ok,
going through a stretch of woods on their way to camp.

Hardly had these high school boys entered the woods when they
halted, for an instant, in intense consternation.

On the air there came to them a sudden scream.

"That was a girl's voice!" gasped Greg.

"Or a woman's," nodded Dick. "We've got to-----"

Again a piercing scream, then more screams in two voices.

"Hustle!" finished Dick, as the three boys broke into a run in
the direction whence the sound of the voices came to them.

CHAPTER XVI

THE CAMP INVADED AND CAPTURED

Clad in their long fishing boots, none of the boys made anything
like his usual speed in running.

Grumbling inwardly at their clumsy gait, all three hurried as
fast as they could into the near-by stretch of forest.

There, in a path, they came upon a middle-aged woman accompanied
by four girls, all of whom showed signs of unusual alarm.

"Oh, Dave," called Belle Meade, "I'm so glad to see you!"

"You usually are," laughed Darrin, "but I never knew you to make
so much noise about it before."

"What's the trouble?" Dick inquired, after a hasty greeting to
Mrs. Bentley, Laura Bentley, Belle Meade, Fannie Upham and Margery
White, the latter four all Gridley High School girls.

"A man---he must have been crazy!" replied Laura. Her voice shook
slightly, and she was still trembling, though the color was beginning
to return to her face.

"Did he offer to molest you?" flared Dick.

"No, indeed!" replied Mrs. Bentley promptly and laughing nervously.
"In fact, I think we must have frightened the man, for his desire
seemed to be to get away from us as fast as he could."

"But that face!" cried Miss Fanny. "I never want to see it again."

"It must have been our Man of the Haunting Face," murmured Dick,
turning to his chums.

"That was he---just who it was!" declared Belle, with emphasis.
"I don't know whom you're talking about, but 'haunting face'
just describes the man who frightened us."

"It was so silly of us!" murmured Laura Bentley. "It was clear
nonsense for us to be so frightened, but when, we saw that face
peering at us from behind a tree we simply couldn't help screaming."

"Are you alone?" demanded Prescott in some astonishment, for these
were carefully brought-up girls, and it was not like their parents
to let them go into the woods without other guard than that of
a chaperon.

At that instant Dick's question was answered by the appearance
of Dr. Ben