“I guess that deer—if it was a deer,” said Dick, “was as scared as we were. It ran like a streak of light. Must have been lying down back of that big rock where Teddy’s airplane is. And when we started down it caught our scent, got scared and leaped up to run away.”
“The question is, where did it run?” asked Joe, looking off through the dark woods. “It isn’t in sight.”
“Maybe we can trail it,” suggested Teddy. “But first I’m going to get my plane. Then we can look for the deer. If we don’t find it, so much the more mystery.”
“And if we find it the mystery will be solved,” said Joe.
“Maybe not,” spoke Teddy. “I don’t see how a deer got in these woods. It might have escaped from a circus. But, as a rule, they don’t carry deer in a circus. They aren’t strange enough animals. And nobody around here keeps deer that I know of.”
The other boys admitted they knew of no deer paddock in Oakdale whence the deer might have escaped. The appearance of the deer was a complete mystery.
“But it comes at just the right time,” Teddy remarked. “We haven’t any school. We can spend the whole summer solving the deer mystery.”
“Unless your folks go away,” said Joe.
“I don’t believe we’re going away this year,” Teddy said. “My father has to make a business trip and my mother doesn’t feel like going to the country or seashore. So we may stay home. Or maybe we might go away in August.”
“That’s what our folks are planning to do,” said Joe.