"There is something wrong with him," continued Mr. Hall. "While he was standing there, shivering in front of my stove, he discovered my pet squirrels and canaries, and he walked over to their cages, and talked to them in the strangest language I ever heard. I took it to be Greek or Latin. He said he had been down the river after—what did he call those things he was looking for, Peck?"
"Blessed if I know," was the answer. "I never heard of any such things before."
"He's got an idea that he is connected with some college," continued Mr. Hall, "and that somebody has given him a lot of money to spend in some foolish way. He didn't think, until he got ready to start for his hotel, that he had lost his gun when his boat upset. The only sensible thing he did while he was in my office was to give me ten dollars to pay Mr. Peck for his trouble, and take down Oscar's name and street. I told him that you had a fancy for shooting birds and animals, and he said he would make it a point to drop around and see you."
As the miller ceased speaking, he walked off toward his office; Mr. Peck resumed his work upon the wreck; Oscar went into the boat-house after his wheelbarrow, and Sam began unloading the skiff.
When everything had been taken out of it, the boat was drawn up on the bank, turned bottom upward, and made fast to a tree with a chain and padlock. The sail and the oars belonging to it, as well as the decoys, were stowed away in one corner of Mr. Peck's boat-house, where they were to remain until Oscar could find time to come after them. The ducks made as large a load as he could take to the village in his wheelbarrow.
When all this work had been done, Sam selected six of the finest ducks from the pile, and, after tying their feet together with a piece of stout twine, placed them by the side of the boat-house, out of the way, and began to assist Oscar in packing the others away in the wheelbarrow.
"Hold on there!" exclaimed the latter. "How many did you put in then?"
"Don't know," answered Sam, depositing another armful on top of the first. "Didn't count 'em."
"But I want you to count them. I own just twenty-one of these ducks."