Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/393

 a guide and a small party of ladies and gentlemen. The former was to show him what boat he could take, and the latter were listening with much interest to Joe's graphic account of his adventures with the squatter. Joe was surprised to learn that Matt's way of creeping up through the bushes and robbing unguarded camps, had frightened the women and children so badly that they refused to go into the woods until the thief had been captured and safely lodged in jail. That depended upon the evidence Joe could give to put him there.

"That's all mighty fine," said Mr. Morris, after listening to what Joe had to say of his conversation with the stranger, "but they don't give a thought to the hardest part of the business. Matt ain't caught yet, and there'll have to be a heap of hard work done before he is shut up so't he can't steal no more scatterguns; you see if there ain't. I'd like to take a hand in the hunt myself, but I've got to go out with the same man I guided for last year, and he's liable to come along any day."

Their boat having been pointed out to them, Joe and his companions lost no time in putting