“I didn’t pay the least attention to it, for I thought he said it to frighten me. It seems that Jake has lost track of the money that was stolen from the Irvington bank; but if Tom Bigden said he had seen it in my camp-basket, I don’t see what induced him to do it.”
“What was it that induced him to tell Matt to steal your canoe?” asked Arthur.
“I don’t know that he did. I only think so from what I have heard. Now, fellows,” said Joe calmly, but with determination, “my fishing is ended for a while, and I am going on the war-path. I’ll see whether or not I am to be tormented in this way by people who can not truthfully say that I ever did the first thing to injure them.”
“Count us in,” said Arthur. “I wish the portage was clear so that we could start for the lake at once; but I am afraid to try it in the dark.”
“We mustn’t try it in the dark. We’d get lost before we had gone a hundred yards,” said Roy. “We’ll make an early start in the morning. I would give something handsome if I knew just how this thing stands, and how Matt Coyle found out that we were camping here. I wonder what Tom will have to say for himself when the matter is brought into court.”
“I can’t believe that he had any thing to do with it,” answered Joe. “If he has half the sense I give him credit for, he must see that he would sooner or later bring himself into trouble by acting as Matt Coyle’s counselor.”
“He’s got sense enough; no one disputes that,” said Roy. “But I tell you he is at the bottom of this trouble. Matt and his boys knew what they were doing when they crossed to this side of the lake and came straight to No-Man’s Pond.”
“That’s what I say,” chimed in Arthur.
“Well,” replied Joe, “I shall need better evidence than a vagabond’s unsupported word before I will believe that Tom Bigden is to blame for any thing that has happened to me to-day. I don’t doubt that his will is good enough; but he would be afraid to put himself into the power of such a fellow as Matt Coyle. At any rate I’ll not make trouble for him if I can help it; but I’ll never rest easy till Matt’s whole tribe has been arrested or driven so far out of the country that they can’t get back in a hurry.”
“This is what we get by coming into the woods without our body-guard,” said Arthur. “If Jim had been here Matt could not have stolen a march on you as easily as he did.”