"Yes, I saw the man slip away. Here are Art and Harry. They will go."
Harry Dickson and Arthur Warren now came up, and Jack quickly told them what he expected and asked them to follow Blaisdell and assist him if necessary, both the boys slipping away without being noticed by the party of men collected at the little station house and now talking among themselves and paying no attention to the boys.
Percival got all the boys together, including those who were not of the surveying party but had merely come along to see the work started, and said to them:
"It is my opinion that these men have been influenced by some one who has been telling them a lot of lies, and maybe for the purpose of getting money out of us. They don't any of them look over intelligent, and I don't believe there is a regular farmer among them. They are squatters, I believe, and don't own half an acre of land among them. We don't want to have a fight with them, and I believe the doctor will settle the whole affair without any trouble as soon as he comes back with Blaisdell."
Meantime Harry and Arthur had hurried on along the path through the woods and it was not long before they heard the sound of voices ahead of them, and hastened on, expecting that Blaisdell was in trouble.
In a short time they came upon the boy, with his back against a tree and a defiant look in his face, saying at that moment:
"If you fellows attempt to touch me you will get hurt. You have no business to detain me and you will get the worst of it."
"What are you doing to that boy?" cried Arthur, hurrying forward. "If you want this matter settled, why don't you let him alone and allow him to go and get the doctor and have this matter arranged satisfactorily?"
The arrival of two extra boys where they had expected to deal with only one rather surprised the men, and one of them said with a growl:
"How do you know we was goin' to do anything to him? We've got traps an' snares here, an' we thought he was goin' to meddle with 'em. We gotter look arter our property."