When we got to the chasm we were on the south side of it, and I can tell you one thing, that chasm is good and deep. The sides are pretty steep too--all rocks. When I looked down into it I saw that there wasn’t any brook at all, it was dried up Then I remembered how every one at camp was saying that the lake was very low that season. Uncle Jeb (he’s manager) said it was lower than he had ever seen it before. That was the first thing Pee-wee said to me; he said, “Oh, look how the brook isn’t there!” I said, “Yes, I can see the brook, it isn’t there. No, we have plenty of bananas.” We were standing right on the edge near the logs that go across. Dub and Sandy were seeing the chasm for the first time. They both said they never thought it was anything like that--so deep. I guess they were surprised. Dub said, “_Jumping jiminies_, why didn’t you ever tell us about this place?” That’s the way it is with new fellows at Temple Camp. But anyway the place even seemed different to me now on account of what I heard about it. Oh boy, did we listen! Mr. Bagley said that when they found his father in the chasm one of the logs was lying in the bottom of the chasm too; it was broken in halves. The old man must have been on his way back from Catskill and he was taking the short cut through the woods. While he was crossing on the logs one of them broke and he fell and was killed. Mr. Bagley pointed down to the very spot where they found his father. Then he pointed down to a lot of bushes and he said that was where they found his father’s coat. For a couple of minutes we all stood there just staring down into the chasm. Even Pee-wee didn’t say anything. When you know something happened in a place--like getting killed--that place seems kind of scary. And besides I had never looked down into it like that before. When you go in where the brook is, it doesn’t seem so deep and dark. One of us asked Mr. Bagley if he had any idea how his father’s coat happened to be away from his body, because that seemed funny. He said, “I have no more idea than the man in the moon. All _I_ know is that when we lifted his coat off that clump of brush the oilskin container _was not in any of the pockets_. We _know_ that he went to Catskill. We _know_ that he signed his will and had it witnessed. We _know_ that he started back. We found him the next day lying against that big rock down there. On the night that he met his death his two cousins, Caleb and Bertha Clemm, were in their home. I live with them there now. He is an old bachelor and she is an old maid. But I don’t hold that against them--I’m an old bachelor too. But I’ve had a roving career. Now you boys who are so clever, what do you make out of that mystery?” “_Jiminies_,” I just gasped. Sandy and Dub just shook their heads. Pee-wee said, “Do you know what I bet? I bet that oilskin thing is down there, somewhere; I bet it’s there yet. And I bet we can find it.”