"I say, Dave, here's an odd piece of news." "An odd piece of news, Roger? What about?" "A wild man in the woods back of Oak Hall," answered Roger Morr, who held a letter in his hand. "Queerest thing you ever heard of." "I should say it was, if it's about a wild man," returned Dave Porter. "Who sent that letter?" "Shadow Hamilton." "Maybe it's another one of Shadow's innumerable yarns," suggested Dave, with a faint smile. "If he can't tell them by word of mouth, he writes them down." "What has Shadow got to say about the wild man?" asked Phil Lawrence, looking up from the suit-case he was packing. "Has he been trying to clean out Oak Hall, or anything like that?" "No, not exactly," returned Roger, turning back to the letter, which he had not yet finished. "He keeps in the woods, so Shadow says, and scares everybody who comes that way." "How does he scare them?" asked Dave, pausing in the act of stowing a suit of clothing in a trunk. "Shadow writes that he and Lazy were out walking one day and the wild man came after them with a big club. He wears long hair and a long beard, and his clothes are in tatters." "What did they do?" questioned Phil.