Here is an excerpt from the newly released book in the Windmill Pete series by Rev. Bob Hemphill. This fiction series is “designed for adventurers ages 7-14,” and relates God’s goodness and truth in ways that help capture a child’s heart. The new book is titled, The Mysterious Stranger. It is available through Crown & Covenant Publications.

We marched along as silently as eight energetic boys, who were deeply involved in a mystery, could. We didn’t say a word to each other. However, our feet on the grass and dirt, and our clothes brushing against bushes, made plenty of noise.

We caught no glimpse of an old man, but every once in a while, Piggy would stop us by pressing his hand back behind him and putting his finger to his lips for silence. We would all crouch down for a moment. Then Piggy would motion us forward again.

Progress was slow. But every so often we came across another footprint. The route seemed to be headed for the ballfield. However, as we neared the field, we realized that we had not seen a footprint for a long time. This became especially obvious when the path crossed a low muddy spot about eight feet wide.

“Look,” said Chihuahua, “if he came this way, he would have had to cross this patch of mud, and I don’t see any footprints!”

“You’re right,” Piggy observed, “and he couldn’t have gone around it.” Bushes bordered both sides of the path.

“It would have taken a strong person to push through those branches,” Piggy went on, “and we are following an old man.”

We all agreed with Chihuahua’s and Piggy’s detective work.

“He must have turned off the path somewhere behind us,” said Lamar. “Let’s back track and see if we can find where he did.”

The eight of us turned around and started back the way we had come. As we walked, we looked to the right and to the left, trying to spot some break in the trees where the old man might have departed from the trail.

Suddenly, we heard a voice from behind. It was Dusty. He was bringing up the rear.

“Hold on, guys! Here it is.”

We turned around and looked. With his left hand, Dusty was pointing at a right angle to the path on which we had been traveling.

Running back to where he was, sure enough, we saw another path, a smaller one, leading off to the east.

In all our days exploring down in the woods, we had never discovered this trail. It was narrow and overgrown with grass and weeds. It obviously had not been traveled as much as the path to the ballfield.

It looked like it might once have been larger and been well-used by a former generation of children. Now, it could hardly be seen, and easily missed by someone walking the larger path, just as we had missed it when we passed by a few minutes earlier.

Was this the path the old man had taken to get away from us?