“This is the first chance I have had to thank you young gentlemen for your generosity,” said he. “Mr. Hanson has given me half the reward you earned by restoring those guns and which you did not claim.”
“You are very welcome, I am sure,” answered Tom. “Were you with the party that found Wayring’s canoe? If you had looked a little further you might have found the guns, too. How about that money? Heard any thing of it lately?”
“Not so very,” replied the guide. “All we know is, that Jake Coyle cheated the robbers out of it very neatly, hid it somewhere, and then took himself off. It is over on your side of the lake; we are sure of that. You seem to be lucky, so why don’t you hunt it up and claim the six hundred?”
“If you men who know every foot of the woods can’t find it, we wouldn’t stand much of a show,” said Ralph. “Do you know where Wayring and his cronies have started for? I see that they have left their skiff behind and that Mr. Swan is taking care of it.”
“They’re bound to catch some legal trout before they go home, and are going to No-Man’s Pond after them. That’s twelve miles from here, and through the thickest woods any body ever heard of. They’ll catch fish, but, as I told them, they will have a time getting there.”
Tom’s curiosity was satisfied now, and, as there was nothing more to detain him at the lake, he was ready to undertake the disagreeable duty to which he had been “elected.” The trip to and from the camp was disagreeable only because Tom did not want to make it just then. He would have preferred to stay and seek an introduction to some of the pretty girls who had been registered at the hotel since his last visit, and who were now in full possession of the lawn tennis court.
When Tom reached the grove in which he and his cousins had spent their two weeks outing, an unpleasant surprise awaited him. He saw nothing suspicious about the camp; indeed he did not look for it; but in less than half a minute after he beached his canoe and disembarked he was surrounded by Matt Coyle and his boys, who glared savagely at him and brandished switches over his head.
“Well, sir, we’ve ketched one of ye,” said Matt, laying hold of Tom’s collar. “Now will you own up or won’t you?”
With a quick jerk Tom freed himself from the squatter’s grasp and turned and faced him. He was so bold and defiant that Matt quailed before him.
“What have you to say to me?” demanded Tom, with flashing eyes. “Keep your distance if you expect me to talk to you. I was in hopes I had seen the last of you.”