"It certainly is true, Uncle Lester, every word of it! You are an
innocent man, and everybody at home knows it. Father has been trying his
best to get into communication with you. He inserted personals in the
newspapers, and even put detectives on your track; but, as you know,
without avail."

"Then the world knows that I am innocent! Thank God for that!" exclaimed
the man, with fervor. "Oh, how I have suffered! And for such a long
time, too!" And tears stood in his eyes.

"But why didn't you communicate with father?" asked the nephew. "You
ought to have known that he would be tremendously worried about you."

"I was bitter, bitter against the whole world. I didn't think I had a
friend left!" cried Lester Lawrence. "I didn't want to see anybody, and
I didn't want anybody to see me. I was afraid that they might catch me
and put me in jail, and then if I could not prove my innocence--and
there was to my mind no way of doing that--they would send me to prison
for a long term of years. That's why I made up my mind to disappear."

"And you've been up here ever since?" asked Phil.

"No, I've been here only since last Summer. Before that I was in another
section of the Adirondacks."

Lester Lawrence looked at Dave and Roger, who had followed Phil into the
cabin, and at the other boys, who were crowded around the doorway.

"Who are these; some of your school chums?" he questioned.

"Yes, Uncle Lester," answered the shipowner's son, and introduced his
friends one after another. "They are all good fellows, and I hope you
will consider them as friends."

"I will do that, Phil, if you want me to," was the reply. "Your
revelation has lifted a great weight from my shoulders. Tell me all the
particulars."

Sitting down beside his relative, the shipowner's son related all that
he knew of the occurrences of the past. Mr. Lawrence listened to the
recital with close attention and asked many questions, his face
meanwhile showing his intense satisfaction.

"What you have told me makes me feel ten years younger," he declared.
"If all this is true--and I have no reason to doubt your word--I can
once more face the world and those who are dear to me."

"Phil has got another surprise for you, Mr. Lawrence," put in Dave, when
the recital was at an end. "You will not only be a free man when you
return to your former home, but you will also have a good deal of money
coming to you."

"Indeed! And how is that?"

"It's this way, U