"I didn't follow you, Uncle Lester," returned the youth. "I and my friends were looking for a wild man who is roaming around in this vicinity, scaring people, and we reached this place by accident. We saw you coming to the cabin with a bucket of water, and I easily recognized you at once." "I thought I was safe here--safe from the whole world," muttered Lester Lawrence. "But you said you had good news for me," he added quickly. "What is it?" "It's the best kind of news, Uncle Lester. Don't you know that shortly after you disappeared the bank authorities and the police found the guilty parties?" "They did?" And now the man's face showed his amazement. "Why, sure they did! And then, of course, they knew that you were innocent." "Oh, Phil! can this be true?" "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."