“Exactly; that’s step number one. Now the second thing is the note itself. It was written on brown paper. Safe thing to write such a letter on, anyone might have it in his possession. The queer part is that on the shelf high over Barrows’ desk was a bundle of report blanks wrapped in the same identical kind of paper, only the wrapper was torn. I couldn’t think of any way to clear the office, but I bet I could have matched this scrap to the torn place in the report!”
“Then you think that Dick has been at the camp all the time?” queried Phil half incredulously.
“Don’t think it, I’m sure of it.”
“What are we to do, then?” asked Phil.
“I have that all doped out. We’ll let this chap lead us a couple of miles or so further on and then overpower him and tie him up and leave him there while we double back and search the camp.”
Garry gave the order to march again, and they started on their way. Had Garry been gifted with second sight, he would never have left the spot where they had held the conference, for they had gone only a short distance when the guide asked them to halt.
“What’s it worth to you fellows if I tell you all about this business? You ain’t going to meet your friend where I’m taking you; it was just to get you away from the camp that I led you out here. But you can’t make me tell anything, or LeBlanc would kill me. But I’ll take a chance for money.”
This sudden development puzzled Garry. He did not know exactly what to make of it, so he decided to temporize for a few minutes, and gain time to think.
“Where is LeBlanc now?” he asked.
“Right there at the camp was where I last saw him.”