CHAPTER IX

THE BOYS LOSE AN ALLY

The words of Howells stunned the boys for a moment. Then Garry delivered himself of a few vehement words regarding the thieves.

"We have been here only a couple of days or so, and yet we find that this logging camp is a hive of rascals and thieves. And still we have done nothing. We must get to work and nip this thing in the bud, else the whole summer's work at the camp here will have gone for naught, to say nothing of the irreparable financial loss that will be caused to Dad, not only from the penalties for failure to live up to his contracts, but the money loss from the stolen timber will mount up well into the hundreds I am afraid. Now we must put a stop to this thing. I believe that I will go out tomorrow and go to town and 'phone Father that he had better make a cleanup here at the camp. Perhaps we don't know just who the guilty parties are, but if we get rid of the whole shooting match we can stop it. How much timber would you estimate has been stolen?" he concluded, turning to Howells.

"I can't say as to that. This last report is the only one that I have received direct. Generally I have been given what was supposed to be a duplicate copy of the one sent to Barrows. This time I happened to get the mail myself at the postoffice. Generally one of Barrow's men gets the mail, and it is distributed. This letter was addressed to me personally, and I have no doubt that the others were also, but were opened and doctored up to appear all right. That's a prime bit of evidence if we can secure the proof. Tampering with Uncle Sam's mail is a serious crime, and draws a long prison term. Now as for your going out of the woods tomorrow and 'phoning your father, Garry, I would advise against it. Nothing very serious can happen in the next few days. Little work can be done until a new saw comes, and there will be little shipping of timber except that which has been waiting to be transported. In the meantime, if, as your father is led to believe, this whole matter is a move on the part of the big interests to crush him in the lumber business, the firing of the present manager and crew will have little effect. Your dad evidently trusted Barrows, else he would not have sent him here. If he is guilty, you may be sure that the enemy, for such we must call them, made it mighty well worth his while to turn traitor. What is to prevent the next manager from being affected in the same way? And even if a trustworthy manager were secured, the big interests can always bribe enough of the laborers to do all the necessary damage that would be required to spoil the season. My advice is to lay low for a few days and get evidence that will get the 'man higher up,' the one who is the instigator of this whole thing. Once you can spike his guns, there will be no further danger of trouble here, and also it will enable your father to take court action that will restore him damages for the stolen timber, and will also give him a chance to sue those who have harmed him so that he can make the penalties that will be inflicted in case enough damage has already been done to make him forfeit his contracts. I should say now that he was a good three weeks behind his shipments, and that is a whole lot in one season. He has guaranteed to deliver a certain amount of timber at its destination by the last of September. It is the middle of August now, and he must make every minute count from now on to get out the required amount. Get the man responsible for this business and you will have accomplished what you have set out to. What do you think of my advice?"

"Sounds logical, and I think we will follow it. In the meantime I have a hunch now in regard to that stolen timber. I think I can hitch up a few things Barrows has tried to dissuade us from doing, and a certain lake in this vicinity. That's our next work. Now what do you propose to do, Mr. Howells?" asked Garry.

"First thing I'm going to do is to go straight to Barrows and tell him about the deficiency shown by the records. That will do one of two things, I believe; either show him up for a crook, or else show that he is straight and start him investigating the thefts. If the latter happens, which I am frank to say I do not think will, then we have accomplished a great deal of good."

Howells, however, had barely finished speaking, when the red haired cookee appeared at the shack and told him that Barrows wanted to see him at the camp office immediately.

Having delivered the message, the cookee sauntered off, and Howells looked at the boys with a puzzled stare.

"Wonder what's up now. Thought that we talked over everything there was a little while ago. Well, there's no use in wondering. I'm off to see his Royal Highness and find out what he wants. I'll see you after a little while."

Howells hustled off to the office and left the boys to talk things over among themselves.

"What did you mean, Garry, when you said that you had a hunch about lakes and things?" inquired Phil.

"Why, you remember how insistent Barrows has been that we make a sort of playground out of the little lake, setting forth its advantages about swimming, fishing and all that, and has done everything that he can do to discourage us from going near the big lake. I have let him believe that we took everything he said for granted, so I thought that tonight, if possible, we would make a trip to the big lake and see what's what," Garry answered.

