Page:Fairview Boys at Camp.djvu/37

Rh "Yes, it did," answered Sammy. "I asked Benny where his uncle had seen the hermit, and Ben said it was on Pine Island. That was the first I ever heard of one of those men being there, so I asked all I could about it.

"Benny didn't know much, but he said his uncle had been out fishing one day, and stopped off at Pine Island to eat his lunch. He was almost through, when an old man, all stooped over, and with a long white beard, came out of the bushes, shook a stick at Benny's uncle and told him to get off that part of the island, as he owned it."

"Did he go?" asked Frank.

"Yes," went on Sammy, "for the hermit acted dangerous. Ben's uncle thought maybe he might be an escaped lunatic. So he got into his boat, the hermit watching him all the while, and rowed away."

"And what became of the hermit?" asked Frank, always eager for details.

"He disappeared into the bushes again," said Sammy. "I didn't tell you fellows anything about this, for I knew you'd laugh. Then, when Mrs. Blake just now told us about her brother living on Pine Island, and when she said we might go to see him, I thought I'd tell you about the hermit. But you didn't believe me."

"Oh, but we do now!" said Frank, quickly.

"And is he hunting after a buried treasure?" asked Bob. He began to think there might be more, after all, to Sammy's story than he had at first thought.

"I don't know, for sure, anything about a treasure there," said Sammy, remembering how he had once started on a treasure hunt, which had ended in the finding of only a pocketbook with memorandum papers in it. And this belonged to Miser Dolby. But there was something else of value in the wallet, so, after all, Sammy's hunt amounted to something.