eel that we ought to
have turned the whole thing over to the police while the trail
was fresh."

"Dave, don't you know, well enough, that newspapers do more than
the police, nowadays, in clearing up mysteries?"

"This may be more than a mystery," hinted Dave. "Even if we get
through to the end of this trail---or mystery we may find a crime
at that end."

"All the more need, then, for moving on fast. See here, Dave,
I'll follow just the way this footprint points. You get out a
hundred feet or so to the right. And we'll move as fast as we
can, now."

The wisdom of this plan was soon apparent, for it was Dave Darrin
who discovered the next footprint. He summoned Dick Prescott
with a sharp hiss.

"Yes; all right," nodded Dick, joining his comrade and gazing
down at one of the narrow bootmarks. "But don't send a long signal
again, Dave. We might be close, and warn some one out of our
way."

"What shall we do, then?"

"We'll look frequently at each other, and the fellow who discovers
anything will make signs to the other."

Three minutes later Dick Prescott crouched low behind a line of
bushes, his eyes glistening as he peered and listened. Then he
began to make wildly energetic signals to Dave Darrin.

The head partner of Dick & Co. had fallen upon something that
interested him---tremendously!

CHAPTER IV

THE "SOREHEADS" IN CONCLAVE

Dave Darrin came stealing over, as soft-footed as any panther.

Dick did not turn around to look at his chum. He merely held
up a cautioning hand, and Darrin moved even more stealthily.

In another moment Dave's head was close to his chum's, and both
young men were gazing upon the same scene.

"Davis and Fremont-----" whispered Darrin in his chum's ear.

"Bayliss, Porter and Drayne," Dick nodded back, softly.

"Trenhold, Grayson, Hudson," continued Darrin.

"All the 'soreheads,'" finished Dick Prescott for him.

"Or nearly all," supplemented Dave.

Indeed, the scene upon which these two High School boys gazed
was one that greatly interested them.

On a little knoll, just beyond the line of bushes, and on lower
ground, fully a dozen young men lounged, basking in the morning
sun, which poured through upon this small, treeless space.

Though the young men down in the knoll were not carefully attired,
there was a general similarity in their dress. All wore sweaters,
and nearly all of them wore cross-country shoes. Evidently the
whole party had been