Joe slowly mounted to the top of the hill, and shook hands with Tom and Bob, before he made any reply to these questions. Then he said:
"I have had visits from two parties. One of them I saw, and the other I didn't see, and they were the fellows who did the shooting. They are on the other side of the gulf, most likely, and when I saw you dodging behind trees, I was trying to make up my mind whether or not I ought to cross over and hunt them out."
"What's the use of going to all that trouble?" exclaimed Tom. "I don't believe they got any birds; but if they did, they made all haste to pick them up and run with them. You say you saw the other party. Who were they? Did they have any birds?"
Joe answered the last question first.
"I took particular pains to see that their game-bags were empty," said he. "The guide was Brierly, and he called his employer Mr. Brown. He's no sportsman, whoever he is; he's a butcher," added Joe, who then went on to give the particulars of the interview, and to rejoice in the fact that Mr. Brown was several dollars out of pocket, having been confiding enough to pay Brierly in advance for the day's sport he thought he was going to have among the imported game that had just been "turned down" in Mr. Warren's woods and Hallet's.
"Hallet's!" exclaimed Tom. "Did they have the impudence to go over there after you left them."
"Mr. Brown suggested it, but I didn't see them go anywhere," was Joe's reply. "I warned them that they would find two game-wardens there instead of one, adding that if they wanted to know whether I had told the truth regarding myself they had better question you."
"Let's go back and see what they are up to," suggested Bob. "I say, Joe," he added suddenly, but not without a certain hesitation and constraint of manner that was too plain to escape the young game-warden's attention, "while you were walking along the gulf, you didn't—er—you didn't see anything at all suspicious, did you?"
"I didn't see anything but trees and bushes."
"And you didn't hear anything either, I suppose?" continued Bob.