While the boys discussed the chances of the meat having been taken care of by their chums, the thicket on the east wall of the bowl opened and the man Kit had seen in the morning appeared. He approached the camp openly and frankly, extending in one hand a great slice of bear meat. Before he reached the place where the boys sat gazing with surprised glances in his direction, the thicket parted again and a taller, slighter, darker man made his appearance. The man in the uniform of a forest ranger stooped for a moment, spoke to the other in low tones, and then the two came on together. As Jimmie afterwards described the situation, you could have knocked his head off with a match at that moment. Kit was equally excited, and Jimmie declares to this day that the boy turned the color of milk. The boys knew who their guests were. One was Phillips and one was Mendosa! These were the outlaws they had journeyed across the continent in the currents of the air to bring to punishment! If speech had been required of the two lads at that moment it would have been impossible for them to respond. The faces of the outlaws, however, were friendly, and directly the nerve of the boys began to assert itself. Jimmie half arose and then dropped back again. “Never mind getting up,” Phillips said. “I saw you up in the thicket a few moments ago, looking after the bear I killed this morning. You seemed to me to be hungry for steak, and so I brought you down a few pounds.” “That’s mighty good of you!” Jimmie managed to say. “Oh, we couldn’t eat a whole bear!” laughed Mendosa. “I think I could, right this minute,” Jimmie responded, more courageously. “I’ve been out all day in the _Louise_, and I’m so empty that I’d collapse if it wasn’t for the wind I brought down with me.” “I see no reason why you shouldn’t eat, then,” Phillips answered. “You can build a fire and have this steak broiling in a very short time.” “Will you stay and help us eat it?” asked Jimmie. Phillips glanced toward Mendoza, and the latter nodded. “We shall be glad to,” answered the outlaw. “But where are the others?” he went on. “I thought there were four of you and two machines.” “The others have gone out for exercise!” laughed Kit. Jimmie’s one purpose now was to keep the outlaws in his company until the return of his chums. They were desperate men, and he had no notion of attempting their capture with only Kit to help. It goes without saying, then, that he was remarkably slow in gathering fuel for the fire, remarkably slow in broiling the steak, and slower still in preparing the coffee. It seemed to him that the outlaws regarded his dilatory movements impatiently. The boy rightly concluded that they were about half starved for a warm meal. Hiding for days as they had been in the mountains, it was more than probable that they had not risked their liberty by building a fire.