"Andy!" he burst out, and in his amazement let the frying pan clatter to the doorstep, scattering the strips of bacon in all directions. "Is it really you, or your ghost?" "No ghost about me, Uncle Si," answered the boy. "They tell me you have gone to work." "Why, er--ye-as, I have a job at the sawmill." "I am glad to know it." "I--er--I got over my sickness, an' so I'm a-goin' to work stiddy after this," went on Josiah Graham, lamely. "That's the best news I've heard in a year." "Where have you been, Andy?" "Oh, on a little trip, to the North Pole and elsewhere," was the cool reply. "You're joking me! But have your fun,--it ain't none o' my affair. But I want to tell yer somethin'," went on the old man, impressively. "I got them papers back." "So I heard. I hope you'll not give them to that A. Q. Hopton." "Not much! Hopton is a swindler--I found thet out in Portland, when I was there." "What about Hopton?" demanded Mr. Greene, who had been in earnest conversation with Chet. "Do you mean the real estate dealer?" "I do," answered Josiah Graham. "Where is he now? He is the man who caused me all my trouble. Just let me get at him! He covered up his tracks pretty well, but I've now got the evidence against him." "I don't know where Hopton is now, but I guess I kin find out," answered Josiah Graham. All entered the cabin, and there each told his story in detail. The men listened to the boys in open-mouthed wonder. "And to think you came north, and was so close to me!" said Mr. Greene to his son. He said he had been half crazy when he signed articles for the trip on the _Betsey Andrews_. Then he had gotten word about A. Q. Hopton, and had discovered that the real estate man was guilty of the crimes of which he himself was accused. He had gone to the captain of the whaler to get his release, but the captain had refused to let him go, and had locked him up aboard the ship until the voyage was well begun. "He was a strange man, that captain," said Mr. Greene. "And it is no wonder that he lost his ship and his life in the frozen north." "And you have the evidence to prove your innocence, and prove this A. Q. Hopton guilty?" asked Chet. "Yes, my son, I can prove that Hopton was guilty, and nobody else." "Oh, how glad I am of it!" murmured Chet. A substantial supper was prepared for all,--Andy assisting his uncle in getting it ready. "Uncle Si isn't a bit like his old self," whispered Andy to Chet, when they sat down. "Going to work has waked him up and made another man of him." "Hope he sticks to it," answered Chet. That evening, after all the stories had been told in detail, Josiah Graham brought out the papers Andy had lost in the woods. As the storekeeper had said, they had been well soaked by the snow and rain, but they were still decipherable. "I am going to tell Mr. Dawson about them, and then turn them over to some first-class lawyer," said Andy. "If they are really worth anything, I want to know it."