the field from the highway, and fairly ran toward the barn.

A glance sufficed to show that Mark was not in sight, and, thinking
that his chum might be on the other side, Jack went around the
structure.

"Oh, you Mark!" he called. "I'm back! Let's get a move on and go to the
old house."

Silence was the only answer.

"That's queer," murmured Jack, when he had made a circuit of the place,
and had seen no sight of his friend. "I wonder if anything could have
happened to him? Perhaps he went inside, and has fallen down the hay
mow. I'll take a look."

He made a thorough inspection of the ramshackle old structure, but
there was no evidence that Mark had entered it, and Jack was soon quite
assured that no harm had befallen his friend in there. Then a sudden
thought came to him.

"Why, of course!" he exclaimed aloud. "I should have thought of that
before. Mark got tired of waiting, and went on to the Preakness house.
I might have known. I'll go on and catch up to him there."

Jack had reasoned correctly, but he could not know, what had taken
place with only the old, grim, deserted mansion for a witness. With a
lighter heart he set off down the road.

It did not take him long, at the pace he kept up, to come within sight