The Hickory Ridge Boy Scouts: Under Canvas Part 17

At that Elmer laughed.

"Well, that was as easy as tumbling off a log, Toby," he replied. "I guess even a tenderfoot could have told, because you see the strange track showed that the other party was _barefooted_!"

"Oh!" gasped George and Lil Artha in a breath; while Chatz did not say a single word, only sat there with his eyes fixed on the beaming face of the scout master, and the light of a cruel disappointment in their depths.

"I tried to follow the trail," continued Elmer, "but that dust happened to be limited in its scope, so that it was more than I could master, and I had to give it up. But of course the fact that a barefooted man had been at that window where Toby said he saw a white face gave me lots to think about, even if I did make up my mind not to say anything about my find until I had more to tell."

When Elmer paused to get his breath Toby grinned as though greatly pleased.

"See!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, thrusting his chin out aggressively, "some of you other fellows thought I was seeing things that didn't exist, and you knocked me right hard about gettin' a pair of specs, because I needed the same. But seems like it was you ought to go and visit the oculist. I _did_ see a face, and it was sure a white one in the bargain. But excuse me, Elmer, for keepin' the floor so long; that's out of my system now, and let's forget it. Please go on and tell us the rest, because I'm dead sure there's a lot more back of this."

"Well," the other scout observed, "of course, when we got home I was bound to go around and ask a lot of questions about the old Cartaret place up here; and everything else I could hit on. What I learned didn't add a great deal to my stock of knowledge until just by accident I happened to read a little item in an old number of the Stackhouse _News_ that came to our house, and it set me to thinking out a theory. That article was about a family named Oxley that live near Stackhouse I should think. It seems that they have the misfortune to have a son who is crazy, because of some accident to his head several years ago. He wasn't violent, and like some people they couldn't bear the thought of having him shut up in an asylum; so they hired a keeper, and he was watched at home. But it seems that he must have slipped away, for a report had gone out that he was missing, and the paper asked its readers to communicate with the family if by chance they came upon a demented man, dressed in the white uniform of a Spanish officer; for it seems he had been in Cuba during the war, and imagined himself a soldier again."

Elmer paused to let what he had said sink into the minds of his chums; and it could be easily seen from the way they exchanged knowing looks that the full significance of the scout master's discovery had struck them heavily.

"Elmer, you hit the right nail on the head when you guessed that!" cried Toby.

"Dressed in white, too; that clinches the thing!" added Lil Artha.

"I'm afraid it does," sighed Chatz, in a disappointed tone, while George only said:

"Mebbe it does; but you can't always sometimes tell!"

CHAPTER XV

THE BOOGIE OF THE TOWER

"LET Elmer go on, and tell us some more," suggested Toby.

"Yes, we can talk it all over after we know the whole thing," added Lil Artha.

"Once I got that notion in my head," the scout master continued, "and I began to investigate along those lines. When I heard from two farmers in the market, who happened to live up this way, that for weeks they had been missing things off their places, mostly something to eat, I began to figure it out that the crazy man had to live, and would most likely forage for his grub, about like Sherman's b.u.mmers did in the Civil War, subsisting on the enemy's country.

"One of the hayseeds told me he had even set a trap for the thief, thinking it might be just an ordinary hobo; and when the alarm came one night he had hurried out to the hen-house only to find a couple of chickens gone, and the trap sprung, but no victim in it, for the thief had been too smart for him. But he said it beat him all hollow when he found tracks of _bare feet_ around on the partly frozen ground in the morning, because it seemed queer that any tramp would be going around without shoes so near winter time!"

"Whew!" gasped Toby, entranced, and almost held spellbound by this thrilling recital of facts and fancies.

"The other farmer," Elmer went on to say, "told me that twice when he had had a visit from the strange thief he managed to glimpse something white that was making off at top speed, and which he expected was a man, though he couldn't be sure. He also said he had loaded up his double-barrel shotgun, and was going to give the rascal a hot reception the next time he called around. All of which kept making me feel that I was on the right track."

"You just bet you were, Elmer!" Lil Artha exclaimed.

"A figure in white, remember, fellows; and the one we saw to-night was dressed that way, as sure as shooting!" said Toby, convincingly.

"The poor Oxley fellow was in Cuba during the Spanish war, and must have fetched the white uniform of a Spanish officer home with him," suggested Ty Collins; "when he went out of his mind he imagined himself a Spanish recruit, and they let him wear that soldier suit to humor him."

"Yes, and right now he believes he has escaped from an American prison, and is trying to hide from the guard. He has to eat to live, and so he steals things from the farmers around. Of course it's only a matter of good luck that he hasn't been shot before now; and it couldn't last much longer."

"Why, when winter gets here in dead earnest the poor fellow would freeze to death, like as not," George remarked, showing that he was being convinced against his will.

"But what gets me is his staying around the old haunted house," remarked Toby.

"Oh! I don't see what there is queer about that," Lil Artha declared.

"Course he couldn't know anything about all this talk, so it's hardly likely he's been trying to play ghost on us. We fooled ourselves, that's what," with a quick look toward Chatz, as though to intimate that possibly the Southern boy had had considerable to do with their being hoodwinked; which was a lamentable fact, for a small fraction of yeast will scatter through the whole pan of dough.

"And when you come to think of it," added Lil Artha, who had something of a long head when a knotty question was involved, "where could a crazy man find a better hiding place than in a house said to be haunted, I'd like to know?"

"The poor fellow!" Ted was heard to say, that being his first utterance.

"Tell you what, we ought to put in all the rest of our time up here trying to capture him. I'd never feel that.i.thfied to lie in my comfy bed at home nighth, thinking of him up here, freezing perhapth. Thay we will, Elmer, and you too, boyth!"

Ted was tender-hearted, and could never bear to see any one suffer if he had it in his power to alleviate the pain. He promised to make a fine doctor some day, for his knowledge along the line of medicine and surgery was really wonderful; but while the other scouts had been so deeply interested in figuring things out, and settling the question of the strange man's ident.i.ty, Ted had doubtless only considered his physical sufferings past and present.

"I promise you that, Ted, with all my heart," Elmer a.s.sured him, promptly enough, "because I wouldn't be satisfied to go away and leave a helpless fellow like that here. I only wonder that he hasn't tried to steal some of our stores before now; and perhaps we could set a trap that would catch him, if he ever does come into camp. But we won't depend too much on that. Sometimes the mountain won't come to you; and then you've got to go to the mountain. That's one of the sayings the Mohammedans have about their prophet, you know. Well, to-morrow we'll get busy looking around, and see if we can locate this Ralph Oxley."

"Oh! is that his full name, then?" asked Toby, and he repeated it to himself, as though he rather liked the sound: "Ralph Oxley!"

"He must have some sort of hiding-place around here," Toby ventured, "and who knows but what we might run across the trail of a barefooted man somewhere, that would lead us to his den."

"These crazy people are pretty slick, let me tell you," George hinted; "and it ain't going to be an easy job to run him down."

"It mightn't be for some fellows who knew next to nothing about tracking," Lil Artha spoke up, proudly; "but when scouts have been through as much as we have it's different. Once we get a sight of his tracks, and believe me there'll be something doing right away."

"I'm glad to hear you say that, Lil Artha," the scout master told him; "it shows that you've got a heap of confidence in your knowledge of the trail. Well, you've a right to feel that way. I can remember several times when you beat us all out in finding signs, and getting there in the end. We'll all do our level best to find his lair, and bring back Mr. Oxley's son in the flesh. They must be dreadfully worried about his absence by this time, and believe he has been drowned in either Lake Jupiter or the Sweet.w.a.ter River. It would be a feather in our caps if we could restore the poor fellow to his folks."

"You told us he was a soldier, didn't you, Elmer?" pursued Toby; "and say, p'raps now he thought he was on guard when he kept marching back and forth dozens of times to-night. How about that, Elmer?"

"No doubt about it at all, Toby," came the reply; "for that was what he was doing. I remembered what they had told me about his wearing white clothes, even if they were soiled some by now, and thinking he is a Spanish soldier. I believe he had a stick held up against his shoulder, for all the world like a sentry's gun, and if we hadn't frightened him off he might have kept that thing up for hours."

They continued to talk it over for some further time, and then having apparently about exhausted the subject made ready to turn in. First Elmer picked out two others who were to const.i.tute the first watch with him. They had to sit it out for a certain length of time, and keep constantly on the lookout for a visitor; but as the limit of their vigil was reached, and nothing happened, Elmer aroused three other scouts, and bade them take the places vacated by himself, Toby and Lil Artha.

Morning arrived, and there had been no alarm. It was to be a.s.sumed that those who had fulfilled the duties of sentries during the latter part of the night had not slept on their posts. Elmer made an examination of the stores, and found nothing amiss there; so it was settled that the crazy man could not have mustered up enough courage to invade the camp of those he considered his enemies.

After breakfast Elmer, accompanied by Chatz and Lil Artha, started out to take a turn around in the woods, and look for signs of a trail made by bare feet. Some of the others amused themselves as they saw fit, sure that if the trail-seekers did make any interesting discovery they would hear all about the same, and undoubtedly be given a chance to help follow it.

It was Sat.u.r.day, and had they been at home no doubt these same boys might have been kicking the pigskin oval around with their fellows, since it was still the gridiron season, and most of them belonged to the Hickory Ridge football squad. They were much happier, however, in having chosen this last camping trip of the season, for like true scouts their keenest enjoyment lay in getting in close touch with Nature, and learning many of her most cherished secrets. Football was all very good in its way, but there were better things, as they had learned through experience; and a search after practical knowledge was one of them.

"Now, I'll never get a better time to try it out," Toby up and declared as he began to gather that bundle of his in his arms; "and I hope a couple of you fellows will come with me to see my crowning triumph."

"I s'pose that means you're thinking of taking that fool jump off the tower of the old house, and want us to be parties to the crime?" George suggested, bitingly.

Toby surveyed him scornfully.

"I'm intending to make a glorious drop, and land on the ground as light as any chicken feather might," he went on to say, with emphasis. "If that's all the faith you've got in your chum's ability, George, mebbe you'd better stay here in camp. It will spare you the sight of my getting a broken leg, you know. I didn't ask you when I extended that invitation; but I would like to have Ty and Ted come along; Landy too if he wants to join us, and shout when I prove the great value of my n.o.ble invention along humanitarian lines."

"Whew! you have got it down pat," chuckled Landy.