So, they must have actually traversed more of Lost Forest than I figured. This might have been one case where a narration box in one of the earlier dailies stating something like “And some hours later…” would have been informative for once, rather than hosting another pointless pun.

Mark’s internal cogitations about the source and point of the mask are helpful, but inconsistent. A prank? Possible! Someone lost? A non sequitur. Better to ask “Was it left behind after a costume party in the woods?”

But a more dramatic hypothesis would be “Perhaps the mask was used in a bank heist and the robbers are nearby!” Yikes! Now that would be a fundamentally more significant and dangerous proposition. We might expect that to be the case in a pre-Rivera Mark Trail adventure. In any event, Mark, better safe than sorry, so turn the kids around and head to the pizza parlor, while you can!