"I don't see--what we've done--that we--should run," panted the stout youth. "These woods--are free. Why haven't we--a right to walk in them?"
"This is out west and they do things differently from what they do where we come from," responded Bart, looking back. "Evidently those men didn't want to be observed."
"No," replied Bart, pausing in his race, "they seemed to have stopped in that little clearing we just passed through."
"The Chinese is trying to induce the white man to come back," said Frank.
This was the case for, as the boys watched, they saw the pig-tailed Celestial grasp his companion by the arm, and, pointing toward the lake, fairly pull him back along the path they had come.
"They must be interested in some boat," suggested Fenn. "Say, fellows," he added hastily. "I'll bet I know what it is."
"What?" inquired Bart, as he stooped over to pick a lot of burdock burrs from his trousers.
"These men have something to do with the two who chased us back at the elevator fire. I'll bet they're part of the same gang, and they're trying to work some trick on the _Modoc_! We ought to hurry back and tell Captain Wiggs!"
"Oh, you're 'way off!" declared Frank. "I don't believe these men even know those who chased us."
"I don't know," said Frank. "Evidently they are interested in some boat they expect from across the lake. That is very evident from the way they acted; looking through the telescope, and all that. Perhaps they have mistaken our vessel for the one they are looking for."
"No," remarked Bart. "I noticed when the Chinese pointed the glass he aimed it in a different direction from that in which the _Modoc_ lies."
"Then what boat are they expecting?" asked Ned.
"That's too big a question for me," replied Bart. "It certainly is a queer thing to see a Chinese and a white man in such close company, off here in the woods."
"And then the auto," put in Fenn. "What do you suppose that's for?"
"It's part of the same game," was Frank's opinion.
"Well, I don't know that it's up to us to discover it," went on Fenn. "It's about time we got back to the ship, anyhow. Come on. We'll keep on this way, and fetch around to the beach in a circle. Then we'll not run across those two queer men."