"That's the only reasonable explanation I'm able to scare up, Will.

Suppose, now, his wife went out of her mind years ago. He cared so much for her that the thought of having her confined in any ordinary insane asylum was repulsive to him. What would he do then, having plenty of money?"

"It sounds reasonable to me, for a fact. Who could blame him if he built this house, and surrounded it with a high fence that would keep the inmate from escaping when allowed in the grounds with an attendant? Yes, I shouldn't wonder but that you've guessed the truth, Frank. Everything seems to go to prove it. And then, after all, can you blame him for getting so huffy when he believed we were trying to pry into his terrible secret?"

"I don't think he acted queerly, if what we suspect is true," ventured Frank.

"On my part I'm inclined to feel sorry for old Aaron," declared Will, who had a tender heart. "He looks like a man who has suffered heaps.

And then, you know, he's interested in the same things I am, which ought to make me think of him as a fellow artist."

After more talk Will hastily hid the tell-tale print as Jerry was seen approaching. The other looked a little suspiciously at them as though he wondered why Will secreted something so hurriedly at his coming; but other matters arising, he soon forgot the circ.u.mstance.

On the following morning Bluff and Jerry went out in the boat to fish, and the latter soon found himself enjoying the thrill that comes to the angler when fast to a vigorous two-pound black ba.s.s bred in the cold water of a big northern lake.

The fun grew when Bluff struck the mate to Jerry's fighter, and both boys were put to their best efforts in order to save the fish, as well as to keep them from fouling the lines, in which case one or both might have broken away.

In the end they managed to scoop up both prizes in the landing net, and this gave them more pleasure than many generals would find in capturing a fortress.

About ten o'clock the boys came in. Jerry said they were tired of sitting in the sun and playing havoc with the fish, for they had put back many small ones, being real sportsmen. Bluff, on his part, admitted that he was tired, but declared it lay along the line of baling out the leaky boat, and not of taking fish.

"Hey! you two fellows in camp, come down here and look, if you want to see a sight good for sore eyes!" called Jerry, as he jumped ash.o.r.e and commenced to drag the old boat up on the sandy beach.

Accordingly Frank and Will approached to look at the catch, and not only admire but tender their congratulations.

"As fine a mess of ba.s.s as I've set eyes on in many a day," announced Frank.

"h.e.l.lo! see who's coming past the cabin, and heading for us!"

exclaimed Will. "There's Mr. Dennison, to begin with, but I don't know the other man."

"Well, we do, don't we, Jerry?" ventured Bluff, a vein of uneasiness in his voice. "We happened to talk with him over at the village. You can see the badge on his coat from here. That tells who he is--the constable of the village, and he said he was also the marshal of this district. But what under the sun does he want at _our_ camp, I'd like to know!"

CHAPTER XVIII

THE ACCUSATION

Frank Langdon watched the two men hurrying toward the beach with an uneasy feeling in the region of his heart. He could easily see that Aaron Dennison looked angry, and from this it was not difficult to surmise that fresh trouble hung over the heads of the Outdoor Chums.

"Whew! what's in the wind now, I wonder?" he heard Bluff asking himself; and so far as that went both Jerry and Will were also plainly disturbed.

The two men quickly reached the spot where the boys were grouped.

Jerry mutely held up the two finest ba.s.s he and Bluff had taken. It was as though he meant to show that they were engaged in legitimate sport, such as boys in a summer camp were supposed to follow.

"Here they are, the young rascals, Mr. Jeems. Now do your duty!"

exclaimed Aaron Dennison, harshly.

Bluff managed to catch the eye of the constable whose acquaintance he and Jerry had made when in the lake village. Perhaps he gave him a humorous wink. At any rate, the tall lanky man shrugged his shoulders and immediately remarked:

"I guess that you'd better tell the boys what you be suspectin' them of, Squire. I don't know nothing about the same, and I'm only here to do what I believes to be my bounden duty as an officer of the law."

