"How would it do for us to root around a bit while we have the time?"

ventured Monkey Stallings, who liked to investigate better than anything else, except in an old mansion where the dust of years had settled, and there were uncanny things to be run across.

"If you mean," Hugh told him, "we might move around some, and look for that place where we want to make our camp for the rest of our stay up here, I'd say it was a good idea."

"Of course," supplemented Arthur, "we could move back to the castle late this afternoon if the weather turned out bad, and a storm threatened, which, according to all the known signs, isn't going to be the case."

"Glad to hear you say that, old weather bureau prophet," laughed Alec; for the scout who had just made that bold a.s.sertion had long been looked up to as an authority on the subject of changes of the weather, and could reel off a dozen reasons for the prediction he was making, all founded on a good sensible basis.

Accordingly they all started forth, having deposited most of their belongings in a good hiding-place where they would be perfectly safe.

Since there had been no attempt to clean up the grounds surrounding the wonderful "castle" after its abandonment, Some ten years or so before, of necessity they had gone back to their original, wild condition.

Nature always seeks to hide the cruel gashes made by the hands of man, covering the wound with all manner of growth from trailing vines to young saplings, brush and weeds.

Pa.s.sing through a dense wilderness of this newer growth, the scouts pushed on into the heavier woods. Here they found things much more to their way of looking at it. Indeed, with the stately forest trees rising up all around them, and shutting out that queer building on the point of land overlooking the broad valley beyond, it seemed an ideal spot for making a camp.

They were not long in deciding on where they would stay, and two of the fellows, Alec and Monkey Stallings, were dispatched back to carry their personal belongings to the new site. Alec was anxious to get to work developing some of the rolls of films he had taken, in the expectation of making good any failures.

By ten o'clock everything had been gathered in the new camp, which was situated not much more than a quarter of a mile away from the deserted mansion. The boys believed they could already call their mission a success; and after Alec had been heard from in connection with his photographic work, this would be set down as a certainty.

"Listen!" called out Monkey Stallings about this time, for he happened to have remarkable hearing. "Seemed to me that was some one talking over yonder."

"Mebbe the tramps have come back after all," exclaimed Billy looking startled. "You know they always say a bad penny is sure to turn up again."

"Better look for some good handy clubs, I say," observed Alec, pouncing on just such a stout stick as he had in his mind's eye when speaking.

"Whoever it is coming," remarked Hugh, uneasily, "we'll soon know the worst, for I can see them through the bushes there. They know we're here in the bargain, because they're making straight for this place."

The scout master had hardly finished saying this when two men dressed in gray uniforms and carrying guns suddenly stepped out of the bushes, one calling aloud:

"Hold up your hands there, every one of you, and don't try to run, or it will be the worse for you. We've tracked you up here, and you're under arrest. Steady now!"

CHAPTER VI

GUESTS AT THE CAMP FIRE

"Do what he says, fellows!" urged Hugh, sensibly, at the same time elevating both hands above his head, in which ludicrous feat he was speedily imitated by his four chums.

The two armed men continued to advance cautiously toward the scouts.

At the same time it could be seen that they appeared more or less surprised on account of discovering that it was a parcel of fairly well grown boys whom they were making prisoners.

"Is this a joke?" asked Alec Sands, with a tinge of a sneer in his voice. "If so I want to say it's in pretty bad taste, don't you know."

"You'll find it a serious kind of a joke, young fellow," snarled one of the two men in uniform, who seemed to be huffed over something, perhaps the scratches he had received in plenty where the brambles had sc.r.a.ped his face.

"Perhaps you'll be kind enough to explain what we're being held up this way for?" asked Hugh, as pleasantly as he could, for he realized that these men must represent some sort of authority, and in all probability were laboring under a misapprehension.

"Who are you all, anyway?" demanded the taller of the two men, and Hugh saw that he had better address himself to this person, since he seemed to be the more even-tempered of the pair.

"Our suits ought to tell you that," Alec managed to snap out, not fancying the idea of being forced to keep his hands elevated in such a fashion, just as though he might be a miserable criminal trying to escape from the penitentiary.

"We are Boy Scouts," said Hugh, hastily, seeing the men frown at Alec's impatient remark. "We belong in Oakvale, and have come up here to spend a couple of days camping out. Besides that one of us has been commissioned to take some pictures of an old deserted mansion not far away from here, which his aunt in the city is expecting to buy, if his report turns out favorable. That's the whole story, I give you my word of honor, sir."

