eagerness to hurry along and reach this spot.

It happened that none of this bunch had ever set eyes on Munsey's mill, or the pond just above it. There were plenty of places nearer Hickory Ridge for fishing purposes. And besides, the dear familiar old "swimming hole" was more convenient than this place, nearly seven miles away.

"I see Elmer and Lil Artha," observed Larry.

"Yes, and there's another fellow just beyond. I reckon it must be Ty Collins," said Chatz.

Elmer waited for them to come up. He and his companions were standing on the edge of the dam which had long ago been built in order to hold up the water and form the big lonely looking pond beyond.

"Ugh, what a spooky looking place this is!" exclaimed Larry, as soon as they drew up where they could look out on the big pond, its surface in places partly covered with lily plants, and the long trailing branches of weeping willows dipping down to the water.

"It sure is, suh!" remarked Chatz, plainly interested, and not a little excited.

"Here we are, Elmer," called out Matty; "and I guess the second bunch will be along soon. I see Ty and Toby, but where's Nat Scott?"

Elmer gave him a serious look.

"That's just what we're wondering," he said. "They all reached the old mill, you see, but Nat seems to have disappeared in a mighty queer way!"

CHAPTER III.

THE STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF NAT.

"Oh!"

Chatz was the only one who gave utterance to a sound after Elmer had made this surprising, as well as alarming, admission.

The others were looking, first at Elmer, then at each of his three companions as well; and finally out upon the dismal pond that assumed much the appearance of a lake, it stretched so far up the valley, almost a quarter of a mile, in fact.

Just then the only sound they heard was the noisy scolding of the water as it went over the spill or apron of the stout dam that had stood all these long years, defying floods and the ravages of time.

And somehow, there was something chilling in the very lonesome character of their surroundings.

Of the ten scouts present, Chatz seemed to be the only one who did not look solemn. There was an eager glow in the Southern boy's dark eyes, as though the situation appealed to that element of superstition in his nature.

And Elmer, noting this expression, that was almost of glee, knew that when the companions of Chatz fondly believed they had cured him of his silly faith in ghosts and such things, they had made a mistake. The snake had only been "scotched," not killed. It was already awakening again, under the first favorable conditions.

"Say, this ain't any part of the game, is it?" demanded Red.

"Yes, you don't expect us to guess what's become of Nat, and then find him grinning at us, perhaps astraddle of a limb up in a big tree?" remarked Larry.

"I asked these fellows," said Elmer, seriously, "and both Toby and Ty gave me their word of honor that no game or joke was set up between them. If Nat is playing a prank then he's doing it on his own account."

"And Nat ain't generally the fellow to think of playing a joke on his chums," declared Larry.

"Gee, this is getting wild and woolly now!" remarked Landy; "I'm all of a tremble. What if the poor fellow fell over this dam here, struck his head on a rock, and lies right now at the bottom of that black pool where the foam keeps on circling around and around. Ugh! It makes me shiver, fellows, honest and truly."

George, as usual, scoffed at the idea of anything having happened to Nat Scott.

"He'll show up as soon as he feels like it, make sure of that," he declared.

"Have you called him!" asked Matty.

"Yes, all of us did," replied Lil Artha, whose customary rollicking good nature seemed subdued in a measure for once.

"And he didn't answer?" demanded Chatz.

"We never heard a word, and that's a fact, boys," declared Toby Jones, uneasily.

Then they all looked around again, their eyes naturally roving in the quarter where, near the farther end of the dam, the old mill stood.

Its day was long since past. The great water wheel at the end of the sluice had partly fallen to pieces with the passage of time and the ravages of neglect. What was left seemed to be almost entirely covered with green moss, among which the clear little fingers of water trickled.

Suddenly a discordant scream rang out. It was so fearful that several of the fellows turned pale, and all of them started violently.

"There!" ejaculated Chatz.

His manner was almost triumphant; just as though he would like to demand whether these chums of his could not find some reason to believe as he did, after such a manifestation.

"Oh, glory, what was that!" quivered Landy, as he clutched the arm of Elmer Chenowith.

"But it didn't come from the mill," declared Larry. "Sounded to me like it was out there on the pond."

"Good for you, Larry," remarked Elmer.

"Then I was right?" asked the other.

"You certainly were, and if the whole of you turn your eyes aways up yonder, perhaps you'll notice a big black-and-white bird come to the surface. It dived just after scolding us for disturbing its fishing excursion."

Following the direction indicated by Elmer's extended finger the scouts all watched eagerly.

"I see something moving just behind that bunch of lily pads," exclaimed one with keen vision.

"There it swims out now, and it's a big water bird, too. Looks like a goose to me," Landy remarked, earnestly.

"That's a loon, fellows!" exclaimed Red.

"Is it, Elmer?" they demanded in a breath.

"Just what it is, and nothing else," replied the acting scout master. "They are very common up in the Great Northwest. And once you've heard their wild laugh you'll never forget it."

"Huh, sounds just like the shout of a crazy man to me," ventured Lil Artha.

"Everybody says that," Elmer declared. "And I never knew a single fellow who liked to hear a loon call. Some say it's a sign of ill luck to be scolded by a loon."

"Ill luck!" echoed Chatz, once more looking in the direction of the ramshackle old mill.

"But see here," remarked Matty, "tell us about Nat, won't you? When was his queer disappearance first noticed, Elmer?"

"Well, when Lil Artha and myself arrived here we found Toby and Ty throwing stones out in the pond, scaring the little red-marked turtles that were sitting by dozens on every old log and rock, and great big bullfrogs as well."

"Never saw so many whopping big frogs in all my life," declared Ty.

"You see," explained Toby, "we missed Nat, but thought he had just wandered off to look around. Ty and me, why, we felt too tired to explore things till the rest came along."

"Oh, but you could amuse yourselves throwing things into the water, eh?" Matty remarked, with such a vein of sarcasm in his voice that Toby immediately aroused to defend himself.

"'Twa'n't that at all, Matty Eggleston; prove it by Ty here if either of us was afraid to go inside your old haunted mill, was we, Ty?" he exclaimed, with a fine show of righteous indignation.

"Course we wasn't," Ty hastened to declare, with a decided shake of his tousled head. "We walked along the shore till we came to a nice shady place, and then squatted down, meanin' to wait till Elmer showed up. Then I popped a rock at a sassy little turkle, and pretty soon both of us were letting fly."

"When did you miss Nat, and where was he the last you saw him?" asked Matty, who was expected some day to become a lawyer.

"Oh!" answered Toby, "he said