said Dave, with a smile.
"You can tell them to-night. Tell us now, is there anything new at the
Hall?"

"There sure is."

"What?" asked Phil and Roger.

"The wild man."

"Oh, has he turned up again?" asked the girls, with interest.

"Twice--yesterday morning and this morning," said Buster.

"He didn't turn up at all, Buster," interposed Shadow. "When you start
to tell a story, why don't you tell it straight?"

"Oh, you tell it," grumbled the fat boy. "You have that sort of thing
down to a science."

"There isn't very much to tell," went on Shadow Hamilton. "He left his
mark, that's all."

"Left his mark?" queried Dave.

"That's it--wide, blue marks. He must have about a ton of blue
chalk."

"Say, Shadow, you are talking in riddles," burst out the shipowner's
son. "Give it to us in plain United States, can't you?"

"Sure I can. Well, this wild man visited the school yesterday morning
and this morning, before anybody was up. The first time he went into
the big classroom and took some books, and the next time he visited
the kitchen and pantry and took some grub--I beg the ladies' pardon--I
should have said food--a ham, a chicken, and some doughnuts."

"And the blue chalk----?" queried Mr. Porter.

"I was coming to that. In the classroom he left his mark--a big
circle, with a cross inside, in blue chalk."

"And how do you know that is the mark of the wild man?" asked Laura.

"Oh, we found that out some time ago," answered Shadow. "He seems to
have a mania for blue chalk, and even puts it on his face sometimes,
and he chalks down that circle with the cross wherever he goes."

"Then, if he does that, why can't they trail him down?" asked Dave.

"Because he is like a flea--when you try to put your hands on him he
isn't there," answered Shadow. "And say, that puts me in mind of
another story. Once three boys were----"

"That will do, Shadow!" cried Roger. "About the wild man is enough for
the present."

"Have they any idea who he is?" asked Dunston Porter.

"Not the slightest," answered Buster. "And they don't know where he
keeps himself, although it must be in the woods near the school."

"Oh, Dave, I hope he doesn't harm anybody!" cried Jessie, with a
shiver.

"Are you boys ready to go back to the Hall?" asked Dunston Porter.

"I am," responded Buster, readily.

"So am I," added the story-teller of the school.

"Then we'll take you along, provided you don't mind being crowded."

"We won't m