“What have you found that is so very interesting?” inquired Tom, who knew that he ought to open the conversation in some way.
“Oh, here you are,” exclaimed Hastings. “We could not imagine what had become of you. Until we heard you call out there in the woods, we supposed that the bear had come back, and that you had gone after him in Joe’s boat.”
“Not by a long shot!” cried Tom, who saw very plainly what Arthur was driving at. “I haven’t seen the bear since I lost sight of you, and if I had, I should have gone away from him and not toward him. I have no ambition to shine as a bear hunter, and consequently I am here safe and sound.”
“But Joe’s canoe isn’t,” said Roy.
Tom looked, and sure enough the place where Joe had left his boat when he went into the woods was vacant. With much apparent anxiety and uneasiness he turned toward his canoe as if to satisfy himself that his own treasures were safe, when Roy broke out with—
“Oh, you’re a sufferer the same as the rest of us. Your lunch and your fine bait-rod have gone off to keep Joe’s canoe company. He took all our rods and his pick of the fish, too, and it is a great wonder to me that he was good enough to leave us our paddles.”
Tom was really surprised now, and he was deeply in earnest when he said:
“If I ever meet the man who did that I’ll have him arrested if I can find any one to make out a warrant for him.” Then suddenly recollecting that he was not supposed to know who the thief was, he added: “Do you suspect any body?”
“No, we don’t suspect; we know,” answered Joe. “Look at that!”
“Can you tell a man’s name by looking at the print of his foot in the mud?” asked Tom.