"Of course not," came the quick reply. "If these people knew they were breaking the law, and expected the game warden to pop in on them any day, you can just believe they'd be mighty careful to hide all traces of this thing."
"Perhaps they throw it all back in the pond for fish bait," suggested the tall scout.
"Not a bad idea," commented Elmer.
"And the cellar under the mill cottage?" asked Mark.
"They might use that as a cool place to keep the fish until they can get them to market," Elmer replied.
"That's a fact, seeing they have no ice to pack them in," Lil Artha observed. "And the more I think of it all, the better it looks to me, fellows."
"Then you believe my explanation may be the true answer to our chum's vanishing?"
"I sure do."
"That they came upon him by accident," Elmer went on, "and filled with a sudden panic, just captured him to keep Nat from calling out, and bringing the rest of us around?"
"That's what they did," Lil Artha affirmed. "And no matter how sorry they might be afterward because they did it, they just can't drop him now."