Then Merry displayed a revolver which he had held clasped in his hand all the while, the weapon being concealed under one arm as his hands were folded over his breast.
“I could shoot you now,” Frank went on; “but I do not wish to do so. You have filled this boy’s head with false notions, but I am going to drive those notions out of his head. You have taught him some things of value, but even you were not shrewd enough to discover me as I lay in the little hollow there and waited for this meeting. I was here ahead of you, and I concealed myself, as I was taught to do by one of your own race. In my bed I left a dummy figure, which deceived Dick, and——”
“How did you know anything about it?” panted the boy, in wonder. “Did Felicia tell you?”
“Not a word.”
“Then how did you know?”
“Perhaps the birds told me,” said Frank, in a mysterious way.
Dick started.
“The birds?” he said, thinking how he had called the feathered creatures of the woods about him just before he revealed his secret to Felicia.
Then a strange thought came to the lad. Had the birds listened as he told the little girl of his plans, and had Frank somehow obtained the knowledge from them? The fact that Merry had learned of those plans somehow, and had appeared to intercept the boy in his flight, seemed singular indeed; but the possibility that he had obtained his knowledge in some marvelously mysterious manner from the birds was bewildering.
A feeling of awe came upon Dick. He was struck by the conviction that it was impossible to keep anything from his wonderful brother.