CHAPTER XIII
TOMMY GOES AFTER BEAR STEAK
Tommy started up the slope whistling gaily. At the summit he turned tolook back at the camp. The cowboys were at that time standing somedistance away and Seth was advancing toward the fire.
"That Seth is a good Indian!" declared the boy, "He'll fix things up allright, so there's no need of my going back. Gee!" he went on as helooked up and down the pleasant valley, warm and sweet under the morningsun. "It's a pretty good thing to be a Boy Scout! Here we find a man inthe mountains of Wyoming ready to fight for us just because we are BoyScouts. I should think every boy in the world would want to join!"
The lad stood for a moment watching the figures at the distant camp, andthen hastened into the valley below. When he struck the rock-strewngulch which lay to the south of the wide opening in the hills he pausedand looked cautiously about.
"There may be plenty more bears here!" he mused.
But no bears or hostile animals of any kind were in sight, so the boypassed along to the cavern which George and Will had visited on theprevious night--the cavern where the escaped convict and his son hadmade their home. Tommy glanced curiously into the opening in the rockywall as he halted in front of it.
On the previous night he had passed this cavern in company with Sandywithout observing it. At this time he was not certain that it was notthe cave where he had met the bears, so he stepped inside after amoment's thought and advanced toward the rear wall.
A semi-twilight lay over the interior, and the boy brought out hissearchlight. By its rays he saw a break in the rock of the north walland stepped closer. The place was merely an alcove eight or ten feet insize, doubtless carved out by the action of water.
In the alcove the boy saw the embers of a fire. Then he turned about andinspected the outer cave more carefully. He saw the rude furniture whichhis chums had observed the night before, and the pitifully small supplyof cooking utensils. Lying on the table was a generous supply of freshmeat, evidently taken from the carcass of one of the bears.
Tommy had heard little said concerning the cave which had been occupiedby Wagner and his son, but quite enough to understand that he hadstumbled upon the place.
What puzzled him now was the presence of the bear meat. He knew verywell that neither Wagner nor his son had occupied the place since thedisappearance of the father. He understood, too, that if there had beenprovisions in the cave at the time of the visit of his chums, they wouldhave referred to the fact. Besides all this, the bear which had probablysupplied the meat had been killed only a few hours before.
"I guess some one's moved in!" the boy mused.
He went into the alcove and examined the embers of the fire. It had beenbuilt of dry pine and spruce boughs and had evidently burned brightly anhour before.
"Now I wonder," the boy puzzled, "whether Wagner isn't hiding some wherein the cave. It doesn't seem to me that any one else would takepossession of the blooming old flat."
Resolved to return to the cavern later, the lad hastened outside andmoved toward the south. He was not exactly certain of the location ofthe cavern where the fight with the bears had taken place, but he had nodoubt that he could find it by peering into every opening he came to.
He had proceeded but a short distance when the face of Katz peered outat him from one of the minor caves. Cullen, the fellow's associate stoodnot far away with his cruel mouth stretched into a sardonic grin.
"Where are you going, boy?" Katz asked.
Tommy hesitated a moment and a twinkle of humor came into his eyes as heanswered the gruff question of the detective.
"I'm looking after the train robbers you chased up last night."
The two men scowled angrily and drew nearer to the lad.
"I don't believe you told the truth about that train robber!" Katz said."I was right on the ground and I saw no one."
"You beat him to it!" laughed Tommy. "You went one way and he went theother! You're both good runners, I guess, for you never came within amile of each other," he added.
"None of your impudence, now!" snarled Katz.
"I think we ought to take this boy in out of the wet," suggested Cullen."He's too fresh, anyway."
"You'd better confine your attentions to the train robbers, or the manyou came in here to find," suggested Tommy.
"I don't believe there are any train robbers here!" declared Katz.
"Perhaps not," answered Tommy, "but about half the officers of Fremontand Sweetwater counties are loafing around these hills! Besides," headded, "I got a look at the train robbers last night."
The two detectives glanced at each other apprehensively.
