If anything his face took on a deeper tint until it looked almost purple. When he saw that he had only two boys to contend with the other hunter must have believed he could frighten them with his looks, for he scowled like a pirate.
Somehow neither of the Mountain Boys drew back and began to apologize for daring to rob him of any of the free air. And no sooner had he arrived than the domineering tactics, with which perhaps he had pushed himself through business so as to accumulate his million, began to make themselves manifest.
“Here, what are you doing with your foot on my caribou, I’d like to know?” was what he jerked out, being still short of breath.
“Excuse me, sir, but you’ll have to explain what you mean,” said Phil, coolly. “I am not aware of taking any such liberties with your caribou. If it happens that you are referring to this animal here, you’ve made a big mistake, that’s all. It is our game; we saw it first, shot it first, and got here first. So you’ll have to go to court and put in a claim. Possession in this case is nine points of the law!”
The man stared at the speaker. He evidently had seldom been spoken to in that manner before, certainly never by a mere boy. And yet something in Phil’s face must have impressed him as worth observing. He saw that those eyes were fastened on him with a steady and keen look that did not falter under his scowl, or his muttering.
“I tell you it is my caribou, for I shot it,” he proceeded to affirm, embellishing his assertion with certain strong words which he doubtless expected might make the boys hesitate before they went any further and incurred his ill-will. “I was just creeping up within easy gunshot when you came along and scared the beast. I claim it as my prize.”
“And we have been trailing the same caribou for at least two hours,” said X-Ray under the impression that since he was a party to the dispute he should at least be allowed to get a few words in.
“The matter is easily settled,” said Phil, quietly.
“I am glad to see that you mean to act sensibly; for since you came up after I had started to stalk the caribou it put you in the wrong,” the other said, as if rather relieved in his mind at the turn affairs had taken.
“Don’t mistake me, sir,” continued Phil; “what I meant was that we can easily prove which has the right to the game. There’s a way to settle that question that neither of us can rightly deny. If you look over here at this side of the caribou, which was the side toward us, you remember, you will find that two bullets entered his body, one directly in the region of his heart. That shot killed the animal instantly. He could only make one jump, and then collapsed as you see him.”