"But I explained to you," expostulated the old man, "that my treasured cup disappeared mysteriously, and also that yesterday I came upon these four boys acting in a suspicious manner close to my enclosed grounds."

"_Outside_ your grounds, you said, Mr. Dennison," urged the constable.

"That is very true, Constable. But I chance to know that on two different occasions some of their number actually had the brazen audacity to push their way through a gap in the fence."

"You don't tell me!" exclaimed the other, trying to look very fierce; but when he saw that whimsical grin on the features of Bluff the attempt was not much of a success.

"Worse than that even," continued Mr. Dennison, whipping himself into higher rage. "That boy with the angel face had the nerve to take a picture of my house. I caught him in the very act. Think of that, Mr.

Jeems, will you?"

Frank could have laughed if the situation had not been so very serious. It seemed as though Mr. Dennison looked on such a thing as any one's taking a picture of his hidden home as a capital offence; hanging would about fit such a terrible crime, according to his opinion. And Will's "angel face" vastly amused them all.

Desirous of finding out what all the trouble was about, Frank now turned his attention to the irate old gentleman. When he spoke his voice was as soothing and respectful as he could make it; for Frank believed in pouring oil on troubled waters.

"Mr. Dennison, you surely are very much mistaken if you think for a minute that either I or any of my chums would ever steal anything. We are proud of the reputations we have in our home town of Centerville.

None of us can understand what you are accusing us of doing, just because we happened to be up in the neighborhood of your place yesterday."

"Where you had no business to be," snapped the other.

"Perhaps not, sir," continued Frank, "but I explained to you just how it happened. And I a.s.sure you positively that none of us so much as put a finger inside your grounds yesterday."

"You give us your solemn affidavy on that, do you, young feller?"

asked the village constable, eagerly, as though seizing on the first pretext to make peace.

"No matter what he says!" cried the owner of Cabin Point. "I tell you their being in that vicinity just when my treasure was taken so mysteriously looks suspicious. I firmly believe they know something about the gold cup, and I shall not leave this spot until I make certain of their guilt or innocence."

"Gold cup!" muttered Jerry; "now, what do you think of that? Since when have the honorable Outdoor Chums taken to cracksmen's ways, I'd like to know? Wow!"

"Please let me understand this thing better," pleaded Frank, determined to win the angry old man over if he could do so. "You say something you think very highly of has disappeared, Mr. Dennison?"

"I told you it was a gold cup!" snapped the other. "My nephew, who is one of the most famous amateur golf players in the country, won it as a prize in a great compet.i.tion last summer. He is very proud of it, and I have cherished that magnificent cup as the apple of my eye. To have it mysteriously disappear, and feel that in all probability it may be melted down just for the gold there is in it, almost breaks my heart."

"I can easily understand your feelings, Mr. Dennison," said Frank, quietly. "We happened to meet your nephew while on the way here, though it never struck any of us before that Gilbert was a Dennison, for we didn't wholly catch his last name. And, sir, if we can do anything to help you find the lost cup we'd be only too glad to lend a hand in the search."

"Now that's what I calls reasonable, Mr. Dennison," spoke up the friendly constable, who evidently did not mean to be urged into extreme measures, if diplomacy and soft words could avoid such a thing.

The old man eyed Frank keenly. He looked just as suspicious as ever, and as though he were trying to understand what the boy might have secreted back of his words.

For years Mr. Dennison had been hiding something from the world, and during that time it was only natural he should be growing more and more suspicious of every one about him.

"Your words sound all right, boy," he finally remarked coldly, "but I am not so easily deceived. You want time to cover up your tracks.

Perhaps you even hope I may invite you and your rowdy companions to my house, and that the occasion will allow you to satisfy your vulgar curiosity to the bent."

These cruel words struck the boys severely. Bluff was heard to mutter half under his breath, while Jerry frowned and bit his lip as though he found it very hard to keep from telling Aaron Dennison what he thought of him.

Frank himself had to hold back the angry words that tried to escape his lips; the insult was so uncalled for, so unjust, he thought.