CHAPTER XII

Lost!

"let's crawl down and look in the cave!" Joe whispered.

"Okay. But take it easy. There may be a guard, and when that cloud passes over, we'll be good targets for him."

Stealthily the brothers crept down the incline. It was treacherous going in the darkness, without the rope, and complete quiet was absolutely necessary.

"Can you see anything?" Joe whispered as they finally reached the lip of the opening and Frank peered cautiously over it.

The answer was a tightening of Frank's grip on his arm. Wriggling closer, Joe's eyes searched downward into the cavern, and he nearly cried out.

Below them were the three rangers!

The Hardys could hear the murmur of their voices but could not make out their muffled words.

Unable to determine exactly what the men were

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Lost! 93

doing, Joe tried to squirm around for a better view.

On the very edge of the opening, his elbow slipped. Before he could prevent it, a stream of pebbles and stones cascaded down into the cave!

"What's that?" grunted one of the men.

The boys could hear the startled exclamation as the rangers in the cave jumped to their feet.

"Someone's up there! Get 'em!"

Furious that they had been discovered, the two boys jumped to their feet and scrambled up the slope. There was no use trying to be quiet now, and they slipped and stumbled as fast as they could toward the ledge.

Behind them, they could hear the uproar as the rangers gave chase. Just then the moon came out from behind a dark cloud and the ledge was bathed in moonlight.

"Run faster!" urged Frank as they made the ledge and headed for the shadows of the defile.

There was hardly need for Frank's advice. Joe already was tearing along as fast as he could. Just as they reached the entrance to the rocky passageway there was a loud report behind them.

Pt-s-s-s-s-ee-ee!

A bullet whistled overhead, then another, and another. The sound of flying lead lent wings to the feet of the Hardy boys.

"Stay off the trail! Cut across the other way!" muttered Frank.

94 The Secret of Wildcat Swamp

Joe let his brother pass him. Frank dashed through a tangle of underbrush, up the steep slope of the defile, and into the woods. They struggled over rough ground, running into low-hanging branches, tripping over roots, falling to hands and knees innumerable times.

There was a wild search made with flashlights by the rangers behind them. Again and again the boys dodged the beams. Finally they were able to throw off their pursuers, and they breathed a sigh of relief when all sounds of the chase ceased.

Frank and Joe stopped to rest. After a breathless moment, Joe found his voice to express new concern.

"What if they find our horses!"

"Just hope that they don't. Anyway, we're safe! I wonder where we are. I've lost my bearings completely."

For some time they searched in vain in the darkness for a familiar landmark, but in the shadowy woods there was little they could see. Joe was about to suggest that they give up looking for camp until morning, when Frank said:

"SSS-s-st! A light!"

Up ahead, they could see a dim light bobbing in mid-air, as if it were suspended from nothing.

A few seconds later there came the soft clop-clop of a horse's hoofs slowly picking a path among the trees.

"Maybe the rider's meeting someone here," Joe ventured.

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Quickly the Hardys found cover, and waited. Within minutes the rider came abreast of their hiding place. The soft glow of the lantern he held lit up his youthful features.

Harry Sanderson!

"Golly, are we glad to see you!" Joe greeted him. "We're lost."

"I'm just as glad to see you!" the boy replied. "I was on my way to find you."

Briefly, Frank explained what had happened, from the time they had been ordered out of the fossil area to the present moment. When he heard their description of the rangers, Harry said they must be new ones. He did not know these men, and oddly enough he had never seen the cave.

"You didn't tell us Wildcat Swamp was to become a government reserve," Joe chided him.

Harry's eyes flicked wide open in amazement. "It's not true. I mean, my mother and I haven't heard anything about it."

"You haven't? The Forest Ranger had a letter telling about it."

"What! It looks more and more as if something mighty funny's going on. A man came to our ranch this evening to buy it for himself."

Harry went on to say that a stranger had dropped in -with papers to show his mother that Devil's Swamp and a lot of the ranch really belonged to someone else, and the man was going to buy it from the real owner.

