“Probably they have gone into the woods,” said Loren.
“Then how does it come that there are so many guides lying around doing nothing?” asked Tom. “I don’t believe there are many guests in the woods. They have gone home, or to other fishing grounds where their camps will not be robbed the minute they turn their backs. Matt said he would ruinate the hotels, if they didn’t give him work, and he seems in a fair way to do it.”
“Say,” whispered Ralph. “I didn’t like what Hanson said about having Matt Coyle arrested.”
Tom was about to answer that he didn’t like it either, when he heard footsteps behind him and a voice calling out: “Just another word before you go, boys,” and upon turning around he saw Mr. Hanson in pursuit.
“I forgot one thing,” said he, when he came up. “Can you make it convenient to come here day after to-morrow morning? By that time we’ll have Matt hard and fast, most likely. The sheriff says he will have to take him to Irvington, that being the nearest place at which we can have him bound over to appear before the circuit court. I can prove by Rube Royall, the watchman at the hatchery, that Matt acknowledged stealing and concealing the guns, and I shall need you to testify to the finding of them. You will be around, won’t you?”
The boys said they would, but their voices were almost inaudible, and the faces they turned toward one another when Mr. Hanson had left them were very white indeed.
“Now we are in a scrape,” said Loren, who was the first to break the silence. “Tom Bigden, that fellow will tell all he knows about you just so sure as you get up in court to bear witness against him. You told him that the guides found and returned the guns.”
“So I did,” groaned Tom. “So I did; but he won’t be long in finding out that I lied to him, will he? What shall I do? What can I do? There’s one thing about it,” added Tom, who, although badly frightened, tried to put a bold face on the matter. “Matt Coyle has not yet been arrested, and I’ve got so much at stake that I don’t want him to be. I shall seek another interview with him in the morning, and, if I can bring it about, I will tell him just what Hanson said about him. It is all that Joe Wayring’s fault. If he had treated us decently I wouldn’t have been in this scrape. I’ll do that boy some injury the first good chance I get.”
On their way to camp the boys kept within talking distance of one another and discussed the situation. Loren was of opinion that his cousin Tom had better draw a bee-line for Mount Airy bright and early the next morning; but Tom and Ralph agreed in saying that that would be the very worst thing that could be done under the circumstances. Mr. Hanson had plainly told them that he would need them for witnesses, and if Tom was foolish enough to run away he had better make a long run while he was about it and get out of the State, or the authorities would catch him sure.
“I shall not run an inch. I’ve got to stay and face it down,” said Tom, quietly; and his cousins knew, by the way the words came out, that he had decided upon his course. “There were no witnesses present when I told Matt to steal Joe Wayring’s canoe, and the matter will simply resolve itself into a question of veracity; and when it comes to that I think my word will have about as much weight as a tramp’s. All the same, I don’t want Matt arrested if it can possibly be avoided.”