AN ANGRY HERMIT
“Something new on the programme,” commented Tom in low voice.
“Do you think they heard us?” asked Dick.
“No, they couldn’t. And they don’t see us. They’re looking the other
way,” said Jack.
“But there’s something doing,” declared Bert. “I wonder what it is?”
They had their answer a moment later, when there came into view around
the bend in the path Sam Heller and Nick Johnson.
“Well, I’ll be jiggered!” gasped Tom. “We meet them at every turn.”
“I wonder how they got here so soon after we met them?” asked Bert.
“It’s quite a distance to walk.”
“Maybe they took a short cut,” suggested Jack.
“Hush! Look what’s going on now,” advised Tom.
As they glanced toward where the professor and the hermit had held a
conference, they saw the old man transported into one of his fits of
rage.
He stamped about, and shook his fist at Sam and Nick, occasionally
changing by making threatening gestures at Mr. Skeel.
“Say, he’s the limit!” murmured Dick.
“Listen,” cautioned Tom. “He’s saying something.”
“Leave here! Leave here at once!” commanded old Wallace, almost hitting
the two lads as he shook his fists at them. “How dare you come on my
property? You are after the treasure; are you? Well, you shall never
find it! I will locate it! I will make the old mill give up its secret!
Be off!”
“Wait, wait,” said Mr. Skeel in a calm voice, laying his hand on the
hermit’s arm.
“Ha! You too are in a plot against me, I believe!” cried the angry
hermit. “I am sorry I ever had anything to do with you. Go away!” and
he took hold of the professor, and began shoving him away down the path.
“One minute,” said Mr. Skeel in soothing tones, much different from
the harsh ones he had almost constantly used in his classes at Elmwood
Hall. “What is it you object to?”
“These lads--what are they doing here? Are they spying on me?” and the
aged man pointed at Nick and Sam.
“They are my assistants,” said the professor soothingly, and, though he
spoke in a low tone, Tom and his chums could hear him. “Without their
aid I can not help you,” Mr. Skeel went on, and when the hermit’s back
was turned toward him our hidden friends distinctly saw the professor
make a signal of caution and of acquiescence toward the two lads, who
craftily nodded their understanding.
“Your assistants?” asked the hermit.
“Yes. If you want me to help you I must have them to help me. I would
have told you about them, but I did not get the chance until they came
so unexpectedly. Had they known that you objected to their presence
they would have remained away. But I assure you that you can trust
them.”
“Well,” said the hermit, bitterly, “since I have told you part of my
secret, and trusted you with it, I suppose your assistants must be in
on it. But no more! No more!” and he shook his fist toward the clouds,
and glanced around as though he feared more intruders. “There were some
other boys around the other day,” the aged man went on, “and if I find
them sneaking about my mill it will be the worse for them.”
“Say, we did get away just in time,” whispered Jack.
“That’s right,” agreed Dick.
“But what in the world does Skeel mean by saying he is going to help
Wallace, and that Sam and Nick are his assistants, I wonder?” asked
Bert.
“That’s easy to guess,” answered Tom. “Skeel, somehow or other, has
heard about the treasure. Now he’s trying to soft-soap the hermit into
letting him have a hunt for it. Probably he’s promised to turn most of
it over to the old man.”
“I think I see him doing it, if he finds it,” commented Bert.
“And Skeel has the nerve to say that Sam and Nick are his helpers,”
said Jack. “Hot helpers they are!”
“Oh, that was just a bit of jollying, thought up on the spur of the
moment,” declared Tom. “He didn’t figure on Sam and Nick following him,
and he had to concoct some story to account for their presence. Though
I don’t doubt but what Skeel, and those two cronies, are in thick about
some scheme.”
“Searching for the treasure?” asked Dick.
“I believe so. Well, they’ve got one advantage of us, but maybe we can
get ahead of them yet,” spoke Tom. “If only we can get a chance to do
some exploring we’ll do it. But we can’t do anything more now.”
“No, let’s go down to the boat and eat,” suggested Jack. “I’m still
hungry.”
“Wait a minute,” advised Tom. “I think they’re going to move on, and
we don’t want to run into them.”
As they watched they saw Sam and Nick turn and retrace their steps back
along the path. They had held a little conversation with Mr. Skeel,
to one side, so that the hermit had not heard, though he eyed them
suspiciously. Then Mr. Skeel and the old man resumed their talk.
“Lucky that Sam and Nick didn’t come this way,” said Tom, as he helped
Jack to stand up. “Now don’t make any more noise than you can help, or
they may hear us.”
“They’ll hear the boat when it starts,” said Dick.
“I’ll drift down the river a bit before I crank up,” spoke Tom. “Come
on, everybody.”
They started down the bank, toward their boat, having come to a halt a
little distance from it. Suddenly Dick, who was in the rear, uttered an
exclamation.
“What is it?” called Tom sharply.
“They’re going away--Skeel and the hermit, and one of them has dropped
a piece of paper on the path.”
“A piece of paper!” exclaimed Tom. “We must have that! Here, wait a
minute! If they don’t miss it, and come back for it, I’ll get it.”
He crawled cautiously back to his former post of observation behind the
screen of bushes.