“He may have been intending to camp there for the night when we frightened him away,” added Arthur.
“He may have been in camp,” assented the guide, “but we never frightened him. He had wind of our coming long before we got here. Of course I don’t know how he got it, but that’s the way the thing stands.”
“Well, what’s to be done?”
“Nothing at all to-night. We’ll camp right where we are, and at daylight we’ll go back to the hatchery.”
“Camp right here,” repeated Joe, dolefully. “No blankets, no supper to eat, and no nothing.”
“Go back to the hatchery,” murmured Roy, “and confess ourselves beaten again by that villain, Matt Coyle. Oh, we’re the best kind of fellows to go on a hunt after so cunning a criminal as Matt, ain’t we?”
Arthur Hastings was too angry to say any thing except that he was glad the squatter had not run away with his gun as well as his skiff. Mr. Swan was equally glad to have his beloved brier-root and a plentiful supply of smoking tobacco in his pocket. If he had left them in his canoe, as he usually did, he would have had the prospect of a miserable night before him. As it was, he smoked and told stories, and in listening to them the boys forgot that they had no blankets to cover them, and that they would not find a bite to eat till they reached the hatchery the next day.
When morning came Joe and his friends had nothing to do but brush the leaves from their clothes, smooth their hair with their hands, perform their ablutions in the creek, and then they were ready for their ten-mile walk. Mr. Swan spent a few minutes in looking about Matt’s old camp, but did not find any thing to tell him how long it had been deserted or which way the squatter and his family had gone. They arrived at the hatchery tired and hungry, and the bountiful breakfast the superintendent placed before them was a tempting sight. That official laughed when he heard how Matt had stolen up behind them and run off with their boats, and scowled when Roy told him what he and his boys had done in their camp at No-Man’s Pond.
“Why, what in the world could have put it into Matt’s head that you had the money?” inquired the superintendent; and without waiting for an answer he continued: “It beats the world where that money has gone, but I think we’ll soon get on the track of it. Did you see the watchman as you came by his shanty? Then perhaps you don’t know that the old woman was taken into custody last night?”
“No,” replied Joe. “We hadn’t heard of that. What’s the charge?”