“Because of some trivial disobedience of orders, Toombs had decreed that I should go supperless to bed. What I did, I think, was to scorch his steak. Anyway, he said, that I shouldn’t have anything to eat until the next day at noon.”
“No wonder you grabbed for our grub closet!” laughed Jimmie.
“I was good and hungry that night all right,” Norman answered with a smile. “But I didn’t eat all the stuff I took away. I hid it in the forest so as to be provided with food when I finally gained the courage to beat Toombs over the head with a club and escape.”
“Did you really think of doing that?” chuckled Jimmie.
“I thought of doing it,” was the answer, “but I don’t know whether I should ever have acquired the courage. There was my sister waiting in New York, you know. Anyway, I hid the beans and part of the bread not far away from your camp.”
“I wanted to,” was the reply, “but I didn’t know what to do. I was afraid you would in some way let Toombs understand that I was playing into your hands. I didn’t think you would betray me knowingly, but I thought that some careless act on your part might send my sister to prison.”
“I can’t blame you for being cautious,” Ned answered.
“The next morning, when we saw the two in the pine woods, that is, when Toombs and I came upon them there, Toombs laid the plot to get Ned into his hands by sending the note which I afterwards delivered. You must remember that I tried to warn you at that time, boys,” he added.
“Yes, you told us to beat it!” Frank said.
“After that,” Norman continued, “I gave the Indian smoke signal in order to confirm you in the belief that I really was a Boy Scout in good standing. I didn’t know then that Jimmie would start off alone to investigate and get cornered by the half-breeds. I didn’t know, either,” he added, “that the half-breeds were so thick about the place where Frank and the others were captured.
“And when I warned you,” he added, turning to Ned, “that the boys were in a bad fix in the Devil’s Punch Bowl, I did it in good faith. I have since learned that I was followed last night, and that the half-breed who came after me saw the boys in the pit and went back after the gang.
“Huga, Toombs’ right-hand man, was killed at the pit, and the old man is wild with anger. He can’t control the half-breeds without Huga. They have already deserted him. In fact, there is only one person with him at the old mission now, and that is a Hoola Indian named Sigma. This Indian is one of the descendants of the tribe of Indians which long claimed this property as their own under a grant from the Mexican government. He is said to know more about the mountains hereabouts than any other living person.”