The Mystery Becomes Complicated

Jack and Wallace joined the other boys in their singing. Later there circulated around the camp fire a series of humorous anecdotes followed by tall stories, each boy trying to improve upon the previous tale. Nuthin’ was doing his best to hold the attention of his listeners (and he was succeeding fairly well) with a ghost story which he had read in a magazine, but was relating as a personal incident. Suddenly Paul, possessing the sharpest ear among the group, wheeled around and listened carefully. The noise that he thought he heard stopped. Dropping on his stomach, he put his ear to the ground. A couple of minutes later, they could all hear various small noises, that sounded like the breaking of twigs or rolling stones set loose. Somebody was coming. Silent, awaiting the arrival of whoever it was, they sat hushed around the fire and stared expectantly at the probable spot where he would emerge. Tense, eager, every moment was an hour and the five or six minutes they waited seemed like an age. Finally a short, husky man, with a brutal face, emerged out of the woods and stepped into the light. He glanced from one boy to another. His facial features were distorted by his smile. At last he spoke. “Hello, fellows,” he said, his voice a bit raucous and loud. “Did I scare you?”

Paul stood up. “Why, no,” he answered calmly, “not at all. Won’t you join us?”

The man laughed with a gurgle in his throat. “Sure,” he answered, “but only for a couple of minutes. I have a shack a couple of miles yonder,” and he pointed in the general westerly direction. He joined the circle of boys around the fire. “What are you fellows doing here?” he asked.

Paul answered for all of them. “We’re seven Boy Scouts,” he said, “and we’re camping here for a week.”

“A week!” he exclaimed. He mused and stroked his chin. “Where are you boys from?” he inquired further.

“Stanhope,” he was told.

“Stanhope! I go down there about once every two weeks for supplies. But why do you boys camp here? I can tell you of a far better place to camp.”

“Where?” one of the boys asked him.

“About three miles northwest of here,” he answered.

They all guessed at once that he was referring to their old camping site. A couple of the boys were on the verge of telling him that they knew all about the place. But Jack spoke up first and asked, “What sort of a place is it?”

“Oh, it’s a very good camp site,” he answered. “There is a large clearing where you can play ball or any other game, and a large stream where you can go fishing and swimming.” he paused, glanced from one boy to another, then added, “Oh, it’s a far better camping site than this.”

“Where did you say this place was, sir?” asked Paul, affecting ignorance.

“Almost directly northwest of here,” the man replied with what seemed undue eagerness. “You can’t miss it.”

All the boys nodded in unison, as though they understood perfectly the directions he was giving them. In silence they wondered why the man was so anxious to have them move from their present camping ground. He tried hard not to betray his eagerness and anxiety, but he was a very poor actor. Jack inquired, “Is there anything wrong with this camping ground?”

The man scratched his head. “Well,” he answered, “not very much but it isn’t anywhere near as good as the one I’m telling you about. You really ought to go over there and see it.”

Wallace spoke up, saying, “I’m sure the gentleman has the best of intentions and if he says that the camping ground he’s telling us about is superior to this one, it must be so. In that case, it would be a shame not to take advantage of the information. The first thing tomorrow morning I’m going over there and take a look. If it is all the gentleman says it is, we’re going to move.”

The man grinned, the curl of his lips betraying, his deep self-satisfaction. “That boy is a smart one,” he cried. “He’s got the right idea.” He jumped to his feet. “Well, I’ll be going,” he announced. “So long, fellows.”

“So long.”

He went in the direction he came from. The boys held their breath and silently waited for fully five minutes, until the man’s footsteps could no longer be heard. Ken exploded. “Can you imagine that?” he cried. “He said he was going the other way and he walked back in the direction he came from.”

Paul held up his hand and motioned for order. “Hush, fellows,” he said. “We can discuss this quietly. Trees and bushes have ears, you know.”

They huddled closely together and whispered among themselves. Nuthin’ voiced the thought that disturbed them all. “I wonder why he objects to our camping here?” he asked.

William answered, “That’s something we all would like to know.”

Bluff stuttered, “S-s-something m-must be up.”

With a wave of his hand, William dismissed Bluff’s remark. “Anybody can guess that,” he said. “But what is it about, that’s what we want to know.” He turned to the other boys. “I’m stumped, I admit it,” he told them. “Can anybody guess?”

By the blank look on their faces he could tell that all his companions were just as much in the dark as he was. Jack whispered to Wallace, “You think this has something to do with the story you told me?”

Wallace shrugged his shoulders. “I’m at a loss. I can’t imagine.”

Paul addressed them. “Fellows,” he said. “There is something up, that we can all tell. There must be a reason why he wants us to move camp. But what the reason is and what it’s all about, we can’t find out tonight. There’s nothing we can do tonight anymore except go to sleep. In the morning we will consider the whole thing and see what we can do.”

