boggy place. It was
muddy water, but it looked wet and good, and the man gulped it down,
except what I used to soak our handkerchiefs in. Kit went for more. Jed
arrived with first-aid stuff, and I set to work, Jed helping.

We let the man wipe his own face, while we cut open his shirt where it
had stuck to the flesh.

"Here!" he said suddenly. "Quit that. What's the matter with you?"

But he was too late. When I got inside his undershirt, there on a
buckskin cord was hanging something that we had seen before. At least,
it either was the message of the Elk Patrol or else a package exactly
like it.

"Is that yours?" I asked.

"Maybe yes, and maybe no. Why?" he growled.

"Because if it isn't, we'd like to know where you got it."

"And if you don't tell, we'll go on and let you be," snapped little Jed.

"Shut up," I ordered--which wasn't the right way, but I said it before I
thought. Jed had made me angry. "No, we won't." And we wouldn't. Our
duty was to fix him the best we could. "But that looks like something
belonging to us Scouts, and it has our private mark on it. We'd like to
have you explain where you got it."

"He's _got_ to explain, too," said little Jed, excited.

"Have I?" grinned the man, hurting his face. "Why so?"

"There are three of us kids. We can keep sight of you till that Ranger
comes back. He'll make you."

"Who?"

"That Forest Ranger. He's a Government officer."

Kit Carson arrived, staring, with more water.

"I know you!" he panted. He signed to us, pointing at the man's feet.
"You were at that other camp!" And Jed and I looked and saw the hole in
the left sole--although both soles were badly burned, now. By that mark
he was the beaver man! He wriggled uneasily as if he had a notion to sit
up.

"Well, if you want it so bad, and it's yours, take it." And in a jiffy I
had cut it loose with my knife. "It's been a hoodoo to me. How did you
know I was at any other camp? Are you those three kids?"

"We saw your tracks," I answered. "What three kids?"

"The three kids those other fellows had corralled."

"No, but we're their partners. We're looking for them."

He'd had another drink of water and his face squinted at us, as we
fussed about him. Kit took off one of the shoes and I the other, to get
at the blistered feet.

"Never saw you before, did I?"

"Maybe not."

"Well, I'll tell you some news. One of your partners got away."

That was good.

"How do you know?" we all thre