A MYSTERY OF THE OPEN GLADE
"This has been used since we had that hard rain, fellows," Paul observed.
Some of the others had noticed him handling the ashes that marked where
the fire had been.
"Say, they are not warm, now, are they?" asked Phil, looking uneasily
around, as if half expecting to see some rough men come swarming out of
the bushes.
"Oh! I didn't mean that," replied the scout master. "But you can see
for yourselves that when it rains there's nothing to keep the water
from running down over this forge. In that case the ashes would be
soaked. If you look again you'll see these are perfectly dry, and have
never been wet."
Several of the scouts picked up some of the ashes, and found that it was
exactly as Paul stated. They were as dry as powder; and could certainly
never have been rained upon.
"That means the forge has been used since the storm that helped us get
through that muddy canal of Jackson's Creek; is that what you mean,
Paul?" asked Bobolink.
"Nothing else," replied the other, still continuing his investigations,
as if he hoped to make some further discovery, that might tell them what
the field forge was intended for, when these unknown men carried it to
this secluded island.
"Great governor, Paul!"
Bobolink had stooped, and picked something from the ground. This he was
now holding in his hand, and staring at it, as though he could hardly
believe his eyes.
The other scouts crowded around him, and their eyes, too, widened when
they discovered what it was.
"A quarter of a dollar!" exclaimed Jack.
"And a shining new one in the bargain," declared Tom Betts.
"What d'ye think of that, now?" said Phil.
Paul reached over, and took possession of the coin.
"Did you find that, Bobolink?" he asked, for sometimes the other was
known to play tricks.
"I sure did, Paul, right like this," and stooping over, Bobolink was
about to pretend to pick up something when he uttered a gasp.
"Another one!"
He was holding a second coin in his hand, the exact duplicate, so far as
they could see, of the first one.
"Must grow here in flocks!" exclaimed Phil; "let's see if we can dig up a
whole bunch of 'em, boys!" But although they all started digging with the
toes of their shoes, no more shining coins came to light; and it began to
look as if Bobolink had been fortunate enough to pick up all there were.
Paul closely examined the two bright quarters.
"If those are queer ones then they'd fool me all right, let me tell you!"
declared Bobolink.
"I never saw better in my life," Paul admitted.
The boys were looking pretty serious by now. It began to seem as though
that guess made by one of their number could not have been so wide of the
mark as at the time some of them believed. Here was pretty strong
evidence that these men were engaged in manufacturing spurious coins.
Ought they to consider they had gone far enough, and give up the
exploration of the island, returning home to sound the alarm, and
send word to the authorities, so that these men might be trapped as
they worked?
Paul was tempted to consider that his duty lay that way. Still, there
were some things that puzzled him, and made him hesitate before
concluding to follow that idea.
Why should they keep the forge out here in the open, when some shelter
would seem to be the proper thing, if, as the scouts now believed, they
were using the fire to smelt metals, and blend them to the proper
consistency for the bad coins?
That was something that puzzled Paul greatly. It caused him to look
around in the neighborhood of the forge, in the hope that he might pick
up some other clue.
The ground was pretty well trampled over, as though a number of men had
been walking back and forth many times in their occupation, whatever it
could have been. Paul also saw a number of indentations in the earth,
which made him think some heavy object had rested in that open space.
"Whatever they brought here," remarked Jack, presently, "it looks like
they must have used some sort of vehicle to carry it; because these
tracks have the appearance of ruts made by wheels."
"Rubber tires, too," added Phil. "I've seen too many of 'em not to know;
for my father has a garage."
"Is that so?" exclaimed Bobolink, shaking his head, as if to say that
with each discovery the mystery, instead of getting lighter, only grew
more dense.
"And look how close together they seem to be, would you; a pretty narrow
bed for a wagon, don't it seem?" asked Tom Betts.
"But they run off that way," observed Bobolink, "and there are so many of
the tracks you can hardly tell which are mates. There's Paul followin'
'em up; reckon we'd better keep with him, boys. We don't want to get
separated."
Paul soon came to a stop, and was joined by the others.
"Queer how the marks all seem to knock off about here," he remarked,
pointing to the ground. "You can't find one further on. And it isn't that
the ground suddenly gets hard, either. This looks the queerest thing of
them all. What do they run that thing with wheels up and down here for?
Anybody know?"
But silence was the only answer he received, since every one of the six
other scouts seemed to be scratching his head, and wrinkling his
forehead, as though deep in thought, yet unable to see light.
So they went back to the field forge, to look around again, though their
labor was all they had for their pains.
"Not even another lovely quarter to be picked up where it got spilled
when they made 'em here, p'raps by the bushel," grumbled Bobolink,
scratching the earth with his toe in vain.
He had recovered the coins from Paul, and jingled them in his pocket;
though the envious Bluff warned him that they might get him into a peck
of trouble, should he be caught by Secret Service men.
"Huh! guess you think you c'n scare me into droppin' them," declared
Bobolink, thrusting out his chin at Bluff. "Let me know if you see me
doin' it; will you? I c'n just see you falling all over yourself, tryin'
to grab these dandy coins, if I let 'em slip by me. Shoot a ball up
another alley, Bluff. Go hunt a fortune for yourself, and don't want to
grab mine. Hands off, see?"
"Do we go back now, Paul; or had we better keep on to the hill?" Jack
asked, as though he knew the other must have been settling this important
matter in his mind.
"I think as we've come this far, with the hill just ahead of us, it would
be a disappointment not to get up to that cedar tree," Paul replied; at
which every one of the other scouts nodded his head.
"W-w-want to s-s-see what the old p-p-place l-l-looks like," remarked
Bluff, in his positive way.
"And there's no use in our staying around here any longer, either, I
should think," ventured Phil. "How do we know but what some of the men
may just happen to butt in on us, while we're looking their old forge
over? And if they did, I just guess they'd make things hum for us. So I
say, into the woods again for me--the sooner the better."
"I hope we're doing the right thing by keeping on," Paul observed,
looking at his companions in a way they took as an invitation to
back him up.
"Who's got a better right to go where we feel like?" demanded Bobolink.
"Honest men wouldn't have any kick coming, just because a troop of Boy
Scouts happened to camp on their island; and it only goes to show
they're doing something shady, that's what. I say go on," Phil gave as
his opinion.
Jack, Andy, Bluff and Tom were quick to declare themselves opposed to any
change of plan, at least, until after they had reached their goal, which
was the foot of the cedar on top of the hill.
This decision seemed to give Paul more heart, and when they left the open
space he cast a last glance back at it, as though still puzzled.
The trees grew even more dense as they drew nearer the foot of that
peculiar rise in the ground which went to make up what they called a
hill. Indeed, the boys were astonished to find such an almost
impenetrable jungle.
"Isn't that some sort of shack you can see over yonder?" asked Phil,
presently.
As the rest looked, they agreed that it looked like a rude shelter, made
out of branches, and some boards fastened together in a crude way.
There was no sign of life about the place, and after making sure of this
the scouts grew bold enough to advance upon it from what seemed to be the
rear, though this could be settled only by the fact that the entrance to
the rustic hut appeared to be on the other side.
Creeping noiselessly up until they were alongside the shelter, the scouts
set about finding loopholes through which they might obtain a glimpse of
what lay on the other side of those frail walls.
Then one by one they drew back, and the looks they cast at each other
indicated that what they had seen was not a pleasant sight.