As if to escape the sight, Berley Todd turned and glided silently up the hill. She was closely followed by the Red Rover.
* * * * * * * *
While the Red Rover and Berley Todd were meeting with strange adventures on the “Mystic Isle,” Drew Lane and his companions were striving in vain to unravel the tangled skein of mystery that surrounded their disappearance.
“Everything’s gone haywire!” Drew exclaimed disconsolately, thrusting out his feet before him and staring moodily at his littered desk.
“Not so bad as that, I’m sure,” Johnny Thompson put in hopefully.
“Just exactly as bad, and worse!” Drew struck the desk a blow with his fist that set even a “Meditating Buddha” dancing. “Why, look at it; we raid two well-known headquarters, and what do we get? A quart of pocket knives. The Galloping Ghost suggests that we whittle soft wood with each one of these, then examine the cuttings for irregularities on the edge of the knife, after which we are to compare each with the shavings found on the night of the now famous kidnaping. And what do we find? Exactly nothing. The whittling was not done by any one of these knives. So back they go. And where are we? Nowhere.
“The Chief’s yelling his head off. People are saying the police are asleep. Daily papers are impatient. University people are furious. The Red Rover is still a captive, and each day brings the great game nearer. Football! Why did anyone ever invent the game?” He sprang to his feet and began pacing the floor.
“Why did they kidnap Red anyway?” he demanded fiercely. “I ask you that. No ransom money has been demanded. Why?”
“Perhaps,” suggested Johnny, “they mean to wait until the very day of the game. They may figure that is the psychological moment for making a demand.”
“There might be something to that,” Drew said earnestly. “Might be a lot. And if there is—” Once again his voice rose. “If there is, we’ve got to get them before that time comes! Kidnaping’s been too easy. Too many soft-livered millionaires have paid large sums for their release or the release of some child. We’ve got to give ’em a lesson!”