The boys were nonplussed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Paul. They were loathe, however, to turn in just then. The incident had the effect of keeping them wide awake and of arousing in them the curiosity to know what it was all about. But it was evident that there was nothing they could do that evening. So in spite of their inclinations they all decided to go to sleep. But just then Bluff spoke up and inspired a new argument. “D-d-don’t you think that w-w-we ought t-t-take turns k-k-keeping guard?” he asked.

“Keep guard!” exclaimed Nuthin’, “What are you talking about?”

William jumped to Bluff’s defense. “Sure,” he cried, “he’s got the right idea. We ought to keep guard all night and watch out against any one creeping up on us while we’re asleep.”

At other times the boys would have laughed at the suggestion. But their thoughts were such that the idea appealed to them and seemed reasonable.

Paul objected. “Don’t be foolish,” he said. “Who’ll creep up on us? Who’ll want to harm us?”

William retorted hotly. “How should I know? But you were a witness to what happened tonight. You’ll admit that the stranger was eager to have us move camp. There must be a reason for it. And—”

“Yes,” interjected Wallace, “but does that imply that he wants to harm us or attack us? I think you’re permitting your imagination to run away with you—like that time with the ghost.”

That remark broke the ice and the boys laughed heartily, recalling the ghost incident. The boys then dismissed all thoughts of danger and decided to retire. It had been a big day for them and they were very tired. They slept soundly all through the night without awakening or being disturbed.

In the morning before breakfast, Jack took Paul aside and the two carried on a hurried, whispered conversation. They then called over Wallace and the three withdrew for a serious conference. After Wallace had told his story, Paul asked, “Well, what’s your opinion of the whole thing?”

Wallace said, “It’s my impression that there is some connection between the incidents, but what it is I don’t know.”

Jack nodded. “I’m somewhat of the same opinion,” he commented.

“Let’s not try to solve the puzzle now,” remarked Paul. “Are you two agreed that we ought to move camp?”

A decisive yes was Jack’s answer and Wallace approved, saying, “Same here.”

“In that case we’ll have to convince the other fellows that we should move,” said Paul.

“Do you think we ought to tell them the rest of the story?” inquired Wallace of his two friends.

Jack shook his head. “I don’t think it will help any or serve any good purpose,” he asserted. “It will only excite them.”

“Yes,” added Paul. “It’s a shame we have to keep it a secret from them, but I think we’re justified. My opinion is that we should convince them somehow that we ought to move. In the meanwhile, just as soon as you two can get away, you’ll slip out quietly and explore the woods for a couple of miles around and return in time for lunch. We’ll break camp and move after lunch.”

As the boys were having breakfast and making wild guesses to solve the mystery, a large airplane appeared in the sky, circled at a very low altitude directly over their camp and then flew away again. The boys stopped eating and kept their eyes glued to the machine. One of the boys remarked, “Wonder who that is and what he wants?”

Someone suggested, “Maybe it’s Major McCarthy looking for us.”

“Don’t be silly,” was the snappy answer of someone else.

Wallace noticed Jack writing something down in his notebook. “What is it you’re writing?” he asked.

Jack shrugged his shoulders. “The numbers on the plane. It might come in handy sometime.”

The plane disappeared into the horizon and the boys resumed their breakfast. For a while they discussed whether the airplane appearing overhead had any connection with the stranger of the previous night. The arguments for and against were about evenly divided. Then Paul opened the discussion by remarking casually, “Well, fellows, do you think we ought to break camp and move?”

William was the first to object. “What for?” he wanted to know.

Wallace explained. “We all know,” he said, “that the stranger who was here last night must have good reason for wanting us to move away from here. Whatever it may be, it is most advisable for us to go away.”

“But this is a good camp site,” argued William, “so why should we go away. Nobody is going to harm us.”

“Last night you thought differently,” Jack reminded him.

“All right, what I want to do is stick around and see what happens,” he confessed.

“If you do that, you might regret it,” warned Paul. A few of the boys gasped, and he hurried to explain his statement. “What I mean,” he added, “is that you don’t wait until your car is stolen before you lock the garage. I’m sure no harm would come to us if we stayed here, but why stay here and wait for someone to come and kick us when we can avoid it?”

He spoke with a certain anxiety and he transmitted it to the other boys, for they kept silent for a while. Ken, however, sided with William and he remarked, “Paul is perfectly logical and reasonable, but I still don’t see why we should run away. Nothing has happened to us and I imagine that the stranger last night was some crank who has a shack somewhere around here.”

William supported his friend’s argument. “That’s right,” he said, “There’s no reason for us to turn tail and run away.”

His twin brother explained, “It isn’t a matter of turning tail or running away. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If we can prevent any trouble, why shouldn’t we do it?”

Nuthin’ said, “Let’s stop arguing and take a vote on it. Then we’ll see how the land lies.”

A vote was taken and the majority favored the proposal that they break camp and move. On Paul’s suggestion it was decided to break camp after lunch.