CLUES
At a nod from Paul, Jack and Wallace soon slipped away into the woods.
When they were a safe distance away, Jack called a halt to consider
carefully their first move. They had taken the direction in which the
stranger had gone. Wallace proposed, “I think that the first thing we
can do is follow the stranger’s trail.”
Jack mused for some seconds. Finally he replied, “I guess it wouldn’t
hurt to do that, but I don’t think it will be possible.”
“Why?”
“Because if the stranger had a good reason to want us to move, and
knowing that we’re Boy Scouts and capable of following a trail, he
wouldn’t be so stupid as to leave a trail for us to follow.”
“Yes,” agreed Wallace, “that’s very logical. But what else can we do?”
“Nothing yet. For the present let’s see if we can follow the trail.”
For about a quarter of a mile they had no difficulty in following the
trail. Soon they came to a rocky ledge and the trail disappeared. The
boys therefore decided to separate and examine the ground within a
radius of a hundred yards. Jack was busily engaged looking for signs
of a trail when he heard a sharp whistle and he knew that Wallace was
calling him. Again the whistle broke the silence of the mountain and
he determined the approximate spot where it was coming from. He found
Wallace sitting on a rock and waiting for him. A short distance away
were some footprints that Wallace had come upon. They followed the
trail for about a hundred yards when Jack called a halt. He got on
his knees and examined the footprint very carefully. Nodding his head
satisfactorily, he said, “I’m pretty sure it’s the same footprint all
right. Notice, however, the direction the trail seems to follow.”
Both boys took out their compasses. “The trail seems to be leading to
our old camp site,” averred Wallace.
“Correct,” pronounced Jack. “Therefore we’re going to disregard it.”
“What should be our next move then?” inquired Wallace.
“The cave,” replied Jack. “We ought to try and locate the cave.”
They returned to the ledge and sat down to determine their position.
For that purpose they drew a map. A small circle indicated their camp
site; a wavering line, running northwest, and another circle indicated
their old camp site. Then they put in the path they had followed and
approximately their position. “Now,” said Jack, “according to your best
knowledge, about where do you think the cave should be situated?”
Wallace bent over the map and drew a double line. “This,” he said,
“is the stream, west of our camp site. The cave, therefore, should be
directly south. In that case we have to return to camp and—”
Jack interrupted. “No,” he said, “we won’t do that. We’ll cut across.”
Wallace approved the plan. Rising, the boys determined by compass the
exact direction they had to follow. The first thing they had to do was
to drop from the ledge about eight feet below. After that, they were
obliged to take a descending route and at the same time cut across in
the general direction of the camp. Pretty soon they reached a level
plateau heavily wooded. Indian file, one behind the other, they walked
along slowly and carefully. Suddenly they came upon a large clearance,
circular and with possibly a little less than half a mile radius. Jack
lay down on his stomach and Wallace did likewise. Jack said, “Quick,
seeing this field, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?”
Wallace shook his head. Jack added, “Remember the airplane circling
overhead this morning? Now put two and two together.”
Wallace whistled. “An airport!” he exclaimed.
“Correct!”
For a while they continued lying on their stomachs and carefully
examined the field and the outlying woods. Absolute silence reigned.
Not a sound, not a moving shadow, as far as they could see or hear.
Finally Wallace whispered, “What now?”
The two boys rose and, single file, Jack leading, they walked through
the woods, keeping within sight of the clearing but trying hard to keep
themselves hidden. Jack stepped on a twig and it snapped, the sound
echoing loud through the dead silence of the woods. He stopped and the
two boys remained rooted to the spot for at least five minutes. They
continued. Every once in a while they strained their ears to listen.
Not a sound. Wallace suggested they again approach the edge of the
clearing. Getting down on their hands and knees they crept up to the
very edge of the woods. Lying on their stomachs, they let their eyes
roam all around the field. Suddenly Jack grasped Wallace by the wrist.
“Ouch!” he cried.
Jack cautioned him to be silent. “Sh!” he hissed and put a finger over
his lips. Then he pointed. Wallace shook his head; he saw nothing.
Again Jack pointed, but his friend still saw nothing. “You remain here
and keep your eyes wide open. I’m going to creep out and get it.” He
crept forward on his stomach for about ten feet, then crept back,
dragging something along. Crouching alongside his friend, he showed him
the object and whispered, “Rifle!”
Wallace nodded. “What’s your opinion?” he asked.
His companion shook his head. “Don’t know,” he whispered.
“Arms smugglers!” Wallace seriously suggested.
They examined the weapon. It was an old style army rifle. Jack
whispered, “You may be right about ‘them’ being arms smugglers, but I
have my doubts. If you consider, you find that smuggled arms can have
only one destination—South America. And we’re too far away from the
Mexican border.”
Wallace clutched his friend by the sleeve. “That’s just it,” he
answered eagerly. “Just because we’re so far away from the Mexican
border, they have less chance of being caught or suspected.”
Jack mused. “Hm! you may be right. But what do you think we ought to do
now? Return to camp or what?”
Simultaneously, both boys flattened out. Two men emerged from the
woods, no more than about seven or eight feet in front of them. The
boys nudged each other. One of the men was the stranger. The other man
was saying, loud enough so the boys could hear, “Okey, then, we’ll be
here tomorrow at the usual time. And make sure those Boy Scouts are
gone.”
