The meeting was a one. Alvin and Chester sprang to their feet and grasped in turn the hand of their astonished friend, while Zip, never forgetting his dignity, looked on as if he understood it all, as quite likely he did.  
“I didn’t leave Uncle Wilson’s until after dinner yesterday,” said Burton, “and as Zip and I were in no hurry, it was growing dark when we got here. Somehow or other, I fancied the looks of this old-fashioned inn and to stay over night, but what is it brings you here?” asked the young man as all three sat down to the table.
 
And then Alvin told his story, to which Burton listened with breathless interest.
 
“How dreadful!” he exclaimed; “it me more than I can tell. It was fortunate indeed that I decided to stop here, for I may not return to Mouse Island for several days. I reckon we shall do some tall traveling to Gosling Lake.”
 
They did not linger over their breakfast. Burton tossed a few mouthfuls of meat to the dog, which sat on the floor beside his chair. As a rule, when off on one of his tramps, the hound shared his room, though he did not do so at the , which explained why Alvin and Chester saw nothing of the animal when they arrived several hours before.
 
“It isn’t any use to theorize,” remarked Burton, as the three paid their bill and hurried out of the inn, “for at such times you are more likely to be wrong than right. Ruth may have fallen into the lake and been drowned, without her body being found for several days; it may be that those tramps belong to an organized gang and have stolen and hidden her, but in that case,” added the young man with a flash of his eyes, “they forgot to reckon with Zip; and if so, they will soon learn their mistake.”
 
“The general belief when we left last night,” said Chester, “was that she had 293simply wandered off in the woods until tired out, when she lay down and fell asleep.”
 
“That sounds reasonable, but I can’t shake off the fear that it is not the right explanation.”
 
It need not be said that while the three boys were hurrying over the highway and along the rough path with the eager Zip, who knew that something was in the air, keeping them company, the Boy and Doctor Spellman and his wife were busy.
 
Their aimless groping through the wood was kept up until far beyond midnight, when the physician compelled his wife to return with him to the house and lie down for a brief rest. Master Hall suggested to the members of the troop to return to the bungalow, he accompanying them, where they too secured sleep, and ate their morning meal at daylight. The agreement was that all should assemble at an early hour at the doctor’s home, where a decision would be made as to what was next to be done.
 
If the child, as all prayed was the case, had simply gone astray in the woods, she would awake at an early hour and renew her effort to find her way home. With so many persons wandering here, there and everywhere she must hear their calls and her rescue could not be long delayed. If such proved not to be the case, and she had not been drowned, it would mean the worst. She was the victim of the most atrocious who lived,—for no crime is more merciless and unforgivable than the kidnapping of the pet of a household, and giving its parents the choice of paying an enormous or never seeing it again.
 
Now, it may have struck you as strange that no reference has been made to Uncle in the which followed the discovery that Ruth Spellman had been lost or stolen. In knowledge of woodcraft none of the searchers could be compared to him, and yet no one had asked his help. The reason was simple. With all his skill in the ways of the forest, he could do no more, so long as the night lasted, than the youngest member of the Boy Scouts. He could join in the aimless groping and 295shouting, but with a score already doing their utmost, he would simply be one among them.
 
Although morning brought a change of conditions, it would seem that they were still unsurmountable, for what Apache, or Sioux or Shawnee (unless he were Deerfoot) could trail a little child through the forest, when her almost imperceptible footprints had been repeatedly crossed by other feet?
 
“I think we ought to appeal to Uncle Elk,” said Scout Master Hall to the parents, after the scouts assembled at the Doctor’s home had to press their hunt harder than ever. “None of us can equal him.”
 
“You know that for some cause which I cannot , he has formed an intense dislike for my wife and me,” said the father.
 
“But it is impossible that it should include the little one. At such a time as this no heart has room for enmity, no matter what fancy may have .”
 
“I am willing to be guided by your judgement,” replied the doctor, after his wife 296had joined in the plea. “If Ruth has slept alone in the woods, she must have an hour or two ago and ought to have been found. I don’t see how the old can help us, but we must neglect nothing. Come on.”
 
But Mike Murphy had anticipated their action. We know what unbounded faith he held in Uncle Elk, and more than once he had felt inclined to go to his cabin. With the coming of morning he decided to do so.
 
Consulting with Patrol Leader Chase, Mike found that he had formed the same decision. Accordingly the two withdrew from the others without attracting notice and made their way together to the cabin of their old friend. This was so far removed from the zone of active search that none of the other Scouts was met.
 
“If he can’t help us, no one can,” said Chase.
 
“There’s only one cratur that can thrack Sunbeam through the woods, and his name is Zip,” replied Mike. “If I hadn’t seen with me own eyes what he can do, I wouldn’t belave the same. Wal, here we are!”
 
They had reached the little clearing in the middle of which stood the familiar cabin, as silent and of all signs of life as ever. Without , Mike led the way up the path, placed his foot on the small steps, and was about to reach up to draw the , when he with a .
 
“Do ye obsarve that?” he asked in a startled whisper.
 
The latchstring was inside!
 
Never since the leathern was first shoved through the little orifice above the tongue of iron had this occurred, by day or night.
 
The two boys stood for several minutes staring at the blank door, and then looked in each other’s face. Not the slightest sound was heard from within.
 
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