DICK MAKES A FIND
"Now, I don't know how it is going to hit the rest of you," remarked
Tom Reade, as he put down his coffee cup at the end of the hasty
breakfast, "but I'll confess that I'm not wholly keen about solving
the puzzle of the lake mystery."
"Why not?" challenged Dave in astonishment.
"It's just like this," Tom went on. "Solving human riddles is
all right in the daytime, but it's likely to spoil our rest at
night. I can't help feeling that last night's Sploderite function
was a mark of displeasure over our unwelcome interest in the lake
mystery."
"Suppose we grant that," Dick answered, "yet how would last night's
rascals expect us to connect the bang concert with Tom and Dan's
canoe trip and discovery yesterday afternoon?"
"There's something in that idea," Reade admitted. "The unknowns
might hardly expect us to show as much human reasoning power as
all that. Yet I'm of the opinion that we'll continue to rest
badly at night as long as we continue to feel any unhealthy curiosity
about the lake mystery. In other words, my belief is that our
interest in the affairs of perfect strangers is regarded by the
unknowns as rudeness that must be rebuked."
"I don't care a hang about the lake mystery, anyway," gaped Dan,
who was giving forth a series of yawns, his mouth only partially
hidden by his right hand.
"There's just one strong point to the other side of the question,"
Dick argued. "There's a very fair amount of reason to believe
that a man may have been drowned late yesterday afternoon, and
that Tom and Dan saw him go down for the last time. That probability
existing, I believe we are bound, as good citizens, to see if
we can find any trace of a drowned man. If we can, then as good
citizens it is clearly our further duty to report the matter to
the authorities. If we can't find the remains of the drowned
man, then I am under the impression that, at the least, Tom and
Dan must report to some county officer just what they did see,
and the county can then take up the question in any way it pleases.
First of all, however, we ought to look for the body of a drowned
man."
This view prevailing, Tom and Dan launched the canoe, Dick entering
as passenger, while the other two handled the paddles.
Some brisk work took the canoe over, as nearly as Tom could judge,
to the spot where the haunting face had been seen so briefly on
the afternoon before.
Under the bright morning sun the waters were clear here, though
the bottom could not be seen.
"Paddle half a mile up the lake, then down," Dick ordered.
This was done, Prescott and the paddlers keeping a sharp lookout.
No body of a drowned man was seen, however, either on the surface
or under the water.
"I don't believe anyone was drowned," re marked Dick at last.
"There is no wind today, and hardly any such thing as current
on this placid water. Whoever the man was, he got ashore."
"That's my belief," agreed Reade.
"Where's that brush arrangement?" asked Dan suddenly. "That frame
all trimmed with green boughs."
Nor was this to be seen, either, though an object of that size
would have been visible at any point on the water within half
a mile.
"The man got ashore, all right, and he took care of the bush-trimmed
frame as well," was Prescott's conclusion. "Whoever the man was,
whatever happened, I don't believe that anything tragic happened
in the water. For that matter, fellows, isn't it possible that,
in the gathering gloom, and with the sky somewhat overcast, you
were deceived about the ghastly, haunted look in that face? Isn't
it likely that the look you thought you saw in the man's face
was merely an effect of the unusual light of late yesterday afternoon?"
Tom shook his head emphatically.
"Why don't you ask us," demanded Dan ironically, "if it weren't
just imagination on our part that we saw the face at all?"
"I don't doubt your having seen the face," Dick replied. "That
wasn't anything that the light supplied."
"Then where is the man?" quizzed Dalzell.
"Safe on shore somewhere, beyond a doubt," Dick answered
"Then the chase takes us ashore, doesn't it?" asked Dan.
"Yes; if we're going to follow up the matter any further," Dick
replied.
"We ought to follow it up," Reade insisted.
"Why?" asked Prescott.
"For one thing," smiled Tom, "it will give us something interesting
to do."
"Should we find our interest in meddling with other folks' business?"
wondered their leader.
"We've a right to, when those people come around and spoil our
night's rest for us," Tom retorted.
"It was a bit like a challenge, wasn't it?" Dick laughed.
"Besides," Dan urged, "we certainly saw enough yesterday afternoon
to show us that there is something tragic in the air around this
sleepy old lake. If anyone is in trouble we ought to try to help
that one out of trouble. And there was real, aching trouble in
that face if ever I saw evidences of trouble."
"I guess we'll put in part of the day looking into the matter,"
Dick assented.
"Where shall we land?" asked Dalzell.
"As nearly as possible opposite the exact spot where you saw the
man's head," Prescott made answer.
"Over there where that bent birch shows between the two chestnut
trees," announced Reade, pointing with his paddle.
"Pull for that place," Dick ordered.
In a few minutes the canoe was drawn up along the shore so that
Dick could step on land.
"You'd better come with me, Tom," said Prescott.
"And I'm the nifty little boat-tender who stays here and dozes
in the shade?" asked Danny Grin, with a grimace.
"Are you good and strong this morning?" queried Dick, with a smile.
"Strong enough to walk, anyway," Dan retorted.
"Then perhaps you're strong enough to paddle back across the lake
and bring over two more fellows. Then, when you get back here,
leave one of the pair here in the canoe, and we will get them
to keep it a hundred feet or more off shore. We don't want our
craft destroyed. And be sure, Dan, that the fellow who stays
behind on the other side of the lake understands that he's to
stick right by the camp and watch it for all he's worth."
