As the boys walked home they discussed the situation from several points of view. Reaching the street leading to the railroad depot they came in sight of a familiar figure ahead of them. It was the old hunter, Jed Sanborn, and he carried a gun in one hand and a fishing rod in the other, while a basket was slung over his shoulder by a broad strap.
"Hello, Jed!" sang out Snap, and ran forward to stop the man.
"Why, boys, how are ye!" said the old hunter, turning around and halting. "Ready to go on your summer trip?" And he smiled broadly.
"Not yet," answered Shep. "But we are going out after the Fourth of July."
"So I heard. Well, I hope ye have as good a time as ye had last summer an' last winter."
"We want to know something about Lake Narsac," came from Whopper. "I've heard there were about a million snakes up there and all big fellows, too. Is that true?"
"O' course it is," answered Jed Sanborn, with a grin. "Snakes is twenty to fifty feet long, and so thick ye have to wade through 'em up to your knees. Ha ha!" and he commenced to laugh. "I got ahead of ye thet time, didn't I, Whopper?"
"But tell us the truth," insisted Giant. "We're thinking of camping up there, and, of course, we won't want to go if there is any real danger."
"Well, to tell the plain, everyday truth, boys, I don't allow as how there is any more reptiles up to Lake Narsac nor there be around Lake Firefly an' in the mountains whar I hang out. Narsac may have a few more rattlers, an' them's the wust kind—-you know thet as well as I do. The wust thing I know about Lake Narsac is the ghost up thar."
"Is there really and truly a ghost?" queried the doctor's son.
"Of course, I don't believe in them," he added, hastily.