“Hello! What’s the row?” called Jack, suddenly awakening.
“Is the camp on fire?” asked Dick.
“What’s wrong, Tom?” cried Bert, and all three of our hero’s chums sprang from their cots and crowded around him.
“It’s our old friend the hermit of the mill,” explained Tom in a low voice. “He’s come to drive us out of the woods.”
“What are you going to do?” asked Jack.
“I don’t know. Let’s see what he does.”
“He may be dangerous,” commented Dick.
“And these may be his woods,” added Bert.
“Nonsense,” declared Tom. “I asked dad about it before I came up, and he said this part of the forest belonged to a big lumber company that was holding it for the trees to get bigger before cutting. This old man doesn’t own it any more than we do.”