"Was there a train robber at your camp last night?" asked Katz.
"Sure there was!"
"Is your camp headquarters for outlaws?"
"Not that I know of," replied Tommy, angrily.
"Don't you know that the boy who stole my property at your camp isconnected with an escaped convict?"
"I don't know anything about the boy," declared Tommy, not telling thetruth exactly. "He looks all right to me!"
"Do you know what I think?" Cullen demanded. "I think you boys came inhere to set up a base of supplies for outlaws!"
"Aw, you don't know what you're talking about!" exclaimed Tommy.
"If you're not mixed up with this escaped convict," Katz demanded, "whatare you doing here?"
"Early this morning," Cullen went on, "we found the cave where Wagnerand his son had been living. That's it back there. The one you enteredand looked over so carefully. Did you expect to find Wagner there?"
"Did you build a fire in there?" asked Tommy.
The detectives shook their heads.
"Did you take a big piece of bear meat in there?"
"We certainly did not!"
Here was another puzzler for Tommy. Who had built the fire in thecavern? Who had taken the bear meat there? The cowboys were not in thatvicinity at the time the fire must have been built. The detectivesdeclared that they had not built the fire, or carried in the meat.
"Did you find a fire burning in the cavern?" asked Katz.
Tommy nodded.
"And fresh meat there, too?"
Another nod from the boy.
"What do you make of it, Cullen?" asked Katz, turning to his companion.
Cullen shook his head, and a thought which brought a smile to hisfreckled face crept into Tommy's mischievous cranium.
"I'll tell you what I think," he said. "We were in this gulch lastnight, and saw the train robbers. They were on the summit, not far fromthe Wagner flat, as we ought to call it. If anybody has been living inthat cave this morning, it's the train robbers. Say," he went on, withthe idea of giving the detectives a good scare, "those train robbers arethe fiercest fellows I ever saw. We saw 'em hold up six armed cowboyslast night!"
The two detectives looked at each other apprehensively.
"If they should see you standing here," Tommy went on, "and were wise tothe fact that you are Chicago detectives, they'd pump in the lead untilyour heads looked like a pound of Swiss cheese."
"You seem to know quite a lot about those train robbers, lad!"
"He knows too much," Cullen declared. "We'll just take him along with usand hold him for a few hours!"
"If you do, you'll get in trouble!" declared Tommy.
"No threats, now!" cried Katz.
"I'm not making any threats," declared Tommy who really was ratheranxious to have the detectives take him away to their camp. "I thinkyou're a couple of cheap skates, anyway, and I don't believe you'reChicago detectives. I live in Chicago myself, and I never saw bums likeyou on the force of plain clothes men."
The taunting words did exactly what Tommy had expected them to do. Katzseized him viciously by the arm and started away down the valley. Theboy was perfectly willing to accompany the detective, for he believedthat by doing so he might find out what steps they were taking for thecapture of the escaped convict, but he pretended to feel greatindignation a
s he was hurried along over the rough ground.
As the three moved away George swung up the slope on the other side andcame into view on the summit. The boy had cut a white pine climbingstaff from which the small boughs had not been trimmed away, and Tommysaw that he was using this as a wig-wag flag. It was plain to the boythat George thoroughly understood the situation below.
The detectives growled out several vicious oaths as they saw the boyswinging his staff from the summit. They whispered together for amoment, and then Katz, leaving Tommy threatened by Cullen's revolver,moved toward the summit and the signaling boy.
When, in a moment, George looked down the slope to the east, he saw thedetective creeping stealthily toward him. The officer was some, distanceaway, yet the boy knew that he was in danger from the gun in his hand.He gave one last swing and dropped his staff.
"Come down here!" shouted the detective. "I want to see you!"
"Come up here, then!" answered George. "What are you doing to my chum?You're always butting in on us boys!"
"If you don't come down instantly," shouted the angry detective, "I'llfill your hide full of lead! I've got you covered!"
Seeing by the malicious look on the face of the detective that he wasreally in earnest, George dropped quickly to the ground.