here, did _you_ discover anything?" he demanded.

"Well," replied Elmer, "I can't say that the evidence is so plain a
fellow who runs may read; but from a number of things I've seen since
coming here to the Munsey mill pond I've about made up my mind this
place isn't quite as deserted as people seem to believe."

"Do you mean, Elmer," cried Lil Artha, excitedly, "that tramps or some
more yeggmen, like those fellows we met with up at McGraw's lumber camp,
have squatted here in this haunted house?"

"Something like that," replied the other, steadily, "though I don't
believe they dare spend a night under this roof. There's no sign of
that."

"But what would they kidnap our chum for?" demanded the excited tall
scout.

"I don't know for certain, but we're going to find out pretty soon,"
said Elmer, with a determined look.

CHAPTER VI.

HUNTING FOR THE MISSING SCOUT.

"Honest, now, Elmer, do you really believe that?" asked Chatz Maxfield,
after staring at the scout master in a puzzled manner for half a dozen
seconds.

"It looks so, on the face of it," replied the other.

"But plague take it," argued Chatz, "for the life of me I just can't
understand, suh, what those fellows would want to make a prisoner of
poor Nat for. In all our troop he's about the most harmless scout,
except perhaps Jasper Merriweather. Nat is strong as an ox, but he
wouldn't hurt a fly if he could help it."

"That's so," echoed Lil Artha. "I've seen him walk around so as not to
step on a harmless little snake on the road. And it wasn't because he
was afraid of snakes, either. Remember he killed that fierce big
copperhead last summer, after the other fellows had skipped out?"

"There's one chance, though," Elmer went on, "that after all Nat may be
hiding."

"But he knows the sound of the bugle, and what penalty follows
disobedience on the part of a scout," declared Lil Artha.

"That's true enough, fellows," Elmer said, as if he himself might be
trying to see through a haze; "but perhaps Nat finds himself in a
position where he can't answer us without betraying himself to these
unknown men."

Again did Chatz and the tall scout look at each other helplessly. And
judging from the way they shook their heads, the puzzle was evidently
too deep for them.

"Say, Elmer, you manage to get on to these things in a way to beat the
band; could you give a guess now about how many men there are holding
out around this old haunted mill?"