possessed considerable significance, when viewed in the light of the
strange happenings of the recent past.

"_Leave this island at once_!"

Just five words in all. Whoever wrote that order must be a man who did
not believe in wasting anything. There was no penalty attached, and they
were at liberty to believe anything they chose; just the plain command to
get out, and somehow it seemed more impressive because of its brevity.

Paul looked at Jack, and then around at the anxious faces of the other
scouts. He saw only blank ignorance there. Nobody could imagine what this
strange order meant. The island might have an owner, but at the best it
was only a worthless bit of property, and their camping on its shore for
a week could not be considered in the light of trespass.

"Where did you get this, Jud?" asked the scout master.

"Why, Old Dan Tucker brought it to me," replied the leader of the Gray
Fox Patrol, promptly.

"And where did _you_ find it, Dan?" continued Paul, turning on the scout
in question, who seemed only too willing to tell all he knew--which, it
turned out, was precious little at best.

"Why, you see, I had a dispute with Nuthin about the number of hams
fetched on the trip. He vowed there was two, and I said three, countin'
the one we'd cut into last night. So to prove it, I just happened to step
into the tent where we've got some of the grub piled up. It was three,
all right, just as I said. But I found this paper pinned to one of the