whole hams, which, you know, are sewed up in covers right from the
packers. I couldn't make out what it meant. First I thought Nuthin was
playin' a joke on me; but he denied it. So I took the paper to Jud,
seein' that you were away, Paul."

"It was pinned to one of the hams, was it?" asked the scout
master, frowning.

"Sure, and the pin's still stickin' in it," answered Dan, positively.

Paul looked around.

"I want to settle one thing right at the start, before we bother any more
about this matter," he remarked. "Did any one of you write this, or have
you ever seen it before Dan brought it to Jud?"

"He showed it to me," exclaimed Nuthin; "but it was the first time I
ever glimpsed that paper or writin', Paul, I give you my word."

"If anybody else has seen it before, I want him to hold up his hand,"
continued the scout master, knowing how prone boys are to play pranks.

The boys glanced at each other; but not a single hand went up.

"Well, that settles one thing, then," declared Paul. "This note came
from some one not belonging to our camp. He must have crawled into the
tent from the rear, taking advantage of our being busy. Yes, there's a
bunch of scrub close enough to give him more or less shelter, if he
crawled on all fours. Let's see if one or two of the tent pins haven't
been drawn up."