"Not a sign of him," said Will in response to the girls' eager questions.
"I don't see how he could have disappeared so completely in such a short
time."

"We all took different directions, too," said Roy, taking a seat on the
couch again and staring fascinatedly at the window. "If all the rest of
you hadn't seen it too, I should certainly think I had been mistaken."

"You weren't mistaken," Mollie assured him grimly. "I can vouch for that."

"Didn't one of you girls call out something about Professor Dempsey?"
asked Frank, abruptly.

"Yes," said Betty, going over to him and putting an excited hand on his
shoulder. "That's the thing that startled us so, Frank. We are sure it was
Professor Dempsey's face. But, still, it was so wild and distorted that we
really wouldn't feel like contradicting any one who told us it wasn't he,"
she added slowly. "Do you understand what I mean?"

Frank nodded, and Will broke in excitedly:

"But the poor old codger's looks would naturally be changed," he argued,
"after he had spent all this time wandering around the woods--out of his
mind at that. I am inclined to think that the girls are right and that it
is really Professor Dempsey."

"If only I could have gotten my hands on him!" mourned Roy. "We wouldn't
have been in any further doubt."