Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/371

 down there, and carry you into the bargain. But we can't do nothing with her to-night. You boys get on some dry clothes and go to bed again."

Joe and his companions were quite willing to act upon this suggestion, but they were in no hurry to go to sleep. Neither was Mr. Swan. They sat around the fire for a long time, talking over the incidents of their battle in the dark, and as I listened closely, I have been able to give you the story in the same way that it was told to Mr. Swan. The squatter's extraordinary luck and the skill he exhibited in eluding arrest seemed to astonish the mall. How I longed for the power of speech so that I could tell them that robbing camps and smoke-houses was not the only business to which Matt Coyle intended to devote himself, now that the offer of his service as guide and boatman had been declined by the managers of the Indian Lake hotels. But they found it out for themselves, and before long, too.

It was three o'clock before the campers again sought their blankets. The boys slept much later than usual, but the guide was stirring at