Every afternoon during the remainder of the outing Piper visited Mr. Granger at the latter’s cabin. He explained to his friends that the young author was teaching him to write stories, and their newly acquired respect for Sleuth’s courage prevented them from joshing him much about this. Indeed, he was permitted to do practically as he pleased around the camp, taking advantage of which, he allowed his companions to perform all the labor, while he lounged around and dreamed of the day when he would write a detective yarn that should make the fascinating tales of “Old Sleuth” seem tame and feeble by comparison. Twice Granger came to the boys’ camp and spent a sociable hour with them. He and Piper seemed to be on the most friendly terms, and once they were detected laughing slyly over a joke that was not explained at that time to the rest of the boys. Jim Simpson also came frequently with supplies from the farm, and sometimes he talked with Grant about cowboy life, for he still clung to the hope that he would follow such a career when he became his own master. Peace was formally declared between Sile Crane and Carl Duckelstein, and more than once the Dutch boy fished unmolested from the point. At last the end of the outing came, as the end to all pleasant things must come, and the boys pulled down their tent, packed up, and their outfit was transported to Pemstock by Carl. Ere leaving the camping ground, they paused to give a rousing cheer. And as they marched away Springer cast a regretful look over his shoulder in the direction of Spirit Island. “Too bad,” he said. “You’ve got plenty of nerve, Sleuth, but it’s too bad you couldn’t solve the mystery of that old island.” Piper simply smiled. These experiences, of course, only increased Piper’s interest in solving mysteries and his belief in his own genius in that line. During the fall immediately following his adventures in the summer camp, the Sleuth scented a secret nearer home. With his usual caution he followed the scent and made deductions, and the results surprised even him. The story is all told in “The Great Oakdale Mystery,” the fifth volume of the Oakdale Academy Series. THE END. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s Notes: Italicized phrases are presented by surrounding the text with _underscores_. Boldface phrases are presented by surrounding the text with equal signs. Small capitals have been rendered in full capitals. Punctuation has been standardized. Minor spelling and typographic errors have been corrected silently, except as noted below. Hyphenated words have been retained as they appear in the original text, except as noted below. On page 271, "at" (second one in sentence) was changed to "as". The original text was "having near at hand such attractions at Lovers’ Leap and the haunted island".