At noon of the following day, while a fifteen-minute game of baseball was in progress after dinner, the boss of Camp No. 10 received a note from the president of the company, requesting him to report immediately in person at Tacoma, and bring with him the two hump-durgin boys Dale and Brooks.
Mr. Linton, being a man who kept his own business to himself as much as possible, merely called our lads and bade them follow him. Of course this order broke up the game they were playing, and as they hastened after the boss, Bonny, in whose hands the baseball happened to be, thrust it into one of his pockets. Although curious to know why they were thus summoned, the boys learned nothing from Mr. Linton until they reached the railway log-landing, when he told them that they were wanted in Tacoma, and that he was instructed to bring them there at once.
From the landing they proceeded by hand-car to Cascade Junction, where they boarded a west-bound passenger train over the Northern Pacific. Even now Mr. Linton was not communicative, and after sitting awhile in silence, he went forward into the smoking-car, leaving the boys in the passenger coach next behind it. Now they began to discuss their situation, and the more they considered it, the more apprehensive they became that something unpleasant was in store for them.
"He's a United States Marshal, remember," said Bonny.
"Yes," replied Alaric; "I've been thinking of that. Do you suppose it can have anything to do with that smuggling business?"
"I'm awfully afraid so," replied Bonny. "Great Scott! Look there!"
The train was just leaving Meeker, where a passenger had boarded their car, and was now walking leisurely through it toward the smoker. It was he who had attracted Bonny's attention, and at whom he now pointed a trembling finger.
Alaric instantly recognized the man as an officer of the revenue-cutter that had so persistently chased them in the early summer. Without a word, he left his seat and followed the new-comer to the smoking-car, where a single glance through the open door continued his worst suspicions.
The officer had seated himself beside Mr. Linton, and they were talking with great earnestness.
"They are surely after us again," Alaric said, in a whisper, as he regained his seat beside Bonny; "but I don't intend to be captured, if I can help it."