96 The Secret of Wildcat Swarnp

Frank and Joe were baffled by Harry's revelations. They began to realize that a great deal was happening in the Wildcat Swamp neighborhood that was mysterious and which their father would want them to investigate.

"All my mother really owns," Harry went on, "is the house and a few acres around it-at least that's what the man said. When she cried, he told her, 'Don't worry. The swamp ain't worth anything, anyhow!' "

"Who was this man?" Frank asked, his eyes flashing with indignation.

"His name was George Moffet. I never saw him before. Guess he doesn't live around here. He was a little guy, pale and beady-eyed."

"Willie the Penman, I'll bet!" Joe exclaimed.

"Willie who?" Harry asked.

Without telling him that Willie was an ex-convict, Joe said he had acquired the name because he could imitate other people's signatures.

"If your caller was Willie, he probably wrote the papers himself," Frank said. "Harry, you tell your mother not to give up any papers and not to sign any unless we see them first. She shouldn't even show her deed to the land to this imposter. Keep it locked up in a safe place. Hurry!"

"Thanks a lot, fellows," Harry said. "I knew you'd help me. But before I go, I want to help you. I'll take you to your horses."

Lost! 97

The boy, familiar with every section of the Sanderson ranch, led the Hardys toward the spot where they had tied their horses. A short distance from the place they told Harry to wait, and crept forward. Both animals were safe. Apparently the rangers had departed.

Leading their mounts to where Harry was waiting with his horse, they said good-by, leaped into their saddles, and reached the camp without further adventure.

To their relief, nothing had been disturbed, and once more they crawled into their bedrolls. Next morning the brothers discussed the strange events of the previous evening.

"Doesn't it strike you as strange that three new rangers were sent here in addition to the others already located in this area?"

Frank nodded. "And it's not natural for men in that position to be whispering in a cave. I'd like to sneak back to the swamp in daylight and see what's going on."

"Go ahead. I'll watch camp. We can't take a chance on having our stuff stolen."

As soon as they had eaten, Frank went off to reconnoiter. His careful approach through the defile and the ledge was effort wasted, he discovered. There appeared to be no one anywhere around, and no trace whatever of the men who had been there only a few hours before.

98 The Secret of Wildcat Swamp

Without Joe to stand guard for him outside, Frank did not attempt to enter the cave, but he did play his flashlight into both entrances and satisfied himself that they were vacant. The only explanation he could think of was that the rangers might comprise a special group to evacuate people from the new government reserve. If the Sanderson ranch actually was to be turned into a reserve!

Back at camp, he said to Joe:

"As soon as Cap gets back I think we can take a chance digging again. As long as we don't carry away any fossils, there won't be any harm in looking for them."

Joe agreed. In the meantime, he wanted to keep busy.

"I think one of us had better get in touch with Mrs. Sanderson," he said. "Harry may have been stopped before reaching home."

"I'll stand guard here this time," Frank offered. "You ride over to the ranch."

With Harry's directions to guide him Joe started out for the Sanderson ranch house. The path led over fairly rough country on the other side of Wildcat Swamp. Joe saw no evidence of grazing cattle, though there were occasional grassy stretches that would have afforded pasturage. He scared up several rabbits, and even took a pot shot at a fox about to devour one.

Presently the way led up through another rocky

Lost! 99

defile, similar to the one near camp. Joe was halfway through this narrow ravine when he heard the sound of horse's hoofs from up ahead. The horseman was coining straight in his direction and there was no place around in which the boy might hide from a possible enemy.

The strange rider bore down on him from around a curve in the trail. Suddenly, twenty paces ahead, the newcomer's horse shied, stumbled over a loose stone, and threw his rider headlong.

Like a sack of meal, the rider struck the ground, and lay still.

"This can't be a trick," Joe thought to himself. "He hit the earth too hard!"

Cautiously, nonetheless, Joe dismounted and approached the fallen rider, who had not moved.

Joe took hold of him, turning the rider over on his back.

It was Chet Morton!