Part 38 (1/2)

”Then aren't you a tramp?” asked Ted.

”No, though I have been _tramping_ all over this island looking for the very blue rock you children seem to have found. I wear my oldest clothes, just as my friend Professor Anderson does, for we have been going through briar bushes, into caves and mud holes and our clothes are a sad sight. But we are not tramps.”

”Is there someone with you?” asked Grandpa Martin, looking over the man's head toward the bushes, out of which he had come.

”There was another. Anderson is his name. But he has gone to the village, and I was on my way to row across the lake to join him when I happened to pa.s.s by your tent, saw the blue light, and heard what your children said. Do you really know where there is a big blue rock like this little one that is on fire?” he asked as he pointed to the flaming blue light.

”Yes, we found a big one,” said Hal.

”If you will show me where it is you will get a lot of money,” said Mr.

Weston. ”That is, if you will sell me the meteor,” he went on to Grandpa Martin. ”I understand you own part of this island,” he added.

”About half of it, yes. But are you looking for a meteor?”

”Yes, for a meteor, or fallen star, and the blue rock your children found is part of it. We have been looking for it a long time, my friend and myself, and we had about given up. Now we may get it. Will you sell me the fallen star?” he asked.

”I'll see about it,” promised Mr. Martin with a smile. ”Perhaps you will come into our tent and tell us about it. Are you--well, I was going to say the tramp--but are you the man we saw before, wandering about our camp?”

”I presume I am. I don't mind being called a tramp, for I certainly look like one. However, now that the fallen star is found I don't need to be so ragged.”

”Are you the ragged man that pulled Trouble out of the spring?” asked Ted, as they watched the blue light die away.

”I did pull a little boy out of the spring,” answered Mr. Weston, ”though I didn't know his name was Trouble.”

”That's only his pet name,” laughed Grandpa Martin. ”But come and sit down and tell us your story. The children have been wondering a long while what the blue light meant, and who the ragged man was. And, to-day, they've been trying to find what became of the blue rocks that Trouble made into a playhouse.”

”I took those rocks, I'm sorry to say,” answered the ragged man. ”I'm sorry to have spoiled Trouble's playhouse. I wanted those pieces of rock, for I thought perhaps they were all I would ever be able to get of the fallen star.”

”Was the blue rock really once a star?” asked Hal.

”Well, yes, a part of one, or at least part of a meteor, or shooting star, as they are called. Now I'll tell you all that happened, and I'm sorry if I have frightened you. My friend and I didn't mean to.

”Some time ago,” went on Mr. Weston, ”we heard about Star Island--this place that was so named because it was said a big meteor had landed here many years back. Professor Anderson and I decided to come here and see if we could find it for the museum which is connected with the college in which Anderson teaches.

”For we knew that, though most meteors are burned up as they shoot through the air before they strike the earth, yet some come down in big chunks, and we wanted such a one if we could get it. So we hunted for it all over this island. We saw you, but you were never very near.

Sometimes we stayed in the cave at night, but usually went back to the mainland. All the while we were hunting for the blue rocks, for that is the color of this particular meteor.

”A few nights before you folks came here to camp, when we were digging in the ground hoping to find what we wanted, our shovel must have struck a piece of the meteor, for there was a flash of blue fire that burned for quite a while.”

”We saw it,” cried Ted, ”and we didn't know what it was!”

”Teddy and me--we saw it!” added Jan.

”Well, that was all of the meteor we could find for some time,” went on Mr. Weston. ”And as that burned up--was consumed--we didn't have any.

Then, the other night through the bushes we happened to come upon some blue stones, and I took them away.

”Then my friend and I hunted again to find the big piece of the fallen star, but we could not come across it. I was about to give up, but now we are all right. I am so glad! Can you take me to the big blue rock?”

”We will to-morrow,” answered Hal. ”It's too dark to find it now.”