Jed Sanborn was a character well known to the people of the district surrounding the lakes.  He was a hunter and trapper and had been all his life.  He was a bachelor, with no known relatives, and lived in a little cabin on the mountainside, two miles from Lake Cameron.  The boys had met him a number of times and knew him to be a good shot and a good-humored individual.

“Hullo, Jed, where are you bound?” sang out Snap, as the hunter drew closer in his canoe.

“Thought I’d find you up here, boys,” was the answer.  “Have a good time last night?”

“No; we had a beastly time,” answered Shep.

“Rained hard, didn’t it?  Where are you bound now?”

“We were going to look around the lake, that’s all.  We want to find a good camping-out spot.”

“Folks down at Fairview said you were going to Lake Cameron.”

“So we were, but Mr. Andrew Felps came along and drove us away.”

“And after we had built a cabin, too,” put in Giant.

“Huh! that’s just like him,” responded Jed Sanborn, as he bumped alongside of the rowboat with his canoe “He told me I couldn’t hunt or fish around that lake either.”

CHAPTER XI

IN A NEW CAMP

“When did you come from Lake Cameron?” asked Snap, after a pause.

“Came from there right now.”

“Then you saw the Felps crowd at the cabin we built?” queried Whopper.

“So you built that shelter?”

“We did.”

“And he drove you off?  It was dog mean, that’s all I’ve got to say.”

“Did he tell you he had bought that land?” went on Snap.

“Yes.  Oh, he’s as mean as they make ’em, that feller,” added Jed Sanborn.  “Hullo!  Where under the canopy did you git that big maskalonge?” he cried, catching sight of the fish.

“Giant caught it,” answered Whopper.  “But he was pulled overboard doing it.”

“And they had to help me land him,” added the small youth, but rather proudly.

“Well, well! this beats the Dutch!  Why, I never caught such a fish but once in my whole life in these parts although I’ve hooked ’em on the St. Lawrence.  It’s something to be proud of, lad.  You’re as good a fisherman as is to be found anywhere.”

“When did you leave Fairview?” asked Shep.

“The day after you did.  I expected to meet you before, but I had to go over to Sand Rock on business and I was delayed.  I went up to Lake Cameron, and I almost had a fight with Andrew Felps.  He wanted to take away a mink I had caught in a trap.  But I wouldn’t give it up.”  And Jed Sanborn pointed to where the mink lay, in the bottom of his canoe.

“Do you know much about this lake, jed?” asked Snap.

“I think I do—–­I’ve spent plenty of time up here, one year an’ another.”

“Where can we find the best camping place?”