he lotht it altogether, and thent me to fetch
you along, thir."

"All right, I'll go with you, Number Three. You'll be interested to know
that we've got a prisoner here in the old cabin," remarked Elmer.

Ted glanced that way, and caught sight of the face in the window.

"The old Italian woman, eh?" he exclaimed.

"Sure," said Lil Artha, as proudly as though the honors of the capture
belonged exclusively to him.

"Then she did come back for her beadth?"

"Yes. Tell you all about it on the way, for we must be moving now, Ted,"
the scout master remarked.

"All right. I'm with you, Elmer. Come on, then," and, wheeling sharply
around, Ted started to retrace his steps.

So Mark and his long-legged comrade were left to guard the prison of the
old Italian woman, while the other two scouts climbed the hill.

"No uthe going over the trail we made," remarked Ted. "It wound around
and then climbth the hill. We could thee about where the cabin lay, and
I made a bee line downhill for the thame."

As they toiled upward Elmer, keeping his promise, related all that had
happened in the neighborhood of the hidden shack.

Ted seemed to enjoy the narrative very much indeed. He was particularly
pleased with the account of where the old woman in her panic had burst
the door open, and upset both Mark and Lil Artha.

"I wondered what happened to our friendth," said Ted. "And if you hadn't
been in thuch a big hurry to cut out, I'd have tried fixing both the
poor fellowth up. Lil Artha lookth like a pirate chief, and ath for
Mark, you'd think hith brains might be breaking out."

Elmer had no trouble at all in following the plain trail left by Ted
when he came down from above. His practiced eye could easily see the
marks on turf, leaf mold, or even where the other's heels with their
steel nails had scraped along a slanting rock.

"Tell me thome more about that, pleath," said Ted, while they were still
climbing.

Nothing loath, for he really believed he had solved the secret of the
whole business, Elmer gave him the story, from his first faint suspicion
upon looking down into the strange-smelling cellar of the mill house, up
to his detecting such a strong odor of fish about the Italian woman, and
particularly the knife she carried.

"That'th a bully good idea, all right," said Ted, when the story was
finished.

"Do you think it sounds fishy?" laughed Elmer.

"Yeth and no," answered the other, immediately. "While it theemth to