To quote from Bob, Mr. Hallet's house was eminently a place for a tired school-boy to get away to. The fishing in the lake, and in the clear, dancing streams that emptied into it, was fine; young squirrels were always abundant after the first of August; and when September came, the law was "off" on grouse, wild turkeys and deer. Hares and 'coons were plenty, and Tom's little beagle knew right where to go to find them. Better than all, according to the boys' way of thinking, Mr. Hallet was a jolly old bachelor, who thoroughly enjoyed life in a quiet way, and who meant that every one around him should do the same.
Taking all these things into consideration, it was little wonder that Bob Emerson looked forward to his yearly "outings" with the liveliest anticipations of pleasure.
The Summerdale hills, in days gone by, had been a hunter's paradise; but, sad to relate, their glory was fast passing away, like that of many another place which had once been noted for the abundance of its game and fish.
Mr. Warren, to use his own language, had been foolish enough to build a hotel at the Beach, and to connect it with Bellville by a stage route. This brought an influx of strangers, some of whom called themselves sportsmen, who did more to depopulate the woods and streams than Silas Morgan, Hobson, and a few others of that ilk, could have accomplished in a year's steady shooting and angling.
Their advent gave rise to a class of men who had never before been known in that region—to wit, guides. There were some good and honest ones among them, of course; but, as a rule, they were a shiftless, lawless class—men who lived from hand to mouth, and who looked upon game laws as so many infringements of their rights, which were to be defied and resisted in any way they could think of.
Up to the time the hotel was built, these men lived in utter ignorance of the fact that there were laws in force which prohibited hunting and fishing at certain seasons of the year; but one year the District Game Protector came up on the stage to look into things, and when he went back to Bellville he took with him a guide and his employer, whom he had caught in the act of shooting deer, when the law said that they should not be molested.
This unexpected interference with their bread and butter astonished and enraged the rest of the guides, who at once held an indignation meeting, and resolved that they would not submit to any such outrageous things as game laws, in the making of which their opinions and desires had not been consulted.
They boldly declared that they would continue to hunt and fish whenever they felt like it, and any officer who came to the hills to stop them would be likely to get himself into business.
A few of the residents, including Mr. Warren and Mr. Hallet, had tried hard to bring about a better state of things.
They had gone to the expense of restocking their almost tenantless woods, and had been untiring in their efforts to have every poacher and law-breaker arrested and punished for his misdeeds; but all they had succeeded in doing thus far was to call down upon their heads the hearty maledictions of the whole ruffianly crew, who owed them a grudge and only awaited a favorable opportunity to pay it.