The next day the search was just as unsuccessful, and for several more they kept up the hunt. They saw no sign of either Mr. Skeel, the two cronies, or the hermit. “Well, I give up,” remarked Tom, despondently, one afternoon. “I don’t believe we’ll ever get that boat back.” “It does begin to look a little dubious,” remarked Jack. “Still, luck may turn at the last minute. Where you going?” he asked, as he saw his chum start toward the forest back of the camp. “Oh, just to take a walk. Anybody want to come?” “Not for mine,” answered Jack. “I’m just going to be lazy until supper time.” “Same here,” added Dick. “You won’t get any supper for two hours at least,” declared Bert, who was filling the position of cook. “Well, I’m going to take a walk and do some thinking,” said Tom. “See you later.” He strolled away, and the beauty of the woods on that perfect summer day must have lured him farther than he thought. He was thinking of many things, of the mystery of the old mill, of the disappearance of his boat, and their life in camp. “Guess it’s time I started back!” he exclaimed about two hours later as he noticed the shadows lengthening. “I wish I could think of some solution of that old plan-drawing,” he murmured. Even though he hurried he did not reach the camp until darkness had almost set in. As he approached the place a strange silence about the tents seemed to smite him like a blow. In spite of himself he felt a fear. “Hello, boys!” he called. “I’m back. Where are you?” There was no answer. He looked all around. There was not a sign of his chums. The old boat was drawn up on shore, showing that they were not out in that. They could hardly be off in the woods at this hour. He hurried to the cook tent. Preparations for supper had been under way, but that was all. Some of the pots and pans had been knocked to the ground. The place was in some confusion, but that was natural. Of Tom’s chums there was not a trace. They had mysteriously disappeared! CHAPTER XX LONELY DAYS “What in the world can have happened?” asked Tom, speaking aloud to himself. He had to do that to drive away some of the loneliness that thrust itself upon him as he walked around the deserted camp. “There’s something queer been going on, and I’m going to find out about it,” he added determinedly. “Maybe they’re hiding away from me for a joke.” He made a round of the little spot there where they had camped in the wilderness, but there were few places for his chums to have hidden save in the woods themselves--the woods that were on three sides of the tents, the lake forming the fourth boundary. “Well, if they’re in there they’ll wait a good while before I go hunting for them,” he said. “If it’s a joke they can come back when they get ready.”