“Whatever has you there?” growlingly asked one of the men who had awakened.
“Some lost children we finds near yere,” was the answer.
Macklyn Morgan, wrapped in his blanket, had also awakened. His curiosity was aroused, and he flung off the blanket and got up.
“Children!” he said. “How does it happen that there are children in this wretched region?”
One of the men explained how he had heard the sound of the fiddle, which had led them to the boy and girl. He also repeated Abe’s story, adding that it sounded “fishy.” The interest of Morgan was redoubled at once. He immediately turned his attention to the hunchback.
“Going to Flagstaff to meet Frank Merriwell’s brother, did you say?” he questioned, attempting a kindly manner. “Seems to me that was rather a crazy undertaking, my lad. And what is Frank Merriwell’s brother doing in Flagstaff?”
“He jest said he was going there on his way to Californy,” declared Abe, trying to stick to his original story and make it seem consistent. “We hope to see him there.”
Felicia was silent; but she felt that Abe’s yarn was not believed by the men.
“How did you happen to know this Dick Merriwell?” questioned Morgan.
Abe started to reply, but faltered and stammered a little, whereupon Felicia quickly said: