIGHT 1940, 1931 BY BOOKS, INC.
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS
I. Battle-Royal 7
II. Sherlock on the Trail 16
III. The Midnight Man 27
IV. The Arm 35
V. In the Name of the Law 44
VI. Braves in Council 55
VII. News and More News 65
VIII. The Disappearing Act 75
IX. Off for Pebble Beach 87
X. The Man in Blue Again 96
XI. The Lair of the Enemy 104
XII. A Daring Resolve 112
XIII. The Trunk Room 122
XIV. So Long, Lenape! 131
XV. Four in the Forest 141
XVI. Hare and Hounds 152
XVII. Jerry Gets a Ride 162
XVIII. The Gypsy Van 174
XIX. Shots on the Highway 183
XX. The Last Trap 193
XXI. The Secret of the Lodge 203
XXII. Brotherly Love 214
THE MYSTERY AT CAMP LENAPE
CHAPTER I
BATTLE-ROYAL
The Utway twins were at it again.
“You are, too!” said Jake.
“You’re another!” said Jerry.
“And you’re his brother!” said Jake.
It was “quiet hour” in Camp Lenape. The peace of Sunday afternoon hung
above the rows of white tents on the hillside above the placid lake. In
Tent Ten, however, the quiet was broken by a sudden uproar.
Six wide-awake lads perched on upper bunks, grinning and nudging each
other. All eyes were turned on two bronze-haired, blue-eyed, sun-browned
boys who faced each other in the center of the tent.
As they stood thus, it seemed as if there was only one boy, looking at
himself in a large mirror; for the Utway twins were so much alike that
others often wondered how one of them knew whether he was himself, or
his brother—whether Jerry did not sometimes wake in the morning and
think for a moment that he might possibly be Jake. The resemblance was
heightened by the fact that both wore identical outfits—the basketball
shorts and green-and-white jersey that served as the camp uniform.
However, while Jerry wore a tennis sneaker on each foot, Jake wore only
one. The other shoe he brandished in an upraised arm with a threatening
air.
“That’s talking,” put in “wild Willie” Sanders, from his perch above the
two brothers. “You tell him, Jake!”
Jake turned on the speaker. “No noise from the nickel seats!” he warned.
“This is our business—no butting in. Now, Jerry, take back what you
said.”
“Well, take back what you said!” responded Jerry with some spirit. “And
quit aiming that shoe at me! Put it down!”
“Keep off!”
The band of onlookers, now reinforced by the grinning faces of many
inmates of neighboring tents, chuckled with delight. It looked as if
there was going to be a fight at last. And the watchers knew from past
experience that if the Utway twins got to scrapping again, the resulting
action would do much to brighten up a dull Sunday afternoon. Therefore
they waited happily for the first gong of the coming battle.
It looked as though Jerry meant business. With a swift rush he attempted
to snatch the menacing shoe from his brother’s hand. Jake neatly dodged,
and swung the improvised weapon in a dangerous arc. His fingers slipped
on the smooth rubber of the sole, and the shoe hurled itself with some
force at Jerry’s chest.
Jerry grunted as the flying sneaker took him in the midriff. He was not
hurt, but he was mad. He had forgotten completely what the original
quarrel was about; he knew that the shoe had been flung by accident, but
didn’t care; all he thought of was to “get even” with Jake. He snatched
the nearest thing at hand, which happened to be a canteen belonging to
little Pete Lister, and flung it wildly at his brother.
Jake dodged again, and returned this fire with an unwieldy missile that
proved to be Fat Crampton’s generously-built raincoat. This went wild of
the mark, and he ducked a whizzing flashlight while at the same time
reaching about for more ammunition. His hand touched “Sherlock” Jones’s
camera-case, and he was about to aim this at Jerry’s head when he was
taken full in the face with a canvas pillow, followed by a sweater and a
Boy Scout Handbook.
“Hey!” cried Jones, jumping down from his bunk in alarm, now that his
treasured possession was in danger, “that’s my camera-case you got!”
The contested object sailed past his ear and met its mark on Jerry’s
leg. By this time Jerry was in no frame of mind to distinguish friend
from enemy. He was seeing red, and the sight of young Jones dashing
toward him to regain his property raised his temper to the boiling
point. He reached out and greeted the oncoming boy with the contents of
a handy water-bucket.
The bucket was half full, sufficient to make a drenching torrent which
reduced the hapless Jones to a sopping state. His cry of rage filled the
tent. Wild Willie Sanders came to his rescue, and together they advanced
on Jerry, who was now armed with a loose tent-peg swinging on the end of
its rope.
