“And maybe touched a match to it.”
“Ross wouldn’t be that stupid. He knows better than to start a fire in a wooded area. Anyway, you can see the fire didn’t start in this pile of brush. It spread from some distance back.”
Dan agreed with his friend’s observation. Both could see where the fire had followed a line of least resistance along a winding road.
“Say, I wonder where that road leads?” Dan speculated. “I never noticed it here before.”
Curious to learn whether or not it joined the main road, they followed it for a short distance.
Before the boys had gone far, they discovered that it twisted in among the trees, leading behind the Castle. From there it swung to the right, presently coming out within view of the adjoining estate. By this time the Cubs had learned that the property was owned by a Colonel Brekenridge.
“No sense going any farther,” Brad said, halting. “For all we know, we may be trespassing on Brekenridge land. If the Colonel’s gardener should spot us, he’d make trouble.”
“The road hasn’t been used much of late,” Dan said, noting that it was clogged with grass.
Pausing in the clearing, the boys gazed toward the pillared Brekenridge home. No one was to be seen either in the yard or on the veranda.
After a casual inspection, the pair started back the way they had come.