Part 15 (1/2)

”Do you live around here?” the man continued.

”Yes, we're camping in a tent,” Jan replied. ”My grandfather owns part of this island and we're with him--my mother and my brothers. We like it here.”

”Yes, it's fine,” said the ragged man, who Janet thought must be a tramp, even if he did not talk like most of them. ”So you live in a tent? Does the professor stay here all the while?”

”The professor?” repeated Janet, and she wondered what the long word meant. She was sure she had heard it before. Pretty soon she remembered. At school she had heard some of the teachers speak of the princ.i.p.al as ”Professor.”

”My grandpa isn't a professor,” explained Janet with a smile. ”He's a farmer.”

”Well, some farmers are scientists. Maybe he is a scientist,” went on the tramp. ”I was wondering if some one else was on this island looking for the same thing I'm looking for. Can you tell me, little girl----?”

But just then, from somewhere back in the woods, a voice called. The ragged man listened a moment, and then he cried:

”All right! I'm coming!”

Janet saw him stoop and pick up off the ground a canvas bag, through the opening of which she saw stones, such as might be picked up on the sh.o.r.e of the lake or almost anywhere on the island.

”I hope I shall see you again, little girl,” went on the tramp, as Janet called him afterward when telling the story. ”And when I do, I hope I'll have some red flowers for you. Good-bye!”

Janet was so surprised by the quick way in which the man ran off through the woods with his bag of stones that she did not answer or say good-bye. She just stood looking at the quivering bushes which closed up behind him and showed which way the man had gone. Janet could not see him any longer.

A moment later she heard the bushes behind her crackling, and, turning quickly, she saw Ted and Trouble coming toward her.

”What's the matter?” called her older brother. ”Did you see another bear--I mean a fox?”

”No. But I saw a tramp man,” replied Janet. ”Oh, but he was awful ragged!”

”A tramp!” cried Ted. ”Then we'd better get away from here. We'd better go and tell grandpa!”

Janet thought the same thing, and, after telling Ted all that had happened and what she and the man had said, the Curlytops hurried back through the woods to the camp.

”A ragged man on the island; is that it?” asked Grandpa Martin, when Jan told him what had happened. ”It must be as Mr. Crittendon said, that there are tramps here. Though what they are doing I don't know. There isn't anything to eat here, except what we brought. And you haven't missed anything, have you, Nora? Has anybody been taking your strawberry shortcake or apple dumplings from the tent kitchen?”

”No, Mr. Martin, they haven't,” Nora answered.

”Well, maybe it was a tramp and perhaps it wasn't,” said Grandpa Martin.

”Still it will be a good thing to have a look about the island. I don't want strange men roaming where they please, scaring the children.”

”Oh, he didn't scare me, except at first,” Janet hastened to say. ”He spoke real nice to me, but his clothes were old and awful ragged. He wanted to know if you were a professor.”

”Well, I guess I'm professor enough to drive away tramps that won't work, and only want to eat what other people get,” returned the farmer.

”I'll have a look around this island to-morrow, and drive away the tramps.”

”And until then, don't you Curlytops go far away. Stay where I can watch you,” went on Mrs. Martin, shaking her finger at them, half in fun, but a great deal in earnest.

”We'll stay near the tent,” promised Jan.

”I'm going to help grandpa hunt the tramps,” declared Ted.

”No, Curlytop, you'd better stay with your sister and mother,” said the farmer. ”I don't really believe there are any tramps here.”