Jake had taken advantage of his momentary freedom from attack to gather
together a goodly pile of ammunition—shoes, tennis rackets, pinecones,
pillows, and an empty wasp’s nest which Lefkowitz had collected as a
specimen. Chink Towner had entrenched himself on the top of a bunk, from
which fortified position he was able now and then to swipe the tumbling
combatants over the head with a pillow. Little Peter Lister managed to
give Fat Crampton a timely shove which sent him rolling between the legs
of his battling tent-mates.
Objects of all sorts, from baseball bats to cakes of soap, flew through
the air and landed in the low bushes outside the tent. Battle-cries and
shouts of the wounded rent the calm Sunday afternoon air.
The fight was no longer a private contest. The action had become
general. A whirling shoe had landed on “Kipper” Dabney, aide of Tent
Nine next door, and he had immediately led his cohorts in a vengeful
sally against their warlike neighbors. Somebody had refilled the empty
water-pail and was methodically doing his bit to make sure that not one
of the combatants was left undrenched. A scouting party from Tent Five
had raced downhill and were swiftly pulling the blankets from every bunk
and tossing them into the huckleberry bushes. Tent Ten was a
battleground of whirling arms, tumbling bodies, and flying weapons,
whereon no one knew his friend, and every boy fought for himself.
“Stop!”
A shrill voice of command cut through the tumult. Unseen by the rioters,
a short, erect man in scoutmaster’s uniform had appeared in their midst.
“Stop this at once! Put those things down! Attention!”
A boy on the outskirts of the group whistled in surprise. “Chickie! It’s
Mr. Colby!” He dodged behind a tree and disappeared. Silently the boys
from other tents faded from the scene, trying to look innocent and
peaceful. In ten seconds the members of Tent Ten were left alone amid
the ruins, under the stern gaze of Mr. Colby.
“Attention! Line up!”
Eight boys guiltily straightened, heels together.
“You, Utway, drop that baseball bat! Now, what’s the meaning of this?”
The councilor’s keen eyes flashed from one face to the next. The sudden
uproar had brought him running from his place at the leaders’ meeting on
the porch of the lodge. As officer of the day, it was his duty to take
charge of the camp program, inspect the tents, and assign merit points
for the conduct of each tent-group. He took his duties most seriously; a
short period of service in the National Guard had given him a mighty
respect for military discipline; and his strictness at all times was
well-known at Lenape.
“Men, you are a disgrace!” he snapped. A few feathers from a ripped
pillow sifted down and settled upon the brim of his hat, but not a boy
dared to smile. “A disgrace! Now, who’s responsible for this?”
His searching eye caught sight of the twins, standing together at one
end of the line. He well knew the reputation these husky brothers had
for unladylike conduct, and twice before had found it necessary to
separate them from each other’s grasp after sudden tussles. His lips
tightened as he stopped before Jerry, whose relinquished baseball bat
lay across his feet.
“You again, eh? Fighting with your brother, were you, Jake? Or Jerry,
whichever you are?”
“Well, you see——”
“Never mind accusing anybody else! You’ll have to learn that camp is no
place for continual bickering! Look at this tent! You’ve made hay of the
whole place. I’ll make it my job to see that Tent Ten gets the booby can
for this——” The councilor’s words were broken off short, and he fell
back, clapping his hands to his head.
He had been standing directly under the front tent pole, and the oil
lantern hanging there, which had somehow escaped being brought into the
fray, had suddenly descended from its nail at the top of the pole and
struck him full on the crown. The blow had been partly dulled by his
stiff hat, but he was smarting with anger. His bristling gaze fell on
the flushed face of Jake Utway, who stood beside the pole with defiance
in his eyes.
“You—you did that, Utway! Don’t deny it!”
Jake did not deny it. He had taken this means of defending his brother
from the full brunt of the guilt for the battle-royal.
“Well, why don’t you stop picking on Jerry? He wasn’t the only one to
blame! All of us did some.”
“You—you——Both you boys are incorrigible! Now, listen! You two must put
this tent in order at once—pick up everything, make all the beds, put
everything in its place! If this is not done, I shall recommend that you
serve ten hours apiece on the chain gang. No discipline—no discipline——”
Still rubbing his injured brow tenderly, the enraged scoutmaster rushed
from the tent, not daring to trust his temper further.
The group relaxed. “Guess that’ll fix you guys for soaking me with all
that water,” muttered Sherlock Jones. “Serves you right.”
“Shut up,” said Jerry rudely. “Say, Jake, thanks. He sure did look sad
when that lantern bopped him! I knew right away you did it on purpose.”
“Aw, he was picking on you,” answered Jake. “That’s all right. He got
even with us, though. It’s not going to be an easy job, cleaning up this
mess. Let’s get busy. Come on, pick up those blankets.”
“You’re no cripple—pick ’em up yourself!”
“Pick ’em up, you lazy loafer!”
“Who’s a loafer?”
“You are!”
“You’re another!”
“And you’re his brother!”
The Utway twins were at it again.