Mr. Jessup cut that in the Summer when there was no hunting. He floated it down to Fairview where he sold it. Off through the snow-covered woods started Mr. Jessup and the boys, with Maybe frisking about here and there, trying to scare up a rabbit or a partridge for his master to shoot. For a time luck was poor, and then some pheasants were flushed, and Mr. Jessup brought down two fat ones. "Hurray!" cried Bob. "Now we'll have a fine dinner!" Later on the hunter got two fine rabbits, and oh! how the boys wished they were big enough to have guns! "I'm coming up here every hunting season, as soon as I'm old enough to shoot!" cried Frank. "So am I!" exclaimed Sammy and Bob. As he did not shoot game to sell, and as he had enough for present needs, Mr. Jessup, as all good hunters do in such cases, ceased the use of his gun. With his rabbits and pheasants on his back he led the boys on the return trip. As they came to the old mansion, Sammy asked: [Pg 75] [Pg 75] "Could we go in now, Mr. Jessup, and look around?" "I guess so," he answered. "But don't stay too late. It gets dark early now, you know. I'll keep on to my cabin." Eagerly the boys entered the old deserted house, Mr. Jessup letting them take his key. As he had said, they found several rooms fitted up with beds, and a few pieces of furniture. These were the apartments used by those of the hunting parties who could not find bunks in the cabin. "Now let's begin at the top of the house, and work down," proposed Sammy, when they had looked about the lower floor. "Maybe we can find something of the mystery." "Maybe—the dog—yes," laughed Bob. "Oh, you just wait!" exclaimed Sammy. "I'll find something yet." But it did not seem that he was going to, at first. Room after room was deserted, the once gay wallpaper hanging in mouldy strips. Broken shutters flapped in the wind, and there was ruin on all sides. In some rooms were bits of broken furniture, and in others only heaps of rubbish. "I shouldn't like to stay here," said Bob, with a little shiver.
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