Charley’s face expressed almost as much mental agony as the pup’s whine had shown, though he said nothing.  The ranger, looking up, caught the expression, however, and understood.  He knew how lonely it would be for Charley after Lew returned to Central City.  “The harm’s already done,” he continued, “and I suppose it never does any good to lock the stable after the horse is gone.  You may keep your pup, Charley; but I do wish he was a dumb brute in fact as well as in name.”

“I can train him to be quiet,” said Charley eagerly.  “I trained Judge Gordon’s dogs to hunt and I can train this little fellow not to make a noise.  If I could keep him, sir, I’d be mighty glad.  He’ll be a lot of company.”

“Keep your dog, noise or no noise,” said the kindly ranger with determination.  “If you can really train him well, he’ll do us a thousand times more good than he does harm.  Now that I know Bill Collins is in these woods, I don’t like the idea of leaving you here alone.  You train that dog as fast as you can.  Train him to warn you of the approach of strangers, and train him to fight, too—­and to fight hard.”

Again the ranger lapsed into silence.  After a while he said, “What puzzles me now is this:  Should we move your camp to another place or leave it where it is?  Bill Collins knows there is a camp here.  He saw you two boys in the forest and he has probably seen no one else.  He will likely infer that it is your camp.  But he has no way of knowing that you are connected with the Forest Service, unless, unless—­By George!  Why didn’t I think of that sooner?  Ten to one he hid close by and watched for you to come back.  If he did, he saw us when we came down from the top of the hill.  And if he saw me with you boys, he knows as well as I do why this camp is hidden and what you boys really are doing.  I’ll bet it made him swear some when he saw me.”  And the ranger chuckled.

“But maybe he didn’t see us,” suggested Charley.

“I’d just as soon believe that the sun didn’t set.  That fellow’s a fox for cleverness and a bulldog for persistence.  Yet I don’t see that we need feel bad, even if he does know where your camp is.  We’ve learned more than he has.  We know he’s back in these parts and that he is making a secret visit to this timber; for you may be very sure he intended it to be a secret visit.”

“But he can’t be certain we know who he is,” argued Charley.  “He is as much a stranger to Lew and me as we are to him.”

“True enough, Charley, true enough.  It was really a great piece of luck that you boys happened to bump into him.  It would have been better, of course, if you could have seen him without being noticed yourself, but in that case we should never have guessed who he was.  No; it’s a game of checkers between us now, and we’ve each lost a man to the other.  But in my opinion we got a king in exchange for an ordinary checker.  What I’d like to know is, who the man is that’s with him.”