"Many people at the Lodge yet?" he asked.
"N-no--mostly transients. They climb Marcy and McIntyre from here. It's the best place to start from."
"I see. I climbed Whiteface myself ten years ago. We had a guide--an old chap named Lawless. My mother and I were staying at Saranac and she let me go with a party from there. I thought it great sport then, and made up my mind to be a guide when I grew up. I don't think I'd like it so well now."
"They have the best guides at the Lodge," commented the driver. "The head guide there is the best in the mountains. This is his first year at the Lodge. He was with the Adirondack Club before."
"I suppose it couldn't be my old hero, Lawless?"
"No; this is a young man. I don't just remember his last name, but most people call him Robin."
The theological student shook his head. The story of the Sherwood bandit had not been a part of his education.
"It doesn't sound like that," he said. "It's something like Forney, or Farham. He's a student, too--a civil engineer--but he was raised in these hills and has been guiding since he was a boy. He's done it every summer to pay his way through college. Next year he graduates, and they say he's the best in the school. Of course, guides get big pay--as much as three dollars a day, some of them--besides their board."
The last detail did not interest Mr. Weatherby. He was suddenly recalling a wet, blowy March evening on Broadway--himself under a big umbrella with Constance Deane. She was speaking, and he could recall her words quite plainly: "I know one young man who is going to be an engineer. He was a poor boy--so poor--and has worked his way. I shall see him this summer. You don't know how proud I shall be of him."
To Frank the glory of the hills faded a little, and the progress of the team seemed unduly slow.
"Suppose we move up a bit," he suggested to the gentle youth with the reins, and the horses were presently splashing through a shallow pool left by recent showers.
"He's a very strong fellow," the informant continued, "and handsome. He's going to marry the daughter of the man who owns the Lodge when he gets started as an engineer. She's a pretty girl, and smart. Her mother's dead, and she's her father's housekeeper. She teaches school sometimes, too. They'll make a fine match."