"I don't intend to."
"Say, but you certainly can shoot. You plunked those killers squarely in the eye every shot. I'm pretty good with the gun myself, but for quick, accurate shooting there haven't many of them got you beaten."
"I had to shoot straight. Somebody would have been killed if I hadn't," answered Butler.
"You're right they would. But where is that boy. Where—"
Lilly uttered an exclamation and leaped aside as something came twisting down, striking him on the head and bouncing off on the ground. Tad found himself several paces to one side of the spot where he had been standing. Both men held the same thought. They thought it was a reptile that had dropped from the tree. Then Tad's quick eye discovered that it was a rope that had fallen from the tree. Glancing up, he made out the figure of Stacy Brown huddled in a crotch high up.
"Hey! There's a big bird up that tree. Watch me shoot him out," cried Tad, raising his rifle.
"Wow, oh, wow! Don't shoot! It's I, Stacy," yelled the fat boy.
"What—what—what's that?" stammered the guide. "That boy up a tree?"
"Yes, and to think I came near shooting him," answered Tad, in a voice loud enough for Stacy to hear.
"How did you get up there?" demanded Lilly in amazed wonder.