"You needn't ask 'em, cause you'll laugh at me again."
"No, I won't," protested Joe; and he kept his promise, although he sometimes found it hard to do so. "The first question is this: Did the letter that father took from his wood-pile look faded and soiled, as if it had been rained and snowed on?"
"Not a bit of it, that I could see. It was as spick and span as you please."
"That's one point gained," said Joe. "Did the writer say anything about cutting a hole through the ice, so that he could jump into the lake to get away from the 'hant'?"
"Nary word."
"Did you find the rope that led down to the cave, when you went up there this morning?"
"We didn't look for it. We went up the beach till we struck the brook that comes out of the gulf, and we follered that till—till—"
"You found the cave?" suggested Joe.
"Till we come purty nigh to where the cave is," corrected Dan. "We didn't see the cave, 'cause we run against something that wouldn't let us go no furder."
"What was it?"