"Some one camped here last night," he said, thrusting his hand into the
warm ashes. "And whoever it was burned papers in it before he went away
this morning; the smell of them is still in the air." But no nose in the
party was keen-scented enough to detect it except Ted's.
Ted was still pawing among the ashes, when a change in expression swept
over his face, and soon he pulled out several small pieces of charred
paper. They were only burned on their curled-up edges, and Ted saw that
they were covered with writing, evidently part of a letter.
"What's this?" he exclaimed, after he had spread them out, and studied
them attentively. "Here are some words. There is not very much sense in
them, though."
"What do they read?" asked Stella.
"This is all I can make out of it: 'I *end you *** **nds of ***is **een.
***tter it on *** *rass. nce rr ws,'. Sounds as crazy as the steer,
doesn't it?"
"That's as easy as living on a farm," said Stella, who had been looking
over Ted's shoulder.
"All right, Miss Smarty, what is it?" said Ted laughingly.
"See, it's part of instructions to some one, and the way I read it is
like this: 'I send you so many pounds'--I don't know just how many, but
from the spaces the weight is expressed in three letters or three
figures. The next is presumably a poison, although I wouldn't have
thought of it if you hadn't spoken of it.
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