Book Three of the much-loved Scout Series!

When Tom and his friends Bert and Carl set out on an adventure over spring vacation, they are only looking for a good time. But soon a series of baffling events draws them inexorably into another mystery.

What connection is there between a dangerous poacher, a police cap on top of a tower, a host of unsolved burglaries, and a mysterious fire? Is the fearsome character who walks on the swamp the ghost of the legendary Flying Phantom? Or is it something or someone else?

Join the boys, Tom’s dog, Scout, and their mutual friend Captain Brandenburg as they muster courage, tenacity, and wit to track a very unusual kind of criminal.

When Tom names his German shepherd puppy Scout, little does he know how aptly he has named him. Although the dog’s tracking ability gets him and his master into serious trouble, he also saves Tom’s life.

Tom finds himself caught up in events of World War Two. In his youthful adventurousness, Tom is forced to call on the courage and talents of his clever dog again and again. As the allied forces approach his home town, Tom and his friend overhear German military secrets. The secret trail through the swamp puts Scout’s talents and Tom’s courage and endurance to the ultimate test.

When they get to the other town, they go straight to the Allied command post and tell them what they overheard from the Germans. As dawn breaks Tom shows the secret path to the Allies, who end up liberating Tom’s home town.

When they are invited to spend a few weeks with Uncle Arnie at the seashore, little do Tom, Carl, and Bert realize that they will be staying in the hunting lodge of a medieval castle. Uncle Arnie is quite a storyteller. Soon the boys find their imaginations and the lodge peopled with ghosts from Rodensteyn Castle, a castle long ago buried under the sand. But do ghosts leave tracks, tracks that Scout follows into the sea?

Are the legends of the ghost of Sir Isobald and the treasure of Rodensteyn Castle true? Is it a ghost that Tom spots in the dunes at night? Can Scout’s nose, no matter how keen, help the boys solve a mystery over 400 years old?

Past and Present, fact and fiction merge as Tom and his friends search for a treasure that has outlasted the ages.

Tom, Carl, and Bert are spending the summer on the farm. One day they ran into a large, surly man with a black monster of a dog. Scout and the black dog are enemies at first sight. The man arouses the boys’ suspicions at once. He is no ordinary vacationer.

When Scout pulls a boy from the river, the boys make a friend. From the boy’s mother they hear a story about the abandoned mill and a missing treasure. The story draws them into an adventure that sets the boys on a collision course with the dangerous man and his equally dangerous dog. Trying to play the master detective, Tom leads his friends into a desperate situation.

Can they stop Scout from clashing with the powerful black dog as he rushes to their aid? After all their hard work, will the boys lose the treasure after all? Worse yet, will the crook decide to kill the only witnesses to his crime?