“Then I wish that you would just take whatever you had thought of offering us in the way of a reward and add to the amount. I think my chums agree with me that this is the best thing that could be done. Is that right?” and Garry turned to his friends. Both Dick and Phil were emphatic in their agreement.
“Well, if that is the way you boys feel about it, I will do so, but I will find some way to show you that I appreciate the great service that you have done me.”
The owner asked them several other questions and took their names and addresses, and again he offered to take the boys along with them on the tour. Of course they refused, explaining that they were of the Ranger Service of the State and were only on detached duty at the time.
They remained for supper at the cook tent, and watched the circus torn down and loaded in the teams preparatory to travelling to the next stop.
After a hearty goodbye from the manager and owner they took their leave, and hiking beyond the town spread their blankets for the night.
They woke with the rising of the sun, and building a fire soon had coffee, spider bread and bacon going, and made a hearty breakfast.
“According to my reckoning we are about ten miles from the camp, and the woods will begin in about a mile or two, so we had better get going. It is now six o’clock and with three hours of easy hiking we will make our destination,” said Garry. “Now I think we ought to hold a council of war as to how we shall conduct ourselves when we get to the camp. I think it best that we just go to the manager and tell him we are going to camp there for awhile, either right at the lumber camp, or a short distance in the woods. Of course we shall give no inkling of the nature of our visit, not even to the manager, at least until we have sized him up. To my mind, everyone will be under suspicion until he has proven that the suspicion is unfounded. We can go all over the camp and keep our eyes open, getting all the information we can. When we ask questions we should ask them simply as though it were from idle curiosity. I figure that in a short time we ought to be able to tell who is acting suspiciously and then bend all our efforts to watch them and frustrate any mischief that they may be up to. We shall, of course, get a lot of help from Howells when he arrives, but even then I think we ought to do everything possible ourselves to find out what is the trouble at the camp.”
They walked steadily but easily, and true to their reckoning arrived at the camp a little after nine o’clock. The boys looked about them curiously. There were only three buildings, built of logs. One, the smallest, was evidently the officers’ bunkhouse and offices; the other was apparently the cookhouse, for the boys could see a youth sitting on an upturned tub in front of the door peeling potatoes, and a thin wisp of smoke issued from the chimney. Since it was mid-summer and hot, there would be no need for a stove in any place but the kitchen. The third house was a long, low log affair, bigger by far than either of the others. This they decided was the bunk house, where the lumberjacks lived.
They made their way to the office and inquired for the manager. On hearing the word “manager,” a thin, sharpfaced man approached them, and giving them a hasty glance, said in a sharp tone:
“If you’re here to ask for permission to camp on this tract you’re out of luck. This is a lumber operation and not a free camp site for every fool from the city.”