"You will be glad to know, Charley," said the forester, "that those same visitors have confessed to their crime, or rather Lumley did. When we produced the thumb-prints in the putty and in the clay and compared them with Lumley's thumbs, he made a clean breast of everything. It won't surprise you to learn that he set the previous fires in this virgin timber. He wants to be state's evidence."
"Excellent!" cried Charley. "They won't burn any more forests--or rob any more cabins. By the way, Mr. Marlin, did you bring me any more supplies?"
"No," said the forester.
Charley looked vastly perplexed, but said nothing. He didn't want to bother the forester, but how he was to live without food he could not imagine. Evidently his face must have mirrored his thoughts, for the forester, after studying Charley's countenance, burst into a laugh.
"Charley," he said, "it's clear that you don't pay much attention to your Bible."
"What do you mean?"
"Why, don't you recall that we are admonished to take no thought for the morrow, as to what we shall eat, and so on? Here you are worrying over a little matter like food. Don't you have any ravens out in these mountains to bring you grub if you get hungry?"
"It isn't any laughing matter," replied Charley. "What am I going to do? I haven't an ounce of food left in the cabin."
The forester's eyes sparkled. "Shall we tell him what he's to do, Commissioner?" he asked.
The Chief Forester turned toward them with a smile. "I guess you had better. It would be a shame to torment this young man after what he has accomplished."