“Can jist as well as not,” replied Strange, “though there is one thing I had forgotten to mention.”
“Well, let’s have it.”
“I shall insist on keeping my bear-skin on at the ranch.”
“Of course! We wouldn’t know that the great Black Bear was in our midst unless you wore it,” returned Dungarvon.
“Then I am ready to go with you,” said the false chief.
The two arose and at once set off toward the robber’s ranch.
As they walked along, conversing on different topics, Strange finally said:
“You have never told me, Dungarvon, why it is that you hate this man Sanford so bitterly.”
“No. I tell very few, because I don’t want everybody to know, for then it would be no secret, and that’s the beauty of it.”
“Yes; but tell it, tell it to me, Dungarvon,” said Strange.