“Do you know him?” asked Frank eagerly.

“Wall, I should say so!”

“Where is he now?” asked the young inventor excitedly.

“Wall, that’s not so easy to say,” replied the trapper, with a drawl. “I ’low he was at Lone Trail when I wuz down thar this winter.”

“Can you swear to that?”

Beaver Bill looked surprised.

“In course I kin.”

“Then you are just the man I want. If you will go to Silver City and swear to that you will save Benjamin Astley from the scaffold.”

But the trapper said coolly:

“Hold on a bit, straunger. Thar’s a better way. They mought not take my word. Ye want to find Bert Mason an’ perduce him in court.”