CHAPTER VII

The Spiral Code

the big cat was in mid-air before Frank was even aware of it. He had no time to defend himself.

As the beast leaped at the boy, his horse, with animal instinct, reared and screamed. The horse's split-second movement distracted the cat and gave Frank time to recoil a step, so that it missed its target and sprawled on the ground beside Frank.

Crack!

The sharp explosion came from behind him, and the wildcat sank to the ground. Another quick report, and the snarling, spitting beast lay lifeless.

Frank turned to see Joe, his gun still smoking, looking coolly at the still form of the lion. Finally he raised his eyes to his brother's face.

"Now we're even, Frank," he said. "This makes up for getting me out of that quicksand yesterday."

Cap broke into a relieved chuckle and remarked to no one in particular, "I certainly knew what I

.si

52 The Secret of Wildcat Swamp

was doing when I picked you boys as bodyguards!"

After making sure his attacker was dead, Frank turned it over.

"Mangy-looking beast, isn't it? Say, I wonder if this is the breed of wildcat the swamp's named after."

"I don't know," Cap admitted, "but if it is, I'd say the hunter who killed twenty of them was mighty handy with a gun."

Frank grinned. "Like Joe here."

After pushing the carcass over the cliff, they took up the trail again.

"This is the longest twenty-five miles I've ever ridden," Joe remarked after a while. "It seems as if I'd been in the saddle a month."

Cap admitted that they had made slow progress, but he felt that they had done well enough considering the difficulties of the trail they had to follow. Late in the afternoon they came to a spot where he suggested they make camp.

"We'll be leaving the stream at this point," he told the boys, "and we might as well hole up where we're sure we'll have water."

"What happens to the stream?" Joe asked.

"According to Uncle Alex's map, it cuts through a narrow plateau, and then winds around and down into Wildcat Swamp, which is almost due west from where we are. We'll pick it up again down there."

Once more Joe took charge of hobbling the ani'

The Spiral Code 53

mals, and watched with sympathetic understanding as they stood up to their hocks in the cool, swirling stream.

Cap and Frank busied themselves with starting a fire and making preparations for supper. While gathering dead branches for firewood, Cap suddenly let out an ejaculation of surprise.

Running to his side, the Hardys found him poring over a narrow strip of paper, evidently torn off a larger piece.

"I found this stuck on that bush over there. I wonder whether it was dropped by a person passing by or whether it was left for someone to pick up. It has writing on it in indelible ink, but in a most peculiar style."

Frank examined the characters, which were arranged as follows:

"It's some sort of code, I'm sure," he said. "Let's see if we can figure it out."

Joe had been looking at the strange paper over his brother's shoulder.

"Say, let's see that," he said excitedly. "I've an idea!"

Pulling a pencil from his pocket, he wound the thin strip of paper up its length. The letters suddenly fell into place.

HARDY TRAIL HOT BRUSH BOYS OFF.

54 The Secret of Wildcat Swamp

In dismay, Cap looked at Frank and Joe. Someone was well aware of their presence in the area, and was giving orders to have them kept away-if not teriously harmed!

Frank guessed what the teacher was thinking. "Now that we're being watched, all we have to do is turn the tables."

"That's right," Joe agreed.

Cap was not fooled by their bravado. Re-examining the bush on which he had found the message, he said:

"I shouldn't have removed it. You fellows would have been able to figure out whether or not it was put there on purpose. But I'll tell you one thing. My mind keeps going back to those men we saw last night. The shorter chap who went off in this direction could have left this message. And if he's Willie the Penman, the best thing for us to do is to clear out of here. I don't want you boys exposed to any danger on my account."

With one accord, the brothers dismissed this idea.

"You don't think we'd quit now, do you?" Joe demanded. "This trek is too interesting and exciting. No, sir, we're staying with you."

"Unless," Frank added, with a wink at Joe, "you want to quit, Cap."

"What! And not find the fossil?"

"If Joe and I quit," Frank went on, "we'll have

The Spiral Code 55

to give up helping Dad and just when it looks as if Wildcat Swamp may hold a good clue."

"Thanks, boys," the coach said. "But please watch your step more carefully than ever now."

They promised, and Frank added, "Let's keep our eyes open to see if anyone comes for this message."

