“Sure he did,” was the reply. “That’s what made me wonder whether it might have been a monkey of some sort, even if I didn’t say as much to Giraffe when he was kidding me. But I happened to remember that ordinary monkeys don’t grow up here in Maine,” and the suggestive look he shot in the direction of Davy made that comrade sneer; as though he had grown hardened to being classed with the tree-climbing tribe, just because he could hang by his toes from a limb, or go up to the tiptop of any tree that he had ever seen.
“Well, he came, and he saw; but he didn’t conquer, not by a long sight,” observed Step Hen. “He didn’t like our looks one little bit, fellows, and made tracks out of here. What d’ye s’pose brought him around, in the first place?”
“Mout a be’n jest passin’, an’ seein’ our light in hyar, thort he’d cum ter look us up. If he’s thet kind o’ a varmint, he mebbe thort as how thar was good pickin’s ter be bed. But he knows better now.”
It was Eli who advanced this opinion. Thad had another one that was based on certain facts obtained from the Maine sheriff who had dropped in on their camp so unexpectedly.
“If that was the man called Charley Barnes,” he said, “you must remember that we heard he used to be a guide up in this country long ago, before he took to his present calling. And in that case, why, perhaps he may have known of this old cabin here, and was coming to see if it would make a half-way decent place to stay for a while. Perhaps one of his friends is sick; or it might be they feel that they just have to hold over somewhere, so as to lay in a stock of food. That’s an idea the sheriff had, I recollect; and he wanted to keep so hot on their track that they’d find no time for hunting, and must get hungry.”
“Well, it was a man, anyway, wasn’t it?” asked Bumpus, demurely; for he felt that Giraffe owed him an apology of some sort.
“Yes, it was a man,” admitted that worthy, frankly; “and for once you’ve got a bulge on me, Bumpus. Rub it in all you want to; my hide’s about as thick as the skin of a rhinoceros, and I c’n stand it easy.”
“Oh! that’s all right, Giraffe,” replied the other, ready to forgive, now that things were coming his way; “I was only thinkin’ how queer it seems to have them hobo burglars huntin’ us up. Remember what I said about that fat reward we’d get, if we happened to pull ’em in? A big thousand dollars, Mr. Green said it was; and p’raps double that by now. Well, funnier things have happened, understand, than a pack of Brave Scouts, tried and true, rounding up a bunch of cowardly hoboes. We can do it, fellers, and not half try, if we get the chance.”
Again Thad thought it one of the queerest things he had ever seen, to watch how the fire of enthusiasm seemed to burn within the breast of the usually rather timid and backward Bumpus Hawtree. Evidently he had his mind set on that reward; and could see how splendidly it would come in for the patrol, in paying the expenses of another long vacation trip they had in mind.
“Wonder if he’ll come back any more?” remarked Step Hen, as they began to move into the cabin again, there being no further reason for remaining out in the cold.