Part 48 (1/2)

”He has been to your place again?”

”Yes, sir, last night. He was in the barn, and he jumped out at my wife and said he was going to blow the fort to pieces! She got so scared she dropped her pailful of milk and ran to the house. I got mad and got my shotgun, but the fellow had skipped out before I could catch sight of him.”

”What time was this?”

”Just about six o'clock. But that ain't all. This morning I started for town, intending to tell the constable and the justice about it, when all of a sudden, when I was pa.s.sing the end of your property, I see the wild man down there, behind a tree.”

”Just now?” asked Dave, eagerly.

”Not more'n a quarter of an hour ago. That's why I stepped in here.

He's a dangerous man, Doctor Clay, and I think he ought to be rounded up!” went on Henry Morrison, earnestly.

”You are right, he certainly ought to be put under restraint,”

answered the master of Oak Hall. ”I will see to this at once. Will you a.s.sist in the hunt, Mr. Morrison?”

”Of course--if I don't have to go alone. I don't think it is safe for anybody to tackle him alone, he's that wild and dangerous.”

”Can we take part in the search?” asked Phil, eagerly. ”Oh, do let us do it, Doctor Clay!” he pleaded.

”I suppose so, if you will promise to be careful. Mr. Morrison, can you point out the exact spot where you saw the man?”

”Of course I can.”

”Then we will at once make up a searching party.”

Doctor Clay could act quickly when the occasion demanded, and inside of ten minutes a searching party was made up, composed of Dave and his chums, Mr. Dale, Horsehair, and several men who chanced to be working around the grounds.

”Oh, I hope we catch him and are able to prove that he blew up the hotel dining-room,” said Phil to Dave.

”So do I, Phil.”

Henry Morrison led the way, and it was not long before the spot was gained where he had seen Wilbur Poole. From that point a path ran from the river back into the woods.

”Maybe he took that path,” suggested our hero, and several thought the same.

”I think we had better scatter,” suggested Mr. Dale, who had been placed in charge by the doctor. ”By doing that we can cover a wide range of territory in a comparatively short s.p.a.ce of time. And keep as quiet as possible, for should he hear us he will most likely start and run.”

”If he didn't run when he saw Mr. Morrison,” murmured Buster. ”He may be miles away already.”

The crowd separated into pairs, Dave and Phil going together and Roger going with Ben, and Buster with Horsehair. All had armed themselves with sticks, and Mr. Dale carried a pair of handcuffs, and one of the hired men had a rope.

Deeper and deeper into the woods went the party, spread out in a long line. They had examined the river-front and felt fairly certain that the wild man had not left by boat.

”Looks like a wild-goose chase,” remarked Phil, with a sigh, after a half an hour had pa.s.sed.

”Oh, we don't want to give up yet,” answered Dave. ”Why, it isn't much after ten o'clock. We can stay out till noon, at least.”

”I'd stay out all day, if I thought we could catch him,” returned the s.h.i.+powner's son, promptly.

Presently the boys espied a small stone house, standing beside a brook which flowed through the woods into the river. In the house lived an old man who made his living by making baskets and fancy articles of birch bark.