Tom saw that the clippings bore various heads, such as: "Dismal Mountain Smokes Again," "Dismal Mountain Claims Another Victim," and this appeared to be an account of a man who had disappeared somewhere in the fastness of the forest around the place.
"You don't need to read them all," advised Ned. "I can shorten it by summarizing it for you. Dismal Mountain is some distance south of Chesterport—just how far I don't know. It's in a lonely section of the country, away from any town or city, though there are people living not far from the foot of the mountain.
"Some of these folks say the mountain is haunted. Others hold that it is the resort of present-day moonshiners and bootleggers. I think that comes as near the mark as any. Another version is that the strange sights and sounds that are seen and heard are made by the moonshiners or bootleggers to scare would-be investigators away."
"I can well believe that," murmured Tom. "What else?"
"Well, there's another theory that a squad of bandits or road agents make the glens of Dismal Mountain their hiding places," went on Ned. "They lie in wait there and hold up trucks carrying big loads of valuable merchandise, such as bales of silk. There may also be hijackers on the mountain—men who make a practice of raiding the trucks sent out by bootleggers. Of course the latter being engaged in breaking the law themselves, can't call on the law to protect them. So the hijackers have it easy."
"Sounds like a right bad sort of a place," commented Tom.
"It's fully as bad as it sounds," declared Ned. "Not long ago, as you can see by this clipping, there was a train hold-up not far from Dismal Mountain. Some of the bandits are believed to have fled to that place and may still be in hiding."
"This is getting worse and more interesting!" exclaimed Tom Swift. "I only hope you aren't stringing me," he added, with a sharp look at his chum.
"Indeed I'm not kidding you!" expostulated Ned. "You can read it there for yourself. Of course I don't guarantee the truth of any of this, but if I'm fooled, so are the papers."
"It looks authentic," admitted Tom, when he had glanced through several clippings. "At least there have been a number of crimes committed in the vicinity of this Dismal Mountain, and it may hold the criminals."