"Bumpus, what in the wide world are you chuckling at, back there?" demanded Davy Jones.
"Don't you know Bumpus enough," laughed Allan, "to guess that already he sees the wonderful Silver Foxes discovering that lost silver mine, and just grabbing handfuls of cash right out of it, to pay the expenses of the next trip—where's it going to be another time, Bumpus; down to the gulf, cruising; or along the Mexican border; for you know scouts should never go outside the borders of their own country?"
"Well, why not?" demanded the fat boy, defiantly; "look back at the stunts we've carried through so far, and tell me if it would be so very strange if we just happened to drop in on this old hidden mine of the Rockies? Luck camps on the trail of the Silver Fox Patrol every time; and I'm ready to shake hands with anything that needs clearing up. You just wait, and see if I'm so far off, that's all."
"And just to think of his name being John Kracker; now, what boy could ever keep from twisting that around, and calling him a cracker-jack?" chuckled Giraffe.
"That's a good one, all right," declared the guide, laughing heartily; "and I'm some surprised, I am, that nobody ever thought to put that same on the kunnel afore this. I wish you could aseen him, boys. Why, he's as fat as—er——"
"You needn't look at me that way, Toby," burst out Bumpus, instantly, for he was more or less touchy with respect to his size. "I'm taperin' down right along these days. Why, I don't reckon I weigh within three pounds as much as I did when we said good-bye to Cranford."
"And you lost all of that the time you walked and walked for days, huntin' for your bear!" put in Davy Jones.
"Well, I got him, all right, didn't I, tell me that?" asked Bumpus, proudly, as he patted the double-barreled ten gauge Marlin shotgun, which he insisted on carrying across his shoulder, while most of the others were satisfied to secure their guns to the pack saddles.
"You sure did," replied Davy, willing to give honor where honor was due.
"I was jest agoin' to say, the kunnel, he's as fat as all get-out," Toby went on, a twinkle in his eye telling how much he really enjoyed these little skirmishes between some of his charges. "But all the same, he's the most energetic critter you ever seen. And temper, say, he's gettin' as red in the face as a turkey buzzard, struttin' around with a chip on its wing, ready for a fight. I 'spect some day the kunnel, he'll jest blow up, and disappear in a cloud of steam. And p'raps after all you might git a chanct to set eyes on him yet; because I heard down at Greeley, last time I was thar, that he'd passed through with a couple of fellers, and packs; so it looked like he meant to give that pesky lost mine another whirl, makin' p'raps the fourth time he's been up thisaways."