“It beats me,” Jack declared, as he leaned against a tall spruce and looked at his brother. “I wonder if I’m getting loony in my old age,” he said in a tone so solemn that Bob burst out laughing.
Bob’s laughter seemed to relieve the tension and, after a moment’s pause Jack asked,
“Honest injun now. Bob, what do you make of it?”
Bob hesitated for an instant before replying. He knew that Jack would lay great stress on what he might say and he wanted to be sure and say the right thing.
“To tell the truth, Jack boy,” he began finally, “I’m up a stump to know what to think. I know you’re not in the habit of seeing things ‘what hain’t’, but this time it sure looks as though a trick of vision had been put over on you. That is if you are not mistaken about this being the place. You can see for yourself that there’s no cabin here now and, so far as I can see, there never has been one.”
“Guess I’ll have to see an eye doctor when we get down to Skowhegan,” Jack laughed weakly. “This is the place all right and I saw, or thought I saw a log cabin, right where I’m standing, only last night. That’s all I know about it.”
“And I guess we’ll have to let it go at that for the present at any rate,” Bob said putting as much consolation into his voice as possible.
But little was said as they made their way back to the cabin. Each was busy with his own thoughts.
When they reached the cabin they at once set to work and dressed the remainder of the trout and packed them in a small wooden box which was fastened securely to the rear of Bob’s motor cycle.
“Now just as soon as I get locked up we’ll be ready to start,” Bob declared as he led the way into the cabin.