“Where’d you run across it, Elmer?” demanded Wee Willie.
“The blade is open, you see, just as I found it,” explained the other. “And it was sticking in a log close by the yawning fireplace. From the odor that hangs about the blade, I reckon Mr. Tramp must have used it to slice some plug tobacco, that black, tough kind, you know, for his old pipe, and then thinking to use it again a little later on, just stuck it into a log of the wall near his head.”
“Huh! our coming along sent him on the run into the bushes, and he clean forgot all about his precious old knife—is that what you mean, Elmer?”
“Just so, Wee Willie; and missing his knife later he started to come back to recover it. To such men a knife becomes as precious as—well, Amos’s camera is to him; or your postage-stamp album might be to you, Perk. Besides, you can see what an odd sort of a knife this one is.”
“I never saw one like it before,” Perk spoke up. “Why, besides the one big strong blade it’s got a fork, and a spoon attachment, too. Fact is, it could be used for a whole meal. Yes, and here’s even a corkscrew along the back. What a queer knife it is, to be sure! I don’t wonder the poor old hobo valued it.”
“Perhaps he’s carried it for years and years,” mused Wee Willie, “and it’s his most treasured possession. I wish he had it in his greasy pocket again.”
“But see here, boys,” Perk suggested, “how do we know but that it might have been there for ever so long—mebbe since the cabin was in use before that tragedy happened here, that I’ve heard the folks down Chester way mention?”
Elmer and the tall chum exchanged meaning glances. They had supposed that Perk knew nothing about that tragic event, and had agreed to “keep mum” about it while in camp at Log Cabin Bend, lest he feel uneasy.
“Oh! that’s an easy thing to decide, Perk,” the former assured him. “If you examine the blade you’ll find it’s clear of rust, though far from bright. Now that couldn’t be the case if it had been exposed here for years to the damp air, such as would blow into the cabin with the door swung half-way open most of the time it’s stood empty.”
“I get you, Elmer; please excuse my dense ignorance,” said Perk hurriedly. “Now I wonder whether he’s going to keep on hanging out around here until he gets back his old knife?”