"Of course you don't know anything about it," said Joe, with a look which said that they knew all about it; "but if you are as ignorant as you pretend to be, why were you so anxious to keep me out of the gorge yesterday?"
"Why—er—you see, we didn't want you to walk yourself to death for nothing," said Tom, wondering if Joe had anything better than mere suspicion to back him. "We knew there were a couple of fellows down there, for we heard them shoot, and we advised you to keep out of the gorge because we were satisfied that you couldn't catch them, and that it would be a waste of breath and strength for you to make the attempt."
"Was that the only reason you had for giving me that advice?" asked Joe, with a smile. "You might as well confess that there was something down there you did not want me to see. There were two fellows in the gorge yesterday, but they were not hunting birds. They were after the twelve thousand dollars in bills and three hundred dollars in gold that you said were hidden there."
"We never said so!" exclaimed both the boys, in a breath.
"But the letter you wrote said so," insisted Joe. "And what do you think those trespassers did while they were there?" he continued, with great impressiveness. "They sent four charges of shot into the head of that ghost, which wasn't a ghost at all, if you only knew it."
"Great Moses!" ejaculated Bob, who was really surprised now, as well as alarmed.
The way in which Joe spoke was calculated to excite the gravest suspicions in his mind and Tom's.
"Did—did they hit him?" Tom managed to ask.
"I should say they did!" answered Joe, solemnly. "They could not miss him very well, seeing that he was only thirty yards away from the muzzles of their guns."
"Was—was it a man?" Tom ventured to ask.