CHAPTER XX RIDING A MOOSE
As Red Rodgers raced after the floating figure of the girl he gainedlittle by little. Boat length by boat length he decreased the distance.Now she was twenty yards away, now ten, now five, as he pulled madly atthe oars.
And then, as he glanced over his shoulder a cry of surprise and dismayescaped his lips. With a snort and a mad splashing of water a dark bulksprang from the water, rattled over the pebbly shore, and thendisappeared into the dense forest that covered the narrow island.
For one full minute he looked in vain for Berley Todd. Then, catching thesound of what seemed a low laugh, he whirled about to find her two whitehands clinging to the prow.
"Please give me a hand!" she pleaded. "I'm soaked. And boo! It's so cold!
"I always wanted to do it," she chuckled as she tumbled into the boat.
"Do what?" Red was dumbfounded.
"Ride a moose."
"Ride--a--moose?"
"Sure! Didn't you know it was done? Easy enough. All you have to do is tofind one swimming and run him down with a canoe or an outboard motor, andthen hop overboard and seize him by the antlers. As long as he is in thewater he can't harm you. But on shore, just look out!
"That," she added quietly, as Red once more swung the boat about androwed for shore, "was Old Uncle Ned."
"Old Uncle Ned? Oh, yes, you spoke of him once before."
"He's huge, and is quite a character on the island. Comes coughing aroundtimid ladies' windows at night." She laughed quietly.
"When you ran into him he must have been feeding on grass off the bottom.He came up quick and pitched me out. Somehow I was thrown on top of him,and I got hold of his antlers. The rest was too good to lose, so I justhung right on and took a ride.
"I hope," she ended quite meekly, "that you don't mind."
"N-no." Red was rowing hard. "But you'll be frozen before we reach thecabin."
"Oh-o nn-o." The girl strove in vain to prevent her teeth fromchattering. "I-I'm all--all right."
The instant they touched the dock she was out of the boat and on the dockdoing a wild dance. She stopped suddenly right in the midst of this tostare away at the black water.
"Wha-what's moving over there?" She sank away into the shadows.
For a time Red could discover nothing. Then it seemed to him that he didmake out something moving close to the surface of the water.
"It may be a boat. Perhaps we had better--"
"See!" She whispered excitedly. "It _is_ a boat!"
Suddenly a bright light shone across the water. A figure crouching behindthe light was faintly seen. He was in the prow of a boat.
But now the thing within that circle of light caught and held theirattention. A moose, splendid in his glory of shapely body andwide-spreading antlers, stood at the point of the island. Apparentlyblinded by the light, he stood there like a statue.
"How perfect!" Red breathed.
"Monarch of the forest!" the girl whispered low.
And then stark tragedy came crashing across the waters. A high-powerrifle roared. The moose leaped high and then fell with a splash into theblack water. The light blinked out, and again all was night.
As if to escape the sight, Berley Todd turned and glided silently up thehill. She was closely followed by the Red Rover.
* * * * * * * *
While the Red Rover and Berley Todd were meeting with strange adventureson the "Mystic Isle," Drew Lane and his companions were striving in vainto unravel the tangled skein of mystery that surrounded theirdisappearance.
"Everything's gone haywire!" Drew exclaimed disconsolately, thrusting outhis feet before him and staring moodily at his littered desk.
"Not so bad as that, I'm sure," Johnny Thompson put in hopefully.
"Just exactly as bad, and worse!" Drew struck the desk a blow with hisfist that set even a "Meditating Buddha" dancing. "Why, look at it; weraid two well-known headquarters, and what do we get? A quart of pocketknives. The Galloping Ghost suggests that we whittle soft wood with eachone of these, then examine the cuttings for irregularities on the edge ofthe knife, after which we are to compare each with the shavings found onthe night of the now famous kidnaping. And what do we find? Exactlynothing. The whittling was not done by any one of these knives. So backthey go. And where are we? Nowhere.
