y."

"Don't worry, Billy," Hugh told him. "They said they would be miles
away long before night set in. The country is safe, and we're not
likely to starve."

Alec interrupted the conversation to call out exultantly:

"Oh! this first roll is coming along dandy, let me tell you! It's
going to be the best thing I ever did; and my stars, but that lens
does cut fine! It was a lucky day for me when Aunt Susan got track
of this old castle up here in the woods, for it's given me a regular
jewel of a camera outfit."

Every one felt pleased on hearing this, since it would save Alec the
trouble of snapping the pictures over again.

Billy was taking things easy after getting up the midday meal, as he
felt he had earned a rest. At the same time the fat scout's mind was
busily employed.

"I was just thinking," he finally broke out with, "what a lot of queer
things have happened to us since we came up here. I wonder what we'll
strike next. We've rubbed up against raiding tramps, mewing owls,
ghosts in the night, and guards hunting for an escaped insane criminal.
Besides, there are still a few more hours left for a new batch of
exciting happenings. I tell you, boys, this little side trip proposed
by Alec and engineered by Hugh bids fair to equal anything we've endured
in our whole checkered career."

CHAPTER VII

FACED BY A MYSTERY

To tell the truth, Hugh was thinking something along those same lines
himself, so that he felt in a mood to quite agree with the enthusiastic
Billy.

"Take it all in all," he remarked, reflectively, "we're one of the
luckiest lot of scouts that ever wandered down the pike. Most fellows
experience a regular rut, and never run up against anything out of the
way. But I have to shake myself very time I look back over our calendar,
for fear it's only a dream."

"We certainly have had more than our share of things happening to us,"
admitted Alec, proudly, "but the wheel of the mill will never run
again with the water that is past. So I forget the things that are
gone, and keep looking hopefully forward to other glorious events that
lie waiting for us in the dim future."

"Hear! hear!" exclaimed Billy, clapping his hands, "Alec is getting
quite poetical these days."

"I only hope," continued the other, with a gleam of satisfaction in
his eyes, for one of Alec's weak spots was a love of flattery, "that
our latest venture will turn out just as successful as many others
have don