CHAPTER 2 THE FACE ON THE CLIFF

The Cubs bunched together, waiting for orders. Red’s plight, they knew, easily might be a serious one. If he foolishly had wandered deep into the woods, it might be necessary to organize searching parties in order to find him.

“Mr. Holloway, Dan, Brad and I will try to pick up his trail,” the cubmaster said quietly. “The rest of you go to the house and wait there.”

Dan and Brad followed Mr. Holloway and the cubmaster to the fringe of woods, leaving the other Cubs to make their way up the hill. Mr. Hatfield took an optimistic view of the disappearance.

“Red has good sense,” he said. “Furthermore, unless he’s forgotten Cub training, he’ll eventually find his way back to camp or to the road. The worst is, if he doesn’t show up shortly, his parents will be scared.”

Ahead, the cool forest loomed dark and rather terrifying. By day, the trails wound pleasantly through the preserve, skirting ravines and crossing rustic bridges. But now, the entire area had a forbidding appearance.

“We all must stay close together,” Mr. Hatfield instructed. “Now Dan, show us where it was that you last saw Red.”

Dan already had identified the spot, a narrow gap through two tall birch trees. He had noted the place, for the white trunks had stood out distinctly in the starlight.

After he had pointed it out, Mr. Hatfield went ahead, flashing the bright beam of his flashlight on the ground.

“Red came this way, all right,” he declared, elated at having picked up the trail so easily. “See! Here’s a deep heel mark in the mud.”

“What could have induced him to wander off?” Mr. Holloway speculated. “I thought Red knew better. He evidently had no intention of gathering wood because he passed up plenty of it at the edge of the woods.”

In the dark forest, it became increasingly difficult to follow Red’s trail. After moving deeper into the trees, the party halted to listen for a moment and then to shout Red’s name.

“He’s wandered a long distance away, that’s sure,” the cubmaster said. “Perhaps to the ravine. Our voices might not carry to him there.”

“But why would Red go that far?” Brad asked himself aloud. “I can’t understand it. He only intended to play a little joke on the Cubs.”

Mr. Hatfield, in advance of the others, halted so abruptly that Brad bumped into him.

“Hello, here’s something!” the cubmaster exclaimed.

He stooped to pick up a paper sack lying in plain view on a log.

“That’s the one Red had!” Brad cried, instantly recognizing it.

Inside the sack, Mr. Hatfield found a neatly folded bearskin rug.

“Red intended to play a joke on the Cubs all right,” he commented. “But something caused him to change his mind.”

“For some reason he decided to go deeper into the woods,” Mr. Holloway added thoughtfully. “Evidently, he wanted to travel fast, so he pitched this bulky sack. He left it on the log, where he could find it easily on his way back.”

More than ever mystified by the boy’s strange disappearance, the four now hastened on. Soon however, Mr. Hatfield reported that he no longer could find any shoeprints on the trail.

“Red must have turned off somewhere,” he told the others. “That will make it a lot harder to find him.”

The four paused, discouraged by the realization that it might take hours to learn what had become of the missing boy. A cool wind whispered through the pines, causing Dan to pull his sweater more tightly about him. Red, he recalled, had worn no jacket. Unless they found him soon, he might actually suffer from cold.

“Listen!” commanded Brad suddenly. “I thought I heard something!”

The four stood perfectly still, listening. Overhead an owl hooted, but there was no other unusual sound.

“I was certain I heard something,” Brad muttered, ashamed to have aroused false hope. “It sounded like someone running. Guess I imagined it.”

“We’ll have to go back a ways and try to pick up Red’s trail again,” Mr. Hatfield said. “I only hope my flashlight holds out.”

The searchers turned around, but scarcely had they gone a dozen yards, than Brad exclaimed:

“There! I heard it again! Someone is running through the underbrush!”

The other three had halted to listen.

“You’re right, Brad!” exclaimed Mr. Hatfield. “It must be Red!”

Their hope revived, the four shouted the missing boy’s name repeatedly. To their intense relief, an answering shout came from the left of the trail.

“That’s Red!” cried Brad.

“He’s over by the ravine, just as I thought!” added Mr. Hatfield. “Keep shouting, so he can find us. We’ll wait here on the trail.”

Five minutes later, Red struggled through the bushes and brambles to confront his would-be rescuers with a sheepish grin.

He was breathing heavily, having hastened as fast as he could.

“Gosh, were you out looking for me?” he asked, sagging down on a log to rest.

“Were we looking for you!” Brad exclaimed furiously. “You and your crazy jokes!”

“I intended to come right back—honest I did. But gosh, I had the scare of my life! I’m still shakey from the shock of it.”

“You didn’t meet a live bear?” Dan asked.

