“Never heard of smuggled goods in this section of the country!”
“I’m sorry you blundered in here, lads,” the man said, after a short silence. “You’ve made us a lot of trouble. We’ve got to do one of two things. Either get rid of you boys for good and all, or change our entire system of operation.”
“I should advise the change!” grinned Jimmie.
“Look here!” Carl demanded whimsically, resolved to mislead the man if it were possible to do so, “can you give us a line on a country where there’s nothing but mountains and rivers and blue sky? This is the fourth mountain trip we’ve made, and every time we’ve run into a lot of people where none were supposed to exist.”
“That’s right!” Jimmie cut in. “When we landed in the valley we thought we’d have the whole place to ourselves. Then you come along and rolled the bear down on us, and asked a lot of impertinent questions. Then three men steal our aeroplane so we can’t return to camp from our midnight joy-ride. Then we see two men in front of a fire and hear others coming down the gully. How many people are there around here, anyway?”
“Quite a few!” laughed the captor. “In fact,” he went on, “I don’t think you can find any spot on the American continent where you won’t find more or less human beings.”
“What are you going to do with us?” asked Carl.
“Tell you what,” Jimmie cut in before the man could answer the question, “if you’ll get the Louise away from the thieves and go back to camp with us, we’ll cook you the biggest bear steak you ever saw, and cook you a cup of coffee that will hold up an iron wedge!”
“If you only hadn’t entered this storehouse,” the man said thoughtfully, “your proposition might be worthy of consideration.”
“We’ll never say a word about the smuggled goods,” said Carl.