Here Billee shook his head.
"You can't make me believe," he said, "that this gang, or one like it, has been doin' this gas business all along. In the first place the earliest, mysterious death on Dot and Dash took place many years ago, before poison gas in war was thought of. I won't deny that this bunch back there," and he nodded in the direction of Smugglers' Glen, "I won't deny but what they may be usin' war gas. But it wasn't so years ago.".
"Then it looks," spoke Dick, "as if these men had some object in keeping us out of the glen."
"That's it!" cried Billee. "There's something up there they don't want us to find out."
"Maybe it's the secret Old Tosh has of makin' sarsaparilla," said Snake.
"No," objected Dick, "I don't believe the old man is mixed up in this at all. He was in the cave, that's sure, but I think this bunch of rascals with their poison gas have deposed him and taken possession for their own ends."
"And what those ends are it's for us to find out," suggested Nort.
"Sure!" cried his companions.
"We'll get gas masks and make another attack!" added Snake.
"I wonder what we'll find?" mused Dick.