“You say you know this locality,” observed Dick, as they bumped along over the frozen ground.  “Do you know the spot where Bear Pond empties into Perch River?”

“I know several such spots, my lad.”

“Several!” came from all of the Rover boys.

“Yes, several.  You see the ground around the pond is marshy, and the heavy rains cut all sorts of gullies here and there, so the pond empties into the river, now, at five or six p’ints.”

“Are these points very far apart?” asked Sam, in dismay.  “You see, I’m very anxious we should know the exact particulars.”

“Indeed!” John Barrow looked at them curiously.  “Say, I reckon I know what you are after!” he burst out suddenly.

“What?” came from the three.

“You’re on a hunt for old Goupert’s treasure.”

“Why, what do you know about that?” demanded Dick.  He remembered that the writing on the map said, “Beware of Goupert’s ghost.”

“Oh, that’s an old yarn about here, and at different times we’ve had more’n a hundred folks a-hunting around for that old Frenchman’s money box, but nobody ever got so much as a smell o’ it.”

“Who was Goupert?” asked Tom.

“Goupert was a thoroughly bad man, who lived sixty or seventy years ago.  The story goes that he used to be a smuggler and that he came here when the authorities chased him off the Great Lakes.  He had lots o’ money, but he was a miser, and a queer stick to boot.  He built himself a cabin on Bear Pond, and lived there all alone for two years.  Then some lake men came down here, and one night there was a big row and the lake men disappeared.  Goupert couldn’t be found at first, but about a month later some hunters discovered his dead body tied to a tree in the woods, not far from the spot you asked about.  He had been left to starve to death.  The story was that the lake men had starved him in order to get him to tell where he had hidden his money box, and that old Goupert was too much o’ a miser to let the secret out.  So folks begun to hunt for that money box high an’ low, but never got a smell o’ it, as I said.”

“Did you ever hunt for the money?” questioned Dick.

“No, I never had no time to waste.  So you really came up on that account?”

“We came up on that account, and also to have a good time in the mountains,” said Dick, before.  Sam or Tom could speak.  “But, Mr. Barrow, I wish you wouldn’t mention this to the other folks around here.  They might laugh at us for coming on what they think is a wild-goose chase.”

“Oh, I won’t say a word on it—­if you want it that way.”

“Did this Goupert leave any relatives?” asked Sam.

“No, lad, not a soul.”

“Then if we should find that treasure it would belong to us,” put in Tom.

“Every penny on it, lad.  But don’t raise any high hopes, or you may be sorely disapp’inted.”

“Oh, I came for a good time,” replied Tom, in an off-handed a manner as possible.