ind, it
is worth following up, as there hasn't been anything yet worth while
investigating except this. I wonder if our friend Dud isn't just giving
us a wrong steer, or is this what he meant we should find? What say,
Garry, what shall we do?"

Garry decided immediately.

"We'll follow this for a bit and see where it leads us. It may amount
to nothing at all, and then again it may lead us to a real clue."

They set off down the old tote road, and after a walk of nearly an hour
came upon several shacks, all boarded up, and bearing an air of
desolation and abandonment.

"By golly, this is a deserted lumber camp. You remember the storekeeper
told us there used to be logging operations in this vicinity? This must
have been the scene of the camp, although they had quite a haul to reach
the river for the drive. Let's take a look-see and find out what's
here," cried Phil.

They went to the main building, that is, the largest, evidently what had
been the bunkhouse for the lumberjacks, but every window was tightly
boarded up. A little to one side was a smaller building, which had
probably been the office and home of the camp boss and timber cruisers,
who generally lived by themselves.

This, too, had a deserted and forlorn appearance. Phil's keen eyes were
roving over the ground, but he found nothing to excite him till he came
to the rear of the building. Here was a small door.

"Say, fellows, look at that door. It's been repaired, and only lately.
You can see that someone has tried to obliterate the fact that new
boards were put in. It looks as though some tramp or woods wanderer had
broken in at some time, and the person or persons who have been here
lately have repaired it," said Phil, dropping to his knees and examining
the ground in front of the door.

"Why might not whoever has charge of this camp have fixed the door? It
is very likely that when the logging operations were given up that some
person in Hobart was put in charge to see that it was not destroyed,
because logging can again be carried on in this section," inquired Dick.

"Why, I dope it out this way. If, as you say, there is a caretaker or an
agent, it would be only natural for him to repair the broken door; but
why take all the trouble to smear it with dirt and dent it a little to
make it appear that it hadn't been touched? You can see that there are
different woods used in the door, and the repaired part is of much newer
timber. I tell you, there is