“That’s what we get by sending them word that if they wanted their fishing-rods they could come and get them,” said Joe, after a little pause. “If we had redeemed their property at the time we redeemed ours, Tom and his cousins wouldn’t have come here.”
“Well, the woods are big enough for all of you, ain’t they?” said the guide. “You needn’t have any thing to do with ’em if you don’t want to.”
“We are not sure of that,” answered Roy. “We shall not trouble them, but that’s no sign that they will keep away and let us alone.”
“Why are they having so much to do with Matt Coyle?” said Arthur. “That looks suspicious.”
“It does indeed,” said Joe, seriously. “I am afraid it means business for us.”
“I don’t see why it should,” replied Mr. Swan. “You stay on this side the lake and let them stay on the other, and you needn’t come together at all. They ain’t going to tramp twelve miles through the woods to that spring-hole just for the sake of getting into a fuss with you.”
“Don’t they know that Matt and his boys are in danger of arrest?” asked Arthur.
“Course they know it. They couldn’t help it, seeing that they come here every few days after supplies and mail,” said the guide. “The guides who saw them talking together didn’t know what to make of it, and I don’t either.”
“There’s something between Tom and Matt, and you may depend upon it,” said Joe. “It has leaked out in Mount Airy that Tom tried to put Matt up to lots of mischief before he went away. He told the squatter that it would be a good plan for him to burn my father’s house, and turn our sailboats adrift so that they would go into the rapids and be smashed to pieces.”
“Well, he’s a bright feller!” exclaimed the guide. “Don’t he know that he will get himself into trouble by that sort of work? There they come now.”