“I wonder if that is his name?” said Snap.

“More than likely,” answered Giant.  “Did you ever hear of him before?”

“No.”

They tried to put the pieces of paper together, but the effort was a failure.

“Here is where he did some figuring,” said Whopper, pointing to the board, which contained numerous pencil marks.  “Maybe—–­hullo! look here!”

“What’s up now?” asked Snap, running forward.

“Here is the name of Andrew Felps!”

“Felps!” came from all of the others in a chorus.

“Can that man have been here?” asked Giant.

“I must say, I don’t understand this,” came from Snap.  “But I have got an idea.”

“What is it, Snap?”

“Of course I may be all wrong, but I’ll give it to you for what it is worth.  Do you remember what my father said about those papers?”

“That they related to a certain patch of timber land?” said Giant.

“Yes; and that the Felps people wanted to get hold of the patch.  Well, this Lusher Barrock may be hanging around here trying to sell the papers.”

“To sell them?” said Shep, looking puzzled.

“Exactly.  They are of no use to him, but they might be of use to Andrew Felps and his lumber company.”

“You mean that by getting the papers Felps might keep your folks from cutting down the lumber on that tract?”

“Yes, and more.  Felps may have some way of getting hold of the land himself, if these papers are destroyed.  I don’t know the whole truth of the case, but I know my father wanted the papers and he didn’t want Andrew Felps to learn that they were missing.”

“Snap, I think you have struck the truth,” ejaculated Shep.  “I don’t know of anything else that would bring this Barrock—–­if that’s his name—–­to this locality.  He must be watching his chance to meet Andrew Felps.”

“Would Felps be mean enough to buy the papers from him?” asked Whopper.  “Why, that would be dishonest!”

“I think that man is mean enough for anything!” burst out Giant, who was not inclined to forget how badly he and his chums had been treated by the individual in question.

“If this is true, Snap, the best thing we can do is to go over to the Felps camp and watch out for this Lusher Barrock,” said Shep.

“And that is what I am going to do,” answered Snap.

“When will you go?” questioned Whopper.

“As soon as possible.”

“We can’t get to the camp very well from here.  We’ll have to go back to Firefly Lake first.”

“Do you suppose this Barrock went that way?”

“Maybe he did, or else he knows of some trail over the mountain.”

“Well, we can go back to the lake, and then start for Lake Cameron without delay,” said Snap, and so it was settled.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE BOY HUNTERS AND A BEAR