“Oh, she was taken in on general principles. I don’t suppose she can be held as an accessory, for she hasn’t gumption enough to suggest or plan the robberies that her worthy husband has committed; but she knew all about them and can give the officers more help than any body else. You see, ever since Matt and his family left Rube’s cabin, the deputy sheriff has taken to sleeping there; and last night who should come poking along but the old woman! When she found that she was a prisoner, she lost heart and answered all the questions the sheriff asked her. She didn’t have the pluck to stand out, and I don’t wonder at it. She looked as though she was almost starved. She ate more grub than you four are going to eat, judging by the way Joe is backing away from the table already.”
“That’s good news,” said Mr. Swan. “Where’s Matt now?”
“On his way to Sherwin’s Pond.”
“I wonder if that’s so, or whether the old woman just made it up.”
“I am not sure about that, and neither was the sheriff. I loaned him a boat and a couple of my men, and he’s gone up to Indian Lake with the woman. From there he will take her to Irvington. He says she will have to stand her trial with the rest of the family.”
“I don’t believe that Matt went to Sherwin’s Pond,” said Joe, after thinking the matter over. “He would be in more danger there than he would if he stayed here. The old woman told that story to throw the sheriff off the track.”
“Mebbe not,” replied the guide. “Don’t we know by experience that the squatter is a master hand to slip around and operate in the rear of his pursuers? What more natural than he should run up to the pond to get behind us, thinking he would be safer there than in the Indian Lake country? At any rate, there’s where I am going as soon as I can get a boat.”
“All right,” said Joe. “Any thing to keep busy.”
“But if I was in your place I wouldn’t go there just yet,” added the guide. “You want your boat and the other things Matt stole, don’t you? Well, then, hire a boat of Hanson, go up the creek, explore every little stream that runs into it on the right hand side as you go up, and you will find some of them. You won’t find all, of course, for Matt kept one of the boats, all the provisions, and every thing else that would be of use to him. After you have done that, you can come up to the pond, and you’ll be sure to find me and some of the boys there. That would be my plan.”
A very good plan it was, too, the boys told one another, and they decided to adopt it. After the superintendent had set them across the outlet, they made the best of their way toward Indian Lake, where Mr. Swan said they would sleep that night. The first persons they saw, when they entered the hotel and approached the clerk’s desk to ask if they could hire a skiff for a few days, were Jake and Sam Coyle. But they were not as ragged and dirty as usual. Their faces had been washed, their hair combed, and somebody had given them whole suits of clothes.