n without them.

CHAPTER III.

THE GREAT SWAMP MYSTERY.

Heavy banks of dark clouds were flying across the lowering sky.
Occasionally the big silvery moon burst from the rifts and flooded the
landscape with its mellow light.

During one of these intervals the two detectives gazed around.

The train had disappeared in the distance.

Not far away from where the Bradys stood they saw the big box lying
beside the track, turned over on its side.

They ran back and hastily examined it.

"Empty!" ejaculated Harry, in some surprise.

"What has become of the man it contained?" asked Old King Brady.

"Search. He may have fallen out."

They carefully examined the ground within a wide radius.

But they found nothing of the missing body.

"Mysterious, what became of him!" Old King Brady exclaimed.

Harry was completely at his wits' end.

"I'm afraid we are beyond our depth, Old King Brady," he remarked.
"This mystery keeps growing all the time, and we can't seem to fathom
it."

Just then the moon appeared again.

It showed them a river on one side and a broad expanse of gloomy swamp
land on the other.

Night insects were chirping amid the weeds, and frogs were croaking
dismally among the waving reeds and rushes.

Off in the centre of the swamp were some tangled trees and bushes,
heaps of rocks overgrown with moss and trailing vines, and an object
which had the dim outline of being an old rookery of some sort.

It was a dismal, lonesome scene.

Young King Brady moved along the edge of the boggy ground with its
little pools of water, tufts of coarse grass and tracts of black,
oozing mud.

An old, rotten board walk from the railroad bed to the trees, caught
his view and he suddenly called to the old detective:

"I see a light among those trees. Here's a path. Let's follow it into
the swamp."

"Be cautious!" warned the old detective. "If those rascals have carried
the body from the box to the midst of those trees, they will be on the
lookout for any possible pursuers and may give us a warm reception."

"We need not let ourselves be seen," replied the boy.

"How are you going to avoid it?"

"By creeping along the path on our hands and knees. The reeds on each
side will hide our bodies from view."

"Go ahead, then."

They went down on their haunches and crept along in single file, out
into the dismal swamp, and drew near the oasis.

In a few minutes they reached firm land.

From behind a c