“All right, but we’re going to get up before he does,” was all Phil replied.
The first thing he did on reaching the spot where the stricken caribou lay was to bend down and closely examine the right side. As said before the animal lay just as it had fallen, so that both haunches were in plain view, did any one take the trouble to step around.
Phil was gratified with what he saw in that hasty survey; but nevertheless he immediately leaned over to ascertain the condition of the animal’s left side. By that time X-Ray had come up, and the stranger sportsman was also close at hand.
Up to that moment Phil had not taken the pains to give the other a look; but as he had found out all he wanted concerning the state of affairs in connection with the game, he now turned his attention on the advancing man.
He was a rather stout and exceedingly peppery looking individual, who was rather out of breath, and puffing from his exertions. His florid face did not impress Phil favorably at all; it seemed to sense the bully, and the overbearing man of millions, accustomed to lording it over others.
There was no question at all in Phil’s mind but that this man was a member of the other party he had been told was in camp in that vicinity. He might have even thought him to be a beef-eating Englishman only that his information had been to the effect that they were all Americans from below the border.
“I don’t like his looks!” muttered X-Ray.
“No more do I,” added Phil, under his breath, for the stranger sportsman was getting close up by then, and might hear if words were spoken in an ordinary tone. “But the game is ours without a question, and we’re going to have what we want to carry off, make up your mind to that.”
“Bully!” muttered X-Ray, who was inclined to be pugnacious on occasion; and at any rate never disposed to allow himself to be “used as a door mat, for some other person to wipe his feet on,” as he used to put it.
Perhaps Phil meant something when he calmly placed his foot on the fallen game. It was a significant move, at any rate, and could hardly be mistaken. It struck X-Ray as peculiarly defiant, and he felt like chuckling as he watched to see what that red-faced individual did when he arrived on the scene of action.