Afloat on the Flood | Page 7

replied the other, simply, and yet with that earnestness
which carries conviction in its train. "Already I've got a suspicion.
There may be nothing to it but it's given me an idea where we ought to
look first of all."
"Please tell us about it, Elmer?" begged Toby.
"I just knew Elmer would get on the track in double-quick time,"
asserted Landy, who always believed there was nothing impossible to
the patrol leader, once he set himself to a task.
"It all came about from hearing a boy talking when I was down in the
market yesterday morning. You know who he is, Johnny Spreen, the
fellow who always ships out a raft of dried ginseng roots every year,
and in the Spring sends a bunch of muskrat skins to the city."
"Sure we know Johnny," assented Toby, quickly; "he comes to town
with a load of hay once every two weeks. His folks live a long ways off,
up beyond the two lakes where we used to go camping."
"That's right, Toby," said Elmer, "and their farm borders that terribly
big Sassafras Swamp lying beyond Lake Solitude. Well, I happened to
hear Johnny tell how he had taken a look through the swamp the other
day, just to find out how the muskrats were coming on, so as to get a
pointer on his winter business this year. He said he honestly believed
there must be some man hiding there, because in several places he had

come on tracks."
"But people sometimes go in Sassafras Swamp to hunt, don't they,
Elmer?" objected Lil Artha.
"Not in August, because there are no woodcock up there, you know,
and nothing else can be shot at this time of year," Elmer continued;
"but Johnny had something else to say that interested me considerably.
It seems at one place he found ashes that told of a fire, and while
rooting around he picked up a piece of steel that he allowed me to see.
It had evidently been filed; and boys, can you guess what it made me
think it must have once been?"
Although all of them looked eagerly interested, they shook their heads
in the negative, as though unable to hazard even a guess.
"Go on, Elmer, and tell us," urged Toby.
"Yes, let down the bars and relieve our anxiety, please, Elmer," added
Lil Artha.
"Unless I'm away off in my reckoning," said the other, solemnly, "it
was part of a pair of steel handcuffs such as officers fasten to the wrists
of prisoners when taking them to the penitentiary!"
CHAPTER III
A PROMISING CLUE
It was about four o'clock on the following afternoon when a wagon
drawn by a pair of husky horses moved along the shore of Lake
Solitude, many miles away from the town of Hickory Ridge.
This vehicle was filled with lively lads, all of them in the faded khaki
uniforms that, as a rule, distinguish Boy Scouts the wide world over.
Counting them it would be seen that they numbered just seven, and this
included all of those whom we met on the road under the spreading

branches of the big oak, and Mark Cummings in addition. Since the
entire membership of the Wolf Patrol consisted of eight, it was plain
that the only one now lacking was the unfortunate Hen Condit.
After making up their minds to exert themselves to the utmost in hopes
of finding the runaway, and bringing him back home, Elmer and the
others had set to work preparing for the campaign.
The patrol leader gave such advice as was required by some of the
others, telling them to go as light as possible, since they would have to
be moving around, and ordinary camp material could not be
considered.
If they were compelled to remain out in the open for one or more nights,
there were plenty of ways whereby they could secure shelter without
carrying along such a cumbersome thing as a tent.
Each fellow had his rubber poncho strapped to his pack. Elmer and Lil
Artha carried a gun each, not that they expected to shoot any game, but
to use as a threat should they be faced by a desperate escaped jail bird.
Besides this the boys had seen to it that each one had some sort of food
supply, in the shape of sandwiches, dried beef, and such things as could
be most easily packed.
As Lil Artha had gaily declared, they expected to be like "Sherman's
bummers," and live off the country as they went along, though willing
to pay ready cash for any and all eggs, fowls or bread secured from
farmers' wives.
Josh had arranged to "tote" a coffee pot along, together with a supply of
the ground bean; while Landy had a capacious frying-pan