"The Chief's yelling his head off. People are saying the police areasleep. Daily papers are impatient. University people are furious. TheRed Rover is still a captive, and each day brings the great game nearer.Football! Why did anyone ever invent the game?" He sprang to his feet andbegan pacing the floor.
"Why did they kidnap Red anyway?" he demanded fiercely. "I ask you that.No ransom money has been demanded. Why?"
"Perhaps," suggested Johnny, "they mean to wait until the very day of thegame. They may figure that is the psychological moment for making ademand."
"There might be something to that," Drew said earnestly. "Might be a lot.And if there is--" Once again his voice rose. "If there is, we've got toget them before that time comes! Kidnaping's been too easy. Too manysoft-livered millionaires have paid large sums for their release or therelease of some child. We've got to give 'em a lesson!"
"But how are you to get them?"
"We must find a way. There's still that invisible footprint on thesleeping car bed sheet."
"And there's my jimmy bar," said Johnny hopefully.
"Yes, that's the very bar, right enough. But where did you find it? Inthe speed boat of a boy in his 'teens. You can't very well pin asuper-kidnaping on a mere boy."
"N-no," Johnny said slowly, "and you wouldn't want to. Young Angelo is afine chap. Good looking, and all that. Got everything--speed boat--goingto have a faster one--big car--going to college, and all that."
"All that?" Drew sat up and stared at him. "Didn't know there was thatmuch in the cut flower business, not these days. Flowers, you'd say, area luxury. And luxuries have been hit hard. Guess I'll quit being a cop,and go in for flowers."
Johnny thought of the rough reception accorded him in the place beneaththe flower shop, and wondered a big wonder. Should he tell Drew aboutthat? Well, perhaps, some time. Not now. He hadn't quite thought thething through yet.
"But the man with the scar and the fiery eyes!" he suggested. "You've gotthe goods on him. That was his gun. He fired that shot at Tom, didn'the?"
"Yes, he fired the shot. But he's vanished off the earth, so far as wecan see.
"And besides," he added, pushing a sheet of paper toward the boy,"besides, there is this."
"The old G.G. again!" Johnny said, catching his breath.
"None other. Read it."
Johnny read:
_Drew Lane: You are on the wrong track. The man who fired the shot was not the kidnaper. For his motives consult the Rogues' Gallery. The trail you seek leads north._
"_The G.G._"
"North!" Drew exploded. "How far north? Which way? How? By train, planeor boat? If he wishes to help us, why doesn't he be more explicit?"
"Perhaps," suggested Johnny, "that's all he knows at present.
"And," he added thoughtfully, "we ourselves might go on from there."
"How?"
"Well, you know, in the newspaper offices they have what they call anExchange Department. Papers from all over the world are on file there. Ifa fellow went there and studied all the papers published up north inMichigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Canada, he might discover a clue. Someparagraph telling of some mysterious occurrence might just put a fellowon the right track."
"It might." Drew's tone was dubious. "Sounds a little like it came out ofa book. But you go ahead and try it. Jimmie Drury over at the News willsee that you get a look at the files. Tell him I sent you.
"And while you're on the ramble, just drop over to the State StreetStation and see if you can find the picture of a crook with a crossbranded
on his temple. Old G.G. suggested that.
"But I'll tell you what I am beginning to think of that Galloping Ghost!I think he's a fake! Or even worse, a crook that's giving us a bum steer,throwing us off the trail. I've more than half a notion to burn everyother love letter he sends us before I read it.
"Because, look!" Once more he was pacing the floor. "If an honest fellowwas wearing a sheet and posing as a ghost, if he had some realinformation about a case like this--one that interests the wholecountry--why wouldn't he let us in on his secret, come right round in hisstreet clothes and tell us his story? What I say is--"
He broke straight off to stare at the door. Some one had begun rattlingit violently.
"Johnny, see who's there."