Dave Porter and the Runaways Last Days at Oak Hall

Excerpt

CHAPTER I

DAVE AND HIS CHUMS

“I say, Dave, here’s an odd piece of news.”

“An odd piece of news, Roger? What about?”

“A wild man in the woods back of Oak Hall,” answered Roger Morr, who held a letter in his hand. “Queerest thing you ever heard of.”

“I should say it was, if it’s about a wild man,” returned Dave Porter. “Who sent that letter?”

“Shadow Hamilton.”

“Maybe it’s another one of Shadow’s innumerable yarns,” suggested Dave, with a faint smile. “If he can’t tell them by word of mouth, he writes them down.”

“What has Shadow got to say about the wild man?” asked Phil Lawrence, looking up from the suit-case he was packing. “Has he been trying to clean out Oak Hall, or anything like that?”

“No, not exactly,” returned Roger, turning back to the letter, which he had not yet finished. “He keeps in the woods, so Shadow says, and scares everybody who comes that way.”

“How does he scare them?” asked Dave, pausing in the act of stowing a suit of clothing in a trunk.

“Shadow writes that he and Lazy were out walking one day and the wild man came after them with a big club. He wears long hair and a long beard, and his clothes are in tatters.”

“What did they do?” questioned Phil.

“They ran back towards the school. The wild man followed ’em as far as the bridge over the brook, and then jumped into the bushes and disappeared.”

“Humph!” muttered Phil. “Is that all?”

“Oh, no! The day before that, Chip Macklin and two other of the smaller boys went out, along the river, and the wild man came after them and shoved Chip into the water. He yelled to them never to come near him again. The other fellows ran away, and as soon as Chip could get out of the water he went after ’em. Then, three days later, Doctor Clay sent out Mr. Dale and Horsehair, the driver, to look into the matter, and the wild man met them at the bridge and threw mud balls at ’em. One mud ball hit the teacher in the arm, and one struck Horsehair in the nose and made it bleed. Horsehair was afraid to go on, because the wild man jumped around and shouted so furiously. Mr. Dale tried to catch him, but he ran away.”

“Poor chap! He must be crazy,” was Dave’s comment. “He ought to be taken care of by the authorities.”

“Yes, but they can’t catch him,” continued Roger. “They have tried half a dozen ways, but he slips ’em every time.”

“Who is he?” asked Dave, as he continued to pack his trunk.

“Nobody has the least idea, so Shadow writes.”

“Say, that will give us something to do—when we get back to Oak Hall!” cried Phil. “We’ll organize a posse to round up the wild man!”

“I think we’ll have plenty of other things to do when we get to school, Phil,” remarked Dave. “Just remember that we have lost a lot of time from our lessons, and if we want to make up what we have missed, and graduate from Oak Hall with honor, we’ve got to buckle down and study.”

“Oh, I know that,” answered Phil, and gave a little sigh....