Claude A. LaBelle

“ Every man here know the cry of an owl?"
All did, so Fernald gave the order to lie down. The long, long minutes dragged into an hour, and the hour into a second. The boys were so restless that it was hard to lie quiet and still, but they forced themselves to.
It was almost midnight, but it seemed like a week to the boys, when the cracking of twigs and the crunch of feet warned of the approach of men. It proved to be the party, for they heard a low growling imprecation from Green as he stumbled over some object. Garry nudged Fernald, and immediately felt two sharp taps on his shoulder. ”

“ There are some people who want such things for curios, but blessed if I would want one,” said Dick. “Chuck it outside and next time we see him we can tell him he can have it.”
“Wonder if Dud would have done that for a joke,” asked Phil.
“I doubt that,” said Garry. “Dudley is too sensible a person to play a fool trick like that, knowing how it would startle anyone. No, whoever did that was half foolish. Gosh, there’s the coffee boiling over,” and Garry dashed to the campfire. ”

“ Boone and Dick had been led from the storehouse and taken to the bunkhouse, where the rest of the prisoners were.
There were shouts of welcome when some of the old woodsmen saw Mr. Boone. Although he was the owner of the timber tract, and their employer, they hailed him as “Moose” and shook his hand energetically.
“By gosh. I’m ashamed to look you in the face, Moose,” cried one of the lumberjacks. “To think we let a bunch like that crowd outside there put it over on us; men that have fought with rifle and peavy stick when some crowd tried to steal the river from us. ”

“ He's off again, Phil!" declared Garry. "It's only been four hours since he ate, and now he's thinking about supper."
"Well, four hours is four hours, and two more will make six, and persons should eat once every six hours. That's just human nature," protested Dick. He knew his chums were just ragging him, as they always did about his appetite, but he could never resist the temptation to argue with them, and protest that there was nothing abnormal about his capacity for food. ”

“ Now I must get a manager that will serve my interests, get this camp going and do what I can to try and retrieve what I have lost through the rascally Barrows. I am afraid that I am financially hurt unless we can bring Carson to book and make him stand this loss.”
“With our evidence I think you can,” said Garry. “And now what would you give for a real manager that would serve you and no one else?”
“I don’t know, but I would give almost anything in reason for such a man.”
“Then,” said Garry, “there’s your man,” and he pointed to Art Howells. ”

“ Phil was detailed to take them to the tent and add them to the others. This he did, and had barely uncovered the gems and was putting the latest find with their companions, when he was struck over the head with a heavy club. His last remembrance, as he floated away into unconsciousness, was the sound of a mocking laugh that belonged to none other than their deadly enemy, the halfbreed.
Garry waited several minutes for Phil to return, and when his chum failed to come back, walked to the tent to see what was delaying him. ”

“ Why not look at the conductor's checks that are sticking out of their hatbands?" queried Fernald with a smile.
"Solid ivory," said Garry disgustedly, as he rapped his forehead sharply with his knuckles.
"Nothing to be ashamed of at all, old fellow," said Fernald easily. "It isn't to be expected that you should know all the tricks of the trade that you have known about not much more than a day. ”

“ Fernald led the way back about twenty feet, having received the assurance of Everett, who was thoroughly familiar with that part of the country, that they were on the American side, and ordered the men to lay down, keeping their rifles and revolvers constantly at hand.
"No man is to make a move till I explode the star shell, then each one here pick a man. If orders are implicitly obeyed, there will be no trouble and no bloodshed."
"Beg pardon, sir," said Garry. "If we are laying down and you explode the shell, we'll be at a disadvantage, losing precious seconds in springing to our feet. ”

“ Soon the boys espied Dick advancing to the platform, his chubby body enclosed in a glaring red bathing suit. He mounted to the tank, and the chums could see him gazing about trying to locate them, but this he failed to do.
The ringmaster made a short speech, telling a lot of stuff about Dick that made the chums grin.
“Guess one has to be a blood relation of Ananias to be a ringmaster,” laughed Garry. “The only diving Dick has ever done before the crowned heads of Europe was before they were crowned.” ”

