"Bandits?"
"Bushnell?"
"One or the other."
"Perhaps both."
Frank fell to examining the ground for "signs," but, although his eyes were unusually keen, he was not an expert in such matters, and he discovered nothing that could serve as a revelation.
"The man was dead beyond a doubt, professor—you are sure?"
"Sure?" roared the little man, bristling in a moment. "Of course I'm sure! Do you take me for a howling idiot?"
"Don't get excited, professor. The best of us are liable to err at times. It would not be strange if you——"
"But I didn't—I tell you I didn't! The body may have been removed by the bandits which hang about this section."
"Or by Al Bushnell, Burk's partner."