"It may be what you say," admitted Frank, "but when you hear a queer sound under such conditions as these it seems different from anything you ever ran up against. Bluff thought it was a dog chained up; you say a peacock; and for my part I hardly know what to believe."
"Anyhow, Frank, I got him all right," chuckled Will.
"Meaning the old hermit, of course," said the other. "I thought I heard your shutter click. It will be worth something to say you took his picture as well as that you got one of his peculiarly built house, which I reckon few people have ever so much as seen."
"But after all's said and done, Frank, old Aaron isn't just the kind of man I always thought a real hermit must be. Why, he's a gentleman, and not a bit careless of his appearance, the way most of them are described to be. He dotes on books, they say. And oh, Frank! did you hear him admit he was fond of dabbling in amateur photography himself?"
"Yes, that was what he said, Will."
"I wish I could make a good impression on old Aaron, then, because like as not he'd have some dandy pictures to show. He's got rafts of money, you know, and must have traveled a heap in his time."
Frank laughed at hearing this.
"Now I wouldn't be surprised," he remarked, "if you tried to get thick with our hermit before we shut up shop at Cabin Point!"
"I own I'd like to, though I don't think I'll have much of a chance, Frank, because you see he's shut down on us, and forbidden us to ever look in on him after this. Now what do you reckon ails the man, and why should he act in that way? He must have just soured on the world for some reason or other."
They passed outside, and allowed the loose board to fall back into its place again. Unless one were looking for a break in the fence it would be possible to pass by without noticing anything wrong there.