he car all right."

"I don't see it," said Winton. "Just because it's a gray roadster----"

"Well, there may be other little things about it, too," said Tom.

"About the car or the letter or what?" Winton asked.

"Answered in the affirmative," said Roy.

"Well, anyway," Tom said, "it looked as if the owner of the car might
have gone up the mountain. And he hasn't come down. At least he hasn't
come after his car. I'd like to get a look at him. I'm going to follow
that trail up a ways----"

"To-night?"

"When did you suppose? Next week? I'd like to find out where the trail
goes. I'm not saying any more. The bright spot we saw from camp went out
to-night. And here's a trail on the other side of the mountain that I
never knew of. Here's a man that had a map of it and he went away and
hasn't come back. I'm not asking anybody to go with me."

"And I'm not asking you to let me," said Roy. "I'll go just for spite.
You don't think you're afraid of me, am I, quoth he. Now that we're
here, we might as well be all separated together. What do you say,
Gilly? Yes, kind sir, said he. We'll _all_ go, what do you say? Indeed
we will, they answered joyously----"

"Well, come ahead then," said Tom, "and stop your nonsense."

"Says you," Roy answered.

CHAPTER XIV

ON THE SUMMIT

The two facts uppermost in Tom's mind were these: Some one had marked
the trail up that mountain, and the patch of brightness on the top of
the mountain which had lately been familiar to the boys in camp had that
very night disappeared.

The owner of the gray roadster had not come back for it. He might be the
fugitive of the newspaper article, and he might not. If Tom had any
_particular_ reason for thinking that he was, he did not say so. There
are a good many gray roadsters. One thing which puzzled Tom was this:
the car had been in storage at Berry's for a few days at the very most,
but the bright patch on the mountain had been visible for a month or
more. So if the owner of this machine had gone up the mountain, at least
he was not the originator of the bright patch there. But perhaps, after
all, the bright patch was just some reflection.

[Illustration: SUDDENLY ROY CALLED, "LOOK HERE! HERE'S A BOARD!"
Tom Slade's Double Dare. Page 83]

"Let's have another look at that letter," said Tom.

He read it again with an interest and satisfaction which certainly were
not justified by the simple wording of the missive.

"Come ahead," he s