The tall man looked straight into Hugh's face. What he saw there seemed to impress him very favorably, for the expression of distrust quickly faded from his own countenance, and a friendly smile began to take its place.

"I reckon we've been and made a mistake this time, Pete," he said, turning to his companion. "These young chaps don't look like they'd have a hand in trying to get a crazy man free, after the law had shut him up in an asylum!"

"What's that you say?" exclaimed Arthur, while Billy's eyes were like small editions of saucers, in so far as being round was concerned.

"We belong at the State Asylum for the Criminal Insane," explained the taller man, whom Hugh now understood must be a guard. "There was a notorious party shut up there, and he managed to escape by the aid of his money and the help of some friends outside. Men are searching the whole country over for signs of him. We got a clue that he might be found up here in this region, and that he was being taken care of in a camp, until such time as he could cross the line into Canada."

"Can we lower our hands now, friend?" asked Hugh, seeing that Billy for one was getting very red in the face with the exertion of stretching upward so long.

"I guess you don't none of you look very dangerous," he was told, "so drop back as you please. We can't take chances, you understand, so we'll ask you to produce proofs that you're what you claim. Then if everything is O.K. p'raps now you might invite a couple of hungry and tired guards to hang around a while until you rustled up a bit of grub, and a cup of hot coffee which would go straight to the spot, for we haven't had a thing to eat since last night."

"Oh! that's really too bad!" exclaimed Billy, immediately sympathizing with any one who knew, the pangs of hunger. "Sure, we'll invite you to stay with us to lunch. Luckily my policy of always providing a little extra will come in handy, for we can fit you out with a pretty fair meal."

Even the shorter guard grinned on hearing this. He seemed to have quite lost the feeling of suspicion he had at first entertained toward Hugh and his chums. In fact, he even stood his repeating rifle up against the tree nearest him, and seemed bent on taking things easy.

Hugh was pleased because the adventure had after all turned out so harmless. He had been a little startled when the demand was first made that they should surrender, and mention made of the startling fact that they must consider themselves under arrest.

Every one busied himself in gathering wood, and making preparations for building a fire, even though, under ordinary conditions the boys might not have started in to cook for some time to come. Billy, however, seemed to consider it always in order to think of such an important subject as "preserving life"; for that was what he was pleased to call eating. No one ever heard a groan or complaint from Billy when the order was given to prepare a meal; if the occurrence happened six times a day he would have shown up smiling and hungry on each and every occasion.

The taller guard became more and more friendly as he watched these preparations going on. He also asked numerous questions concerning Hugh and his chums.

"Now that I think of it," he remarked presently, "it strikes me I read something about a batch of Oakvale scouts that helped the people over in Lawrence when they had that big flood there. Are you some of that lot, boys?"

"Several of us were there, and had great times, I a.s.sure you," Hugh modestly replied, nor did he offer to enter into any particulars of what had happened in the imperiled town at the time of their visit, though those boys from Oakvale had certainly earned the medals they proudly wore for saving life at the risk of their own on that special occasion.

"Why, yes," the shorter guard now remarked, "and when I went down home last week in Chester they were talking about how some scouts had helped fight the forest fires over Oakvale way. Mebbe now you chaps had a hand in that game, too?"

For answer Billy thrust out his left hand before the man's eyes.

"See that red scar on the back of my hand?" he asked. "Well, I got that up there fighting the fire on the mountain that was trying to wipe out the home of Mrs. Heffner, a widow."

"Good for you, Billy!" exclaimed the taller guard, for by now they had come to know the scouts by their several names, feeling quite at home in the temporary camp. "I'd like to wager that there must have been some tall doings when _you_ got busy with the water pails. I've been on the same line myself, and know what it means to fight a forest fire with the wind a-blowin' it right along, spite of all you can do to stop it."

"About this crazy man you were speaking about," observed Alec, as though a sudden suspicion might have struck him, "it doesn't happen that his name could be Randall, Judge Anson Randall, does it?"

"Oh! what if it should turn out that way?" gasped Billy, as he comprehended the nature of the idea that must have flashed through the other's mind.

The tall guard, however, shook his head in the negative.

"That isn't his name at all," he told them. "This man did something terrible, and his money hired the best lawyers in the country to defend him. In the end he was called insane, and sent to the asylum. Then his folks tried every way they knew how to get him free. At last a scheme was hatched up so he could make a break for liberty. Well, their plans have succeeded. He's escaped. They're searching for him all over the country up here. But I reckon, because their plans have been laid so carefully, all our efforts to catch the conspirators will be in vain."

"Money talks!" said Alec, laconically.