"Perhaps he wouldn't have got any independent guiding in that part of the State," suggested Joe.
"There are, or used to be, plenty of guides up there," said the conductor, "but I don't suppose they get much to do now. A man who goes into the woods for fun doesn't pick guides from among a lot of fellows who will rob him the first chance they get. Of course there are some nice people about the Glen, and they will be glad to take you in if the Buster band will let them do it."
"What has the Buster band to say about it?" demanded Joe.
"Who are they, and where did they get that name?" added Roy.
"They are the ones I have been telling you about—the lawless people in the Glen's Falls neighborhood," replied the conductor. "They 'bust up' property when things don't go to suit them, and that's the reason they call themselves the Buster band."
"But what's the reason they will not allow any of the nice folks in town to board us if they want to?" asked Arthur.
"Of course I am not sure that they will object to any arrangements you may be able to make with the family whose name I shall presently give you, but I think they will," answered the conductor. "You see, Dave Daily, the leader of the band, was indicted for arson, and there's a warrant out for him now. He and a companion were arrested for stealing timber; but they got out of jail somehow (every one says they must have had help from the outside in order to do it), and that night the man who complained of them lost everything he had in the world. Everything that would burn went up in smoke, and his stock was either poisoned or shot. After that Daily and his friend took to the woods, and Daily is there yet, or was the last I heard of him; but the friend was run down by a Middleport officer who went up there for that purpose."
"That was all right," said Joe, when the conductor paused. "I wish he had caught Daily also."
"So do I; but it seems he didn't. What I was going to say is this: That officer went up to Glen's Falls on his wheel."
"Ah! That explains it, and the matter is perfectly clear to me now," said Arthur. "You think that Daily or his friends will think we are officers too, and that they will tell this man to whom you are going to direct us—what did you say his name is?"