, took long walks about
the lake and Phil and Paul took Chip for a ride in the car, going almost
to Anderson's cabin before turning back.

This put the boys in mind of the tree that had been shivered by the mighty
blow of the great Swede. After dinner all but Dave walked out to the end
of the gravel road improvement to inspect the spot again and particularly
to see the slivered stump on which Anderson's sledge had fallen with such
mighty force.

Here, it developed, Slider had made his headquarters, so far as he may be
said to have had anything of the kind in the woods. He had kept his stock
of food here, hidden in a weather-beaten cracker box, that some teamster
had used in feeding his horses. But there was no food left now, Chip
explained. Then he added that but for falling in with his new friends
he would have been obliged to abandon, for the time, at least, his search
for the stolen fortune. The few berries he could find would not have been
enough to sustain him. He had eaten even the stray stalks of stunted
corn that grew up where horses, used in the road building, had been fed.

MacLester had remained on guard in camp while the others were out upon the
old roadway. The latter returned to find him perched on the log projecting
over the water, scrutinizing the Point and the old house there closely.

"Hang it!" declared David forcefully, "I wish we hadn't agreed that we
wouldn't go near the clubhouse today. I've seen a man moving about over
there. He came out on the porch toward the lake, once, and after looking
all around he stepped down to that rotten old wharf and threw something
into the water."

"Gee whiz!" Paul Jones burst forth, "was it the same man we saw before?"

"Yes, the one with the golf cap," MacLester said. "When he went inside
he went upstairs and closed that window that has been open. He acted as if
he was getting ready to go away."

CHAPTER III

THE SEARCH IN THE OLD HOUSE

Paul's adventure in the old house somehow seemed to give importance to his
opinions on all matters pertaining to that subject. So when he suggested
that the act of throwing something into the water by the tenant of the
abandoned building was for the purpose of destroying evidence, all the
boys agreed that quite likely such was the truth.

What evidence this person, be he Grandall or not, wished to destroy and
why, was the subject of vast discussion. Since the coming of Slider among
them, particularly, the Auto B