“It’s gone!” answered Jimmie.
“Gone stale?” asked Kit.
“Gone away!” grunted the other.
“Well, who took it away?”
“Search me,” was the answer. “There’s about a ton of perfectly good bear meat all gone to waste!” he continued.
While the boys discussed the chances of the meat having been taken care of by their chums, the thicket on the east wall of the bowl opened and the man Kit had seen in the morning appeared. He approached the camp openly and frankly, extending in one hand a great slice of bear meat. Before he reached the place where the boys sat gazing with surprised glances in his direction, the thicket parted again and a taller, slighter, darker man made his appearance.
The man in the uniform of a forest ranger stooped for a moment, spoke to the other in low tones, and then the two came on together. As Jimmie afterwards described the situation, you could have knocked his head off with a match at that moment. Kit was equally excited, and Jimmie declares to this day that the boy turned the color of milk.
The boys knew who their guests were. One was Phillips and one was Mendosa! These were the outlaws they had journeyed across the continent in the currents of the air to bring to punishment!
If speech had been required of the two lads at that moment it would have been impossible for them to respond. The faces of the outlaws, however, were friendly, and directly the nerve of the boys began to assert itself. Jimmie half arose and then dropped back again.
“Never mind getting up,” Phillips said. “I saw you up in the thicket a few moments ago, looking after the bear I killed this morning. You seemed to me to be hungry for steak, and so I brought you down a few pounds.”