“What?”
“Oh, you needn’t play the innocent dodge. You know what I mean.”
“You–you think we have been following you?” questioned the boy, scarcely able to believe that the prospector was in earnest.
“I don’t think. I know. You’re like all the rest of them. We have had this thing happen to us before. There are plenty more like you, and they’ve followed us, hoping they will be the first to discover the bear totem and the claim that we are in search of.”
“Taku Pass?” asked Butler with a half smile on his face.
Darwood’s face flushed angrily.
“What did I tell you, Bruce?” he snapped. “Are you going?” he demanded, turning towards Tad.
“Yes. I don’t care to stay where I’m not wanted. But before going I am going to tell you something. We are not prospecting, nor following prospectors. We are taking our usual summer vacation on horseback. All I know about your affairs is what Captain Petersen of the ‘Corsair’ told me, and what I overheard from Sandy Ketcham. If you will recall 180I told you about that. The Captain gave me your history as far as he knew it, and I was much interested. How could I help being? I love adventure and so do my companions. We wanted to know more about it, but did not think it was any of our business until I overheard Ketcham plotting against you. We hadn’t the least idea we ever should see you again. My finding you this morning was a pure accident.”
“How’d you happen to do it?” interjected Dill Bruce.
“I saw your smoke signs last night.”