"The camp is kinder sheltered, but them fellers across the lake—" Yardsley paused, and a strange expression came over his bronzed face. "H'm—powerful singular, I call it."
"What is?" asked Sam.
The trapper nodded, as if in answer to some thought of his own. They were standing by the side of a huge boulder, and partially sheltered from the wind.
"Well, mates, I don't like ter accuse no one, but ain't it powerful suspicious that them chaps should hev called you over this mornin'?"
As if half sorry that he had uttered his thoughts, the trapper stopped short, and glanced questioningly at the others.
"By George! It is rather funny!" cried Dick, impulsively. "And don't you remember, Sam, Robson said the whole crowd was expected to come over?"
"And it might have been all a bluff, too, about the others going out hunting."
"An' him as they call Piper was a-wantin', so he said, ter buy furs t'other day. Ridiculous figger, too. I don't like ter say nothin', but it's powerful singular," and Yardsley nodded vigorously. "Can't say I ever took to 'em, neither," he went on. "Oily kind of feller that Piper, an' very techy."
"And they knew just where your skins were kept?"
"Sartin! As sure as you're a-standin' here, they did."