w take a look at this,
and tell us what you think."

With that he brought his hand around, having been keeping it behind his
back all this time. When he opened it there was disclosed a common,
every-day jack-knife with a buckhorn handle, such as might be expected
to be found in the pocket of almost any lad, and capable, when given a
keen edge, of performing miracles in the way of shaving sticks and
cutting up apples.

So Landy gravely, though eagerly, took up the knife. He opened the big
blade and seemed interested in a certain nick he found there.

"Elmer, that settles it," he said, finally; "it's Hen's knife, I'm
positive; and it must have been him that was hanging from this tree a
bit ago!"

CHAPTER VI

BOUND FOR SASSAFRAS SWAMP

When Landy Smith settled the matter in this convincing fashion, the
rest of the scouts showed more or less interest in the outcome.

"That proves one thing," asserted Toby; "Hen Condit is up here, all
right."

"It proves a whole lot of things, according to my opinion," added Lil
Artha as he nodded his head in a way he had of emphasizing his remarks;
"it tells us Hen is in bad company, for the second fellow must be the
man he was seen with the other day in Hickory Ridge town."

"According to my notion, fellows," said Mark, seriously, "the hand of
that same unknown man stands back of all poor Hen's troubles. Until
that party was seen in this part of the country, Hen didn't seem to
have a single worry. He was always as light-hearted a chap as you
could find in a week of Sundays."

"What under the sun can it mean?" queried Landy, looking distressed;
because, truth to tell, he and the missing scout had been getting quite
fond of one another lately, and the shock had told upon Landy much more
than any other boy belonging to the Wolf Patrol.

"I tell you what I think," ventured Ted Burgoyne just then; "that man
mutht have hypnotized Hen. I don't thee how elth he could make him do
whatever he wants. Yeth, I even believe he forced Hen to wite that
letter. Needn't laugh, Lil Artha, I've been reading it all up lately,
and there are thome queer happeningth along the line of hypnothism."

"Elmer, how about that; do you believe in it?" asked Lil Artha, who was
known to be pretty much of a scoffer in his way.

"I decline to commit myself--just yet at any rate," laughed the patrol
leader. "I confess that queer things do happen, and a fellow who
always refuses to believe becaus