The crowd looked on curiously, the interest divided between the automobile and the meeting between father and son. Finally, when Mr. Bell and Tommy had, temporarily, exhausted the theme of telling each other how glad they were at being united, the boys had a chance to get a word in edgeways, and Tommy answered a few of their questions.
He told them that he had remained for several days with his friend in Las Cruces, and how a traveling miner had, in a general conversation, mentioned the lake and told of the queer hermit that lived on the shores.
Something in the description of this odd character impressed Tommy with the belief that the hermit might be his father, who had taken that method to escape the gang which wanted him to sign away his rights. Accordingly, the boy had started from Las Cruces and made his way to Deighton, the town where Mr. Bell expected to start in search of his son.
“I got here this morning,” said Tommy, “and I found a little work to do to earn some money. I was going to start up the mountain to-morrow and try and find the lake.”
“Now you don’t have to,” said Mr. Bell. “Well, it certainly is a queer world.”
The travelers spent the night at the Deighton hotel, and, in the morning, after a good breakfast, assembled to talk over their plans for the future.
“Do you intend to go back to Lost Lake, Mr. Bell?” asked the professor. “If you do, you and your son can ride that far in the automobile, since we are going back in that direction.”
“Where are you going after you leave Lost Lake?” asked Mr. Bell.
“To Arizona,” answered Jerry. “We have a mine there, and we must go to see how things are getting on.”