ook that
same island over again. I didn't get to cover all the ground when we
were there last."

"But there wasn't any cabin or hut there?" Bob White declared.

"I don't believe there could be one, and none of us sight it. Still,
it's a rocky island, you remember, and there might be some sort of cave
on it, good enough to be used to keep a man from the rain, or housing
goods, if need be."

"Whew! listen to Thad, would you?" said Step-hen, drawing a big breath,
which betrayed his state of mind, and the excitement that was beginning
to make his pulses thrill. "Whatever do you suppose these unknown men
can be doing around here?"

"You remember what I said before about this country having been stocked
with game, and this lake with thousands of young bass years back?" Thad
continued. "It is possible that some of the late gamekeepers have a neat
little plan to make a pile of money out of their knowledge. And as the
law would punish them if they were caught, perhaps they're hiding while
we're in camp so close by."

"That sounds good enough for me," remarked Giraffe, taking advantage of
Thad's attention being diverted to softly toss another pine knot upon
the fire.

"Perhaps it's worse than that," Step-hen remarked, in a half-awed voice.
"I've been reading a lot lately about some convicts that broke out of a
penitentiary up in the next county. Mebbe now some of 'em have located
here, and are living off the game they snare in the woods, or the fish
they hook."

"That might be, of course, though I doubt it," Thad went on to remark.
"In the first place, if they were convicts they would be wearing heavy
brogans, such as are always used in prisons. One of these men had on a
neat pair of pointed shoes, for I saw the marks clearly. The other's
shoes were pieced. I pointed that out to Bob White, didn't I, Bob?"

"It is just like you say, suh," replied the other, readily; "and you
showed me how I could tell that shoe again any time, and under any
conditions; foh it had a home-made patch on the sole, running crisscross
from side to side," and he made the figure with his finger in the earth
beside him.

Davy Jones had left the fire again, to go back to the lake shore, and so
did not happen to hear this explanation. He seemed to be hoping another
glimpse of the moving lantern would be granted to him. There was
something so weird and fascinating about the mystery that Davy wished it
to keep up.

"How about our moving the camp