“ Garry was silent for a few moments, and then he made answer:
“I am afraid there is nothing that we can do. When the inspector comes we can do anything that he asks and guide him around through the country and that is about all. We are just Rangers and not postoffice detectives.”
“Well, there’s nothing I can do except sit tight and see that it doesn’t disappear while it’s in this office. I wouldn’t have that happen for the world. I’ve been postmaster here for nigh onto twenty year, and never was so much as a postage stamp short in all that time,” said Denton with an air of pride. ”

“ The little town of Hobart lay on the other side of the railroad tracks. It was like so many other small Maine towns, consisting of a huge general store, a smithy, which was also a garage, a great ramshackle building that was once a restaurant and a rooming house, evidently used by trappers who came there to dispose of their furs, and lumberjacks on their way to lumber operations in that vicinity. The boys proceeded directly to the general store, and here made inquiries as to the owner of the vast timber lands that entirely surrounded Hobart. ”

“ We can go all over the camp and keep our eyes open, getting all the information we can. When we ask questions we should ask them simply as though it were from idle curiosity. I figure that in a short time we ought to be able to tell who is acting suspiciously and then bend all our efforts to watch them and frustrate any mischief that they may be up to. We shall, of course, get a lot of help from Howells when he arrives, but even then I think we ought to do everything possible ourselves to find out what is the trouble at the camp. ”

“ I just wanted to get away from the house so that Aunt Abbie or the old gentleman would not hear us and worry. Here’s my hunch. You know how Ruth has said a half a dozen times that she envied us for our adventures, and that a girl never could do anything, and how she would like to help us out in this business?”
“Yes, we understand that; go on,” said Phil.
“And you know how excited she was yesterday afternoon? Well, I think she went to Lafe Green’s house to see if she could find anything out that would be of help to us. You know she’s daring and not afraid of anything, like so many girls are. ”

“ CHAPTER XVIII. FERNALD COMES.
"Tell us all about it," demanded Phil.
"All in good time," responded Garry. "First thing to do now is to put a bit of distance between us and that house. Don't want any of that gang to come and find us snooping around. Everything has gone as slick as a whistle so far, and we don't want any foolish oversight to queer it. I move we make a break for town and hive in somewhere and wait for daylight. Of course we can go to Everett's house, but we shouldn't bust in on him in the middle of the night. He's a sick man, you know." ”

“ This is the same in every logging camp, for a cook can pay up any grievances by cooking the food in an inferior fashion. Camp owners and managers always pay the greatest attention to the sort of man they pick for this position, for while in a lumber camp, there is never a widely varied menu, it must be well cooked and plentiful.
Nothing will drive the men away from a camp quicker than poor cooking.
The manager introduced the boys to the cook, who shook hands with them, offering a hairy hand which the chums privately thought resembled a ham. ”

“ Don’t see how it could have crawled very far after being mashed up that way.”
“What do you mean?” was the startled question of Dick.
“Looks suspiciously like an ill-timed practical joke to me,” answered Garry. “Of course it is foolish to think we are the only ones that ever come near here, and some passerby or camper might have killed it and seeing that this place was occupied, hidden it there to do just what it did—scare one of us half to death. Any snake is bad enough, but a rattler, even a dead one, is enough to shake anyone’s nerve for a minute.” ”

“ Don’t you ever think of anything but eating?” demanded Garry.
“Yes, sir; when I’m not thinking about time to eat, I’m thinking about what to eat,” responded Dick promptly.
“Say, Phil, he’s hopeless. What say we make for that outlet at the far end of the lake. We might just as well do that as anything, since we have no real plan of action. Then tomorrow we can make a complete tour of the lake, and thus get a comprehensive idea of the whole body of water.”
The canoe was launched, and the boys climbed in. Garry and Phil elected to paddle, leaving Dick to sit in the middle. ”