He scowled at that. “I ain’t got time.” He looked around the room, took a sight on the sack of beans. He shoved it at Tim. “Take that down and put it in my boat,” he ordered.

“What?” Tim said.

I was shocked too. This stranger was stealing our provisions! He glared at us. “Damn you, do what I said and right now!”

I nodded at Tim and he took the sack of beans and left. The man rummaged around the shelves, scorning the canned fruit. But he put the flour and sugar aside, and when Tim came back he was forced to carry them down to the boat also. Everything the man touched was either broken or knocked over and spilled. He didn’t seem to care how much damage he did. He pawed through our packs. When he came to my father’s pistol, his eyes lit up. “Now this is more like it,” he declared, sticking it down in his belt.

I flew at him. “You put that back!” I screamed. “That belonged to my father!”

“Well, if I meet up with your daddy, I’ll be sure to see that he gets a look at it,” he answered. He stuffed his pockets with the leftover margarine and a box of matches that had been in the cabin when he arrived. He peered out the window nervously and cursed. Hurrying through the door, he paused to pick up the axe. Then as I watched him through the window, he rushed down to the boat. Tim had been up to something. He ran when the man approached. I was horrified to see the man lift the pistol and take aim, but Tim dived out of sight into the trees, and the man lowered the gun. He looked back up toward the cabin, started to return, changed his mind, and then got in the boat. He rowed off quickly. Trembling, I watched until he had disappeared around the headland. Then I ran outside and called: “Tim? Where are you?”

He came out of the trees. He was so mad he was crying. “I’ll get him!” he promised. “Did you see what he did? I’ll get him!”

“You’re lucky he didn’t shoot you,” I said. “What were you doing?”

“Trying to kick a hole in his boat. I would have done it, too, if he hadn’t caught me.”

“Well, he’s gone—let us hope, for good.”

“Who was he? Why did you tell him our father was out on the lake?”

“I’m not sure, Tim. Something about him seemed wrong. He didn’t know about this cabin. And did you see how he dressed? It was as if he had stepped out of a town instead of the woods. I think he was maybe one of those convicts who escaped a couple of weeks ago. He must have fled into the woods, and he’s been living by breaking into cabins. If he’d known we were here alone, I don’t know what he might have done. As it is, he only stole a few things and hurried away because he was afraid our ‘father’ would come back soon.”