find
out what I mean. You are a poorhouse nobody and nothing else. Dave
Porter? Why, you are not Dave Porter at all! You are a poorhouse nobody;
that's all you are!"

CHAPTER XX

BACK IN CAMP

"What's this you are saying, Link?" demanded Phil, who had overheard the
conversation just recorded. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself to talk
that way. Just because Dave spent part of his life in the poorhouse
after he was stolen away from his parents is no reason why you should
speak as you do."

"And that isn't the reason why I am talking this way," retorted the
prisoner. "I've got another reason, and Dave Porter will find out what
it is before very long."

"You just said that I was not Dave Porter," remarked our hero. "What do
you mean by that?"

"Never mind what I mean; you'll find out sooner or later," answered
Link, with an expression of cunning on his countenance.

"Oh, don't listen to him!" broke in Roger; "he is only trying to worry
you, Dave. Let us get back to the bungalows and tell Mr. Wadsworth about
this capture."

"I'm not going back with you," retorted Link Merwell. And now, with his
hands tied behind him, he made a leap over the rocks in the direction of
the woods.

The sudden movement on the part of the prisoner, surrounded as he was by
all of the boys, came somewhat as a surprise. But Dave, Roger and Phil
were quick to recover, and away they bounded in pursuit of the fleeing
one.

Terror lent speed to Link Merwell's feet, and soon he gained the edge of
the growth, which at this point was quite heavy.

"Hurry up or he'll hide himself!" called Dave, who was in advance of his
chums.

The runaway might have made good his escape had it not been for the fact
that his hands were so tightly bound behind him. As he dashed between
the first of the trees, his foot caught on an outcropping root. Unable
to throw out his hands to save himself, he came down heavily, striking
his forehead on another tree root.

"I've got him, come on!" cried Dave, and in a few seconds more was
beside the fallen one. To his surprise Link Merwell lay motionless.

"Collar him! don't let him get away again!" yelled Roger, as he came up
with Phil beside him.

"I think he hurt himself when he fell," answered our hero. "How about
it, Link?" and he bent over his enemy as he asked the question.

There was no reply, and getting down on their knees, the three boys
raised Link Merwell up and turned him over. He was uncons