"two o'clock," said rand, closing his watch with a snap. "an hour behind time."

the boys had been waiting at the great oak since just after noon, but pepper had not yet come.

"perhaps he got off the road and got lost in the woods," suggested jack.

"maybe he got back sooner than he expected by some other road and went home," said gerald. "shall i run over and see?"

"go ahead," replied rand. "we will wait for you here."

darting off, gerald was gone but a few minutes, returning on the run to report that pepper had not been back since morning.

"perhaps he has got hurt somehow," put in dick.

"it is no way impossible," assented donald. "it might no be a bad idea to walk along the road until we meet him."

"which way did he go?" asked jack.

"the upper road," replied rand.

the boys acted upon the suggested and proceeded along the road, slowly at first, then more rapidly as their comrade did not appear. they had covered more than half the distance to highpoint.

"listen!" said jack suddenly, as they stopped for a moment. "what is that?"

faint and far in the distance sounded what seemed like a bugle call.

"it is a bugle call," cried dick. "it must be pepper."

"it may be possible," admitted donald.

putting his bugle to his lips rand blew a long, clear call, but it brought no response.

"which way did the sound come from?" asked gerald.

"from over that way," replied dick, indicating with his hand.

"what would he be doing away off there?" demanded donald.

"there is it again," said gerald, as the sound was repeated.

"it is over this way," declared jack, designating another direction.

"no, it's over this way," asserted dick, but still at variance with the others.

"wait," said rand, "maybe we can hear it again."

the boys stood silent for a few moments, when the call came faintly once again.

"it is over this way," declared rand, leading the way to the right, but, although they stopped from time to time to listen, they did not hear the sound again, nor did they find any trace of their missing comrade. for a half hour or more they continued their search, but in vain, and they were returning to the road when they heard the call again, but so faintly that it was lost almost as soon as heard.

"he is going away," decided rand. "there is certainly something queer about it."

"in my opinion," began donald, "'tis no use looking any more."

"why not?" asked rand.

"because it was no mortal sound," replied donald.

"nonsense!" exclaimed rand.

"nonsense or no," retorted donald stoutly, "i don't like it."

"what is it, then, donald, if it isn't mortal?" asked rand.

"i can no rightly say," responded donald, "but i don't believe you will ever find him."

"pooh!" returned rand; "he may be along any minute."

"let us go on to highpoint," proposed jack, "and see if he has been there."

as nothing better was suggested the boys set out for highpoint, which they soon reached, and a short hunt enabled them to find jack dudley, the leader of the highpoint patrol, from whom they learned that pepper had not been there.

"what time did he start?" asked dudley.

"eight o'clock," replied rand.

"it's very strange," said dudley. "he may have met with some accident. i will hunt up our patrol and will help you search for him. if you will go back and start from the point where you searched before we will take up the scout from here and keep on until we find him, or we join forces again, unless you have something better to propose."

"i don't think there is any better way," said rand, with which the others agreed, and thanking him for his offer, the uncas boys, now thoroughly alarmed, set out again upon the search.

it was 5 o'clock when they got back to creston, searching on the way, and pepper had not returned, or trace of him found.

"what shall we do next?" asked jack, as they stood undecided in the road.

"what is it now?" asked colonel snow, who had come up unperceived.

"we can't find pepper," answered the boys.

"what is it," went on the colonel, "a game of hide and seek?"

"no, sir," responded rand; "he went over to highpoint this morning with a message; i mean he started for highpoint, but he hasn't been there and he hasn't come back. we are afraid he is lost."

"lost!" exclaimed the colonel. "how could that be."

"we don't know," answered jack; "but we have hunted all over for him, and he isn't anywhere about."

"all over?" said the colonel. "he couldn't very well be all over at once, could he? but, come along, and we will see if we can't find him. which way did he go?"

"on the upper road," answered rand; "but we have been all along that."

"well, we'll see if we can't pick up his trail," went on the colonel at once, leading off at a rapid pace. "did any of you pick it up?"

