Howard Roger Garis

“ Traddle.
“Have you been out here before, looking?” asked Joe as they all hurried nearer the trap.
“Oh, land sakes, yes,” Mrs. Traddle replied. “I was out here as soon as it was daylight.”
“What time was the deer caught?” asked Teddy.
“I’m not sure it is a deer,” Mrs. Traddle said. “I can’t get a good look at it through the cracks. You made that trap of yours good and tight, Mr. Crispen.”
“I sure did, Mrs. Traddle,” said the cobbler. “When you make a deer trap, make it good and tight, I say. Deer are pesky critters for getting out of a place once they get in.” ”

“ Teddy answered.
“Then Mason’s meadow will be the place to have the test,” suggested Dick. “There’s plenty of room there.”
“Yes,” Teddy agreed, “if we start on the far side—away from the woods. Can’t start in the middle of the meadow.”
“Why not?” asked Dick.
He did not glance up at his chum. Dick, who was short and rather stout, was twisting the propeller blades of his own toy plane. He was winding the rubber bands which, when they untwisted, would serve as the motor of the little craft. “Why can’t we begin the race in the middle of the meadow, Teddy? That’s the clearest place.” ”

“ He was told the story of the deer—as much as Teddy and Lucy knew—and Teddy explained that he and his chums were going to try to get on the trail of the mysterious animal that day.
“First we have to find Fatty Nolan,” said Teddy.
“Is that the deer’s name?” asked Mr. Benson.
“No. It’s the name of a new fat boy,” Teddy went on, laughing. “His father works part of Mr. Mason’s farm. Fatty saw a man with a lasso running across the fields. After the deer, maybe. We’re going to see if he caught the deer.” ”

“ And soon the five chums were sitting on stools and enjoying the drinks.
“Where have you been? To a party?” asked Mrs. Traddle when she had rung up the sales on the cash register.
“We’ve been chasing a deer,” Teddy said.
“Oh, my goodness, a bear! I wouldn’t chase bears if I were you,” said the old lady. “I don’t think your folks would like that. Besides, it’s dangerous. Bear! My gracious!”
“Not a BEAR. A DEER,” said Teddy in a loud voice.
“Oh, a deer? That’s different. A deer is harmless, I guess, though I never chased one.”
“This one chased us,” said Margie. “And we ran.” ”

“ It was, and in another instant the loop of the lasso had settled over the head of the big hound. With a quick jerk on the rope the cowboy pulled the dog off its feet.
“Good work!” yelled Teddy.
“Now the deer is safe,” said Dick.
“He lassoed your dog just in time, Fatty,” said Joe.
“Yes, but I hope he doesn’t hurt him,” spoke the stout lad. “Hopper is a good dog but he gets excited when he sees a deer.”
The lassoing of Hopper seemed to have taken all the fight out of the dog. Perhaps he would not, after all, have attacked the deer. But the cowboy was taking no chances. ”

“ The cellophane coverings, between which the boys could crawl into their blankets, would keep away the dampness from the ground.
“Are we going to keep watch?” asked Dick, when it was about time to turn in.
“What for?” asked Teddy. “There’s no danger. We don’t need even to keep a fire going. We have our flashlights.”
“There’ll be a moon later,” said Joe.
“Then if the deer comes nosing around we can spot him,” suggested Dick. “But the way I feel now I’m going to do nothing but sleep.”
“Same here,” echoed Joe.
“I don’t believe the deer will bother us,” was Teddy’s opinion. ”

“ It was this same day that Margie, Lucy and several other girls went on a little picnic to Buttermilk Falls. This was a favorite picnic spot for the young people of Oakdale. The falls were not very high. But they were churned to whiteness by tumbling down a rocky glen and so had been named because of their resemblance to thick buttermilk.
Around the falls were patches of woodland and meadows and in these Margie, Lucy and several of their girl friends were soon having fun; playing games, running about and finding shady places in which to rest. ”

“ Teddy knelt down and began to use some of his Boy Scout knowledge in trailing. At first, he saw nothing unusual. As he had said, the ground was too hard. But, after scouting about a bit, Teddy uttered a cry of surprise.
“I think I’ve found it!” he exclaimed. “Come over here! Careful, fellows! Look!” and he pointed to a little patch of soft earth in which was imbedded several impressions of a small star.
“What does that mean?” asked Dick. “That an astronomer has been here?”
“No,” Teddy answered. “But it means somebody that wears metal heel plates in the shape of a star has been here. ”

