"Yes, sir, the others seemed to take that word as a signal, for the next thing I knew my companions were calling out to ascertain whether I had been seriously hurt. I found that they also had been bruised, and one had a knife wound in the arm, but not of a serious nature." The captain turned toward Dick and Roger. "You have heard what Mayhew says, my boys," he remarked. "Does it afford you any sort of clue as to the meaning of this mysterious attack in the dark, and the seizure of the paper you were sending home?" "I am afraid it does, Captain," Dick replied. "You recognize the name, then, do you?" "It is that of the grown son of François Lascelles," replied Dick; "the rascally French trader who has bought up the claim against our parents' holdings down near the settlement of St. Louis." "Then it is possible that they followed you all the way up here, and, having obtained the assistance of some equally desperate border characters, laid a cunning plot whereby they meant to win by foul means, where fair could not succeed! What puzzles me most of all is how they could know that Mayhew carried the paper. I should dislike very much to believe we had a traitor in our little camp!" The captain looked around at the assembled men with a serious expression on his face, which caused some uneasiness among the soldiers, frontiersmen and voyageurs who made up the expedition. They had always shown themselves loyal to their commanders and, when the finger of suspicion pointed their way, all felt the disgrace keenly. Mayhew it was who came to their relief. "I could never believe, sir, that any one here could be so treacherous," he hastened to say, as though anxious to take the entire burden of responsibility on his own broad shoulders, in which he proved himself to be at least a man. "I have been seriously thinking it over as I rode all day long, and believe I can see how it may have been known that I carried the boys' packet." "Then explain it, Mayhew; for I must confess that the whole thing is a great puzzle to me," Captain Lewis told him. "When they saw us depart they knew, of course, that you would be sending a report of the progress of the expedition to the Government at Washington, sir. They must have also surmised that the boys would have influenced Jasper Williams to sign the paper that would free their homes, and that one of us must be carrying it to St. Louis. Do you not think that is reasonable, Captain?" "Yes, but tell me how they could have picked _you_ out as the one bearing it?" asked the other, impatiently.