“No, sir,” answered Teddy, “it isn’t ours.”

“Did you see a deer?” asked Joe.

50 “I certainly did. Quite a big one, too.”

50

“Did it have any girls on its back?” asked Dick.

“Girls? Land sakes, what do you mean? What girls?” asked Mr. Mason, much surprised.

“My sister, and Teddy’s,” explained Dick. “Did you see them on the deer’s back?”

“I should say not! What do you think it was? A circus deer?”

“It’s a mystery deer,” said Teddy.

“Oh, then it is your deer!” cried Mr. Mason. “Why didn’t you say so at first? I don’t like deer, mystery or any other kind, making free with my farm. Where did you get this deer, anyhow?”

“We didn’t get him. He isn’t ours. We just saw him,” said Teddy. “Which way did he go?”

“I stoned him back into the woods,” said Mr. Mason. “Oh, I didn’t hit him with any stones,” he was quick to add. “I wouldn’t hit any animal with stones. I just pegged a51 few rocks up close to him, so he’d know he wasn’t wanted. He went for the woods in high gear. But what do you fellows know about this deer? And what do you mean,” he continued, looking at Dick, “by girls on the deer’s back?”

51

“Well, my sister has disappeared,” said Dick. “So has Teddy’s. And two of our toy airplanes are missing. We found a place where the deer had been jumping around in your meadow.”

“And we found a place, near there, where the girls had been,” put in Teddy. “We thought maybe the deer went for the girls and got them on his back and—”

“Say,” laughed Mr. Mason, “you’re Teddy Benson, aren’t you? The boy who was mixed up with a mystery dog?”

“Yes,” Teddy admitted, “I was. And so was my sister.”

“And now you’ve got a mystery deer on your trail. Well, my boy, there were no girls 

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