CHAPTER XV
THE END OF CAMP MYSTERY
"Well," said Mr. Jessup slowly, "this may be all clear to you and your nephew, Mr. Addison, but it's like Greek to me. If you wouldn't mind explaining"
"Of course I'll explain," said Mr. Addison eagerly. Sammy hoped something would be said to clear up the mystery of the strange room in the old mansion.
"First of all," said the hermit, "I want to tell you boys how sorry I am that I pushed you into the snow. I was all excited when I saw you following me, and I really didn't know what I was doing. You see I had been expecting my nephew for some time, and when he didn't come I was afraid something had happened so that I couldn't get the spring I had tried so hard for. So first I want to beg your pardon."
"Oh, that's all right," said Sammy, easily. "It was as much our fault as it was yours. We had no right to follow you, and really we weren't hurt a bit."
"I'm glad of it," said the old man. "Well, to begin at the beginning. Some months ago, when I was walking over this island, I found this boiling spring. It was in a place few people would visit, and I guess that's why it was never talked of before. For a good many years I have had the rheumatism, and I've tried all sorts of cures. Just by accident I thought of trying this spring water, as I could easily tell that it had some sort of medicine in it.
"I took some home, and in a few days after taking it I felt better. Then I made more tests, and I was sure I had found a cure for some of the worst kinds of rheumatism. Then I decided to try to get possession of the land on which the spring was.
"This was not easy, as the title was in dispute. But I got my nephew to help me. In order that no one else would claim the spring, I decided to put up a cabin near it, and live on the land until I could buy it. This I did, and I became a sort of hermit. I was so afraid someone would discover the secret of the spring that I drove away anyone who came near. In that way I suppose folks began to think I was crazy, and a sort of crank.
"But I did not care. I wanted to get title to that spring, for I knew I could sell the waters and get rich. And now I can. My nephew has brought me the final papers, and the spring is mine. I am going to form a company, and bottle the boiling water. Of course it won't stay hot, but it will be just as good, for it can be heated before being swallowed.
"So I'm no longer the hermit of Pine Island. I'm going back where I belong, and I'll let others do the work. And I'll say this, Mr. Jessup, if ever you get the rheumatism you can have free all the water from my mineral spring that you want."
"Thank you!" said Mr. Jessup, with a laugh, "but I hope I'll never have the rheumatism. But if I do I'll use your spring water."
"I had a hard time getting the final papers," said Mr. Houghton, "and that's what took me so long. But now, Uncle, the boiling spring is yours, and you needn't worry any more."
"How can it be hot water in the Winter time?" asked Bob.
"Well, that's one of the mysteries of Nature," said the former hermit. "I suppose the waters must come from deep down in the earth, and the wise men tell us that inside the earth are raging fires. I don't know about that, but I do know my medical spring will cure rheumatism. And I guess now, everything is explained."
"No, not everything," said Sammy quickly.
"Eh?" asked the old man.
"We found a secret room in the old mansion," went on Sammy, "and it's a counterfeiters' den, I'm sure. We thought you were going there, Mr. Addison, that's why we followed you.
"And while we were in there," Sammy went on, "there was an explosion. We thought someone was shooting at us, and we ran out. That has to be explained yet."
"That's so! " exclaimed Mr. Jessup. "I've got to look into that."
Mr. Houghton laughed.
"It won't take much of an explanation to do away with that mystery," he said. "If you'll come with me I'll show you all about it. I fancy you stumbled across one of my fads. Will you come. Uncle Frank?"
"No, I'll go back to my cabin," was the hermit's answer. "I'm going to pack up and go back to the mainland to live, now that my medical spring is safe."
"Then the rest of us will go," suggested the young man.
They left the little glade where the hot spring made grass grow in the middle of Winter, and soon reached the hermit's cabin again. He went in there, while Sammy and his chums, with Mr. Jessup and Mr. Houghton, kept on to the deserted mansion, telling the hermit they would soon be back to look after him. The doctor, whom Mr. Jessup had brought, had gone back to the mainland in his cutter.
"Shall we go right in?" asked Sammy, when Mr. Houghton and the others reached the old house, and prepared to enter.
"Of course—why not?" inquired the young man, with a smile.
"Well, I was thinking that the counterfeiters"
Mr. Houghton laughed.
"I'll explain all that," he said.
The place of the secret room was soon reached. It was just as when Sammy and his chums had rushed away from it after the explosion that had so frightened them. The sliding door was still wedged back with the piece of shutter.
Mr. Houghton went over to the table on which was piled the strange apparatus. He moved some of the wires and springs.
"Look out!" cried Sammy. "You may get shot!"
"No danger!" laughed the young man. "I fancy you boys set off the flashlight, and there isn't another."
"Flashlight!" cried Sammy.
"Yes, that was what made the smoke and explosion," said Mr. Houghton. "You touched the spring that worked the electric battery, and the current set off some flashlight powder in a box. It did make quite an explosion, I fancy."
"But what was flashlight powder doing up here?" asked Mr. Jessup.
"I was trying to get some night photographs of bats," explained Mr. Houghton. "You see all this apparatus is just some photographic cameras, set to work automatically. I fancy I have the pictures of you boys on the plate, instead of the bats," and he smiled at the three chums.
"Photographs!" cried Sammy.
"Cameras!" exclaimed Bob.
