"It wouldn't be any more than fair."
"Where is this Tony Duval's place they mentioned?" continued the oldest Rover boy.
"It's about two miles from here, off to the eastward—in fact, the road on which this Lodge is located ends at Duval's place. He is a French-Canadian, and he hasn't a very good reputation in these parts. Some of the old hunters used to think Tony was a good deal of a thief—that he would go around in the night or early morning and empty their traps. He came from down east."
"What do you suppose Werner and Glutts are going to do there?"
"Of late years Duval has made a specialty of hiring out his place to hunters. There are two or three shacks on his land, and he lets the various crowds have those buildings, and then, if the hunters want it, he cooks for them, for he is said to be quite a handy man with a coffeepot and a frying pan. More than likely, from what you heard at the moving picture theater, Gabe Werner has a chance to use one of those shacks and has got Glutts to go with him."
"I wonder why Codfish isn't with them—he was at that restaurant in Timminsport."
"I'm sure I don't know, except that Codfish may have got cold feet when it came to traveling up this way in such a snowstorm. You know there is nothing brave about that little sneak." And in this surmise Gif was correct. Stowell had found a boarding place in the town and had said he would remain there until the storm cleared away and the others returned to get him.
In the meantime Glutts and Werner were seated at the living-room table drinking the hot tea which had been prepared and eating some doughnuts which Fred and Andy had offered. The bullies had become thawed out, and their usual aggressiveness was beginning to assert itself.
"Of course we could have kept on until we got up to Tony's place; but what was the use on such a wild night as this when we knew this place was handy?" remarked Werner.
"I'm afraid you're going to be snowed in with us," said Spouter.