"Having a hunt up here in the mountains, are you, boys?" asked the sheriff, as he followed the example of the lawyer, and dropped down near the fire, crossing his legs tailor-fashion, as though he meant to make himself quite at home.
"Yes, we want to get a big-horn or so to take back with us," replied Allan.
"Just the four of you?" continued the other, arching his heavy brows as if with surprise.
"Oh! no, there are a lot of other fellows," replied the scout who took Thad's place as leader when the other happened to be absent.
"Oh! that's it, eh? Rest off on a little side hunt right now, I reckon. P'raps you've got a guide along with you, too?" the officer continued, bending his neck, so that he could see inside the nearest tent, the flap of which happened to be on the side toward him, and thrown back to allow of ventilation.
"Oh! yes, we've got a guide now, though for a long time we had to go it alone, and managed to get on pretty well," Allan continued, wondering why it was he could catch a peculiar quizzical gleam in the snapping eyes of the other, once in a while, when the sheriff looked straight at him.
"Who is he; perhaps I might happen to know him?" asked the other, accepting a tin cup filled with coffee, from Bumpus.
"I'm sure you do, sir," Allan hastened to remark; and then, remembering that he was not supposed to know of the visit the sheriff and his employer had paid to the camp of the big-horn hunters on the previous night, he hastened to add: "everybody knows honest Toby Smathers, the forest ranger, I should think."
"Well, I should say, yes, I did," replied the other, commencing to calmly devour the piece of venison that had been placed on his platter, as though his appetite was sharp indeed this bracing morning. "And so you boys have come away out here just to see what we've got in these Rockies, eh?"
"Just what we have, sir," replied Giraffe, thinking that he would like to have the sheriff notice him a little.