Dave Porter At Bear Camp Part 40

declared Phil, resolutely starting forward.

"If you go we had better go with you," announced Dave. "But be careful, Phil. If that man is out of his head he may be dangerous."

"I don't think my Uncle Lester would hurt me even if he was out of his mind," answered the shipowner's son, as he moved toward the cabin, followed closely by the others.

The boys were still a hundred feet or more away from the habitation when the man reappeared at the doorway. On catching sight of the newcomers he uttered a sudden cry of dismay, and then disappeared like a flash, banging the cabin door shut behind him.

"Evidently he's not very sociable," remarked Luke, dryly. "I guess he doesn't want any visitors."

Advancing to the door, Phil knocked loudly.

"Go away from here! I don't want to see any of you!" cried a heavy voice from within. "Go away, I tell you!"

"Open the door, please. I want to speak with you," answered Phil, as calmly as he could.

"I won't talk to you! I don't want any one around this place!" came angrily from within the cabin. "Go away, or I'll shoot!"

"Say, I don't like this!" cried Shadow, in a low voice. "I guess we had better get out," and he started to retreat, followed by Luke and Ben.

Phil, however, stood his ground, and not to desert their chum, Dave and Roger did the same.

"We are not going to molest you," called out Phil, after several seconds of silence. "All I want to do is to talk to you."

"I won't talk to anybody, I tell you! Go away! If you don't I'll use a shotgun on you!" returned the man in the cabin.

"Aren't you Mr. Lester Lawrence?" demanded Phil.

"What's that?" And now the voice of the man showed sudden interest.

"I say: Aren't you Mr. Lester Lawrence?" repeated Phil.

"Who said I was Lester Lawrence?" demanded the man, suspiciously.

"If you are, I must talk to you. I am Phil Lawrence, your nephew."

"Phil Lawrence!" the boys outside heard the man mutter to himself. "Phil Lawrence? Oh, it can't be!" Then he raised his voice: "You are trying to play some trick on me," he shouted.

"It isn't any trick," put in Dave. "This young man here is Philip Lawrence, and he is looking for his uncle, Lester Lawrence. He has good news for him."

"Good news? I can't believe it! It is some trick. I want you all to go away."

"Uncle Lester, it isn't any trick. I am Phil, your nephew. I want to talk to you. I've got the best kind of news for you; something that you'll be glad to hear. Won't you please open the door and let me talk to you?"

"It's a trick, I know it's a trick," came from the man, in almost a whine. Nevertheless, he advanced toward the door, and with trembling hands threw off the bolt that had been shot into place. Then, with great caution, he opened the door several inches and peered out.

"Who says he is Philip Lawrence?" he questioned, sharply.

"I am, Uncle Lester," announced the shipowner's son. "Don't you remember me? You used to think the world and all of me some years ago, when you lived across the street from us."

The man opened the door a little wider, and gazed sharply into Phil's face. Then his manner seemed to change, and, allowing the door to swing wide open, he tottered back and sank down on a bench.

"It's Phil--little Phil, sure enough," he murmured. "How in the world did you come to follow me to this faraway place?"

"I didn't follow you, Uncle Lester," returned the youth. "I and my friends were looking for a wild man who is roaming around in this vicinity, scaring people, and we reached this place by accident. We saw you coming to the cabin with a bucket of water, and I easily recognized you at once."

"I thought I was safe here--safe from the whole world," muttered Lester Lawrence. "But you said you had good news for me," he added quickly.

"What is it?"

"It's the best kind of news, Uncle Lester. Don't you know that shortly after you disappeared the bank authorities and the police found the guilty parties?"

"They did?" And now the man's face showed his amazement.

"Why, sure they did! And then, of course, they knew that you were innocent."

"Oh, Phil! can this be true?"

"It certainly is true, Uncle Lester, every word of it! You are an innocent man, and everybody at home knows it. Father has been trying his best to get into communication with you. He inserted personals in the newspapers, and even put detectives on your track; but, as you know, without avail."

"Then the world knows that I am innocent! Thank G.o.d for that!" exclaimed the man, with fervor. "Oh, how I have suffered! And for such a long time, too!" And tears stood in his eyes.

"But why didn't you communicate with father?" asked the nephew. "You ought to have known that he would be tremendously worried about you."

"I was bitter, bitter against the whole world. I didn't think I had a friend left!" cried Lester Lawrence. "I didn't want to see anybody, and I didn't want anybody to see me. I was afraid that they might catch me and put me in jail, and then if I could not prove my innocence--and there was to my mind no way of doing that--they would send me to prison for a long term of years. That's why I made up my mind to disappear."

"And you've been up here ever since?" asked Phil.

"No, I've been here only since last Summer. Before that I was in another section of the Adirondacks."

Lester Lawrence looked at Dave and Roger, who had followed Phil into the cabin, and at the other boys, who were crowded around the doorway.

"Who are these; some of your school chums?" he questioned.

"Yes, Uncle Lester," answered the shipowner's son, and introduced his friends one after another. "They are all good fellows, and I hope you will consider them as friends."

"I will do that, Phil, if you want me to," was the reply. "Your revelation has lifted a great weight from my shoulders. Tell me all the particulars."

Sitting down beside his relative, the shipowner's son related all that he knew of the occurrences of the past. Mr. Lawrence listened to the recital with close attention and asked many questions, his face meanwhile showing his intense satisfaction.

"What you have told me makes me feel ten years younger," he declared.

"If all this is true--and I have no reason to doubt your word--I can once more face the world and those who are dear to me."

"Phil has got another surprise for you, Mr. Lawrence," put in Dave, when the recital was at an end. "You will not only be a free man when you return to your former home, but you will also have a good deal of money coming to you."

"Indeed! And how is that?"

"It's this way, Uncle Lester," answered Phil, and thereupon gave a few of the details concerning the land which the rival railroads wished to purchase from the uncle and Phil's father.

"That certainly is splendid news!" declared Lester Lawrence, his eyes lighting up. "What a wonderful change the last hour has brought! Before you came I thought I was doomed to live here, unknown and alone, for perhaps the rest of my life."

"But how have you managed to live?" asked Dave, curiously.