“Not on your life,” X-Ray told him; “Baylay doesn’t know there are any such fellows as the Mountain Boys on earth. But there is one man who does, because he ran up against a couple of the same latterly, and had to duck. I’m referring to the eminent capitalist and financier millionaire, Mr. James Bodman.”
“Whee!” breathed Lub again, as his emotions almost overpowered him; he did not venture to interrupt, but just sat there and listened with all his might to the exciting talk that was going on among his chums.
“Well,” said Ethan, slowly, “from the description of that sportsman, and the way he acted when he found he couldn’t bulldoze the pair of you, I wouldn’t put a thing like this past him; but how would he know where we were camped?”
“Oh! that is easy to answer,” Phil told him; “don’t you remember how we learned where they were settled by seeing smoke rising in the cold air, straight as a church pillar?”
“I reckon they could see the same if they happened to look this way,” admitted Ethan, “because Lub uses all kinds of wood, and some of it makes a black smudge. Well, I’ll admit for the sake of argument that they could easy enough learn where our camp lay; but do you believe that stout sportsman would go to the trouble to sneak all the way over here, several miles it must be, just to try and make us some nasty mean trouble?”
“No, I don’t,” replied Phil, instantly.
“Then what follows?” demanded the other, desperately.
“He knows the power of money, because he uses it right along to further some of his big schemes,” Phil exclaimed.
“You mean he could bribe a couple of his guides to come over here and do the burning racket; is that what you have in mind, Phil?” asked Ethan.
“Yes, there’s no doubt of it in my mind,” he was told.