“What are you all such powerful enemies for?”
Garry then told him some of the adventures that they had encountered, and the part that the halfbreed had played in them. When he came to the tale of how LeBlanc had kidnapped little Patty Graham, the old man’s eyes flashed fire.
“He’s a treacherous weazel, that halfbreed. I don’t mind some of the other things he did, but any man that will steal a person’s baby ought to be cut into pieces. I’ll tell you that. When he comes here with your friend, we’ll just tie him up and keep him here and you can do what you want to with him.”
This seemed like a stroke of real luck for the boys. It would mean LeBlanc would be safely held until time for them to have him taken to prison to pay the much deserved penalty for his crimes, and at the same time would rid them of a dangerous enemy, as well as lessening by one the allies of the rascally Barrows.
The rest of the day passed quickly, and they told the squatter king many of the things of the outside world. He had heard little or nothing of the great cities, and had never seen a moving picture nor ridden in a railroad train. But he knew the woods as few men do, except perhaps the Hermit, although there was no comparison between this giant of the woods, who could neither read nor write, and the old recluse, who was eternally surprising the boys with a quotation from some poet, or a snatch of Latin.
“Now, Phil,” said Garry, when they were left alone for awhile by the squatter, “let’s plan a war campaign. As soon as Dick gets here, we will let him have a good rest, and then hike for the camp. We’ll make it to get to the small lake without anyone seeing us, and there we’ll get the canoe and portage it through the woods to the other lake. There we can hide out and get the dope on the timber thieves. Once we have done that, we have only to draw in the strings, and we’ll have the whole job done.”
Phil assented to this as the wisest course to follow, and night coming on, they turned in. The squatter had insisted on giving up his own cabin to them, which although poor and bare, was the best one on the clearing.
They whiled away the next day waiting the arrival of Dick, and hoping that no change would be made in the plans of Barrows to prevent Dick’s being sent to Misery Camp.
It was late afternoon when a man whom the squatter king had sent into the woods to act as lookout came running back.
“He’s got a young fellow with him,” he told the squatter leader.