the man who set fire to the sawmill
and ran away with those documents!" answered Giant.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE DESERTED COTTAGE

Giant's announcement filled Snap with keen interest, and he wanted
to know at once all Shep and the small youth could tell.

"We went directly up the lake," said Giant. "Took the road around
the rocks that Jed Sanborn showed us. We found the nut trees,
and----"

"Never mind the nut trees," interrupted Snap. "Tell me about
that man."

"Well, back of the trees is a cleared spot---maybe it was a farm
some years ago, and in the midst of the clearing is an old,
half-tumbled-down cottage. We walked over to the cottage and looked
in at the window."

"And we saw a man sitting on a box with a barrel before him,"
put in Shep. "On the barrel he had a board and on the board were
spread some papers that the man was looking over. The man was
tall and thin, and had red hair and a short, red moustache"

"That tallies with the man who stole the money and the papers!"
cried Snap, excitedly. "Did he limp, too?"

"Slightly, with his left foot."

"He must be our man. But what is he doing around here?"

"I don't know," answered Shep. "As soon as he saw us he jumped
up and put the papers in his pocket."

"What did you do?" asked Whopper.

"He asked us what we wanted, and Shep told him we were out nutting,"
said Giant. "Then he asked us who we were."

"Did you tell him?"

"We did," said Shep; "and then we asked him who he was, but he put
us off. He said he was out tramping the mountains for his health."

"Did he seem to be staying at the cottage?"

"Yes; at least he had a bag full of provisions with him, and a
gun, too."

"Was he alone?"

"He seemed to be."

"Did you see the documents he had, closely?"

"Not very," said Giant. "But we saw something of a map on one
of them."

"One of the stolen papers was a map of that lumber tract," said
Snap, thoughtfully. "Boys, if that is the rascal who set fire
to the sawmill we ought to capture him," he continued.

"That's the talk!" cried Whopper. "But we want to be sure of
what we are doing. It won't do to arrest the wrong man."

"If we could only get a look at those papers," said Shep, "they
would surely tell the tale."

"Did he look like a guilty man?" went on Snap.

"He acted scared when he saw us, and he got the papers out of sight
in a jiffy. And he is certainly tall and thin, and has a red
moustache and red hair