HELPING THE HERMIT
Mr. Jessup, with his dog floundering in the snow ahead of him, came
toward the boys, who were still stuck in the snowbank, though slowly
getting out of it.
"What's the matter?" cried the hunter. "What happened to you? You ought
not to go in a place like that!"
"We couldn't help it!" exclaimed Sammy, with a laugh. "We were pushed
in!"
"Pushed in?" exclaimed Mr. Jessup. "What in the world do you mean,
Sammy?"
"Help us out, and we'll tell you," suggested Frank. "We're tired out
trying to wade through the deep snow."
"I guess that's right," admitted Mr. Jessup. "I had better be helping
you instead of talking. Come on, Maybe!"
With big strides the hunter came on. To him the drift gave little
trouble, though for the small boys it was all they could do to wade
through. But now they had help.
Mr. Jessup had a pair of snow-shoes strapped to his back, though the
crust was not thick enough to allow him to use them. They would come in
useful as snow shovels, though, and he at once took them for that
purpose.
"Here you go!" he cried to Bob, who was nearest him. "Catch one of these
shoes and help dig a path. I'll dig one to meet with yours, and when you
get out here, where the snow isn't so deep, you'll be all right."
"Hurray!" cried Sammy, glad that everything was more pleasant now.
"Is your sister better?" asked Frank, while Bob used the snow-shoe as a
shovel, the hunter doing the same with the one he had.
"Yes, much better," was the answer. "I was sorry I had to stay away all
night, and I kept thinking, up to the last minute, that I could get off
and come back to you. That's why I didn't send anyone to keep you
company.
"And finally, when my sister was well enough for me to leave her in the
care of some neighbors, it was too late to start for Pine Island. But I
made up my mind that you boys would be all right, and I didn't worry.
You were all right, weren't you, except for what happened to you just
now?"
"Yes," said Sammy, eager to tell the story of the mysterious hidden
room, and the strange things in it, "yes, we're all right. Nothing
happened during the night, and we got along fine. Maybe was good
company."
"I thought he'd be, and that's why I made him stay when I was called
away," said the hunter. "But he did want to come with me."
While the boys and Mr. Jessup were talking he and Bob used the
snow-shoes as shovels, so that, in a few minutes, the boys were out of
the drift, and on level ground where the snow was only up to their
knees.
"Now then," said Mr. Jessup, with a grin, as he looked at them, "I'm
ready to hear your story. How did it all happen, and who pushed you into
the drift?"
"The hermit!" cried the three boys at once.
"What! You don't mean Mr. Addison?" asked the hunter, in surprise.
"That's who it was," said Frank.
"Well, why did he do such a thing as that?" asked Mr. Jessup, in
surprise. "I've known him for sometime, and, except that he was a bit
odd now and then, he never acted that way. I always thought him quite
gentle, except that he would order people away from his cabin. Did you
do anything to him?"
For a moment the boys did not answer, and then Sammy, knowing that it
was best to tell everything, said:
"Well, we followed him, that was all. We wanted to see if he was going
to the big house."
"You followed him; that was all?"
"Yes, sir."
"And what did he do?"
"Well, he got out of sight, and we were trailing him," explained Bob.
"Then we came to that cliff and we were looking over, down into the pile
of snow, when, all of a sudden----"
"He rushed out on us from the bushes," continued Frank, "and he----"
"Pushed us down, one after the other," said Sammy, taking up the story.
"And he said he'd teach us to follow him and try to find out his
secret."
"Hum, he said that; did he?" mused Mr. Jessup. "Well, I'm afraid he must
be out of his mind. I've been thinking that for some time, and now I'm
sure of it. He must be crazy, or he wouldn't do such a thing as that. He
must have been quite angry at you, and it's lucky he did nothing worse
than shove you into a snowbank.
"Now I advise you boys not to go near him again. If you see him as you
walk about the island, don't notice or speak to him. That will be the
safest way. So you followed him, and he thought you were after his
secret; eh? He hasn't any secret, as far as I know. Poor old man, he
certainly must be crazy. I'm sorry for him. But, boys, did you have any
special object in following him?"
Again the three chums looked one at the other.
"You'd better tell, Sammy," said Frank, at last, "you made the find,
you know."
"What's this?" asked Mr. Jessup, in some surprise. "Have you boys a
secret, too?" and he looked curiously at them, while Maybe frisked
about, barking and unable to understand why his master would not take
after a rabbit he had driven from its burrow.
"Yes, we did find something strange in the old house," said Sammy. "We
discovered a secret room, and in it is an outfit of counterfeiters, Mr.
Jessup!"
"And they shot at us!" cried Bob.
"And you ought to have seen the smoke!" added Frank.
The hunter looked from one to another of the boys, as if unable to
understand what they were saying. He might have thought they were
playing a joke on him, but their faces were too serious for that.
"Secret room!" he murmured. "Counterfeiters! They shot at you!"
"Yes, and we thought the hermit might be the counterfeiter, so we were
following him to see if he went to the old house," said Bob.
"Whew! This is getting worse and worse!" exclaimed the hunter. "I guess
you'd better begin at the beginning, boys, and tell me all there is to
tell. Old Mr. Addison a counterfeiter! I can't believe it."