"I've got my orders," clicked Danny Grin, with a mock salute.
"Then let's see how well you can paddle alone."
Dalzell gave a few swift, strong turns of the paddle that sent
the light canvas canoe darting over the water.
"Now, come along," urged Tom. "I'm anxious to get busy this morning."
First of all, the two high school boys walked up the lake shore
for some distance, keeping their eyes wide open and all their
senses on the alert. Then, returning, they walked for a considerable
distance down the shore.
"There are our reinforcements coming," announced Tom, pointing
across the lake. "Danny and his load will be here within fifteen
minutes."
"We'll wait for the other fellows, before going away from the
shore," Dick proposed. "If we started now they wouldn't know
where to find us."
Returning to the landing place, Dick silently waved his hat until
he caught the attention of Dave Darrin, seated in the bow of the
canoe, who answered the signal just as silently.
Presently the craft came up to the shore.
"Who's going to stay in the canoe?" Dick inquired.
"I am," Harry Hazelton declared dolefully. "We drew lots on the
other side. Greg drew the shortest twig, so he had to stay at
the camp. I got the next shortest twig, so my job is boat-tender."
Dave and Dan stepped ashore. Heaving a sigh, Harry paddled out
on the lake some hundred and fifty feet from land.
"Now, how are we going to beat up the country on this fine July
morning?" Tom wanted to know.
Dick stood looking at the surrounding ground.
"I think I know as good a plan as any," he announced, after a
pause. "Dave, you and I will walk down the lake, using our eyes
and ears. Tom and Dan will go in the opposite direction. Each
pair will keep along until our watches show that we've been going
ten minutes. Then we will walk up the slope a hundred steps and
turn toward the centre, meeting probably about the end of the
second ten minutes. After that, if we decide to do so, we can
go further inland from the lake. If there's a house or hut, or
any fellow camping out in this neighborhood we ought to find him
without much trouble. What do you fellows say to my plan?"
"It's about as systematic as anything could be," Dave agreed.
"But what if one pair of us find something?"
"We'll try our best to communicate with the other pair," Dick
rejoined. "Suppose, Dave, that you and I run into something interesting
and don't want to leave it? Tom and Dan, not meeting us at the
appointed place, will know enough to keep right on over our course
until they find us."
"That looks plain enough," nodded Reade thoughtfully.
"All right, then," Dick declared. "Now we'll start."
He and Dave started off at a swinging gait. The first time Prescott
turned to look behind him Reade and Danny Grin had already vanished.
Dick kept close to the shore, Dave moving in a parallel line a
few steps up the slope.
"There isn't any hut, lodge or camp down there," Dave called softly,
"or else we'd have seen it from our camp on the other side of
the lake."
"I know it," Dick nodded. "What I'm trying to do is to see if
I can find any hint, on the shore, of how that fellow landed yesterday,
without Tom or Danny catching sight of him. Of course, a very
clever swimmer could have gone quite a distance under water.
and I want to see if I can find any sign of anything that would
have hidden his landing from the fellows in the canoe."
"Oh!" nodded Dave understandingly.
The full ten minutes of searching passed without the slightest
trace of a discovery.
"Halt," Dick called up smilingly. "Now, join me, Darry, while
I count off the hundred steps up the slope."
This done, the chums started backward, keeping a course as nearly
parallel with the shore as was possible.
"Now, try to be keener than ever," Dick urged, as Dave paced off
another twenty steps higher up. "We're in a growth of deeper
forest, with a bigger tangle of underbrush and it will be easy
enough to overlook something."
The two boys trudged on. They were five minutes on their way
back, perhaps, when Dick heard a sudden scrambling in the underbrush
not far away. Then Prescott caught sight of a human figure, yet
so fleetingly that he could have given no description of it.
"Is that you, Darry?" he called sharply.
But it wasn't, for no answer came back, save for the slight sound
of someone going through the brush farther on.
"Dave! Darry!" shouted Prescott. "Here! Quickly!"
Then Dick dashed on in pursuit, calling again and again until
Dave came in sight and joined in the chase.
"What was it?" panted Dave, as he came within hailing distance.
"Someone running away from me," Dick explained.
"What did he look like?"
"I didn't have a chance to see. Let's travel hot-foot."
Yet presently Dick halted. Dave stopped beside him.
"We've passed him; he has doubled on us," uttered Darrin in a
tone of intense chagrin. "We belong in the primary class in wood
lore."
Then, suddenly, they heard a slight noise again. Forward they
dashed. Now they came out to a place where the ground was more
open. Before the two high school boys rose a great boulder of
rock, its front sloping backward, and running up to a height of
fifty feet or more. They had already seen this boulder from the
water.
"That fellow ran into the open, but he didn't have time to cross
it," announced Dick in a tone of conviction, as the pair halted
at the foot of the boulder. "He could have gone up this side;
there are crevices enough for foothold. But in that case we'd
have seen him."
Dave stood plucking absent-mindedly at the leaves of a bush in
a clump that grew at the foot of the boulder. Suddenly Dick glanced
down, noting that his feet were on boggy ground, though the surrounding
soil was firm enough.
"Is there a spring running out of the solid rock?" wondered Dick,
reaching out and pulling one of the bushes forward.
Then he gave a sudden shout of discovery:
"Look here, Dave! We're on the track of it! These bushes conceal
the mouth of a cave! This is where our fugitive has gone!"