“Ye couldn’t have done better if ye had took a month. I don’t understand why thim tramps hang round so much whin they know what they’re likely to git from Dr. Spellman.”
Mike now told Hoke of the surprising incidents of the preceding day, when the hobos received the scare of their lives.
“This one who calls himsilf Biggs told me that whin he looked over the side of the canoe, he found himsilf face to face wid the devil.”
“Do you think he did, Mike?”
“I have me doubts, as Jerry Jinks said whin Father MacMahon declared he was an honest man. Anyhow I haven’t larned what I wanted to know, and we’ve got to look farther.”
It was decided to pass around the western end of the lake, circling back in the direction of Dr. Spellman’s home, past the cabin of Uncle Elk and go on to the bungalow. This was likely to take most of the day, even if they were not delayed by some unexpected occurrence. Moreover, this course would take them by the spot where Mike had heard voices the night before, and where the hermit darted out from under the overhanging vegetation on his return, going so near the startled Mike that the two saw each other. The old man and his visitors appeared to have gone thither, and it would seem that something ought to be doing.
“Would you like to know what my idea is?” asked Hoke, when they resumed their tramping on the line that has been indicated.
“I’m that anxious to know that I won’t take anither step till ye ixplains the same.”
And Mike, who was a few paces in advance, halted abruptly, wheeled about and faced his companion, who grinningly responded:
“It is that we keep going till we reach Dr. Spellman’s house and accept his invitation to dinner.”