“Oh, well!” cried Jack, somewhat taken aback; “of course I don’t care what you do about that, but I thought you were in earnest about what you were saying.”
“The trouble with you,” muttered Rattleton, speaking so low that Jack could not hear him, “is that you never see through a joke.”
“Come,” spoke Browning, “if we’ve got to take chances to see who goes up and makes the examination, come on. I hope to get out of it myself, but if I must, I must.”
“We need not take chances,” said Frank, promptly. “I will go.”
“It will not be difficult, for it is no climb at all,” said Jack. “Two of us can swing ourselves up there in a moment, and I will go with you, Merry.”
Then it was that Rattleton suddenly gave a great cry of stupefied amazement.
“What’s the matter?” asked Merriwell.
“Look! Look!” gasped Harry, pointing toward the niche in the rocks. “The skeleton—it has disappeared!”
They looked, and, dumb for the time with amazement and dismay, they saw Rattleton spoke the truth.
The mysterious skeleton had vanished!