"It must have been," admitted the hunter. "But I own up that I am puzzled. I never knew there was a secret room in the old house, and I thought I'd been all over it. As for those things you tell about—well, I guess I'll have to look at 'em myself."
Mr. Jessup did not say so, but the truth of the matter was that the boys had talked so fast and so excitedly, and had interrupted each other so often, that they had not given a very clear account of the things they had seen. Then, too, as is the case net only with boys, but with grown-ups, no one ever sees the same thing the way another person would.
The boys gave as good descriptions as they could of the queer objects in the secret room, but each one put in something a little different, until it was no wonder that Mr. Jessup was puzzled.
"Now I'll tell you what," he said. "We'll go back to Camp Mystery and figure this thing out. I guess I didn't name it out of the way when I called it 'Mystery,' for it's more mysterious than ever now.
"But we'll get to the bottom of it sooner or later. I'll have a look at the things in that room. Maybe I can find out who has been taking my grub. You weren't troubled while I was away last night! were you?"
"No," answered Sammy, "nothing happened. We slept fine."
"I thought you would be all right," went on the hunter. "I came skating over to the island a little while ago, and went right to my cabin. You weren't there, but pretty soon in came Maybe, and he acted so strange that I was afraid something had happened to you. He pulled at my coat, and would run on a little way, and then stop and bark, just as if he was telling me to follow him, and he really was, as it happened."
"He must have gone for help for us!" cried Frank.