"I'm wondering if Barrows is clever enough to play the old trick used by conjurers and magicians?" mused Phil.

"What do you mean, magician?" queried Garry with a puzzled look at his friend.

"Why, you know a magician always directs the attention of his audience to the thing that he is generally going to do, figuring that the people will be on the watch for a trick, and will be so busy trying to find the hidden trick, that they look everywhere but where the magician tells 'em to, and in the meantime he has done his trick."

"I see," exclaimed Garry. "You mean that Barrows may figure that we will guess he has been discouraging us about the big lake for the very purpose of making us go there rather than to the smaller body of water, where some sort of villainy may be going on."

"That's it exactly," returned Phil.

"I think you have a good hunch there, Phil, although I rather think that Barrows is not clever enough to dope out that trick. Still, there can be no harm in watching both lakes. Suppose that we take a little trip today to the small one, and then tomorrow night we will hustle over to the big one after the camp has turned in for the night. Guess that will be our best plan. Now let's wait for Barrows and Howells to finish their conversation, and we will trot over while I ask a few leading questions."

They waited a few minutes, talking over their probable course of action, and were about to set out for the office, when Howells appeared on the scene. Rage and disappointment were depicted in his face, and the boys were quick to take notice of this.

"What's the matter? You look as though you had bad news to bring us," said Garry.

"Well, it's bad news for me, at any rate, and I think also for you. I believe I have proof enough that Barrows is a crook from the word go. I have been discharged from my job as cruiser and scaler and ordered to leave the place immediately."

"Why, I can hardly believe you, what's it all about?" asked Phil.

"Well, it's a short story. I had hardly gotten inside the office, when Barrows told me I was through. Naturally all other thoughts left my head, that is about my errand, and I asked him why. He replied that when he hired me he thought he was getting an accurate scaler, and that the reports showed that the amount of timber I had reported was cut had not been delivered. Immediately I knew that he was on to the fact that I was aware of the shortage and was spiking my guns before I could do or say anything. Now I know that I have accurately measured all the timber that was cut in this tract. I was at school long enough to learn how to scale if I never learned anything else. Of course we had words, and I forgot myself and accused him of knowing that timber was disappearing, and he was covering up by throwing the blame on me. Of course there was nothing that I could do, so I told him a few wholesome truths and walked out of the office."

"Then that definitely settles Barrows' status here," said Garry. "He knows that timber is being stolen, and he wants to cover it up. I hope you did not connect us in any way with you while you were telling Barrows what you thought of him, did you Art?"

"You bet I didn't. I kept my head that much, at any rate."

"Well, we have lost a valuable ally since you must go away. I suppose, though, we could hire you as a guide and keep you here. Barrows could make no objection then," said Garry.

"No, that would be the worst thing that you could do. It would put Barrows on his guard, for he would immediately leap to the conclusion that I had told you everything. No, the wisest thing for me to do is to hop out and go back to town. Then in a few days I could get back here and see what I could dig up in the way of stolen timber. I think the most advisable thing to do would be to find out from some of the railway stations near here where timber is being shipped from, and in that way we could get a line on where it is going. Then you chaps on the inside can browse about a bit and find out how it is stolen. Between us we can secure evidence that will uncover the whole plot. I'm going out now, before they get onto the fact that we have had time to talk things over. In the meantime, take my advice, and keep your eyes open every minute. Eternal vigilance on your part is going to be the price of success. Not that I believe any harm will come to you. Barrows would not dare attempt that; but he could move so stealthily that you could not find out anything. Now I'll say goodbye and trot along. Good luck to you, and I will contrive some way to get word to you of what is going on."

Howells shook hands with the boys, and then loped off to get his dunnage. The boys watched his departure sadly, for they had counted a great deal on the help that the young timberman could give them.

