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.