"I don't want to get into any trouble with the officers, for it is absolutely necessary that I should start for home bright and early to-morrow morning," said Mr. Brown, who could not help admiring Joe's courage, although he would have been glad to see his guide thrash him soundly for his obstinacy. "It is very provoking to have this boy show up just in time to spoil all our fun. Let's go over to Hallet's woods, and see if we can scare up another so-called game-warden."
"Well, you can," said Joe, who wanted to laugh when he saw the look of surprise that settled on the guide's face. "You'll scare up two over there, and, Brierly, one of them is a chap that you will not care to fool with. When you find him, it will be very easy for you to ascertain whether or not I have told you the truth; that is, if you care enough about it to ask him a few questions."
"Who is he?" asked Brierly.
"Tom Hallet," answered Joe; and, without waiting to listen to the expressions of anger and disgust that came from the lips of the guide, he shouldered his rifle and hurried off.
"I wonder what they will conclude to do about it?" thought Joe, as he threaded his way through the thick woods in the direction from which the poachers' guns sounded. "Brierly agreed to give his employer a good day's sport, and now that he can't keep his promise, will he hand back the money that Mr. Brown paid him? I don't think he will."
He didn't either, and Joe afterward learned how he got out of it.
CHAPTER XVII. WHO FIRED THE FOUR SHOTS?
It is hardly necessary to assure the reader that the young game-warden's heart was not in the task he had set himself. He believed that his father and Dan had come upon a bevy of Mr. Warren's imported birds and fired both barrels of their guns into it; and, as they were both good wing-shots, it was not probable that very many of the birds had escaped unhurt. Joe's business was to intercept them if he could, and to report them, regardless of consequences, if he found anything except squirrels in their game-bags.