"You'd better answer my questions!" thundered Antoine, losing his temper at last.
Now this was exactly what Tommy had been hoping for. Antoine angry might prove to be more communicative than Antoine in a pleasant temper.
"Will you answer a few of my questions?" asked Will, wondering if it would be possible for him to spring upon the trapper and bring him down before his rifle could be brought into use.
"If you'll keep that impertinent little gutter-snipe still," Antoine snarled, "I'll answer such questions as seem to me to be worth answering."
"Are you the man who was seen sitting half-asleep before a fire in a cavern three nights ago?" asked the boy.
The man hesitated for a moment, as if in deep thought, and then answered with an exclamation of impatience.
"Were you in the cave that night?"
"No, but my chums were," Will replied.
"What did they see there?"
"A man asleep by the fire!"