“Then I came into the game. Mr. Miller came to me here with the story and the pictures. He also told me where the boat was and how soon it would be here. Then he went up to Calgary to shave and dress up like a gentleman.
“But he did not know that the robbers had followed you boys into the mountains in the hope of getting the boat, of capturing Gran, and closing his lips forever, for they had suspicions that he had gone out to betray them. They cut the anchor chain, hoping that you would all be drowned in the rapids. But it was Mr. Miller who caught the rowboat and used it until he left for this point. It was wrecked after he left it. Anything else?” asked the Sergeant, as he concluded.
“Why didn’t they tell us all about it?” asked Case. “What was the use of being so sly about it?”
“If they had understood you all then as well as they do now,” the officer replied, “they would doubtless have done so.”
“Why did he chase me when I was getting away with the pictures?” asked Alex pointing to Mr. Miller.
“Because I wanted the films,” laughed the other, “and I got them, in time, as you all know!”
“I wonder why the robbers didn’t kill us while we slept, if they wanted us out of the way, instead of cutting the anchor chain,” Case puzzled. “I should think they would have made a sure thing of it.”
“I wondered at that,” the Sergeant said, “but I think now that they were afraid that the murder would be discovered and that they would be suspected. Anyway such a crime as that, when the river gave up the bodies, would have filled this district with police officers, and they would have made it very uncomfortable for the robbers. They doubtless thought, too, that the rapids would do the work satisfactorily.”
“And the robbers built the signal fire?” asked Clay.
“Yes,” answered the officer. “At least that is what Mr. Miller thinks. They must have separated, and wanted to get together again.”