he party had brought a number of firearms with them, and several of the
pieces were hung up on the walls, loaded and ready for use. Catching up
a double-barreled shotgun, Dave ran outside with Jessie at his heels.
The commotion had continued, and now the youth found himself confronted
by his sister and Belle.

"What is it, Laura?"

"I don't know, exactly. But it certainly was something awful!"

"I think it must have been a wild man," broke in Belle. "Anyhow, if it
wasn't, I don't know what else it could have been."

The other boys had left the vicinity of the bungalows, and were running
toward the woods, with Mr. Wadsworth following them.

"They saw something, but they don't know what it was," said Mrs.
Wadsworth, who was plainly much agitated. "It let out the most awful
yells you ever heard."

"Maybe it was that wild man, Wilbur Poole!" exclaimed Dave. "He might
have followed us to this place, you know."

He ran on, and soon joined the other boys and Mr. Wadsworth, who had
come to a halt at the edge of the clearing on which the bungalows were
located.

"I think he disappeared over here!" cried Shadow.

"And I think he went this way!" returned Luke.

"When I saw him last he was by yonder bushes!" were Roger's words.

"I think he went over there, just as Shadow said!" came from Phil.

"Who was it?" asked Dave. "Wilbur Poole?"

"Whoever he was, he had the most outlandish rig on a fellow ever saw!"
exclaimed Luke. "I think he must have borrowed it from some scarecrow."

"If that was Wilbur Poole we had better keep our eyes open for him,"
said Dave, seriously. He had not forgotten the trouble which the wild
man who called himself the King of Sumatra had given him and his chums
in the past.

"We were all sitting there enjoying ourselves when we heard the fellow
give an awful yell or two," explained Phil. "Then he came dancing out
from behind some bushes, waving a sort of sceptre in the air. He nearly
scared the girls into fits, and that is what made them scream. Then he
caught up a stick of wood from the pile yonder, and disappeared between
the trees. I guess he must have imagined he was a wild Indian on the
warpath."

"I am afraid if that poor fellow isn't captured he will cause us a good
deal of worry," was Mr. Wadsworth's comment. "As long as he is at large
there is no telling what he will do."

"If it really is Wilbur Poole, we ought to let the Pooles know about
it," said Dave.

The matter was talk