way from me. I'd hire detectives to scour the whole United
States for the missing man."

"My father's doing all he can, Roger." Phil turned to our hero. "You got
a letter, didn't you?"

"Not much of a one, Phil." Dave hesitated for a moment: "Here, you might
as well see it. I showed it to Roger. But don't say anything to the
others about it, especially the girls. There is no use in worrying them.
As it is, they have had scare enough from that wild man."

The shipowner's son read the letter Dave had received with interest.

"Sure, that's from Link Merwell! I know his handwriting almost as well
as I know my own," he declared. "He always makes those funny little
crooks on his capital letters. I guess that shows what kind of a crook
he is," and Phil grinned at his little joke. "What are you going to do
about this, Dave?"

"I don't see that there's anything to do about it. As I told Roger, if
Link shows himself around here I'll do all I can to place him in the
hands of the authorities and see to it that he goes to jail."

"It's a beastly shame that any one should write such a note as that,"
went on the shipowner's son. "You are not a 'poorhouse nobody,' and
everybody knows it."

"I've been wondering what Link Merwell can have up his sleeve," came
from Roger. "He certainly must be up to something, or he wouldn't send
such a letter as that."

The matter was talked over for a little while longer by the three boys,
and then they rejoined the others.

Jessie declared that her headache was now gone completely, and the young
folks spent the rest of the evening in the Basswood bungalow, where
Belle played the piano and Luke favored them with several selections on
his banjo and his guitar. They also sang a number of songs, and
altogether the evening ended quite pleasantly. The cloud that had come
up between Dave and Jessie seemed to have vanished, much to their own
satisfaction, and to that of their friends.

On the following morning Mr. Basswood announced that he had to return to
Crumville for a few days on business. He said that as soon as he arrived
home he would get into telephone communication with Mr. Aaron Poole and
acquaint him with the fact that some sort of a wild man had visited the
vicinity of Bear Camp.

"Of course we may be mistaken as to the identity of that individual,"
said Ben's father. "He may not be Wilbur Poole at all."

"You want to be sure, Dad, and let Nat's father know that," said Ben,
"because