“How do you know that?” asked the other. “How do you know that he wasn’t in view of the kodak? Sometimes you get a picture that you don’t know anything about. Where are the pictures you took last night?”
“Haven’t taken ’em out yet,” Alex replied. “I’ll have to wait until I can get a chance to develop them. There’s no hurry, is there?”
“I would just like to see what the pictures include, that’s all,” answered Case. “There must be some reason for these men chasing us up as they appear to be doing. Don’t you think so?”
Alex opened his eyes in wonder, evidently regarding Case as the originator of a puzzle to which he only could supply a solution.
“Why,” he asked, presently, “you don’t think the two men got on the train just because we were on it, do you? To my mind, they got on because they didn’t like the looks of the ties as a means of transportation. I guess you’ll find that that’s all there is to it.”
“Well,” Case replied, “I don’t know as I’m right, but it appears to me that there others in the pass besides the campers, and that they had some reason for getting hold of you. I’ll just bet you took one of their pictures, perhaps as he was peering out from some shelter, when you snapped the others. And I’ll wager you the washing of a mess of dishes that they think you did, whether you did or not.”
Alex laughed silently for a moment and then asked:
“Where did you get it? You’re building a mystery about a tramp chasing a boy who came too near his lair! Come, let’s go out on the bank and take a look at the Columbia, our future home for many a bright day! We’ve been guessing over nothing long enough.”
“Will you let me see the films?” asked Case, still in dead earnest.
“Sure! Just fish my kodak out of that mess on the floor and I’ll get ’em out. You can see them well enough to learn if there really is any face peering out from some nook behind the fire.”