"And to think that Fitsey took some of our poor food, when he had a grocery store like that up aloft!" complained Harry Hazelton.
"Well, he didn't want us to suspect what he had hidden away around the premises," Dick answered.
"Anything more up there?" called Dave.
"Nothing but one Grammar School boy," Dick announced, showing himself at the edge of the simple loft. "I'm coming down. Each of you climb up here, in turn, and see what a bully hiding place our old college chum had."
One after another the boys inspected the place. It was small, but every inch had been made to count by the late occupant.
"Fitsey pulled the rope up after him, and stayed here sleeping mostly in the daytime," Tom called down, when aloft. "Say, fellows, after this, when we're on the trail of a mystery, we want to look on the other side of anything as big as a lumber pile."
Blankets, fur robes and food were transferred to the log cabin.
"But just how much better are we than thieves?" Greg suddenly asked. "We've just been taking things that didn't belong to us."
For a moment or two that was a poser, for every member of Dick & Co. tried, always, to be as open and honest as the day itself.
"Oh, well," grunted Dick at last, "we haven't been robbing Mr. Fits, for a man of his habits never has anything of his own. All that he has he steals from some one else."