"He disappeared into the bushes again," said Sammy. "I didn't tell you fellows anything about this, for I knew you'd laugh. Then, when Mrs. Blake just now told us about her brother living on Pine Island, and when she said we might go to see him, I thought I'd tell you about the hermit. But you didn't believe me."
"Oh, but we do now!" said Frank, quickly.
"And is he hunting after a buried treasure?" asked Bob. He began to think there might be more, after all, to Sammy's story than he had at first thought.
"I don't know, for sure, anything about a treasure there," said Sammy, remembering how he had once started on a treasure hunt, which had ended in the finding of only a pocketbook with memorandum papers in it. And this belonged to Miser Dolby. But there was something else of value in the wallet, so, after all, Sammy's hunt amounted to something.
"Well, we might go up to the island, and see the wild hermit, anyhow," suggested Frank. "That would give us something to do when we get a day or so of vacation."
"The only trouble is that the lake will soon be frozen over," put in Bob.
"We could skate over," suggested Sammy.
"That's right, we could!" cried Frank. "We'll do it!"
"What do you s'pose the hermit lives on the island for?" asked Bob. "And why didn't we see him when we were wrecked there?"