See, the stone is burning like a lump of
coal now, but with a blue flame instead of red."
"Just like the night we saw the blue fire on the island before we came
camping here." said Ted. "Is it the same thing, Grandpa?"
"I don't know. Perhaps it is. Where did you get the blue rocks?'
"Over in the woods," answered Hal. "There's a great big one there. As
big as this tent."
"Is there?" some one suddenly asked. "Then please show me where it is!
Oh, can it be that at last I have found what I have been looking for
so long?"
The Curlytops and the others turned at the sound of this new and
strange voice. A man seemed to spring out of the bushes back of the
tent. By the light of the blue fire Ted and Jan saw that his clothes
were ragged and torn in many places.
"Oh! Oh!" gasped Jan. "That's the tramp!"
"Well, I guess maybe I do look like a tramp, all ragged and dirty as I
am," laughed the man, and his voice sounded pleasant. "But I am not a
regular tramp. I am Mr. Weston--Alfred Weston," he went on, speaking
to Grandpa Martin. "I haven't a card with me, but when I get washed
and dressed and shaved I'll look more like what I am. Excuse me for
intruding this way, but I could not keep from speaking when I heard
what you were talking about."
"Then aren't you a tramp?" asked Ted.
"No, though I have been _tramping_ all over this island looking for
the very blue rock you children seem to have found.
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