Young Hunters of the Lake Part 41

"I believe that man is crazy!" whispered Whopper. "Maybe he thinks he owns the earth!"

"He is certainly no ghost," answered Snap. "But if he is crazy, we'll have to be careful how we approach him. He may try to shoot us."

"See here, sir!" shouted the doctor's son, kindly. "Won't you come and talk with us? We don't want to hurt you, or take your property away from you."

"Ha! ha! I know you! You want to rob me of everything!" cried the man in yellow, harshly. They now saw that what looked like horns was simply a yellow cap with two stuffed red appendages on top.

The man had his face smeared with yellow clay.

"We'll not harm you in the least," said Giant, and now, attracted by something in the strange man's appearance, he went several steps closer.

When the small youth of the club spoke the man turned to him. A moment later he started and throw up his hands in surprise.

"Who are you, boy? Speak quickly!" he demanded.

"I am Will Caslette."

"Ha! Where do you come from?"

"I come from Fairview, on the Rocky River."

"And your---your mother?" The man in yellow was now greatly agitated.

"My mother is a widow." Giant had now come closer still and was looking the man over carefully. "What is your name?"

"My name? Ha ha! I have no name. I am a wanderer."

"But you had a name once---what was it?"

"My name---I cannot remember. Yes, I had one once when I was in France fair France the belle of all countries! But the name is gone---gone like the great history I was writing. Yes, and it will never come back, never!" And the man in yellow threw up his hands despairingly.

"Was not your name Pierre Dunrot?" asked Giant, quickly.

The strange man staggered back as if shot.

"Pierre Dunrot? Pierre Dunrot?" he repeated slowly. "Yes! yes!

That was my name! How----how did you know it?"

"Because you are my uncle!" gasped Giant, coming to the strange man's side. "You are Pierre Dunrot, my long-lost uncle."

"Your uncle?"

"Yes, my uncle. Do you not remember my mother, Kate Caslette, and do you not remember me---your little Guillaume, the boy you used to ride on your knee?" went on Giant, earnestly and looking the man straight in the eyes.

"Yes! yes! I remember now!" cried the man, and now his eyes searched the small youth's face. "You are my little Guillaume indeed!" He took Giant by the hand. "But how is this---my, mind is in a whirl! I do not understand!" And he gazed from Giant to the others in simple-minded perplexity.

"You ran away from home," answered Giant. "It was after the storm, when the lightning had burnt up the ma.n.u.script of your beloved history---"

"Yes, yes, yes! My beloved history! That is true! Oh, it was cruel, cruel! After I had worked so many years and so faithfully!

My beloved history! It is gone, never to return!"

And the tears ran down the cheeks of the man.

"Uncle Pierre, you must give up your lonely life here," said Giant, after a pause. "You must come home with me."

At this suggestion the hermit, for the man was nothing less, shook his head vigorously. He was certainly queer---talking sometimes quite rationally and at others in a rambling fas.h.i.+on. He told how he had come to make his home in the mountains, how he had once visited a large city and purchased three parrots and brought them to the wilderness, and how one parrot had died and another had been shot.

"The third is still with me," he continued. "But I am tired of him---he is driving me crazy."

"He shall never bother you again---if only you will come home with me," said Giant. "You must come home---mother wants to see you.

All your books are there. Don't you remember how you used to love those books, Uncle Pierre?"

"Yes! yes!" The man's eyes began to glisten. "And so you want me to go home? You look like a good boy, Guillaume."

"Why does he call Giant Guillaume?" whispered Whopper to Snap.

"It's the French for William," answered the leader of, the club.

"Say, but doesn't this beat the Dutch!"

"If giant can get this uncle of his to go home perhaps they'll be able to get possession of that fortune of one hundred thousand francs," was Shep's comment. "I hope they can get it, for Mrs.

Caslette certainly deserves the money and needs it."

Giant continued to talk to the hermit, and gradually the other boys joined in the conversation. The young hunters soon saw that Pierre Dunrot's mind was very hazy on some matters while clear on others. Since running away from the Caslette home he had lived in the mountains near the lake and he had taken every precaution to keep other folks away from him. He had taught his parrots to scare newcomers, and had played ghost by rubbing phosphorus and other s.h.i.+ning substances on his clothing and cap. He said he owned several canoes, hidden along the lake sh.o.r.e, and in these he sometimes went fis.h.i.+ng, usually at night.

"Well, this solves the mystery of the ghost anyway," said Snap.

"Won't folks around Fairview be astonished when they hear of it?"

"I don't believe we ought to let folks know all the details,"

answered the doctor's son. "It would hurt Giant's feelings and also his mother's. We can simply say we caught the ghost and he proved to be a harmless old man with a talking parrot, and that we shot the parrot and the man left the vicinity of the lake after his parrot was dead." And so it was agreed. Of course the boys' parents heard the real story, but that was as far as the tale circulated.

The boys went into the log hut and there saw how the hermit had been living in his primitive way. In a corner he had a box filled with ammunition for his gun and also a large collection of hooks and lines. He had a plate, a cup, and a kettle and pan, and that was all. He ate from a block of wood and slept on a heap of cedar boughs. His clothing was almost worn to rags.

It took a great deal of talking to get him to consent to return to civilization, but finally Giant accomplished his purpose.

Then the young hunters told about the dead bear, and the hermit showed them how to get the carca.s.s down to the lake front without much trouble. Once at the camp, Pierre Dunrot was given some clean garments, and before donning them he took a bath in the lake.

When he had put on the clean clothing he looked like a different individual.

Of course Giant was anxious to get home at once, and his chums could not blame him. The others wanted to take the bear to town, and so it was decided that the return home should begin the next morning.

The journey to Fairview took three days, the boys pus.h.i.+ng along as rapidly as circ.u.mstances would permit. The companions.h.i.+p of the lads appeared to brighten Pierre Dunrot's mind wonderfully, and it was only now and then that he relapsed into his former simpleness.

Fairview reached, Giant lost no time in hurrying his uncle to his home. Mrs. Caslette was sitting by a window sewing when the pair appeared.

"Why, Will!" she called out and arose. Then she looked at the man. "Can it be possible? Pierre!" And she stood still, staring at her relative.

"Yes, it is really Uncle Pierre!" cried Giant.

The next moment the man and the woman were kissing each other. Mrs.

Caslette was bewildered and it took some time for Giant to tell his story. Then Pierre Dunrot had his say. He was greatly excited over coming back, and that night had to be placed in a physician's care. Dr. Reed attended him, and came to see the former hermit for a week. Pierre Dunrot had quite a severe spell of sickness, mostly due to his weak brain, but when he got over it he was clearer-minded than he had been for years.

"The past is like some awful dream," he said.