Havens took a note-book from his pocket, tore out a blank leaf, wrote three words on it and signed his name. Then he took a bank-note of the denomination of one thousand dollars from his pocket, folded it up in the paper, stuffed the whole into a hotel envelope which he sealed and passed it over to the sheriff, who took it with evident amazement. “You don’t do things by halves,” the official observed. “I try to do things according to my means,” replied Havens. “I should have missed a lot of satisfaction this morning if Stroup hadn’t shown up with his capable fists!” “What did you write on the sheet of paper?” asked Carl. Havens looked at the sheriff and the forest ranger with a smile. “You won’t arrest me for inciting a riot, will you?” he asked. “You’ve already paid too many fines in this town,” laughed the sheriff. “Well, under promise of immunity, then,” Havens went on, “the words were ‘Hit him again.’ How does that strike you?” “If you had showed the paper to me before you sealed it up,” the sheriff laughed, “I would have added my name to yours at the bottom of the instructions.” “Do you really think he will hit him again?” asked Carl. “Hit him again?” repeated the sheriff, “He’ll hit the clerk, and the ex-deputy, and the house detective, until he drives them out of town, and pay his fine out of the thousand dollars.” “Don’t you let him do that,” advised Havens. “If he just gives each of them a good licking once, that’ll be sufficient. There are too many fresh hotel clerks and deputy sheriffs in the world, also house detectives, and if he reduced the list by three, that’ll be enough.” “Holy Smoke!” shouted Carl rising to his feet and making for the door. “Are we going to talk here all day without anything to eat?” “I’m so empty right now,” Ben decided, “that you could hold a Salvation Army meeting in my system. Where’s this restaurant where you can get an elephant’s ear?” “I’ll lead you to it,” laughed the sheriff, “and while we’re eating, we can lay plans for the capture of that gang of smugglers.” “We didn’t come here after smugglers,” suggested Ben. “Not so you could notice it,” Carl went on. “We came here to find the burglars of the Buyers’ Bank in New York. We haven’t found them yet.” “But we know pretty well where they are,” Ben insisted. “Kit saw Phillips in the woods this morning, dressed in a ranger’s uniform.” The story of the bear was new to Havens and the officers, and they enjoyed its relation immensely. Both boys smacked their lips at thought of the bear steak they didn’t get. “We can get the outlaws with little trouble now,” Gilmore said, after a moment’s reflection. “I’ve got men enough in this vicinity to put a line all around the hills. So long as we know they are here, we are all right.” “After we eat dinner,” Ben suggested, “perhaps we’d better go back to the green bowl and look up Jimmie and Kit. There’s no knowing what they may have discovered during the day.”