“Because if he had a gun, he would have fired at the bear, and we’d have seen some change in the bear’s trail. Bruin would either have run at the shot, or attacked the man, provided the bullet didn’t kill at once. And you can see for yourselves that nothing like that happened. So I argue that the man had no gun.”
“Then he was Skeel, or one of his two partners,” said George.
“What makes you think that?” asked Bert, curiously.
“Because we never saw either of them with a gun.”
“That doesn’t prove anything,” Tom said. “There are lots of men in these woods who haven’t guns. It might have been Sam Wilson.”
“Can you tell anything by the footprints?” asked Bert.
“No. The star mark isn’t there, but that’s nothing. Well, whoever he was he got away, and we didn’t get close enough to make out who he was.”
“I tell you where you’re wrong in one thing, though, Tom,” spoke Jack.
“How’s that?”
“You said the man came up to the bear and ran away, turning off at an angle. I don’t believe he saw the bear, because we were watching the man, and we would have seen the bear if he had seen him, too. For it was right here we lost sight of the man.”