Wild Ways 2: The Amherst Mystery

By D.A. Swanson

FBI Agent Jim Brandt calls upon Oscar Johnson once again to uncover information that will help solve a mystery. This one begins in the second-growth forest of Amherst, New Hampshire. What starts as a simple quest for information related to a museum break-in in Bedford, New Hampshire, gains international status when unexpected evidence leads Jim

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rainy River Press
• Release date: Nov 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9781737284321

D.A. Swanson

Dale Swanson is an author, playwright, poet, and screenwriter. His work includes a short film for a non-profit titled The Creation Story. His books include multiple genres: historical fiction, memoir, a poetry chapbook, and middle-grade fantasy with his first, The Wild Ways-Mystery of the Hanging Tower, and the release of this second in the series, Wild Ways 2-The Amherst Mystery.

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Wild Ways 2

THE AMHERST MYSTERY

Dale A. Swanson

The Wild Ways 2

The Amherst Mystery

Copyright © 2023 D.A. Swanson

All rights reserved

Print ISBN: 978-1-7372843-1-4

E-book ISBN: 978-1-7372843-2-1

First Edition — November 2023

Printed in the United States of America

Published by

Rainy River Press

6106 Birch Road

Prior Lake, MN 55372

www.dale-swanson.com

Acknowledgements

Profound thanks to my wife of fifty-seven years for putting up with my all to frequent absences from the dinner table and excusing me for many chores left undone as I practiced my hermitage during the writing of this story.

I must also thank my family for supporting this work and the many readers of the first Wild Ways mystery that spurred me on to complete this followup, second-in-the-series.

Other Books by D.A. Swanson

*Historical Fiction

The Thirty-Ninth Man

A Novel of the 1862 Uprising

*Historical Fiction

Tears Of Sorrow

A Free Nation Lost

*Middle Grade Fantasy

The Wild Ways

Mystery of the Hanging Tower

*Memoir

Simpler Times

A Memoir

*Chapbook

A Bowhunter In God’s Cathedral

Poems and Prose

Foreword

This second book in the Wild Ways series reintroduces Oscar Johnson, the recipient of the Wild Ways when he was ten years old. Oscar is now twelve. FBI Agent, Jim Brandt, has remained in contact with Oscar and his family since they solved the Mystery of the Hanging Tower.

Oscar has been in daily contact with the animals on the island, learning things hidden from human knowledge. He was responsible for establishing a Critter Club at his school. Club members are assigned an animal to research and document exciting facts about that animal. Then, at two-month intervals, the club members present what they learned to the entire school during a special program held in the school auditorium. The two-month intervals allowed more students to join the club and appear in front of their peers. As a result, it became popular, with nearly half the student body getting involved.

Oscar continued talking with the animals and learning about their past and what they saw for the future.

Chatter, the gray squirrel that proved he was not a coward, RING, the raccoon Teller and island historian, the fidgety gopher, Archie, now living underground by Oscar’s bedroom window, Tambo, Old Blue, and the others continued to seek help from the boy. He continued caring for and protecting all of them.

With nearly two years gone since the last adventure, Oscar was close to giving up hope for helping to solve another FBI mystery.

THEN CAME THE CALL HE WAS WAITING FOR.

Contents

Preamble

1 Amherst, New Hampshire

2 Logan Airport

3 Danger in the Woods

4 A New Power

5 Airport

6 Learning More

7 The Queen’s Palace

8 Looking for Answers

9 Oscar Sharpens His Skills

10 New Information

11 Intellect Displacement

12 Jacques de Gaulle’s Purpose

13 Island Vacation

14 Oscar Goes International

15 Nikki The Lemur

16 The Jungle House

17 A Revealing

18 Rocky’s Clue

19 The Cylinder

20 The Napoleon Link

21 The Cabin Search

22 The Discovery

23 The Final Piece

Conclusion

Notes

Preamble

1803

New Hampshire Territory

Jacques de Gaulle wedged the box into the rough opening at the base of the foundation. In the middle of the clearing behind him were several planks from his disassembled shipping crate. After the box was in place, he covered it with a plank from the crate and covered the stash with sand from the nearby creek.

Confident that the box was secure, he fitted rocks from the adjacent field to seal up the hiding place. With a sigh of relief, he continued erecting the fireplace chimney and the walls to the log cabin that would serve as his shelter through the coming winter. He would then return to his family and bring them here to their new home.

