"Have you any idea who the man is?"
"Not the slightest; but—but—well I don't care who he is, or why he is hiding there, if he will only make it his business to drive away every market-shooter who goes into those woods."
It had been right on the point of Joe's tongue to say that he would know all about the mysterious party who was hiding in the gorges before he came home again; but he didn't say it.
His mother was smiling now, and he did not want to bring the old expression of fear and anxiety back to her face. He was none the less determined, however, to sift the matter to the bottom.
"I will see Tom and Bob to-morrow," he went on. "By the way, you didn't know that they are Mr. Hallet's game-wardens, did you? Neither did I, until this morning. I couldn't have better fellows for company, could I? You see, mother, the place where all these things happened is on the dividing line that runs between Mr. Warren's woods and Mr. Hallet's, and as the ghost will help Tom and Bob quite as much as he will me, I want to know what they think about letting him stay there."
There was another reason why Joe was anxious to have an interview with Mr. Hallet's game-wardens, but he did not think it best to say anything to his mother about it.
CHAPTER XXI. A TREACHEROUS GUIDE.
Having told his story, and set all his mother's fears at rest, Joe thought it time to speak of his own affairs, and asked for his father's watch; whereupon, that ancient relic and heirloom was duly fished out of a dark corner in one of the bureau drawers, set in motion, and handed over to him, after being regulated by the not altogether reliable clock that ticked loudly on the mantel.