Perhaps in some way I can be taken from him and placed in another home.
Oh! I am willing to work just as hard as I can if only it _was_ a home!"
So presently Frank secreted the gold locket in an inner pocket, where it could not be lost. He knew that there was a deep mystery connected somehow with the little trinket, and while he could not fathom it just then, in good time, no doubt, the secret must appear.
Every time he felt it there his thoughts were bound to go out toward poor Jed, and the important message which his dying mother had meant to give him at the time she pressed the locket into his hands.
CHAPTER VII
THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS
"How long do we stay in this camp, fellows?" asked Bluff.
"A few days only," replied Frank, with a mysterious smile.
"Look here, you"ve got something you"re keeping from us," said Jerry boldly.
"That"s what I was thinking. So out with it, Frank. No secrets, please."
Will a.s.sumed a mock threatening appearance, holding the big spoon up as though it were a baton, for they were washing up the supper things at the time.
"Well, I suppose I"ll have to, boys, seeing that I couldn"t expect to keep the secret much longer. Listen, then, and you shall hear. Have any of you ever hunted through these mountains to any extent?" asked Frank.
"I"ve been up here once or twice, but it"s mostly new to me," said Jerry.
"Well, I studied a chart of the place, which, by the way, is in my ditty bag at this minute. Please hand it over to me, Bluff. Now, here you are."
He opened it up, and the others eagerly bent over, all dish-washing operations being temporarily suspended in the common interest.
"Here"s the road we came by, and about this spot is where our present camp is located. Just two miles beyond lies Lake Surprise, which they tell me is a beautiful little body of water," went on Frank, pointing with his lead pencil on the map.
"Yes, I"ve heard about it, too. They say it springs upon you as you turn a bend of the old logging road, and no one ever fails to gasp with surprise at the beautiful sight. Hence the name. Well, go on, Frank,"
observed Will.
"Three days from now we will be encamped on the sh.o.r.e of that same lake, if all goes well, and by that night there will be an arrival that must astonish you. No use trying to guess, for you couldn"t in a year. It will be Adolphus, with the team, and what do you think he will be toting up there?"
"More grub," answered Bluff promptly.
A shake of the head in the negative followed.
"Not the girls?" suggested Jerry eagerly, and with a sly blush.
"Well, much as I would like to see them, that is not the true answer. It struck me that since the time the Indians used to paddle around that little gem of a lake there had never been a canoe floating on its waters, and my father proposed that he send up our boats, so that we could have a glorious week to wind up with."
"Hurrah!"
"A glorious thought on your part, Frank."
"Won"t it be fun, though! And the fishing must be fine, since no one ever comes up here much." This from Jerry, who always had an eye out for the sport.
"So make the most of this camp while we are here. It"s a pretty good one for its kind, with those rocks heaped up as a back-rest, and the trees stretching far away all around. All it lacks is water in front to make it perfect."
"Right you are, Frank. And those same rocks look pretty wild, too. I noticed a big crack right back of our fire, there. Perhaps at some time in the dim past a bear or other wild beast may have had its den in there," said Will.
"Cracky! That is so! And by the same token, I mean to explore the place in the morning. Who knows what a fellow might find in a hole like that?"
"Better go slow, Jerry. Remember that this place up here has been getting a bad name. You might run across the ghost of Oak Ridge in the course of your poking around into such holes," laughed Frank.
"H"m! That wouldn"t please me a little bit. If we have to come on that specter thing, I"d rather it was when we were all in a bunch," replied the one addressed.
"Yes, in union there is strength. But don"t forget, all of you, that one of the main objects in our selecting the Sunset Mountains for our present vacation trip was the hope of discovering the truth about that same ghost. h.e.l.lo! I declare if here isn"t another visitor!"
All of them jumped as Frank uttered these last words. Poor Jed gave a piteous little whimper, as though his fears had not wholly subsided by any means.
Some one was seen striding boldly toward the campfire, coming from the direction of the road. Immediately Jerry gave utterance to an exclamation.
"Why, as sure as I live, I believe it"s Andy!" he said.
"That"s who it is--Andy Lasher," echoed Will.
"Now what do you suppose that fellow wants here?" muttered Bluff, who was not so thoroughly convinced of the reform of Andy as some of his chums.
The advancing form drew rapidly near.
"h.e.l.lo, Andy!" said Jerry, holding out his hand.
Jerry had saved the life of the town bully the previous fall, when during a storm a great tree had fallen and pinned him to the ground.
Ever since Andy had tried to show his grat.i.tude toward his benefactor.
At the same time he would not make friends to any extent with the other three boys.
"Howdy, Jerry," said the newcomer gruffly, as he accepted the offered hand.
He seemed to be carrying an old grip, as though he might be on his way across the mountains to the bustling manufacturing town of Chester, where there were always chances for obtaining a job.
"Won"t you sit down, Andy? We"re long done supper, but if you"re hungry we can stir up something."
Jerry always said "we," as though he wished to impress it upon the other"s mind that the balance of his crowd were with him in all he said and did.
"Ain"t got time, Jerry. Got some business that"s takin" me across here to-night. I knowed you fellers was a-campin" round here, an" I wanted to tell you something I thought you orter know. Pet Peters and his crowd is up here, and they mean to make you trouble some way or other. That"s all. I"ll be goin" on, now, Jerry."
Andy was plainly nervous. He had always been a bold spirit, so that it could hardly be the presence of the other boys that affected him. Frank wondered what ailed him, but of course he would not ask.
"Then you won"t stop over night with us, Andy?" asked Jerry.
"Mighty kind of you to say that, but I can"t, not this time. I"m in a big hurry, you see. Saw Pet and the boys hatching up something and thought I"d just drop in while goin" past, to put you wise. So-long, Jerry."