“You were out walking this afternoon and met that wild man, so I heard.” 92
“That is true.”
“You tried to catch him, didn’t you?”
“Yes, Roger Morr, Buster Beggs, Gus Plum, and I did our best to collar him, but he was too fast for us. He ran down to the river, got into a rowboat, and rowed away.”
“So I heard. And I heard something else,” continued the boy from Crumville. “When you called to the man to stop he answered back, didn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“Will you please tell me what he said?” And Nat’s voice had an eager ring in it.
“He told us to beware and go back, or we’d get into trouble.”
“Didn’t he say something more than that?”
“Oh, yes, a great deal more.”