It was just a month after our story opened that July afternoon. Roy was fishing from the tree trunk over the creek again, but he was alone this time and the expression on his face was almost as discontented as Reginald's had been on that former occasion.

His float bobbed under two or three times, but he paid no attention to the fact. He was too deeply absorbed in thought. Now and then he would glance up at the trestle far above him, and something very like a sigh would pass his lips.

There was a snapping of twigs on the Marley end of the log and Roy turned his head quickly to find a young man regarding him attentively. He might have been anywhere from twenty-five to thirty. He had a small brown mustache and rather a dark complexion.

He held a small oblong box in both his hands. Roy at once recognized it as a camera and realized at the same instant that it was pointed at him.

As their eyes met, the stranger flushed slightly, but said in a pleasant voice:

"I hope you don't mind being taken?"

Roy did mind. He was in a mood just now to object to everything, but the other's voice was such an agreeable one, the glance of his eye so kindly that the boy's real self came to the surface through his temporarily baser one, and he replied:

"Oh, I s'pose not, but I haven't got the pleasant look the photographers tell you to put on. Aren't you afraid I'll break your camera?"

The answer was a quick snap and then the young man slung the camera over his shoulder and stepping out on the tree trunk slipped down to a seat beside Roy.

"You have a very cozy retreat here," he remarked, "how's the fishing?"

"I don't know. To tell the truth I wasn't thinking of my line at all and I'm almost sorry I let you take that picture. I don't see what you wanted it for any way, I hope you won't show it around much. You don't live in Marley, do you?"

"No."

"I'm glad of that"

"Why?" with a smile.

"Because nobody I know will be apt to see the picture."

"You're quite a modest young man."

"Oh, it isn't that, but I must have looked so disagreeable at that particular moment. At least I must have done so if my looks were anything like my feelings."

"No, if I remember rightly you were smiling at the instant I pressed the button. You know you were saying something about fearing you would break the camera, and a smile usually goes with that remark."

Roy looked up quickly. The stranger was an odd one. He had a queer way of putting things. Roy began to be interested.

"Have you taken many pictures around here?"

"Quite a number. It's a very pretty place."

"Isn't it?"

"That bridge quite adds to the attractiveness of the landscape. In fact that is the reason I am here. I was coming through on the train and as we crossed, the prospect of this little valley was so tempting that I decided to stop off and explore. I am very glad I did now, for it gave me the added pleasure of meeting you."

"That sounds as though you were talking to a girl," said Roy.

"Does it? Well, as I am particularly fond of boys I suppose I may be allowed to say the same sort of things to them."

"You're fond of boys? That's queer. I didn't know any one liked boys except their mothers and now and then a girl or two."

Roy laughed a little as he added this last, and the stranger joined in heartily.

"You're very frank," he remarked; "but that's what boys usually are, and it's one of the reasons I like them. They generally say right out just what they think."

"What's another reason?"

The man with the camera hesitated an instant before replying. Then he said:

"Well, I'm going to be frank, too. Another reason I like boys is because I find them useful to me."

"Useful to you?" repeated Roy, perplexed.

"Yes, as a matter of study. You see, I write about them sometimes."

"Why, are you an author?"

Roy turned full around on the log as he put the question, his face all aglow with animation.

"I suppose that's what I must call myself even if I'm not a particularly famous one."

"Please tell me the names of some of your books. Perhaps I've read them."

The young man smiled at his companion's eagerness and mentioned a story which had been Roy's Christm............