Lagoon.
CHAPTER XVII
“Licker allus lets the cat out.”–Old Cy Walker.
When the half-breed, Pete Bolduc, reached Tim’s Place, he was more dead than alive. A week of crawling through swamps, wading or swimming streams, sleeping under fallen trees, while sustaining life on frogs, raw fish, and one muskrat, had eliminated about all desire to obtain Chip, and left a murderous hate instead. And McGuire was its object.
Pete reasoned that he had bought the girl and paid for her. Her father, never intending to keep faith, had connived at her escape, and knowing of these campers, had hired her for a serving maid, and they would inevitably take her out when they left. It was all a part of McGuire’s plot and plan, and no doubt this stranger had also paid him for her possession.
Two other facts also seemed proof positive that these conclusions were correct. First, McGuire had never been seen at Tim’s Place since the girl’s escape; second, it would have been impossible for her to reach these campers without aid. But she was lost to him for all time, as Pete now realized. The stern faces and ready rifles of her protectors had convinced him of that, and all that remained was to find McGuire, force him to give back the money, then obtain revenge.
Neither was this an easy task, for McGuire was a dangerous man, as Pete well knew, and the more he considered the matter, sojourning at Tim’s Place and nursing his hate meanwhile, the more he realized that the killing of McGuire must precede the obtaining of his money. And now, where to find McGuire became a question.