"Aren't these things telescopes?" asked Frank.
"And isn't there any counterfeiting plant?" Sammy wanted to know.
"Nothing half as sensational as that," answered Mr. Houghton, with a hearty laugh. "This is only my new apparatus for having animals take their own pictures."
For a moment there was silence, and then Sammy, in a queer sort of voice, murmured:
"Stung again!"
All his mystery had vanished into thin air.
"Make animals take their own photographs; eh?" said Mr. Jessup. "That's rather odd."
"Oh, it is often done," said Mr. Houghton. "All you have to do is to set your camera in the woods after dark, near where you have noticed marks of a raccoon, muskrat or other wild animal. You put a string across the path the animal usually takes, and in the dark it runs into the string and breaks it. This sets off a flashlight which makes the place as light as day. The breaking of the string also opens and closes the shutters of the camera, and so the animal takes its own picture. I've been doing it for some time, and had good results. I left my cameras, flashlights, batteries and so on here, in the hope of getting pictures of bats, but I guess I'll have to try again."
"So that's what it was that exploded," said Sammy—"flashlight powder?"
"That was it," said Mr. Houghton. "You see I happened to discover this secret room by accident. I was going through the old mansion one day, thinking it would be a good place to get bat pictures, and I found the secret chamber. So I fitted it up as a room where I could sleep when I had to. Often I would take my cameras out in the woods and leave them there until nearly morning. Then I would get up and go bring them in. I did not want to disturb my uncle so I stayed here. I fancy the secret room must have been built by the man who put up the old mansion, for his own use."
"I think so," agreed Mr. Jessup. "He was a queer character anyhow. And to think I've been in and out of the old place so much, and never found the secret room!"
"It was pretty well hidden," said Mr. Houghton. "Well, I don't imagine I'll use it any more. I'll try for bat pictures somewhere else. Besides, if my uncle's mineral spring turns out as well as he thinks it will, this place may become a Summer resort, and the old mansion could be made into a hotel for people who want to take the rheumatism cure."
"But there's one thing I don't understand," said Mr. Jessup, "and that is who took my grub."
"I think I can explain that, too," spoke Mr. Houghton. "I had hired a young man to assist me, in my photographic work, but when I found out he was not honest I discharged him. I saw him come along one day with a strip of bacon, and a long pole with a hook on the end. He said he had hooked the bacon."
"And so he had!" cried Mr. Jessup. "That was one of the pieces I missed."
"The fellow must have stood some distance away from your cabin, and caught the string of the bacon in the hook on the pole," said the photographer. "That's why you never saw any footmarks."
"Then this is the end of Camp Mystery," said Sammy, faintly.
"That's right!" cried Frank. "I told you there weren't any counterfeiters."
"Well, there might have been," returned Sammy.
And he wondered why the others laughed.
But it was really the end of Camp Mystery. The hermit's secret had been the warm, medical spring, and now that he had full title to it he need not worry any more, nor drive away those whom he thought might try to cheat him out of the property.
Mr. Houghton had explained the queer machines in the secret room, and had told how he used to photograph wild animals at night. A few days afterward he showed the boys how he set the cameras in the wood, with a string which the animals themselves would break, thus setting off the flashlight and taking their own picture.
Mr. Jessup made some inquiries, and found out that the secret room in the old mansion had been built by the former owner of it. He had no particular use for it, but it was just a notion on his part to have it made. Mr. Houghton had accidentally discovered it, just as Sammy had done.
As for the young man who had taken things from Mr. Jessup's camp, he was not heard of again. After all, he had not taken a great deal, and his plan of using a long pole with a hook on it explained why he had never left any marks. He could reach in the window or door of the cabin when Mr. Jessup was away, and get what he wanted. He had been in the habit of staying in the secret room when Mr. Houghton did not sleep there.
"Well, as long as everything is explained, we may as well go back to camp," said Sammy, when they left the old mansion.
"Yes, I guess so," agreed Mr. Jessup. "You boys are entitled to some fun after your hard work."
"Yes, and they're entitled to more than that," said Mr. Addison, a little later. "I owe them something for helping take care of me," and some time afterward, when the Mineral Spring Company was formed, he sent each of the boys a nice present.
"Well, now we'll take it easy," suggested Sammy, when they got back to the hunter's cabin, late that afternoon. "We'll go skating and coasting, and"
"Fishing through the ice," added Mr. Jessup. "I've had that in mind for you for some time."
"Say, this trip to Camp Mystery is all right!" cried Frank, with a laugh. "I wonder if we'll have as much fun as this next Winter?"
"More I hope," said Sammy. "But Summer will come before Winter."
And what the chums did the following Summer may be learned by reading the next volume of this series, to be called "Fairview Boys at Lighthouse Cove; Or, Carried Out to Sea." In that we will meet all our young friends again.
In the days that followed Sammy and his chums had many good times. They roved about the island with Mr. Jessup and watched him at his hunting. They had many good meals, too. Mr. Addison left Pine Island, now that he had possession of the spring, and one of the members of the company he had formed took up a residence in the cabin. But there was no further trouble. The mystery had been solved.
"Come on for a skate!" cried Bob, one afternoon. "We only have a few more days here."
"That's right—and then school once more!" exclaimed Sammy.
And as the Fairview Boys are starting off on the glittering ice, we will take leave of them.
THE END.