shed through the bushes, intending to see what the chances
were for a portage, they blundered into the two missing canoes and the
tent.

"Here's luck!" cried Clay. "Ned and Randy must be--"

The sentence was never finished, for that, instant the bushes rustled,
parted, and a big burly man with a purplish red face stepped out.

The blank amazement and fear on the faces of the two lads was a study
for an artist. Before them was the living verification of the
mysterious warning. There was no mistaking that ruddy countenance.

The stranger spoke first.

"You're just the lads I'm looking for. Your friends are lying in yonder
mill. They went over the dam in their canoes this morning at daybreak.

"I happened to see them and saved their lives. They were pretty near
drowned, but I managed to bring them around all right. They ain't able
to walk yet, so they asked me to go up the creek and hunt you fellows.
Come right along and I'll take you to them."

Was Mr. Dude Moxley's brain muddled that he should have inserted such a
gross error in his otherwise plausible little story? Perhaps he did not
have time to plan it thoroughly in his hasty advance from the mill, or
had calculated on finding his new victims at any other place than this.

Frightened as the boys were they noted the discrepancy, and it opened
their eyes to the seriousness of the situation. "If our friends went
over the dam this morning," asked Clay with a touch of scorn, pointing
to the canoes and the tent, "how do these come to be here?"

CHAPTER XXII

AN INSOLENT DEMAND

A dangerous glitter in the man's eyes showed that Clay's question was
not at all to his liking.

"How them canoes got here is none of your business," he answered
emphatically, "and I don't want no argument about it. Step lively now in
the direction of that mill."

The mask was off, and the boys realized that they were prisoners. Their
captor's sullen features and the gun that he bore on his shoulder
forbade any attempt at escape.

With sinking hearts they trudged along the shore a few feet in advance
of the ruffian. They had no doubt that their companions were confined in
the mill, and it was some consolation to know they were going to join
them. Why they had been captured at all, and what object was to be
gained by it was a mystery too deep for comprehension.

From time to time the tramp uttered a brief order, and in this way he
drove the boys before him, across the sluicew