“What!” cried Ted, leaping to his feet.
“That is just what happened. Come here.”
The entire group clustered around Buck as he held up ropes from two of the tents. “Look here. One fellow says his tent collapsed from the left and another fellow says his let go from the right. Good reason why. Somebody stood between two tents and cut the ropes under cover of the storm. Of course the tents went down on opposite sides, and I suppose the man shoved the back poles and skipped to the next two tents and cut the ropes there. He didn’t have time to knock over the uprights there, because the boys were swarming out, so he left that to them and probably took to the woods. Look at these ropes.”
There was not the slightest doubt in the world that the ropes to the tents had been cut, and cut with a sharp knife which had required no second cuts. They stared at the ends of the ropes in amazement.
“We didn’t hear anybody,” said Plum. “Probably you wouldn’t, with the noise of the storm. If we want any additional proof that the ropes were cut and not pulled, look at the tent pegs. They are all in the ground as they were when we left and the other pieces of the rope are still attached. There is no doubt that you boys had a visitor while we were chasing!”
“It might have done us more good to have stayed at home and minded our business,” smiled Ted.
“Maybe. Say, how near the end of the storm did this thing happen?”
“Almost at the end,” said Plum. “Just when the thunder was going away.”
“Then that kills our theory about the man in the log cabin,” Buck said to Ted.
“Yes, it does,” replied his chum. “He couldn’t possibly be the one, because if he had been in on this he couldn’t possibly have returned to his house and changed his clothes.”