"Tricked!" exclaimed Frank, somewhat dismayed. "They have slipped us after all."
As he saw this, the expression of doubt on Bart's face turned to one of intense anger. He was enraged at being baffled. Riding his horse into the edge of the water, he drew a revolver, pointed it at the canoe, and shouted:
"Hold on, there! If you don't come back, you are liable to find yourself dodging bullets."
The reply of the man was a scornful laugh, the sudden uplifting of one hand, a puff of smoke, and the singing of a bullet that passed over Bart's head.
"Don't shoot!" cried Frank. "You might hit the girl."
Bart was in a white rage; he quivered with anger.
"Oh, I won't shoot!" he said; "but, if he were alone I'd give him a few lead pills, hang him!"
After the shot, which seemed flung at the boys in derision, the man resumed paddling, and the canoe glided on.
But that shot had aroused some on the opposite side of the cove, for a man came bursting out of the trees, rushed down to the shore, and stared after the canoe.
He was a gigantic fellow, being at least six feet and six inches in height, roughly dressed in woolen clothes, wearing long-legged boots and a wide-brimmed hat. He had a heavy mustache, and a long imperial.
Suddenly his voice rang in a roar across the cove:
"Hold on, thar! Whatever are you doin' with my canoe? Ef yer don't bring it back, burn my hide ef I don't turn a cannon on yer an' sink yer at sea!"
The man in the canoe made no immediate reply, but pulled the harder at the paddle.
"Derned ef yer don't git grapeshot an' canister!" howled the big man. "I'll riddle yer!"
"Don't shoot! You will find two horses hitched to a tree near where we obtained this canoe. They're yours in exchange."
"W'at do I want uv hawses!" roared the big man. "Bring back thet canoe instanter! I won't take yer hawses!"
But the man in the canoe continued to pull at the paddle, and the little craft glided straight out on the tranquil bosom of the lake.
The big man roared and raged, but he did not do any shooting.
"I'll see yer ag'in," he shouted, "an' burn my eyebrows, ef I don't make yer settle fer this yar!"
Then he saw the mounted boys on the opposite side of the cove, and he stared at them inquiringly.
"Wa-al," he shouted, "who be you, an' what do yer want?"