“Yes, I’m going that way myself,” the man answered. “At least within a mile of it. Want to ride?”
“Oh, do we!” exclaimed Bess with such a sigh of relief that the others laughed.
“Pile in,” invited the farmer. “You aren’t thinking of buying the old Mellish place; are you?”
“Is that what this is called?” asked Walter.
“Yes. Zeb Mellish used to own it, but he went crazy and hung himself and nobody’s lived here since; ’ceptin’ maybe tramps.”
“Yes, we saw two run away from the barn as we came up,” stated Jack.
“Humph!” commented the farmer. “I’ll have to speak to the constable about ’em. Too many of us have been losin’ chickens lately. I suspected it was tramps. Which way’d they go?”
The boys told; also narrating the details of their little picnic and of their becoming lost.
“Well, that ain’t surprisin’, considerin’ how th’ cow paths in the woods twist to and fro,” commented the farmer, who gave his name as Anthony Wale. “So you’re from one of the bungalows in the Mountain View property; eh?”
“Yes, Camp Surprise,” said Cora.