“Stop!” cried Joe, and ran up to Butts. The next moment man and boy tripped and fell, but, luckily, our hero was on top.
“Let me go!” growled the man.
“So we meet again, Butts!” cried Joe.
The man stared in amazement and then began to struggle. Seeing this, Joe doubled up his fists and gave him a blow in the nose and in the right eye, which caused him to roar with pain.
“That's right!” came from the doorway of the cabin. “Give it to him! Make him give me my gold!”
“Give up the gold,” ordered Joe.
“There it is!” growled Bill Butts, and threw a buckskin bag towards the cabin. The man from within caught it up and stowed it away in his pocket.
“Shall I call a policeman?” asked Joe.
“I don't know,” said the man from the cabin. He wore a troubled face and had white hair and a white beard. “It may be—Wha—where did you come from?” he gasped.
“Where did I come from?” asked Joe.