“ Besides making Teddy more thirsty, the gum drops also increased the thirst of the other boys. So, after waiting a little while to rest, they went to the spring. Fatty Nolan acted as guide.
“I guess maybe that man with the lasso has gotten away from us,” Teddy said as they neared the spring.
“Well, if we don’t find him today we may tomorrow,” said Dick. “It’s getting too hot to hurry much.”
As Fatty had said, there were two springs in a little glade not far from where Teddy and his chums had sat down to rest. ”

“ What Teddy and his chums wanted to do now was to catch the mysterious deer.
But after the first joyous excitement over Mr. Crispen’s promise about the trap, Teddy began to think a little. It might not be so easy as it sounded. With this in mind he asked the old cobbler:
“Where will you set the trap, Mr. Crispen?”
“Why the best place would be where the deer comes. You’ve got to set a trap for deer near what is called a deer-run. Set a trap in some other place and you won’t catch a deer in a month of Sundays.”
117 “But where is a deer-run?” asked Dick.
“We don’t know of any,” added Joe. ”

“ We just want to catch up to this man and find out if he is after the deer.”
“He’s after something or he wouldn’t have that rope,” was Joe’s opinion.
“And he hasn’t caught whatever he was after yesterday, or he wouldn’t be out with his lasso again today,” decided Dick.
“I wonder who he is?” Teddy said.
“I think maybe he works on one of the farms around here,” answered Fatty. “There are many hired men on the farms now. This is summer, and there’s lots of work for hired men. My father is going to get one. I help him but that isn’t enough, he says. What are you going to do?” ”

“ Then the girls came along and the deer rushed at them, tossed them over his head with his horns and—”
“And, I suppose,” laughed Teddy, “Margie and Lucy landed on the deer’s back and went hitch-hiking.”
“Well, I guess that couldn’t exactly happen,” replied Joe with a funny little smile. “But something has happened, all right. Model airplanes don’t disappear and deer don’t suddenly appear and sisters don’t vanish after they cry for help—not unless something has happened.”
“This sure is a mystery, fellows!” Teddy exclaimed. “Isn’t it queer how I always seem to get mixed up in a mystery? ”

“ As soon as the deer goes in, the sliding door drops and the deer is caught. It’s a regular box trap. Doesn’t hurt the deer at all.”
“But what makes the sliding door fall?” asked Teddy.
“The deer shuts it himself,” said Mr. Crispen.
“How?” inquired Joe.
“Like this,” and the cobbler showed the boys. “The door is held up and open by a catch. On the end of the catch, inside the box trap, is the bait. The deer starts to nibble the bait. This pulls out the catch and the door falls and the deer is caught.” ”

“ The two boys hurried on through the darkness. Now and then they stumbled. Once Dick, who was in the lead, tripped and fell. Teddy tumbled over him.
“Gosh! What happened, Dick?” asked Teddy.
“There was a ditch here. I didn’t see it.”
“I should say you didn’t! Well, anyhow, we know it’s here now,” Teddy said rather ruefully as he got to his feet. “We should have brought flashlights.” ”

“ Then we can look for the deer. If we don’t find it, so much the more mystery.”
“And if we find it the mystery will be solved,” said Joe.
25 “Maybe not,” spoke Teddy. “I don’t see how a deer got in these woods. It might have escaped from a circus. But, as a rule, they don’t carry deer in a circus. They aren’t strange enough animals. And nobody around here keeps deer that I know of.”
The other boys admitted they knew of no deer paddock in Oakdale whence the deer might have escaped. The appearance of the deer was a complete mystery. ”

“ I’ll have my trap ready to set tomorrow night,” said the cobbler. “I’ll work on it tonight and tomorrow. Folks that are in a hurry for their shoes will have to wait. It isn’t every day I get a chance120 to trap a deer. It’s like old times to me!” he laughed.
“But won’t you want part of the reward money?” asked Dick.
“No, not a penny. You boys may divide it all,” was the answer.
“I tell you maybe there won’t be any!” insisted Joe.
“There was a reward when we found the mystery pony,” said Teddy. “Not that I expect it. But maybe there might be one for the deer.” ”

“ Traddle’s garden. What we ought to do is let the deer stay in the trap. Then if we could load him, trap and all, on a sort of truck and take it to a barn, we could let the deer loose in the barn and catch him. Of course, we’d have to be sure143 the barn doors were shut. If we could do that—”
“There’s no reason why we can’t,” Teddy exclaimed. “Mr. Lanter, the butcher, has a truck. He often loads heavy boxes and barrels on it and he has a sort of windlass up under the front seat. We could fasten a rope to the trap and haul it up on Mr. Lanter’s truck with the rope and windlass. ”