"there are lots of tracks," replied rand, "but i did not pick his out."

"some who are expert, you know, can read tracks as readily as you read the paper. these look much alike, but we will follow them up and see if any diverge or break away from the road."

walking rapidly along the road the colonel indicated one he thought might be pepper's track, which the boys followed, with some success, after it had been pointed out until, all at once, the marks indicated that the person had come to a sudden stop and had turned aside.

"he left the road here for some reason," decided the colonel, "or the one who made the trail did. he went through here, you can see how these bushes have been thrust aside."

"i do now," replied rand, "but i wouldn't have noticed it myself."

"did he have a dog with him?" continued the colonel, following the trail through the woods.

"no," answered rand.

"probably the dog came from the other direction. looks as if pepper was trying to get away from the dog. they were both in a hurry. it stops here; he must have taken to a tree."

"pepper!" he shouted, "where are you?"

but neither his calls nor those of the boys brought any response.

"he isn't here," went on the colonel; "but there has been a disturbance of some kind. there are dog's tracks all around as if the animal had struggled with something, but no footprints. there is the track of a snake, too."

"a snake!" cried jack, in alarm. "do you think it could have bitten him?"

"no," said the colonel, "if he had been bitten we would still have his trail. he seems to have vanished into the air."

"i don't see how he could do that," declared don.

"neither do i," replied the colonel. "spread out around the tree and see if you can find where he came down."

but a thorough search failed to reveal, to the investigators, any trace.

"i never saw anything like this," declared the colonel. "he seems to have disappeared completely."

"but where could he have gone?" asked jack, anxious for the safety of his brother.

"i wish i knew," returned the colonel. "if there were any birds around here big enough we might suspect that one of them had carried him off, but we will evidently have to await pepper's own explanation of the enigma." then he added after a moment:

"well, boys, we have got to the end of the trail. i don't know what to do next."

"that reminds me," started dick, when there was a hiss, a snarl and a flash through the air from the tree, under whose branches they were standing, and an immense wild cat, spitting and clawing, landed on dick's back.

"help! murder!" shouted dick. "take it off!"

for an instant the boys were so dumfounded by the suddenness of the attack that they all jumped in different directions, but the colonel, with a well-directed blow from the heavy stick he carried, knocked the animal off of dick, but not before his coat had been torn and dick himself scratched by its claws.

snarling and spitting the cat now crouched, facing the colonel, and seemed about to spring.

"knock him over the head!" shouted donald. "hit it in the head with a stone," looking about for a weapon.

"look out!" called rand, "give me a chance at it!" drawing back his bow and letting fly an arrow which pierced the animal's body and knocked it sprawling, when gerald added a blow from a well-directed stone. with a wild scream the cat bounded into the air and fell motionless to the ground.

"look out, rand!" cautioned dick, creeping back from the bushes into which he had fled as soon as he had gained his feet, as rand went up to where the cat was lying. "take care it don't spring on you!"

"no danger," replied rand: "it's dead."

"faith, thin, oi w'udn't trust it, dead or alive," said gerald.

"that was a good shot, rand," commended the colonel, "and just in time. a full-grown wild cat is an enemy not to be despised."

"i should say not," agreed dick. "ugh! i feel as if i had been scraped with a curry-comb. i wonder," with a look at his clothes, "if i couldn't get a job somewhere as a scarecrow?"

"but what has become of pepper?" asked don.

"that is the puzzle that we have got to solve," replied the colonel. "for the present the only thing we can do is to go back to creston and see if we can't pick up some new clues."

the boys, with colonel snow, slowly made their way back to the town, carrying with them the body of the cat, the skin of which rand proposed to have tanned for a trophy for the club room.

as they entered the town they were met by officer dugan, who put his hand on rand's shoulder.

"i have a warrant for your arrest," he said.

the party were amazed, and the colonel was the first to speak.

"for what?" he asked.

"for robbing judge taylor's office," replied the officer.