"Is your sister better?" asked Frank, while Bob used the snow-shoe as a shovel, the hunter doing the same with the one he had.
"Yes, much better," was the answer. "I was sorry I had to stay away all night, and I kept thinking, up to the last minute, that I could get off and come back to you. That's why I didn't send anyone to keep you company.
"And finally, when my sister was well enough for me to leave her in the care of some neighbors, it was too late to start for Pine Island. But I made up my mind that you boys would be all right, and I didn't worry. You were all right, weren't you, except for what happened to you just now?"
"Yes," said Sammy, eager to tell the story of the mysterious hidden room, and the strange things in it, "yes, we're all right. Nothing happened during the night, and we got along fine. Maybe was good company."
"I thought he'd be, and that's why I made him stay when I was called away," said the hunter. "But he did want to come with me."
While the boys and Mr. Jessup were talking he and Bob used the snow-shoes as shovels, so that, in a few minutes, the boys were out of the drift, and on level ground where the snow was only up to their knees.
"Now then," said Mr. Jessup, with a grin, as he looked at them, "I'm ready to hear your story. How did it all happen, and who pushed you into the drift?"
"The hermit!" cried the three boys at once.
"What! You don't mean Mr. Addison?" asked the hunter, in surprise.
"That's who it was," said Frank.
"Well, why did he do such a thing as that?" asked Mr. Jessup, in surprise. "I've known him for sometime, and, except that he was a bit odd now and then, he never acted that
