VIII. THE LUMBERMEN
For a full moment I just lay still, hugging the ground, and I did not seem to think at all. Voices loud in anger roused me. Raising myself, I guardedly looked from behind the tree.
One of the lumbermen threw brush on the fire, making it blaze brightly. He was tall and had a red beard. I recognized Stockton, Buell's right hand in the lumber deal.
“Leslie, you're a liar!” he said.
Dick's eyes glinted from his pale face.
“Yes, that's your speed, Stockton,” he retorted. “You bring your thugs into my camp pretending to be friendly. You grab a fellow behind his back, tie him up, and then call him a liar. Wait, you timber shark!”
“You're lying about that kid, Ward,” declared the other. “You sent him back East, that's what. He'll have the whole forest service down here. Buell will be wild. Oh, he won't do a thing when he learns Ward has given us the slip!”
“I tell you, Ken Ward gave me the slip,” replied Dick. “I'll admit I meant to see him safe in Holston. But he wouldn't go. He ran off from me right here in this forest.”
What could have been Dick's object in telling such a lie? It made me wonder. Perhaps these lumbermen were more dangerous than I had supposed, and Dick did not wish them to believe I had left Penetier. Maybe he was playing for time, and did not want them to get alarmed and escape before the officers came.
“Why did he run off?” asked Stockton.