THE MYSTERY BECOMES COMPLICATED
Jack and Wallace joined the other boys in their singing. Later there
circulated around the camp fire a series of humorous anecdotes followed
by tall stories, each boy trying to improve upon the previous tale.
Nuthin’ was doing his best to hold the attention of his listeners
(and he was succeeding fairly well) with a ghost story which he had
read in a magazine, but was relating as a personal incident. Suddenly
Paul, possessing the sharpest ear among the group, wheeled around
and listened carefully. The noise that he thought he heard stopped.
Dropping on his stomach, he put his ear to the ground. A couple of
minutes later, they could all hear various small noises, that sounded
like the breaking of twigs or rolling stones set loose. Somebody was
coming. Silent, awaiting the arrival of whoever it was, they sat hushed
around the fire and stared expectantly at the probable spot where he
would emerge. Tense, eager, every moment was an hour and the five or
six minutes they waited seemed like an age. Finally a short, husky
man, with a brutal face, emerged out of the woods and stepped into the
light. He glanced from one boy to another. His facial features were
distorted by his smile. At last he spoke. “Hello, fellows,” he said,
his voice a bit raucous and loud. “Did I scare you?”
Paul stood up. “Why, no,” he answered calmly, “not at all. Won’t you
join us?”
The man laughed with a gurgle in his throat. “Sure,” he answered, “but
only for a couple of minutes. I have a shack a couple of miles yonder,”
and he pointed in the general westerly direction. He joined the circle
of boys around the fire. “What are you fellows doing here?” he asked.
Paul answered for all of them. “We’re seven Boy Scouts,” he said, “and
we’re camping here for a week.”
“A week!” he exclaimed. He mused and stroked his chin. “Where are you
boys from?” he inquired further.
“Stanhope,” he was told.
“Stanhope! I go down there about once every two weeks for supplies.
But why do you boys camp here? I can tell you of a far better place to
camp.”
“Where?” one of the boys asked him.
“About three miles northwest of here,” he answered.
They all guessed at once that he was referring to their old camping
site. A couple of the boys were on the verge of telling him that they
knew all about the place. But Jack spoke up first and asked, “What sort
of a place is it?”
“Oh, it’s a very good camp site,” he answered. “There is a large
clearing where you can play ball or any other game, and a large stream
where you can go fishing and swimming.” he paused, glanced from one boy
to another, then added, “Oh, it’s a far better camping site than this.”
“Where did you say this place was, sir?” asked Paul, affecting
ignorance.
“Almost directly northwest of here,” the man replied with what seemed
undue eagerness. “You can’t miss it.”
All the boys nodded in unison, as though they understood perfectly the
directions he was giving them. In silence they wondered why the man
was so anxious to have them move from their present camping ground. He
tried hard not to betray his eagerness and anxiety, but he was a very
poor actor. Jack inquired, “Is there anything wrong with this camping
ground?”
The man scratched his head. “Well,” he answered, “not very much but
it isn’t anywhere near as good as the one I’m telling you about. You
really ought to go over there and see it.”
Wallace spoke up, saying, “I’m sure the gentleman has the best of
intentions and if he says that the camping ground he’s telling us
about is superior to this one, it must be so. In that case, it would
be a shame not to take advantage of the information. The first thing
tomorrow morning I’m going over there and take a look. If it is all the
gentleman says it is, we’re going to move.”
The man grinned, the curl of his lips betraying, his deep
self-satisfaction. “That boy is a smart one,” he cried. “He’s got
the right idea.” He jumped to his feet. “Well, I’ll be going,” he
announced. “So long, fellows.”
“So long.”
He went in the direction he came from. The boys held their breath and
silently waited for fully five minutes, until the man’s footsteps could
no longer be heard. Ken exploded. “Can you imagine that?” he cried. “He
said he was going the other way and he walked back in the direction he
came from.”
Paul held up his hand and motioned for order. “Hush, fellows,” he said.
“We can discuss this quietly. Trees and bushes have ears, you know.”
They huddled closely together and whispered among themselves. Nuthin’
voiced the thought that disturbed them all. “I wonder why he objects to
our camping here?” he asked.
William answered, “That’s something we all would like to know.”
Bluff stuttered, “S-s-something m-must be up.”
With a wave of his hand, William dismissed Bluff’s remark. “Anybody can
guess that,” he said. “But what is it about, that’s what we want to
know.” He turned to the other boys. “I’m stumped, I admit it,” he told
them. “Can anybody guess?”
By the blank look on their faces he could tell that all his companions
were just as much in the dark as he was. Jack whispered to Wallace,
“You think this has something to do with the story you told me?”
Wallace shrugged his shoulders. “I’m at a loss. I can’t imagine.”
Paul addressed them. “Fellows,” he said. “There is something up, that
we can all tell. There must be a reason why he wants us to move camp.
But what the reason is and what it’s all about, we can’t find out
tonight. There’s nothing we can do tonight anymore except go to sleep.
In the morning we will consider the whole thing and see what we can do.”
The boys were nonplussed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Paul.
