ieve in
spooks or anything of the sort; but we are in a strange country now, and
strange things happen here."

"Yah," nodded Hans. "Dot peen oxactly righdt."

"For instance, the disappearance of that corpse is most remarkable."

"Dot peen der first dime I nefer known a deat man to ged ub un valk avay
all alone mit himseluf by," declared Hans.

"What do you think has happened here, professor?" asked Frank.

"It is plain Jack Burk's body is gone."

"Sure enough."

"And does it not seem reasonable that he walked away himself?"

"Vell, you don'd know apout dot," broke in Hans. "Maype he don'd pelief
we vos goin' pack here to bury him, und he got tiret uf vaiting for der
funerals."

"There must have been other people here after we left," said Frank.

"Right," nodded the professor.

"Bandits?"

"Bushnell?"

"One or the other."

"Perhaps both."

Frank fell to examining the ground for "signs," but, although his eyes
were unusually keen, he was not an expert in such matters, and he
discovered nothing that could serve as a revelation.

"The man was dead beyond a doubt, professor--you are sure?"

"Sure?" roared the little man, bristling in a moment. "Of course I'm
sure! Do you take me for a howling idiot?"

"Don't get excited, professor. The best of us are liable to err at
times. It would not be strange if you----"

"But I didn't--I tell you I didn't! The body may have been removed by
the bandits which hang about this section."

"Or by Al Bushnell, Burk's partner."

"Yes; Bushnell may have recognized him, although he did not seem to do
so. In that case, he has been here----"

"And that explains everything."

"Everything."

"He took the body away to give it decent burial."

"And we have had our trouble for nothing."

By this time the native undertaker got the drift of the talk, and set up
a wail of lamentation and accusation. He had come all that distance at
great expense to himself and great waste of time during which he might
have been sleeping or smoking. It was robbery, robbery, robbery. It was
like the _Americanoes_. He had a wife and many--very many children
depending on him. He had been tricked by the _Americanoes_, and he would
complain that he had been cheated. They should be arrested; they should
be compelled to pay.

"Oh, come your perch off, und gone took a fall to yournseluf!" cried
Hans, in disgust. "You gif me der lifer gomblaint!"

The native continued to wail and lament and acc