Although they ate a cold supper rather than sig= nify their presence by the light and smoke of a campfire, no one arrived to pick up the coded note, and finally all three turned in for a good night's sleep. In the morning, the ride toward Wildcat Swamp was resumed with renewed zest.

"The next, and last landmark on the map," Cap stated, "is a big needle rock with a balancing boulder on top. It's on a ledge, halfway down from an overhanging cliff to a long, sandy slope that ends in the swamp itself. The fossil should be somewhere in that sandy slope, between the ledge and the swamp."

Leaving the stream, which whirled away in a southwesterly direction while they continued west, the fossil hunters eventually came to the entrance of a long, narrow defile.

"We must be getting close!" Cap said excitedly. "The map shows this gap leads to the ledge, below which the needle rock is located."

He led the way through the narrow passagewayE

56 The Secret of Wildcat Swamp

with Frank following and Joe trailing with the pack mule. Through the twisting rocky ravine the riders filed, until they could see bright sunlight sparkling at the far end.

"Here we are!" Cap exclaimed as he came out of the dark, shadowy defile onto a wide ledge.

A moment later the boys joined the science teacher on the ledge. To their right was a sheer cliff wall rising to a flat, wide plateau.

To their left, the ledge fell away in a sloping, sandy decline, while straight ahead, at a turn in the ledge, stood the towering rocky column upon which a huge, heavy boulder sat balanced as if on a giant's thumb.

"Look at the size of that boulder!" murmured Joe in amazement. "Yet it is so delicately balanced that it looks as if I could push it off with my bare hands!"

"You might be able to at that," Cap agreed as he studied the phenomenon. "I've seldom seen one so beautifully balanced on such a fine point."

"Look at that wooded mountain beyond the swamp," Joe said. "There's a fire tower at the top."

Frank was about to suggest that they dismount and make their way down to the swamp at the base of the slope when Cap raised a hand for silence.

"Listen!"

Above them on the flat plateau sounded a familiar, steady drumming. Hoofbeats!

The Spiral Code 57

"Let's go!" Frank cried, pulling hard on his left rein, then spurring his horse back through the defile and up toward the flat ground above.

With Joe and Cap close behind, it was only a matter of minutes before he burst out through the dark ravine to the open terrain.

Just ahead of them was their quarry, a single horse and rider. With a swoop, the trio surrounded him.

"Why, it's a young boy!" Frank said to himself as the lone rider drew rein.

"Hi, there!" he greeted the youngster, who looked to be about fourteen years old and handled a horse as if he had been born to the saddle.

"Hi, yourself," the boy returned. "Who are you?"

Cap Bailey explained that they were scientists, looking for fossils.

"This happens to be my mother's property," stated the youngster. "Who said you could dig here?"

"Oh, then your mother must be Mrs. Sanderson!" Cap recalled the name from his aunt's letter which had given Mrs. Sanderson's approval of the exploration.

"That's right. I'm Harry Sanderson."

Cap introduced himself and the Hardys, and told Harry why they were on the scene. If necessary, he added, they would be willing to pay for the right to hunt fossils.

58 The Secret of Wildcat Swamp

"Oh, no, you won't have to do that," Harry assured him. "Mr. Alex Bailey, when he first talked to my mother, promised that she would get all the money any fossils might bring."

"We'll go along on the same promise," Cap as= sured the boy.

"We liked Mr. Bailey," Harry remarked. "He seemed to be a nice man, but a short while after he settled things with my mother, he disappeared. We heard later that he got sick and died."

"We hope to finish the job he started," Cap told him.

Frank and Joe cautiously questioned the lad, asking who lived in the area.

Harry smiled. "Nobody but us, only lately I've seen campfires and strange men once in a while. The other night a couple of 'em stopped me and started asking a lot of questions. But I slapped my horse and got away. They chased me but couldn't catch me."

"What did the men look like?" Joe asked.

"Both of 'em were big, but one was the biggest man I ever saw! Bet he could be a wrestler if he wanted to. The other man looked like he might be a lawyer or a doctor. He talked in a low voice."

Frank and Joe looked at each other. Without saying a word that might disturb Harry, each knew what the other was thinking. The descriptions fitted Turk and Flint!