As Brad spoke, his gaze suddenly came to focus upon knife scratchings on the board wall directly behind the other boy. Without saying more, he went over to inspect the deep cuts.
“Another insult to the Cubs, I suppose,” Dan remarked.
Brad’s broad shoulders blocked his view so that he could not see what it was that the Den Chief examined with such intent interest.
“This is something else, Dan,” Brad said, finally moving aside.
On the wall, freshly cut with a sharp knife, were the carved initials: “P. O.”
“Pat Oswald,” Dan identified them. “Seems to me we’ve seen those same initials, before, Brad. I guess we know now, who wrecked the old church building!”
CHAPTER 11
THE LOCKED DOOR
Discovery of the carved initials on the alley wall convinced both Dan and Brad that the mutilation had been done by Pat Oswald.
The Bay Shore boy, they were sure, had a careless habit of using his jack-knife whenever he felt like it.
“These letters ‘P. O’ are made the same as the ones we saw in the old church,” Brad declared, studying the knife cuts closely. “At least I think so. I wish we could compare them.”