These words added to Tom’s fears. “Do you think Joe suspected me?” he inquired.
“If he did, he made no sign,” replied Loren. “Perhaps one reason why Ralph and I suspected you was because we could read you better than Joe could. Well, what of it?”
“Well,” said Tom, desperately, “Matt Coyle tells me that, as an accessory before the fact, I am liable to punishment at the hands of the law. That is what he is working on. You have heard that he stole a couple of valuable guns from an unguarded camp a few weeks ago. There has been a reward of one hundred dollars offered for the recovery of those guns, and, as Matt dare not take them up to the Sportsman’s Home himself, he demands that I shall act as his agent, and share the reward with him.”
“Demands?” repeated Loren.
“But before he will give the guns into my possession, I must pay him fifty dollars, cash in hand,” added Tom. “Yes, sir; he demands that I shall do this under penalty of being denounced to the officers of the law.”
“Whew!” whistled Ralph. “Here is a go!”
“That Matt Coyle has more cheek than you showed on the day of the canoe meet, when you purposely capsized Prank Noble and claimed foul on it,” said Loren. “Are you going to give him the money?”
“He’ll have to; he can’t get out of it. But here’s where the trouble is going to come in,” said Ralph, who was by no means thick-headed if he did hate books. “The minute Tom gives him fifty dollars for those guns, that minute he puts himself completely in the villain’s power.”
“That was the way I looked at it,” said Tom. “But what can I do? What would you do if you were in my place?”
“The sight of those fifty dollars will show that lazy Matt how he can make a very nice income without doing a stroke of work,” continued Ralph. “He’ll go on stealing, and as fast as he accumulates property he will make Tom buy it of him, no matter whether there is a reward offered for it or not. There is only one thing you can do. You had better start for home bright and early to-morrow morning, get fifty dollars of your father, if he will give it to you, hand it over to Matt as soon as you can find him, and then shake the dust of the Indian Lake country from your feet forever, or at least until that squatter has been placed behind prison bars.”