of my coat? Why, no," he said. "I lost 'em off my hook--two
of the biggest fish I've caught this day! But I'll get 'em back--or some
just like 'em which will be as good. Hello, youngsters," he added with a
smile. "Do you live at Mrs. Bell's place?"

"We're just visiting her," explained Russ. "She's our grandma. We're the
six little Bunkers."

"Oh, ho!" exclaimed the man with a laugh. "That's so--there are six of
you! I can see now," and he looked beyond Russ and Laddie to where Rose,
Vi, Margy and Mun Bun were playing on the sandy point and having lots of
fun.

"But are you fond of fishing, that you ask if I lost 'em?" the man went
on.

"If you please," replied Russ, "we didn't mean to ask about your fish,
though we're sorry you lost any. But have you daddy's papers?"

"Daddy's papers? I don't know what you mean," the man said.

"Aren't you a lumberman?" asked Laddie, not liking to use the name
"tramp," as the man, though he did have on a ragged coat, did not seem
like the lazy wanderers who prowl about the country asking for food but
not wanting to work.

"No, I'm not a lumberman," said the man. "What makes you ask that?"

"Well, you look like the lumberman--only he was a tramp--that my father
gave a ragged coat to," went on Russ. "And there were real estate papers
in the coat, and daddy wants 'em back."

"Ha! Is that so?" asked the man, "Well, I'm sorry but I don't know
anything about 'em. I never saw your father that I know of, though I do
know Mrs. Bell. I live on the other side of the lake. But I come over here
fishing once in a while."

"And haven't you daddy's papers?" asked Laddie.

"No, I'm sorry to say I haven't."

"But you have red hair," went on the little boy.

"Yes, my hair is red all right," laughed the man, as he ran his hand
through the fiery curls on his head. "My hair is very red. Sometimes I
wish it wasn't so red. But it's of no use to worry about it, I suppose.
But what has my red hair to do with your father's papers?"

Then Laddie and Russ, taking turns, told about their father's clerk in
the real estate office giving the tramp lumberman the old coat, and how,
in one of the pockets, were the valuable papers. The boys told of the
search for the tramp, and also of their trip from Pineville to Lake
Sagatook.

"And so you haven't yet found the red-haired man with the papers, have
you?" asked the fisherman, smiling at the two boys.

"No," said Russ, a bit sadly. "First we thought yo