These words were spoken with perfect seriousness, as if the one who uttered them believed them fully.
“Are you?” asked Bart, beginning to feel that there was something very peculiar about this man.
“Yes. You are the only one besides myself who knows it. I decided to tell you as soon as I saw you.”
“Do you live here?” asked Bart, looking toward the lodge and seeking to turn the subject.
“Oh, no; I only come here to get strong. I had this hut built here for that purpose.”
“Do you live near here?”
“Yes; this is my property all around here. I have discovered the secret of becoming strong. Although I am now the strongest man in the world, I shall keep right on getting stronger. The time will come when I’ll be stronger than a hundred men combined.”
Now, Bart understood that there must be something the matter with the man’s mind, although he had little the appearance of a lunatic.
“I have let no one know why I come here to this place at a certain hour every day,” the stranger went on. “I knew they would laugh at me, and it makes me angry when any one laughs at me. Don’t laugh, young man! I am very disagreeable when I am angry.”