Red shook his head and took a deep breath. “I—I saw a fire through the trees,” he informed his listeners.

“A fire?” Mr. Holloway repeated. “In the forest? That could be serious if it spread. So many cabins and cottages are situated near the park preserve. Fires aren’t permitted at night, and in daytime only with written permission of the warden.”

“That’s why I started off to find out about it,” Red said quickly. “I thought if anyone had left a fire unwatched, the Cubs ought to know about it.”

“Where did you see the fires?” Mr. Hatfield cut in. “Near the ravine?”

“Yes, but it wasn’t unattended. When I got there—oh, gee!—it scared me half out of my wits. I was afraid to go very close.”

“Get to the point, Red,” Mr. Holloway urged impatiently. “What did you see?”

“A fire had been built on a shelf of the ravine. It was blazing up high against the rocks, making the whole cliff wall illuminated. A man, who was wrapped in a blanket, sat there. His back was to me so I didn’t see his face.”

“What’s so frightening about that?” Brad demanded. “Was that all you saw?”

“I’m coming to the important part,” Red went on breathlessly. “Near the fire—on the clay wall—I saw another face—a huge one.”

“Sure you didn’t imagine it?” asked Mr. Hatfield dryly.

“It was real as anything,” Red insisted. “The face was as big as a house and it sort of leered out at me. Oh, it was weird with the firelight throwing crazy shadows over the cliff wall! I took one look and beat it back here!”

“You dreamed all that up!” Brad accused.

“I did not!” Red denied furiously. “I’ll show you if you want me to!”

“It’s late now,” Mr. Hatfield said. “The Cubs are waiting at the house.”

“I’d like to prove that I’m right. Honest, I didn’t imagine it!”

“You can show us the face tomorrow—by daylight,” the cubmaster replied.

“But it may be gone then.”

“It will be all right,” scoffed Brad. “And that man you saw by the fire too! I’ve explored every trail in the metropolitan park and never came upon any giants.”

“The face didn’t look human,” Red described it nervously. “It sort of loomed out of the wall—huge eyes.”

“As large as saucers?” teased Dan.

“Yes, they were, and you needn’t rub it in! I saw the face, and I’m willing to prove it if anyone will give me a chance!”

“You’ll have your chance tomorrow,” Mr. Hatfield soothed him. “Odd though, about that fire.”

“I seriously doubt the warden would grant anyone a permit in this section of the park,” added Mr. Holloway. “The danger of starting a forest fire is great at this time of year.”

Although Red insisted that his attention first had been attracted by a glimpse of a camp fire through the trees, the others could not now see the blaze. Despite the boy’s insistence that the sight he had viewed was very real, they were inclined to think his eyes had played him false.

Decidedly crestfallen, Red accompanied his would-be rescuers back to the Holloway cottage. Immediately, the other Cubs fell upon him, demanding to know where he had been so long.

Brad and Dan would have spared their chum the tale, but Red himself told it. In fact, he expanded upon his original story, building up the face he had seen as an awe-inspiring apparition.

At first the Cubs were impressed, but as Red added more and more to the tale, they began to scoff. Soon they flatly informed him that he was “talking through his hat.”

“You were scared, that’s what!” accused Midge. “You thought you’d play a joke on us with that bear skin. Instead, the joke’s on you!”

“Sure, Red got out there in the woods and began seeing things that weren’t so,” chuckled Mack.

The teasing so upset Red that he spilled a little of the hot chocolate in the mug Mrs. Holloway had served him.

“I’ll show you,” he retorted fiercely. “Just give me a chance! That’s all I ask.”

The Cubs, one and all, grinned provokingly. Red subsided into hurt silence.

Then unexpectedly, Mrs. Holloway, the Den Mother, sided with Red. As she passed a plate of chicken sandwiches, she remarked quietly;

“About a half hour ago, while I was working in the kitchen, I noticed a light somewhere back in the woods. It looked for all the world like a bonfire.”

“A fire!” cried Red triumphantly. “What’d I tell you?”

“It struck me as very strange,” continued Mrs. Holloway. “With so many cottages nearby, a fire in the park could be serious unless carefully tended.”

“Then you think Red may not have imagined that face on the cliff?” inquired Mr. Hatfield thoughtfully.

“I’m wondering if an investigation might not be advisable.”

Mrs. Holloway’s observation was sufficient to completely change the attitude of the Cubs. Instead of making fun of Red, they now began to ask Mr. Hatfield when they could visit the ravine.

“Tomorrow,” he promised as the meeting broke up. “If anyone is camping in the woods without permission, we ought to find out about it. We’ll gather here after school for canoe practice and a little trip of exploration. Who knows, we may run into something interesting!”