“ Mrs. Traddle’s garden was at the rear and to one side of her house and store. The boys found several men of Oakdale looking at the ruin caused by the deer.
“Looks like a herd of elephants was in there,” commented Sam Kean, the grocer.
“Guess that deer spoiled more than he ate,” said Luke Lanter, the butcher. “Looks like he lay down and rolled in the corn.” ”

“ I don’t like deer, mystery or any other kind, making free with my farm. Where did you get this deer, anyhow?”
“We didn’t get him. He isn’t ours. We just saw him,” said Teddy. “Which way did he go?”
“I stoned him back into the woods,” said Mr. Mason. “Oh, I didn’t hit him with any stones,” he was quick to add. “I wouldn’t hit any animal with stones. I just pegged a51 few rocks up close to him, so he’d know he wasn’t wanted. He went for the woods in high gear. But what do you fellows know about this deer? And what do you mean,” he continued, looking at Dick, “by girls on the deer’s back?” ”

“ I don’t want you in my meadow spoiling the fodder. Next I know you’ll be eating all my corn and beans! Get out before I get my gun!”
“Say, he can’t mean us!” exclaimed Teddy. “Mr. Mason wouldn’t talk that way to us.”
“Besides,” added Joe. “We aren’t hurting his meadow fodder.”
“And we surely aren’t going to eat his49 corn and beans,” said Dick. “What’s he mean—talking about getting his gun?”
“I have it!” suddenly exclaimed Teddy. “Mr. Mason must mean the mysterious deer. He’s trying to drive the deer away. They eat garden crops, you know.”
“But is this Mr. Mason?” asked Joe. ”

“ Dick asked. “I mean wouldn’t it crack-up against one of ’em?”
“It might,” Teddy agreed. “But if my good luck holds, it might just buzz in and out among the trees. Then it would come down in the gully. I think the motor would be about run down if the plane got this far,” he said. He came to a stop in a little glade on the edge of the ravine. The ground was covered with a soft carpet of pine needles.
“Makes a good landing field,” commented Joe as he brushed a pile of needles together with a motion of his foot. ”

“ But the sight of the animal gave Teddy and Joe new hope and they somewhat increased their speed hoping to catch up to the deer before it reached Bailey’s Corners.
This was a small settlement, about three miles from Mason’s woods and meadow, and about half way between another large patch of woodland which had been taken over by the state as a forest park.
“If the deer gets into Oak Forest,” said Teddy, “we’ll never be able to trail him. It’s too big a stretch of woods.” ”

“ It can’t see us if we hide in the grass.”
40 Lucy thought that was a fine idea. So the girls stretched out in the fragrant clover and timothy grass that would soon be hay. It was quiet and restful there and they felt sure the animal that had frightened them could not see them.
“But I wish the boys would come,” said Margie.
“Maybe they will,” added Lucy.
Teddy Benson and his two chums lost no time hurrying out of the woods after they had found Teddy’s lost plane. The frightened cries of the girls hastened their steps.
“That was Margie’s voice,” decided Dick. ”

“ There it lay, stretched out like a hempen snake.
“Take it easy now, fellows,” cautioned Teddy as his chums crowded around the end of the rope.
“Why?” asked Joe. “Do you think the lasso man is hiding around here?”
“No, I think he’s far enough away by this time,” Teddy replied. “But I was going to see if I could find his footprints. Maybe we could trace him that way.”
“That’s right!” Fatty agreed. “Let Teddy look alone. If we all walk around here89 there’ll be so many footprints he won’t be able to tell one from another.” ”

“ Step by step the three chums had advanced7 until they now had planes with quite powerful rubber “motors,” if such they could be called. The “motors” of course, were just rubber bands or cords.
“Some day,” Teddy had declared, “we’ll get real miniature gasoline motors for our planes. Then they’ll fly miles and miles before they come down.”
“And we’ll have to walk after ’em to bring ’em back,” sighed Dick. He was too stout to care for much walking.
“Golly, it would be fun to have a gas motor model plane,” remarked Joe Denton as he put the final touches on his rubber-motored one. ”

“ I heard you were on the trail of the deer so I followed. You don’t mind, do you? I’ve brought my father’s deer hound—Clodhopper my mother calls him on account of he’s so big and clumsy—but he’s197 got another name—Rex. He’s a good dog for hunting deer—maybe he can help us—I came anyhow—had hard work finding you—guess I couldn’t have only for Hopper—that’s the dog—I call him Hopper for short. Can I come over there?” All this Fatty spoke in his usual fast style.
“Sure! Come on over and bring your dog,” Teddy invited. “Maybe he will help us in the morning. Come on and join us.” ”