“Matt threw his paddle at me when he saw that I was about to slip through his fingers, and I threw it back,” answered Joe. “It didn’t hit Matt, as I meant it should, but it came pretty near knocking Jake out of the scow.”
“The scow?” repeated Roy. “Have they got a boat of their own, I’d like to know.”
Joe replied that they had a boat in their possession (of course he didn’t know where they got it, or whether or not they had any right to call it their own), and then went on to tell of the exploit I had performed at the perch hole, and of the surprise that followed close upon the heels of it. He wound up his story by saying—
“I didn’t have time to draw up my anchor, so I had to go overboard. I swam the best I knew how in order to reach the bank before Matt did; then I raced a mile or more through the woods in my wet clothes, and that was what tired me out.”
“I wonder if we are to find that fellow hanging around every time we come into the woods?” said Roy, angrily. “Hallo, here!”
A slight splashing in the water drew their attention at the moment, and Joe and Arthur started up in alarm, expecting to find that the squatter and his boys had stolen a march upon them. There was a canoe close alongside of them, but the broad-shouldered, brown-whiskered man who handled the paddle was not Matt Coyle or any body like him. He was one of the hotel guides who had assisted in driving the squatter out of the Indian Lake country, and he was looking for him now.
“Hallo yourself,” he replied, good-naturedly. “Well, I swan to man, if there ain’t Roy Sheldon and—Why, you’re all here, ain’t you? Say! seen any thing of Matt Coyle since you have been hanging around?”
“Mr. Swan, how are you?” exclaimed all the boys, in a breath. They knew the guide, and liked him, too.
“You have come to the right place to learn a good deal concerning Matt and his doings,” continued Roy. “What has he been up to now?”
“Well, you see,” answered the guide, speaking with so much deliberation that the impatient boys wanted to hurry him, “he came here last year from somewhere, and wanted to set in for a guide; but the hotels down to the lake wouldn’t have him, ’cause they didn’t think he was a safe man to trust with a boat, and Matt, he allowed that he’d fix things so’t there wouldn’t be no guidin’ for none of us to do. So he’s took to the woods, and he robs every camp he can find, if there don’t happen to be any body around to watch it. Leastwise we lay it to him, ’cause we know he’s around here, and some of us thought that we’d like to take a peep at his shanty, if he’s got one.”