The stranger answered, “Okey, Chief. But suppose they don’t go, how am
I to get rid of them?”
“Frighten them away, scare them, but don’t use any violence,” the Chief
answered.
The stranger saluted. “Okey, Chief, I’ll do just as you say.”
They parted and the Chief walked across the clearing while the stranger
turned on his heel and entered the woods again. The two boys lay
there flattened to the ground, not daring to breathe, lest they give
themselves away. They watched the Chief cross the clearing and enter
the woods at the other end. Ten minutes elapsed before they dared to
utter a whisper. Jack said, “The cave! Let’s try to locate it.”
“What about the rifle?”
“We’ll leave it here. We have no use for it.”
They crept along noiselessly to the approximate spot where the stranger
entered the woods. Using that as their starting point, they searched
everywhere but didn’t find a sign of the cave. Not even the slightest
clue. Finally Wallace suggested that they return to camp and Jack
agreed.
At camp, Jack and Wallace had not been missed for a while. Paul kept
a sharp eye on the boys to see that they didn’t walk off. Soon Ken
suggested that they do something. William cried, “Sure, let’s have a
knot-tying contest. Get the fellows together.”
When the boys assembled, it was evident that two of the group were
missing. Someone said, “Hey, Jack and Wallace aren’t here.”
They all looked at each other in astonishment. Paul remarked casually,
“I saw them only about a minute ago. They must have walked somewhere
and will surely come right back.”
Bluff offered a solution. “L-l-let’s have the c-c-contest without
t-them,” he proposed.
“That’s right,” seconded Paul. “If they’re not here, it’s their hard
luck.”
They proceeded with the contest. As time wore on all the boys became
strangely conscious of the absence of the two boys. To dispel their
fears, Paul remarked, “They must have gone out reconnoitering. They’ll
surely be back soon.”
As Jack and Wallace did not come back, the boys began to harbor all
sorts of fears. Each boy made believe that he wasn’t at all worried.
Time hung heavy on their hands and the morning seemed to stretch out
into an eternity. Soon the boys lost all interest in what they were
doing and just sat around doing nothing, keeping intensely silent.
When someone did dare to whisper, the sound seemed to shatter the air
and grate on their nerves. Finally, as lunch time approached, William
jumped to his feet and cried, “Why are we sitting here like dummies? A
couple of us ought to go out looking for them.”
Paul spoke calmly and with reserve. He said, “It wouldn’t do to search
for them now. To begin with, we don’t know which way they went.
Secondly, they haven’t been missing such a terribly long time. In all
likelihood they’ll return to camp soon.”
“Yes,” echoed Ken. “Let’s prepare lunch and that will give us something
to do and keep us busy for a while.”
The only one who objected was William. Words or arguments he felt were
futile, so he just gritted his teeth and helped prepare lunch. When it
was done, they waited a while and then silently agreed to eat and leave
some over for the boys. Even Paul was becoming worried. He distinctly
told them not to be absent long. And it was almost six hours now that
they were gone. He didn’t himself know what to do, whether to send a
searching party out for them or merely sit tight and wait. Rising, he
walked over to the stream for a drink of water. And just then the three
met face to face. Paul was angry. “What kept you away so long?” he
demanded.
He felt relieved that at last they were back. Jack quickly summarized
their experiences. Then he asked, “Did they miss us?”
“And how! There is only one thing to do now and that’s to tell them
everything.”
“We might as well,” agreed Wallace, and Jack had no objection either.
The boys walked into the clearing. Nuthin’ was the first to notice them
and he screamed, “Hey, fellows, here they are!”
Instantaneously, Jack and Wallace were surrounded and plied with
questions. “Where have you two been?” someone demanded.
“What’s the idea of disappearing without telling us?” they were
reproached.
William shook a threatening finger under his brother’s nose. “You ever
do that again,” he warned, “and I’ll—I’ll spank you.”
The boys laughed. Paul said, “They’re hungry, fellows. Let them eat
first and then we’ll make them tell us all about it.”
Jack and Wallace had their lunch. The other boys gathered around the
two and Wallace told the first part of the story. When he was through
talking, some of the boys shook their heads in amazement. William
exclaimed dolefully, “And you never even mentioned it to us.”
Wallace was embarrassed. He replied modestly, “There was nothing to
tell. It might have sounded fishy.”
Jack then appropriated the floor and narrated their adventures of that
morning. In conclusion, he said, “You fellows now know all the facts.
I must impress upon you, however, the necessity of absolute secrecy.
To begin with, the wrong ears may hear the story and then it will be
too bad. Secondly, there is not enough evidence to call in the police.
There is nothing we can prove. They would say that we invented it all
just to get a lot of publicity. And that isn’t true, is it fellows?”
Ken contributed the remark, “If this thing is ever solved, we’ll have
to do it ourselves.”
They all agreed that that was right.
William inquired, “But isn’t there something we can do now?”
Paul replied, “Yes, there is.” The boys were all attention. “What we
can do now,” he said, “is to break camp and move. We’ll postpone
further discussion until after we have pitched camp again at the old
site.”
The boys enjoyed heartily the dramatic manner in which Paul had aroused
their curiosity only to tell them something which was routine. They
jumped to their feet and immediately got busy. By sunset they had
moved.