AN UNEXPECTED MEETING
The three chums, starting on their search for Frank, soon found the
telephone line.
"Now we're here, the next question is: Which way are we to go?" asked
Bart. "It's all guess work."
"Not exactly," spoke Ned, and he used the same reasoning that Frank had,
in deciding to follow the line as it led in the opposite direction from
that of Darewell. "That's probably the way Frank would go," concluded
Ned, pointing to the right, "and that's the way we want to go."
His companions agreed with him, and off they started. As they advanced
they found the woods growing more dense, and, as had Frank, they had to
make long circuits at times, to avoid bog-holes. They kept on for some
time, but saw no signs of their chum.
"I wonder where he stayed all night?" asked Fenn.
"Trust Frank to look out for himself," remarked Bart. "He found a good
warm place, I guess. But I don't see why he is staying away. If he was
caught out after dark, and couldn't find his way back, he could see the
trail by this time. I wonder why we don't meet him?"
"Maybe he's hurt," suggested Fenn.
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Ned. "There's nothing in these woods to hurt a fly.
I don't believe there's even a fox."
"I didn't mean animals," Fenn went on.
"What then?"
"Why he might have fallen, or, he might have met some bad men."
"Of course he might have taken a tumble and sprained his ankle, or
something like that," Bart said. "But as for men, if there are any in
these woods, which I very much doubt, what reason would they have for
harming Frank?"
"It might be in connection with that mysterious secret he seems
bothered about."
"Oh, you're worse than a half-dime novel," cried Ned with a laugh. "Come
on, and stop that dismal croaking."
Still following the telephone line, the boys went on. Now and then they
stopped to listen for any sounds which might indicate that Frank, or any
other person, was coming through the woods. But the forest was silent,
save for the noise made by the wind and the birds.
Meanwhile Frank had awakened after a night of fitful slumber under the
hay. His first act was to go to a place where he could observe the
sanitarium. There was no sign of life about it, and the boy, after
watching a few minutes, began to feel faint for lack of food.
"I'd better go back to camp," he said to himself. "I need some breakfast,
and a good rest. Then I can start out again. But I can't tell the boys
what I have seen. It is not yet time."
Waiting awhile, to see if he could detect any movement around the
institution, but finding all was silence, Frank started back toward camp,
following the telephone line.
He walked on for some time, pondering over what he had seen, and vainly
speculating whether or not he was on the right track.
"I believe I'm on the trail," he said. "I thought he might know me, but,
of course if it's true as it says in the letters, he could not. It might
not have been the right time. I must try again."
Frank's meditations were interrupted by a noise in the woods just ahead
of him. It sounded like someone coming through the bushes. Then he could
distinguish voices.
"I wonder if I'd better hide?" he thought.
Before he could put that plan into execution there came around a turn in
the trail he had made, in following the line, three boys. The next
instant, with glad cries of welcome, the three chums hurried forward to
greet their companion.
"Where in the world have you been?"
"What made you give us the slip that way?"
"Tell us all about it?"
Fenn, Bart and Ned, in turn, asked those questions. Frank looked from one
to the other.
"I'm sorry, boys, but I can't tell you," he said. "I wish I could, and
I hope you'll not think it mean of me not to. I may be able to very
soon, and clear up all this mysteriousness, that is worrying me so.
Until then--"
"Until then I think you'd better have something to eat," suggested Bart,
noting how pale and tired Frank looked. "We brought along something, but
we didn't expect to have the fun of sharing it with you. Sit down here
and fill up. Fenn made the sandwiches so I guess they ought to be good."
"Yes, and if you'll wait a minute I'll give you a hot drink,"
Fenn cried.
From his pocket he produced a tin flask of cold coffee. He gathered up
some dried sticks, and built a little fire. Then he placed the tin flask
on it, and, in a little while there was a warm beverage ready. Frank
sipped it from the collapsable cup Ned carried, and, after eating some
sandwiches, felt better.
"Now for camp!" cried Bart, "unless," looking at Frank, "you have some
other plan."
"No, I'm anxious to get back."
"Didn't sleep very good in the haystack I guess," commented Ned.
"Haystack! How did you know?" asked Frank, in excited tones.
"One look at your clothes, with hay sticking all over them, tells me
that, as a detective would say. Also, your garments are as wrinkled as
though you'd been put through a wringer. Am I right?"
"Yes, it was a haystack for mine last night," Frank admitted with a
smile. "It was fairly comfortable, though it tickled my ears a bit."
The boys started back for camp. Though the three were, naturally
enough, very curious as to where Frank had been, and his object in
slipping away, they did not question him. On his part Frank did not
again refer to his night's absence, but, when he reached the tent, he
crawled into his bed and stayed there until late in the afternoon, for
he was very tired.
"I wish we had our boat here," remarked Ned, as later on the four chums
strolled off in the direction of the little stream.
"It would be too big for this creek," observed Ned. "If we had a smaller
boat, or a canoe, it would do very well."
"Let's make one," suggested Fenn. "There's lots of birch bark here and we
can do it in a few days."
"All right," agreed Bart. "We'll start it in the morning. I never made a
canoe, but we can't do any worse than try, at any rate."
The boys found it harder work than they had expected, but they had plenty
of time and knew something of boat building, for they had constructed
several small craft.
They had their knives, and two small hatchets. They used young saplings
for keel and the ribs, and, with patience, they managed to strip off
enough of the birch bark to cover the canoe.
It took them two days to get all the materials together and then, when
the canoe was roughly shaped, they had to spend much more time on it,
rendering it water-proof by smearing the seams with pitch and gum which
exuded from several trees near at hand. They had used withes of willow to
bind the boat together, and, though it was a very crude looking affair,
the boys thought it would serve for what they wanted.
They chopped out some rough paddles, and on the fifth day the boat
was ready to try. They put it into the water in the evening, and, to
their delight, it floated on an even keel, and would hold two of them
at a time.
"We'll take turns making a trip to-morrow," said Bart. "It doesn't leak
hardly any. It wouldn't take a prize, and it's not much on looks, but
it's something to have made a canoe off in the midst of the woods, and
with scarcely any tools."
His chums agreed with him, and that night they went to bed thinking of
the fun they would have the next day.
Ned was the first to awake. He got up, in accordance with the rule that
the earliest riser must build the fire. He looked over toward the cots
where his companions slept. As he did so he gave a start.
"Frank is gone!" he called, and Bart and Fenn awakened.