end of the camp.

"If I look at him," said Martin, "it may be that I could not keep my
promise."

It was about half an hour afterwards, when Martin, still excited and still
pale, was getting ready for the general breakfast, forgetting entirely
that he was a hermit, and that some of the other hermits might have
peculiar ideas about their morning meal, that Phil Matlack arrived on the
scene. Martin was very much engrossed in his own thoughts, but he could
not repress an inquiring interest in his companion.

"Well," said he, "did you bounce him?"

Matlack made no answer, but began to cut out the top of a tin can.

"I say," repeated Martin, "did you bounce him, or did he go without it?"

Without turning towards the younger man, Matlack remarked: "I was
mistaken. That ain't fat; it's muscle."

"You don't mean to say," exclaimed Martin, in astonishment, "that he
bounced you out of that camp!"

"I don't mean to say nothin'," was the reply, "except what I do say; and
what I say is that that ain't fat; it's muscle. When I make a mistake I
don't mind standin' up and sayin' so."

Martin could not understand the situation. He knew Matlack to be a man of
great courage and strength, and one who, if he should engage in a personal
conflict, would not give up until he had done his very best. But the
guide's appearance gave no signs of any struggle. His clothes were in
their usual order, and his countenance was quiet and composed.

"Look here," cried Martin, "how did you find out all that about the
bishop?"

Matlack turned on him with a grim smile. "Didn't you tell me that day you
was talkin' to me about the boat that he was a tough sort of a fellow?"

"Yes, I did," said the other.

"Well," said Matlack, "how did you find that out?"

Martin laughed. "I shouldn't wonder," he said, "if we were about square.
Well, if you will tell me how you found it out, I will tell you how I
did."

"Go ahead," said the other.

"The long and short of my business with him," said Martin, "was this: I
went with him down to the lake, and there I gave him a piece of my mind;
and when I had finished, he turned on me and grabbed me with his two hands
and chucked me out into the water, just as if I had been a bag of bad meal
that he wanted to get rid of. When I got out I was going to fight him, but
he advised me not to, and when I took a look at him and remembered the
feel of the swing he gave me, I took his advice. Now what did he do to
you?"