ks, and by hokey! now that you mention it, thar _was_ a
sickly lookin' young feller along with him then; but say, his name was
Bob Jenks, or somethin' like that, and not Roland Chase."

"Oh! well, so far as that goes," said Max, "he may have changed his
name. Some people think nothing of sailing under false colors; and if it
turns out that Roland has taken up with such a disreputable character as
this drunken guide seems to be, I don't wonder at him wanting to hide
his identity. So you think you must be going home, do you, Obed?"

"Yep," the other observed, gaining his feet. "And I wanter to thank all
o' ye for givin' me sech a pleasant evenin'. I ain't had sech a good
time this long while back. But then the Grimeses all are 'customed to
roughin' it. Granddad used to be away all by hisself for as much as two
years, trappin' up in Canada. It's in the blood, I reckon. Now, yuh mean
to drop in, and visit me, don't ye? I'll be expectin' yuh, and have
something to eat awarmin', though course I ain't a good cook like you
fellers, as has had so much experience. So long, boys!"

He waved them a cheerful goodbye, once more smiled at each in turn,
whirled on his heel, and was gone, seeming to vanish in the shadows of
the nearby woods like "a wisp of smoke when the wind strikes it," as
Steve remarked.

After the departure of their guest, it was only natural that he should
be the subject of conversation about the fire as the four chums lay
there taking things easy.

"Max, honest to goodness now," Bandy-legs remarked, "do you really take
any stock in that fairy story he told us about an imaginary fur farm? It
struck me Obed is givin to yarnin' just for the love of it. All that
stuff about his relatives may have been true, and again only nonsense.
It's my opinion there isn't any Granddad Grimes, or Uncle Hiram,
Nicodemus and so forth. He grinned like everything when he was reeling
those names off so slick. Yes, he was stringing us, I bet you."

"W-w-why," burst out Toby just then, "who wouldn't have to s-s-snicker
when he had a w-w-whole lot of relations with such f-f-funny names! It'd
make me grin from ear to ear every time I h-h-happened to think of 'em.
You're the greatest hand to s-s-suspect anybody I ever s-s-saw,
Bandy-legs. Now, I want you to k-k-know that I think Obed the
s-s-straight g-g-goods, and I'm taking a heap of s-s-stock in seeing
that bully f-f-fur f-f-farm of his tomorrow; ain't you, Max?"

"Certainly I am,"