"Now, what do you think?" laughed the cowboy. "I borrowed the gun in a hurry, and didn't think to ask whether it was loaded--and I reckon the hotel clerk didn't think to tell me. It's about as dangerous as a piece of bologna sausage, but it looks ugly--and that's about all there is to this revolver proposition, anyhow."
Matt enjoyed the recent experience, in which the harmless revolver had played its part, fully as much as his chum.
"Well," said the king of the motor boys, "what's done can't be helped, and we'd better be about our business with Bunce. But what's become of the mariner? He ought to be around here, somewhere."
"He's ducked," returned McGlory, "and I'll bet it's for good. We've found out he had a pair of good eyes, and he's got shy of us."
"If we don't find him," mused Matt, "it's a clear case that he was playing double with us. If we do find him, then we can take a little more stock in what he tells us about Tsan Ti. It will be worth something to feel sure, either way."
"Maybe you're right, but how are we going to pick up the webfoot's trail?"
Matt studied the ground. The earth was soft from a recent rain, and the fact gave him an idea.
"Track him, Joe. You're used to that sort of thing. Put your knowledge to some account."
"In order to track the mariner," said McGlory, "we'll have to go back to the place where we saw him duck into the timber. It'll be a tough job, but I'm willing to try if we can once pick up the trail."
"That's the only thing for us to do. If Bunce was intending to deal squarely with us, he'd have shown himself before this."
"Let's see," mused the cowboy. "He said that Grattan was hiding out about five miles from Catskill, didn't he?"
"Then I reckon the place is somewhere around here. We're about five miles from the town, I should judge. Still," and disgust welled up in the cowboy as he voiced the thought, "you can't tell whether Bunce was giving that part of it straight, or not. He's about as crooked as they make 'em, that tinhorn."
The boys, during their talk, had been moving slowly back in the direction of the railroad track. Cautiously they came to the edge of the timber, close to the right of way, on the alert not only for the tracks left by Bunce, but for the presence of the section men, as well.