"Well, fellows, that puts it directly up to us again. We will have to work on our own hook and get to the bottom of this. Now let's have action. Tomorrow morning--it is too late now to do anything--we will take a little trip to the small lake, Kanamo Lake I think they call it; Dutton is the name of the big one, and start our search there. We will simply say that we are going off for some fishing and swimming. Now we'll go to the office, and remember, not a word about knowing that Howells was discharged." And concluding his talk, Garry led the way to the office.

Barrows watched them narrowly as they came in, but said nothing.

"Thought we'd get a little information about Kanamo Lake," said Phil, as they seated themselves.

"Yes," chimed in Garry. "We are going off there early tomorrow and have a little fishing and perhaps a swim or two. We haven't done anything since we got here but watch the timber cutting, and that isn't a novelty any longer. What we especially want to find out is whether there is any canoe or boat on either of the lakes that we could use to get some really good fishing."

"There isn't a boat or canoe of any sort on either Dutton or Kanamo," answered the manager. "But you will find that will not interfere with your fishing. Part of the banks are well covered with reeds, and early in the morning and after the sun has gone down you can catch a fine mess of pickerel. Throughout the day the bass can be caught from the bank if you boys are any hand at making a good long cast. I suppose as soon as the timber cutting is done, the tourists will begin to swarm here for summer camping, and then there will be plenty of boats and few fish. That's generally the way." The manager talked heartily as though relieved that the conversation had taken the turn that it had, and perhaps because of the information that the boys were going to get away from the camp. It was likely that he had expected some questioning because of the discharge of the scaler. Evidently thinking over the matter, he decided something in his mind, and turning to Garry, remarked casually: "I had hoped that the arrival of the scaler would give me a little extra time so that I could do some fishing with you and act as guide around here, but I regret to say that I found him incompetent and was obliged to discharge him. He was careless about his measurements, or else did not know how to measure properly, and all our records are messed up so that it will take me several days to get them straightened out. Fortunately I know pretty well what's been shipped and can check against the bills of lading. Well, there goes the cook's supper call."

Following supper, the boys made excuses that they wanted to get their fishing tackle in order and retired early to their shack. They got to sleep early, as they expected a strenuous day on the morrow, and also hoped to be able to make a trip to Dutton Lake at night, hence wanted sleep.

Just as they were undressing, Dick uttered an exclamation of disgust.

"What's the matter, Dick, lose a button?" inquired Phil.

"No, confound it, lost that nice knife with my name on it that I bought in Bangor."

"That's too bad, lost your nice toy. Well, you should worry, as you have your sensible scout knife that will cut even if it hasn't a nice name on it," laughed Phil.

Early morning found them routed out with the dawn, and as they hurried for the cookhouse to get some supplies with which to cook a luncheon at the lake, they heard the cook and his helper talking about some marauder that had been captured the night before and was locked up in the storehouse.

Neither seemed to know much about it, but the boys could see that the cookee was on tenterhooks, and several times tried to get out, only to be called by the cook and set to doing some necessary task toward the getting of breakfast. This uneasiness on the part of the cookee made the boys think that possibly Baptiste LeBlanc had been caught, and decided that when they had eaten they would have a look at the prisoner.

Barrows appeared when they were half way through breakfast, and the chums at once began to question him regarding the capture of the unknown man and what he might have wanted there.

"Perhaps he is the one who has been causing a lot of trouble around here," said Barrows. "I haven't seen him yet. Couple of the men found him snooping around the office last night, and after locking him up, woke me up and told me about him. After I eat I am going to question him, and if you want to get a little later start on your fishing trip, you can come and take a look at him."

This was exactly what the boys wanted, and they thanked Barrows for the invitation. They made a hurried meal, and then after Barrows had posted the notices for the section bosses for the day, they went to the storehouse, which was the most solid looking building in the camp, being built of great logs with a thick double hasp and padlocks on the door. Inside were kept the cooking supplies for the camp.

The manager produced a key, and throwing open the door, called to the prisoner to come out.

The three chums pressed forward eagerly to see if they were right in their guess that LeBlanc or his evil associate had been captured.

What they did finally see nearly knocked them off their feet. There was a shuffling sound as of some one getting up, and then through the door into the sunlight, walked The Hermit!