They were loathe, however, to turn in just then. The incident had
the effect of keeping them wide awake and of arousing in them the
curiosity to know what it was all about. But it was evident that
there was nothing they could do that evening. So in spite of their
inclinations they all decided to go to sleep. But just then Bluff spoke
up and inspired a new argument. “D-d-don’t you think that w-w-we ought
t-t-take turns k-k-keeping guard?” he asked.
“Keep guard!” exclaimed Nuthin’, “What are you talking about?”
William jumped to Bluff’s defense. “Sure,” he cried, “he’s got the
right idea. We ought to keep guard all night and watch out against any
one creeping up on us while we’re asleep.”
At other times the boys would have laughed at the suggestion. But their
thoughts were such that the idea appealed to them and seemed reasonable.
Paul objected. “Don’t be foolish,” he said. “Who’ll creep up on us?
Who’ll want to harm us?”
William retorted hotly. “How should I know? But you were a witness to
what happened tonight. You’ll admit that the stranger was eager to have
us move camp. There must be a reason for it. And—”
“Yes,” interjected Wallace, “but does that imply that he wants to harm
us or attack us? I think you’re permitting your imagination to run
away with you—like that time with the ghost.”
That remark broke the ice and the boys laughed heartily, recalling the
ghost incident. The boys then dismissed all thoughts of danger and
decided to retire. It had been a big day for them and they were very
tired. They slept soundly all through the night without awakening or
being disturbed.
In the morning before breakfast, Jack took Paul aside and the two
carried on a hurried, whispered conversation. They then called over
Wallace and the three withdrew for a serious conference. After Wallace
had told his story, Paul asked, “Well, what’s your opinion of the whole
thing?”
Wallace said, “It’s my impression that there is some connection between
the incidents, but what it is I don’t know.”
Jack nodded. “I’m somewhat of the same opinion,” he commented.
“Let’s not try to solve the puzzle now,” remarked Paul. “Are you two
agreed that we ought to move camp?”
A decisive yes was Jack’s answer and Wallace approved, saying, “Same
here.”
“In that case we’ll have to convince the other fellows that we should
move,” said Paul.
“Do you think we ought to tell them the rest of the story?” inquired
Wallace of his two friends.
Jack shook his head. “I don’t think it will help any or serve any good
purpose,” he asserted. “It will only excite them.”
“Yes,” added Paul. “It’s a shame we have to keep it a secret from them,
but I think we’re justified. My opinion is that we should convince them
somehow that we ought to move. In the meanwhile, just as soon as you
two can get away, you’ll slip out quietly and explore the woods for a
couple of miles around and return in time for lunch. We’ll break camp
and move after lunch.”
As the boys were having breakfast and making wild guesses to solve the
mystery, a large airplane appeared in the sky, circled at a very low
altitude directly over their camp and then flew away again. The boys
stopped eating and kept their eyes glued to the machine. One of the
boys remarked, “Wonder who that is and what he wants?”
Someone suggested, “Maybe it’s Major McCarthy looking for us.”
“Don’t be silly,” was the snappy answer of someone else.
Wallace noticed Jack writing something down in his notebook. “What is
it you’re writing?” he asked.
Jack shrugged his shoulders. “The numbers on the plane. It might come
in handy sometime.”
The plane disappeared into the horizon and the boys resumed their
breakfast. For a while they discussed whether the airplane appearing
overhead had any connection with the stranger of the previous night.
The arguments for and against were about evenly divided. Then Paul
opened the discussion by remarking casually, “Well, fellows, do you
think we ought to break camp and move?”
William was the first to object. “What for?” he wanted to know.
Wallace explained. “We all know,” he said, “that the stranger who was
here last night must have good reason for wanting us to move away from
here. Whatever it may be, it is most advisable for us to go away.”
“But this is a good camp site,” argued William, “so why should we go
away. Nobody is going to harm us.”
“Last night you thought differently,” Jack reminded him.
“All right, what I want to do is stick around and see what happens,” he
confessed.
“If you do that, you might regret it,” warned Paul. A few of the boys
gasped, and he hurried to explain his statement. “What I mean,” he
added, “is that you don’t wait until your car is stolen before you
lock the garage. I’m sure no harm would come to us if we stayed here,
but why stay here and wait for someone to come and kick us when we can
avoid it?”
He spoke with a certain anxiety and he transmitted it to the other
boys, for they kept silent for a while. Ken, however, sided with
William and he remarked, “Paul is perfectly logical and reasonable,
but I still don’t see why we should run away. Nothing has happened to
us and I imagine that the stranger last night was some crank who has a
shack somewhere around here.”
William supported his friend’s argument. “That’s right,” he said,
“There’s no reason for us to turn tail and run away.”
His twin brother explained, “It isn’t a matter of turning tail or
running away. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If we
can prevent any trouble, why shouldn’t we do it?”
Nuthin’ said, “Let’s stop arguing and take a vote on it. Then we’ll see
how the land lies.”
A vote was taken and the majority favored the proposal that they break
camp and move. On Paul’s suggestion it was decided to break camp after
lunch.