"I told your friend at the hotel a moment ago," said the doctor, "that he and Lupo had better be careful how they meddled in this business. If you don't want to engage yourself to me to find this unfortunate man, you have a perfect right to refuse. It's only a common act of kindness at any rate. But I would warn you that if you and your friends intend to make trouble, you will get into trouble. That's all." The mountaineer scowled. "We can prove he set Razor Back on fire," he said. "He was seen in the neighborhood prowling about with a can of oil yesterday morning." "At what time?" demanded Billie quickly. "I don't know the exact hour, lady, but it was some time in the forenoon." "Well," ejaculated Billie angrily, "that shows how much evidence you have to go upon. There's not a word of truth in it and you have no right to spread that wicked report founded on a falsehood. Mr. French was at Sunrise Camp just about that time and he couldn't have got anywhere near Razor Back Mountain in hours. We have a witness to prove what we say." "It may not have been forenoon, come to think of it," said the man doggedly. "Nonsense," exclaimed the exasperated Billie, as the "Comet" dashed away with a contemptuous honk-honk, leaving the defeated mountaineer standing in the middle of the road. Only one person was awake in all the camp when the doctor and Billie returned: Alberdina, busy ironing pink-tinted clothes in the lean-to. Miss Campbell and the girls were napping on the upper porch and Phoebe still slept on a couch in the living room, while Ben and Percy had not returned from their search for news of her father. "Miss Billie," remarked the doctor, "if you will be kind enough to fix me up a lunch, I think I'll pack my knapsack and start on the road again. I can't say how long I shall be gone, but you mustn't be uneasy if I don't get back for a day or two. The boys will look after you and if you have any real trouble, you had better telegraph your father. If possible, try and keep Phoebe right here. Those men will go no further than threats in regard to us. They know we are too powerful for them, but I couldn't say the same for that poor girl and her father. I suppose jealousy and Lupo's treachery are the motives behind it. The father does better work than any of them can do and the mountaineers resent the difference between them, whatever it is, birth, breeding, education. But we can't judge them by the usual standards, of course. They have never had any chances, these people, shut in by this wall of mountains. There is not much inspiration to be charitable and kind, living in one of these little shanties during the long cold winters. It's a pretty fine nature that doesn't get warped and narrowed by the life." "Phoebe's didn't," thought Billie, while she sliced bread for the doctor's lunch.