"I don't see why that should be," Elmer explained. "Of course, after this we'll have to keep a watch every night, so as to hold him up if he tries to get away with any of our stuff. It may hurry things along in the end. If they have little to eat, and the man is really afraid to go outside of the swamp thinking the police are waiting to arrest him, he may make up his mind to surrender to us."
"Then you believe he knows why we're here, do you, Elmer?" demanded Toby.
"It seems possible, although, of course, we have to jump at conclusions, because we really don't know," came the answer.
"Whew! but this is all a dark mystery," confessed Landy; "and I never was much account at guessing the answer to riddles. Who is this man; what is he holding over Hen Condit's head; why should our chum do that awful thing, and then leave such a silly letter behind to convict himself? I'm all in a whirl, and if anybody can straighten me out I'd be a heap obliged."
Apparently, nobody could, at least there was no effort made in that direction. In fact, to tell the truth, all the boys felt that they were groping in the gloom, and even their best guesses had only a slender foundation.
"We've enlisted in the war, though," said Lil Artha, grimly, "and we won't be kept back by any little thing. If that chap comes snooping around any more he stands a mighty good chance of getting hurt, that's all I'm going to say about it."
"And we'll run across Hen, sooner or later, you can put that in your pipe and smoke it," asserted Toby Jones, firmly.
When they had discussed the subject from every side, without picking up much additional information worth while, the boys began to feel sleepy again. So Elmer told them off in watches, two scouts being assigned to duty at a time. Landy was left out, because he was the odd fellow, and perhaps for other obvious reasons.
He pretended to be quite indignant over the slight, and vowed that he would certainly sit up through one of the watches with the pair whose turn it happened to be. But none of them took his threats seriously, because they knew full well when Landy Smith once got asleep it required something like a young earthquake to arouse him. Elmer hardly anticipated another visit from the mysterious unknown that night. He fancied the fellow must have imagined Lil Artha really shot point-blank at him, and that it was only his good luck which enabled him to escape disaster.
Being too good a scout to take unnecessary chances, and not wishing to lose the main part of such supplies as they had fetched along for several days' use, the patrol leader took all due precautions.