The Boy Scouts Patrol Part 24

"I wish I knew," returned the colonel. "If there were any birds around here big enough we might suspect that one of them had carried him off, but we will evidently have to await Pepper's own explanation of the enigma." Then he added after a moment:

"Well, boys, we have got to the end of the trail. I don't know what to do next."

"That reminds me," started d.i.c.k, when there was a hiss, a snarl and a flash through the air from the tree, under whose branches they were standing, and an immense wild cat, spitting and clawing, landed on d.i.c.k's back.

"Help! Murder!" shouted d.i.c.k. "Take it off!"

For an instant the boys were so dumfounded by the suddenness of the attack that they all jumped in different directions, but the colonel, with a well-directed blow from the heavy stick he carried, knocked the animal off of d.i.c.k, but not before his coat had been torn and d.i.c.k himself scratched by its claws.

Snarling and spitting the cat now crouched, facing the colonel, and seemed about to spring.

"Knock him over the head!" shouted Donald. "Hit it in the head with a stone," looking about for a weapon.

"Look out!" called Rand, "give me a chance at it!" drawing back his bow and letting fly an arrow which pierced the animal's body and knocked it sprawling, when Gerald added a blow from a well-directed stone. With a wild scream the cat bounded into the air and fell motionless to the ground.

"Look out, Rand!" cautioned d.i.c.k, creeping back from the bushes into which he had fled as soon as he had gained his feet, as Rand went up to where the cat was lying. "Take care it don't spring on you!"

"No danger," replied Rand: "it's dead."

"Faith, thin, Oi w'udn't trust it, dead or alive," said Gerald.

"That was a good shot, Rand," commended the colonel, "and just in time. A full-grown wild cat is an enemy not to be despised."

"I should say not," agreed d.i.c.k. "Ugh! I feel as if I had been sc.r.a.ped with a curry-comb. I wonder," with a look at his clothes, "if I couldn't get a job somewhere as a scarecrow?"

"But what has become of Pepper?" asked Don.

"That is the puzzle that we have got to solve," replied the colonel.

"For the present the only thing we can do is to go back to Creston and see if we can't pick up some new clues."

The boys, with Colonel Snow, slowly made their way back to the town, carrying with them the body of the cat, the skin of which Rand proposed to have tanned for a trophy for the club room.

As they entered the town they were met by Officer Dugan, who put his hand on Rand's shoulder.

"I have a warrant for your arrest," he said.

The party were amazed, and the colonel was the first to speak.

"For what?" he asked.

"For robbing Judge Taylor's office," replied the officer.

CHAPTER XVII

THE MESSAGE

For a moment or two Pepper hung at the extremity of the branch to which he was clinging, when all at once there came an ominous cracking and the end broke away, but fortunately it had swung so low toward the ground that he dropped at the foot of the tree, not much the worse for his experience.

It had ail happened so quickly that, before he had time to utter a cry Pepper found himself lying on the ground flat on his back.

"My goodness gracious!" exclaimed Pepper, feeling himself all over to make sure that he was ail there. "The farther I go the worse it gets. This is certainly the worst yet. I think the ground is good enough for me after that."

A little dazed by his fall, Pepper, without stopping to consider his direction, started off as fast as he could go, turning this way and that as he went, to avoid the thicker growths of under-brush, until he had gone a mile or more, getting ail the time deeper into the forest.

"I think," he mused, when he stopped for a breathing spell, looking about for some clue to guide him, "I had better be getting back to the road. Now, I wonder which way it is. Let me see, which is the North. That must be it, because this side of the trees have moss on them; then the road must be off this way."

Starting off in the direction he had decided upon Pepper pursued his way, swerving now to the right and again to the left to avoid some all but impa.s.sable thicket or some swampy bit of ground, until he judged that he had gone at least a mile.

"Crickets!" he exclaimed at length. "I wonder where that road has gone. I was not that far from it, I know. I must have traveled about four miles since I left it, in the wrong direction at that.

Gee! It must be pretty near noon, by the way I feel." Looking at his watch he saw it was 12 o'clock, and sat down to eat his lunch.

"Lucky I brought it along," he thought; "for, from the looks of things, I don't know when I am going to get any more. I wonder if the boys are waiting for me to return? Looks as though they would have quite a wait.

"Now, which way shall I go?" he questioned when he had finished.

"There doesn't seem to be any choice in the matter, one way looks as promising as another."

Striking off at right angles from the way he had been going he decided to try that course for a while, but after traveling for an hour through the underbrush, which seemed to be getting thicker and more difficult to get through the farther he went, he again came to a halt.

"Looks as if I was lost," he mused, "and the farther I go the more lost I am. I suppose if Don were here he would toss up for the way to go, and I guess that's as good a way as any."

Taking a coin from his pocket he closed his hand upon the metal without looking at it. "if it is head," he decided, "I will go to the right, and if it is tail I will go to the left. It's head,"

opening his hand. "Now, I'll bet that isn't the right way, but I'll try it anyhow."

Taking the course the coin had indicated Pepper plunged into the brush and doggedly pushed on, although he was getting tired and somewhat discouraged.

"I am going to keep on this way," he determined, "until I get to the road or come out on the other side, if it brings me out in California."

Stopping to rest, after he had forced his way through a particularly heavy growth of brush, he was startled at hearing the angry bark of a dog not far away.

"Crickets!" he cried, "I hope I haven't run across that beast again I think I had better look for a stick while I have time. I don't want to be picking up any more snakes"

Looking about him he found a good-sized stick lying upon the ground, which he scrutinized closely before venturing to take possession.

In addition to the barking of the dog he could now hear voices, and thus encouraged, he advanced in the direction from which came the sounds.

"Perhaps I can find some one who can direct me how to get out of this," he thought. A few minutes' walk brought him near to a small opening in the woods in which stood a rudely-built cabin, and a little way off a smaller shack which, apparently, was used as a stable, as there was a wagon standing beside it, which Pepper recognized as the one he had seen on the road, and as the very one Monkey had been driving when he nearly run them down. There were a couple of kegs in the wagon and several tin cans. Perched on the roof of the cabin was a boy, whom he recognized as Sam Tompkins, who had, apparently, climbed there to escape the dog, which was jumping up, trying to get at him.

While Pepper watched, the man whom he had seen driving the wagon, came from the inside of the house and drove the dog away, at the same time calling to Sam to come down.

"That's what you get for teasing him," he growled. "He'll take a piece out of you yet."

Making a surly response Sam slipped down from the roof and disappeared into the house.

"Gee!" exclaimed Pepper. "I am glad I didn't walk in on them. Now, I wonder what is going on here?"