"This is the way it was," began Sammy, and then he told of the
exploration of the old house, after the hunt of the day before, and how,
most unexpectedly, he had pressed on the spring that opened the panel or
door of the secret room.
"And you should see the things in it!" put in Bob, as by turns the boys
described the queer instruments.
"And then that flash and boom!" cried Frank. "It was terrible!"
"It must have been," admitted the hunter. "But I own up that I am
puzzled. I never knew there was a secret room in the old house, and I
thought I'd been all over it. As for those things you tell about--well,
I guess I'll have to look at 'em myself."
Mr. Jessup did not say so, but the truth of the matter was that the boys
had talked so fast and so excitedly, and had interrupted each other so
often, that they had not given a very clear account of the things they
had seen. Then, too, as is the case not only with boys, but with
grown-ups, no one ever sees the same thing the way another person would.
The boys gave as good descriptions as they could of the queer objects in
the secret room, but each one put in something a little different, until
it was no wonder that Mr. Jessup was puzzled.
"Now I'll tell you what," he said. "We'll go back to Camp Mystery and
figure this thing out. I guess I didn't name it out of the way when I
called it 'Mystery,' for it's more mysterious than ever now.
"But we'll get to the bottom of it sooner or later. I'll have a look at
the things in that room. Maybe I can find out who has been taking my
grub. You weren't troubled while I was away last night! were you?"
"No," answered Sammy, "nothing happened. We slept fine."
"I thought you would be all right," went on the hunter. "I came skating
over to the island a little while ago, and went right to my cabin. You
weren't there, but pretty soon in came Maybe, and he acted so strange
that I was afraid something had happened to you. He pulled at my coat,
and would run on a little way, and then stop and bark, just as if he was
telling me to follow him, and he really was, as it happened."
"He must have gone for help for us!" cried Frank.
"That's what he did," replied the hunter. "He led me right here, and I
can tell you I was a bit scared when I saw you floundering in the snow.
I'm glad you're all right."
"Sure we're all right!" cried Sammy, "and I'd like to go to the old
house right away, and find out what all those things mean. If that is a
counterfeiting den we can have the men arrested; can't we?" he asked.
Mr. Jessup laughed.
"Well, Sammy," he said, "of course if there are counterfeiters here they
ought to be taken in, I s'pose. But I never heard of any, and there's
been no bad money circulating around Pine Island or Fairview, as far as
I know."
"I told him they weren't counterfeiting things," said Frank.
"You just wait!" exclaimed Sammy, mysteriously. He was sure his find was
going to turn out big this time.
"Well, we'd better get back to the cabin and prepare to look into this
thing," suggested the hunter. "I want to think it over a bit. By the
way, was there any sign of anybody having been in that room lately?"
"You couldn't tell--the bed looked as if it had been slept in," said
Bob. "But there must have been someone hiding there, or else how could
he have shot at us?"
Mr. Jessup shook his head.
"I'll admit it's a puzzle, so far," he said. "But after I see it I may
be able to explain it all. Come along."
They headed back for the cabin, the boys talking on the way of the many
things that had happened since coming to Pine Island. Mr. Jessup said he
had heard no special news in Fairview. He had not sent any word to the
parents of the three chums, fearing they would worry about the boys
staying alone all night.
"And it turned out better that I did not," he said.
They were nearing the cabin of Camp Mystery, and Mr. Jessup was
pointing out to the boys a trail that led from his place to the cabin of
the hermit.
"But I wouldn't advise you to follow that trail after dark, unless you
know it pretty well," he said.
"Why not?" asked Bob, always looking for reasons.
"Because that bog, that I told you about, is on both sides of the trail
at certain places, and it's dangerous. I often wonder why old Mr.
Addison built his cabin so near the bog. It's true there are some good
springs of water near it, but I'd rather be on higher ground, and carry
my water a way. So don't travel that trail except in daylight, boys."
They promised to be careful, and walked on, looking curiously back
toward the dangerous bog.
Suddenly Frank, who was in the lead, raised a hand to order a halt and
silence.
"What's up?" asked Sammy.
"Listen!" said Frank.
All heard a deep groan.
"Someone's there!" exclaimed Bob, pointing to a clump of bushes just
ahead, and to one side of the trail.
"Maybe it's a--bear!" faltered Sammy.
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Mr. Jessup. "That's a human voice. Hello, there!"
he cried. "Who are you? What do you want? Has anything happened?
Answer!"
"Maybe it's the counterfeiters," whispered Sammy.
The dog was barking excitedly.
"Come here!" commanded Mr. Jessup, and then, as the groan sounded again,
he went forward. Parting the bushes he looked ahead and cried out:
"Boys, it's Mr. Addison--the hermit, and he seems to have fallen and
hurt himself! Come here and we'll help him!"
The three rushed forward. There on the ground, under the bushes, where
there was no snow, lay the old man. He seemed to be unconscious and it
was his queer breathing that made the groaning sound.
"Boys, see if you can't get him out of there, into a more comfortable
place," said Mr. Jessup. "I'll run to the cabin for a folding stretcher
I have, and I'll also get some medicine. See if you can get him out.
I'll be back in a few minutes."