"Well, of all things!" gasped the doctor's son when he could get his breath. "That's a cordial welcome, I must say."
"Have you any idea who it was?"
"Not the slightest. It was too dark to see anybody."
"Couldn't be any of the Ham Spink crowd?"
"No. I don't think they'd treat us in just that way."
"Maybe it's some crazy chap."
"That's more like it—-some hermit like old Peter Peterson," returned Shep, referring to an old man who lived near the lakes and who rarely showed himself in any of the settlements.
"Peter Peterson wasn't crazy; he didn't heave things at folks."
"Let us see if we can get him to come out. I'd like to see what sort of a chap he is."
Keeping at what they thought was a safe distance, the two boy hunters called loudly half a dozen times. No answer was returned.