"
But a thorough search failed to reveal, to the investigators, any
trace.
"I never saw anything like this," declared the colonel. "He seems
to have disappeared completely."
"But where could he have gone?" asked Jack, anxious for the safety
of his brother.
"I wish I knew," returned the colonel. "If there were any birds around
here big enough we might suspect that one of them had carried him
off, but we will evidently have to await Pepper's own explanation
of the enigma." Then he added after a moment:
"Well, boys, we have got to the end of the trail. I don't know what
to do next."
"That reminds me," started Dick, when there was a hiss, a snarl and
a flash through the air from the tree, under whose branches they
were standing, and an immense wild cat, spitting and clawing, landed
on Dick's back.
"Help! Murder!" shouted Dick. "Take it off!"
For an instant the boys were so dumfounded by the suddenness of
the attack that they all jumped in different directions, but the
colonel, with a well-directed blow from the heavy stick he carried,
knocked the animal off of Dick, but not before his coat had been
torn and Dick himself scratched by its claws.
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