Read "Tom Slade in the North Woods" by Percy Keese Fitzhugh online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
As the days passed I thought less and less about Brent's rather ingenious deduction. For, to be sure, it made no difference how many persons had been at Leatherstocking Camp at the time of the fatal accident. As for Brent, he was always snooping around, adopting the pose of an amateur sleuth, but I think he did not take himself or his discovery too seriously. He seemed amused at the confusion he had caused in poor Tom's mind. "Maybe they used to have the hermit down for week ends," he suggested. But that did not satisfy Tom.
"I think the hermit is like the mock-turtle," I said. "There ain't no such animal."