"Then here it is, and if you breathe a single word I wouldn't wonder if you got into jail. I've been hired to watch them fellows till officers can get here and arrest them."
"Then you're a reg'lar detective," Jim cried, breathlessly.
"Hold your tongue, or everybody on the lake will hear you. I ain't anything of the kind. Didn't I say I'd only been hired to watch them so's to let the officers know where they stop?"
"What have they been doing?"
"I don't reckon it's very much; but somebody in Albany seems to think it'll pay to catch them."
"Why didn't the constables come with you?"
"Because nobody but me knew they'd started for this place. It the men make a camp we can send back word; but if they have the least little idea that we're on their trail there'll be a mighty good chance of our getting our throats cut."
"I'll be still as a fish; but I do wish I knew more about 'em."
"If they are arrested you can find out the whole story."
This promise seemed to satisfy Jim, and he rowed on in silence, probably fancying he was doing some skillful piece of detective work, which might be spoiled by so much as the splashing of the oars.