"Did they hurt you, Bluff?" asked Frank.
"Oh! well, they acted better than perhaps I had any reason to expect. We mixed up some in the start, but they were too many for me."
"You mean the whole lot—well, I should guess yes. You had a sweet nerve sauntering into that camp and taking them all on. Accused them of stealing, too! Say, you don't know that they took your gun, do you?" demanded Frank.
"N—no, perhaps not," admitted Bluff, hesitatingly.
"Just surmise like, isn't it?"
"But why that shower of stones if not to get us to run out of camp, so that some one could sneak in and take a coveted article—and what more natural than that my new repeater should be the thing they wanted?" said Bluff, logically, as he believed.
"Well, until you have found some stronger evidence than that, I'd be a little slow about accusing any of that crowd, eh, Jerry?" went on Frank.
"That's right," admitted Jerry, looking back just then as if he fancied they might be followed, which, of course, was not the case.
"You didn't see any signs of the gun while there, did you?" asked Frank.
"No, I can't say I did; but then they wouldn't be likely to stick my own property under my nose, would they? I could have them arrested later on for robbery."