don't borrow trouble, Bluff. Time enough to
cross your bridges when you get to them. That old cabin stood there
last summer, I was told, and likely to hold out for a good many more
seasons unless some one should deliberately burn it down."

"Who would be apt to do such a silly thing as that, tell me?" demanded
Bluff.

"I don't think any one would," Frank hastened to reply; "but I've been
told there's a peculiar old hermit living on an estate not a great
way distant from Cabin Point. He is said to be a rich man, but seems
to want to keep away from his fellows, and has built a house up here
on his property."

"You mean Aaron Dennison, of course, Frank," said Will. "I was
interested in what we were told about him. He seems to be a regular
bear, and refuses to make friends with anybody drifting up here."

"The loggers over at Edmundson Cove tell queer yarns of the things he
has done," Frank continued, with a faint smile; "and to own up to the
truth, I'm rather hoping we run across old Aaron. He must be quite a
character from all we've heard, and somehow I've grown curious about
him."

"And if I get half a chance," observed Will, whose mind usually ran in
the one channel, which of course covered his hobby, "I mean to snap
off a picture of him. I've got a lot of freaks in my collection, but
nary a hermit nor a crank."

"All I hope for," said Jerry, "is that he doesn't try to make it
unpleasant for us up here. For one, I expect to give him a wide berth.
These hermits are not much to my fancy. You never know what to expect
from the lot. But, Frank, after all, we're not the only fellows
traveling along this mountain road. Look up ahead and you'll see a
chap hurrying this way."

"He's not much older than any of us, it seems," remarked Bluff, as all
of them immediately focussed their gaze on the figure that had turned
a bend in the rough road, and was hurriedly advancing in a somewhat
careless fashion.

"He's carrying a bag just like my new one," remarked Will, patting the
article in question affectionately, as though it contained something
which he valued very much.

"I shouldn't be surprised if he were heading for that railroad station
we struck a mile back," suggested Frank. "It was only a flag station,
but trains stop there on signal most likely."

"But where on earth could that natty young fellow come from, do you
think?" Will asked. "I hope there isn't a camp of city boys up here
anywhere, because if that turne