Murray started across the opening and had proceeded about fifty yards when the men on the porch espied him and one of them cried:
“Hello, there’s a game thief, as sure as you are born.”
Up jumped the man and a moment later he reappeared with his gun; but the steward ran out and caught the gun away from him, and the detective, who had kept right on, got near enough to call out:
“Hello, there!”
The men were up to mischief, and one of them exclaimed:
“Say, Atwood, there is your wife on the other end of the telephone.”
The detective advanced and the four men approached him, peering at him under the moonlight, and as he drew nearer he called out:
“Hello, Atwood, old man! How are you?”
Atwood stared a moment and then asked:
“Who are you?”