The Boy Scout Camera Club | Page 8

greasy pigtail he got his hand

smeared with oil. Then he grasped this white cloth fiercely, and there
you are! See! The mark of the thumb couldn't be plainer if it had been
printed on. Observe the long cicatrice on the ball of the thumb? I'll take
this down and photograph it."
"Tall, strong, blonde, scar on the thumb!" laughed Jack. "We are
getting on."
"It would be interesting to know how he got into the house," Ned
mused.
"If we could only catch him and shut his mouth," Jack muttered, "we
wouldn't have such a rotten bad time in the mountains."
"It is not what he knows," Ned suggested. "It is what his master as
Washington knows. We might put this chap under ten feet of earth, but
the opposition from Washington would go right on."
"When was the child abducted?" asked Jack. "When and how?"
"He was taken from in front of the embassy early in the morning. The
ambassador brought him out for a spin in his automobile and left him
out in front a moment. When he went back to continue his morning ride
the automobile and the boy were nowhere to be seen! This was before
nine o'clock Monday morning. Yesterday, along about noon, the
boy--or a lad very much resembling him--was seen by a lieutenant of
infantry in a motor boat, speeding up the Potomac."
"Why didn't he catch him, then?" asked Jack.
"Because he did not know at that time that the prince had been
kidnapped. The authorities kept everything quiet! I presume they
thought the thief didn't know that he had committed a crime, and were
afraid the newspapers would tell him about it!"
"Tell that to Frank!" laughed Jack. "He'll go up in the air!"
The boys found Jimmie and Oliver in the club-room when they went

down. The garage and carriage house had been searched--in vain, of
course, for the boys had encountered the Chinaman on his way down to
the basement as they ascended the stairs, the elevator being closed for
the night.
"I believe that Chink had something to do with it, all the same,"
declared Jimmie. "He ought to be watched every minute of the time!"
"Now, here's another point I don't understand," Jack said, going back to
the conversation he had had with Ned in the attic. "Why do the
authorities think the boy has been taken to the mountains?"
"Because that would be a natural place for the thieves to hide," Ned
answered. "The mountains are easily within reach of Washington, and
they are virtually inaccessible to known officers of the law--at least so
it is reported. The mountains run from central Pennsylvania to central
Alabama, a distance of about a thousand miles, and afford many
desirable hiding places."
"Yes, and we're likely to get our crusts split down there!" Teddy
grinned. "We will if they find out that we belong to the Secret Service!"
"The Potomac river rises in West Virginia," continued Ned, "and the
prince may have been taken to the foothills in the launch he was seen
in."
"Are we going in a motor boat?" asked Jimmie.
"We are going by rail as far as we can go," Ned answered, "and then
take shank's horses for the wild country, with mules to tote the baggage.
In the eastern part of West Virginia, we are likely to travel forty miles
without seeing a cabin."
"Where do we get our eatings?" demanded Jimmie. "It makes me
hungry to climb mountains. We'll have to have a relief expedition sent
after us if we don't get plenty of eatings," he added, with a wink at
Teddy.

"Plenty of game up there," Ned grinned. "Plenty of deer, turkeys, coon,
rabbits, birds and bears! We can dodge the game laws! Also a few
wildcats are reported to have been seen there. And there is said to be
plenty of moonshine in the caves, too. Oh, we'll have a sweet old
vacation, boys. And we start tomorrow!"
CHAPTER IV
A CAMP IN THE MOUNTAINS
It was early June, and the members of the Boy Scout Camera Club
were camped on a mountain top in West Virginia. They had spent
about two weeks in making the trip to the point where they had
established camp.
Three mules, divested of their burdens now, were "staked out" in a little
corral fragrant with grass down near the timber line. The tent they had
carried was a short distance below the summit, on the eastern slope,
with packages and bags and boxes of provisions piled around it.
To the south lay Virginia, to the north, east and west stretched the
mountainous district of West Virginia. Far below them ran the North
Fork of the Potomac river.
What they saw was a wild and lonely country, with