* * *

1860

New Hampshire Territory

The flames reached sixty feet into the air as the timbers caught hold and the wood shakes covering the roof burst into a roaring inferno. The small deserted two-room cabin had been vacant for as long as memory served. Aaron Carlisle, the man setting it ablaze, watched as the fire engulfed the structure. The east wall collapsed inward within ten minutes, starting a sequence that brought down the other three. Then, even before the flames settled, the new owner turned and walked away, satisfied with his mid-day work.

The cabin stood among hemlocks and century-old red oaks prominent on the landscape. Hardwoods dotted the once cleared land surrounding the cabin. Initially built by a Frenchman named Jacques de Gaulle in 1803, Aaron Carlisle claimed the land and intended to clear it for farming. He razed the now-aging structure, leaving only the fireplace with its sturdy foundation, planning to rebuild a modern dwelling around it. He had cleared a twenty-acre section to within yards of where the cabin once stood. During the process, every boulder and rock unearthed was stacked onto a stone wall marking the edge of his property.

Never married, Carlisle died of injuries sustained as a result of a fall from his horse, leaving the property without an owner.

CHAPTER 1

Amherst, New Hampshire

November, 1951

He had been in the woods since before dawn. He was one of those hunters who couldn’t sit still, preferring to stalk the quarry, always moving, always searching the thickets with his eyes for the patch of color that didn’t belong or the edge of an ear or flick of a tail. He knew from experience that the entire body of a deer presenting itself was rare.

He considered himself a good hunter. Only once had he gone through a season without bagging venison. He was now well into the woods south of his house, and he walked a dry creek bed, carefully avoiding the autumn leaves scattered across its surface. Then, feeling at a disadvantage by the creek bed’s low terrain, he took the first opportunity to climb to higher ground.

Another hour passed with only squirrels showing themselves: not the object of this hunt. Eventually, he found himself walking parallel to a very old stone wall, likely placed there more than a century earlier.

He thought it a good place to rest and survey the area. Scanning along the wall, he settled on a spot where a large maple grew against the stones, and there was a relatively flat piece of granite large enough to sit on. He produced a sandwich from the rucksack he carried and began to eat. Stuffing the last bite into his mouth, he noticed something protruding from a slight depression about fifteen feet from where he sat. The area was strewn with fallen leaves, and when he rose for closer examination and walked to where he thought it was, there was nothing. Puzzled, he returned to the tree and relocated the object. This time he kept his eye on the exact location and walked toward it.

The leaves were so thickly aligned that he almost lost it again, but using the toe of his boot and scraping the earth bare, he found the object. It looked like the corner of a polished piece of wood. With the help of a broken branch, he was able to remove more of the dirt. Soon he realized that what he was uncovering was made of very hard wood.

Already late in the day, he decided to go home and return the next day with tools to help him recover the object. All the way home, he left a trail of broken tree branches to mark the way.

The next morning he awoke early, boiled a couple of eggs for breakfast, grabbed a pick and shovel from the shed alongside his house, and retraced his steps to the discovery.

With great care, he unearthed the artifact.

What he held in his hands was a solid plank of very hard, honey-colored wood, nearly a foot wide and two feet long. One side had a design of some sort etched into the surface, while the opposite side appeared to be smooth. He wiped the smooth side as clean as he could with his gloved hand and noticed barely legible engraved characters, mostly obscured in the worn surface. Looking from different distances and angles, he decided they looked like five letters spelling aulle.

He hauled it home, his mind whirling with questions about what he had found.

After cleaning it up as best he could, it occurred to him that it might have some historical value. So, with board in hand, he knocked on the door of a friend who managed collections for the historical museum in the larger town of Bedford. The man’s name was Ernest Graff, and he showed immediate interest in the piece.

You say you found it in the woods?

Yeah. Found it in the Carlisle section. The area referred to as the Carlisle section was now a 300-acre parcel of second-growth forest. It was half-buried under a bunch of leaves. It took me a while to dig the dang thing up, with the roots and rocks surrounding it. I thought it might be something the historical society might be interested in.

They talked and studied the find under magnification for nearly a half-hour before Mr. Graff made a proposal.

"I can see traces of more writing and even some kind of design. This could have historical significance. What do you say I take it to