“That’s one of his old tricks,” he said. “He’s so stuck on his make-up and his pidgin English that he seeks to keep up the deception when there’s no need of it.” “Then we ought to know why they tied him up!” Ben declared. “It’s easy enough to guess,” Gilmore answered. “He tried to play in with the crowd of smugglers and Chinks, and was detected and tied up.” This from the sheriff, who was making notes in a memorandum book as the talk went on: “It’s a wonder they didn’t kill him!” “They probably would have killed him in a very short time,” Gilmore replied to the sheriff, “if the boys hadn’t put in an appearance.” “Then we saved one life, anyway!” laughed Carl. “But why did he come and waste our gasoline?” demanded Ben. “I can’t answer that,” replied Gilmore. “You probably will see him before you get out of the country, and then you can get the explanation from him. He’ll tell you, easy enough.” “I think I can give a pretty good guess at it right now,” the sheriff broke in. “Sloan possibly had his own idea as to what the boys were here for, and that idea was undoubtedly incorrect.” “I’ve got it now!” cried Carl. “I know all about it!” “You’re the wise boy!” laughed Ben. “Go on and tell it.” “Why, don’t you see,” Carl went on, “Sloan suspected us of coming here to butt in on his game with the smugglers? He saw us in the cavern, and of course believed that we were there working for the immense rewards offered for the criminals. He wanted to head us off!” “That may be right,” replied Gilmore. “The fellow is mercenary enough, when it comes down to cases. Well,” the forest ranger went on, “what else could the fellow think? He saw you there in the cave, and knew that you knew the use it was being put to. The only way that he could figure it out was that you were there to interfere with a game which he had almost won by playing a lone hand.” “And so he dumped our gasoline to keep us from flying back to the canyon or flying over to Monterey to tell what we’d discovered!” suggested Carl. “That is undoubtedly correct,” Gilmore admitted, “and if the _Louise_ had been there, he doubtless would have crippled her, too.” “And now,” laughed Havens, “that you have the whole thing settled, without Sloan knowing anything about it, perhaps we’d better go somewhere and have dinner, or supper, or whatever you may call it.” “We probably can’t get anything here at this time of day,” the sheriff interposed, “but I know of a restaurant down the street where we can get anything from a lobster to an elephant’s ear.” “I don’t care about spending any money in this place, anyway,” said Havens. “Say, Sheriff,” he went on, “I want to leave with you a little present for your new deputy Stroup. Will you deliver it to him just as I hand it to you without one word of explanation?” “Surely,” replied the official.