iously red when any excitement comes along?"

"Why, Jack, I clean forgot to mention that!" Toby instantly exclaimed.
"He certainly did have just such a disfigurement, though I took it for a
birth-mark and not a scar or healed wound. So then you've already got a
good suspicion about his identity, have you? Well, this keeps on growing
more and more interesting. Steve and myself will be glad when the time
comes for you to open up and tell us the whole story."

"You must hold your horses yet a while, fellows," said Jack, gravely.
"The lady made me promise to keep the secret until I had gained the
information that was so important, and then I could tell you everything.
Toby, I want to congratulate you on playing your part well. That man had
reason to suspect you might be up in the Pontico Hills for something a
heap more important than just camping out. Perhaps he's satisfied now
you spoke the truth; and then again he may still suspect something
wrong, and want to keep an eye on us; so we must never speak of these
things except when our heads are close together. At all other times
we've got to act just like care-free lads off on a camping trip would
appear. There are other days to come, and bit by bit I reckon the thing
will grow, until in the end I've found out all I want to know."

"One thing sure, Jack," ventured Steve, meditatively, "it's no ordinary
game this man with the black mustache and goatee is playing up here in
these hills."

"Well, I can stretch a point," Jack told him, with a twinkle in his eye,
"and agree with you there, Steve. It's a _big_ game, with a fortune
at stake; and so you can both understand how desperate that man might
become if he really began to believe that our being here threatened his
castles in the air with a tumble. So be on your guard all the time,
boys, and play your part. Suspense will make the wind-up all the more
enjoyable; just as in baseball when the score is tied in the ninth and
Steve here has swatted the ball for a three-bagger, with two men on
bases, the pent-up enthusiasm breaks loose in a regular hurricane of
shouts and cheers, and we're all feeling as happy as clams at high tide.
Now, let's get busy on these fish, and have a regular fry for dinner
tonight!"

CHAPTER VI

SIGNS OF MORE TROUBLE

They had a most bountiful spread that evening. Steve and Toby insisted
on taking charge, and getting up the meal. Besides the fish, which by
the way were most delightfully b