Chapter II

11

STRANGE FISH

He began to walk, and to whistle. He whistled Yankee Doodle. A short 30−30 lever−action carbine rested across his folded arms.

They walked into the camp. Nothing stirred. Red light from the campfire coals made the night shadows steady and black.

The campfire had an unpleasant smell. Something had been thrown into it to burn. Garbage, maybe. Still, the smell was more of rags or leather.

“Hello, there!” Johnny Toms called.

A voice from inside the tent said, “You took your time getting here.”

Johnny Toms jumped slightly, then said, “There wasn't any special time mentioned in our invitation.”

Johnny's rifle was pointing at the tent, and his dark eyes were intent and suspicious.

There was silence. Fred and Little Toe had come up on the other side of the camp. They stood there motionless in the night. Buck and Frosty were close to Paris.

“Be careful in there!” Johnny Toms said to the tent. He grabbed the tent flap and threw it open. He popped a flashlight beam inside.

The tent was the pyramid type which used a center pole.

The man inside was sitting on the ground, his back against the tent center pole.

He wasn't the fat man.

The fact that he wasn't the fat man was so surprising that everyone was startled into silence.

The man looked at them steadily. His eyes were wide, without luster, without emotion, movement or expression. “Come in,” he said. “I want to ask you about the belonesox.”

Chapter III

THE man's length and thinness and boniness gave him a ridiculous Daddy−Long−Legs look. He sat there against the tent pole with every appearance of being folded in the middle. He wore a dark suit, good heavy cloth. The suit coat had narrow lapels. A foreign design, continental. He was still watching them, but his eyes seemed not to have moved or changed in the least.

“Where's fat boy?” Johnny Toms asked.

“He went away,” the man said.

“Who are you?”

“Porter,” the man said. He seemed not interested in them or their questions, but to have another goal toward which he was driving. “What about the belonesox?” he asked. “Have you got it?”