“Sure?” asked Matt.
“Sure’s I can be without seein’ ’em closter.”
“That’s who they be, pap,” said Sam. “I know, ’cause they’ve got the same kind of clothes and the same kind of hats on ’em.”
Sam and Jake were deceived by the hunting suits worn by the strangers. The latter were a couple of sportsmen who had made a short excursion into the woods without a guide, and were now on their way to their hotel. Matt took a minute or two in which to think over the situation.
“Look sharp,” said he, in an excited whisper, “an’ see if they have got camp-baskets onto their backs or grip-sacks in their hands. If they have, we’ll bounce ’em quicker.”
“They ain’t got nary thing in their hands but jest fish-poles,” answered Sam. “I can see ’em plain. The things they’ve got on their backs is knapsacks.”
“Then they must have left Joe Wayring an’ the money alone at the spring-hole,” chuckled Matt. “They can’t go to Injun Lake an’ turn around and come back before the middle of forenoon to-morrer, an’ by the time they see No-Man’s Pond again we’ll be through with our business. I tell you things is beginnin’ to run my way onct more. Ain’t you sorry you come, Sammy? We shall find Joe alone at the pond, and it’ll be the easiest thing in the world to make him trot out that money or tell where he’s hid it.”
“But supposin’ he won’t do it?” said Jake. “What’ll you do to him, pap?”
“We’ll tie him to a tree an’ thrash him so’t he won’t never get over it,” said the squatter, through his teeth. “That boy has put me to a sight of trouble ever sense I first heard of him, an’ now I’m goin’ to take my satisfaction outen him. We’ll make him ax our parding an’ acknowledge that we’re just as good as he is, even if we ain’t got no good clothes to wear.”
“An’ when you get through I’ll take a hand, an’ pay him for the whack he give me in the face with your paddle,” chimed in Jake.