“Of course. I want to get at the bottom of this. There is a mystery somewhere, and I think the hermit, the lost lake and the strange woman, together, can explain it.”
The rain stopped after supper, though it remained cloudy, and Jerry again prepared the gas lamp. It was arranged that he and Ned would stay up on guard until twelve o’clock and that Bob and the professor would take the rest of the night. Whichever party saw the hermit was at once to notify the other.
Jerry and Ned began their vigil. Several hours passed and it seemed they were to have their trouble for their pains. At length, however, just as they were preparing to turn in and let the others take their turn, Jerry saw a movement in the bushes about five hundred feet away, and down near the edge of the lake. The moon, shining faintly through the clouds, illuminated the scene.
“Be ready to turn on the light when I say so,” said Jerry to Ned.
Ned was all alert. Jerry, with his eyes straining to catch the slightest movement of the underbrush, peered through the darkness. Something white attracted him.
“Now!” he whispered to Ned, and the light, that had been burning low, was suddenly turned on at full power.
In its glare the two boys saw again the white haired hermit stealing along the edge of the water, the big bag on his back.
“Call the others!” whispered Jerry to Ned. “I’ll keep watch!”
“All right.”
Ned softly went back to the shack where he awakened the professor and Bob. They were out in an instant, and made ready to go quietly down as close as they could to where the hermit was, while Jerry showed the way by the searchlight. But again they were doomed to disappointment, for, no sooner had Jerry turned the light so that it shown full on the old man, than he jumped as though struck by lightning and made a dive for the woods, into the black depths of which he disappeared.