CHAPTER XIX
SURPRISING TRAPPER JESSE
Mr. Smithson had carried his prisoner off, after he, too, had partaken of the hospitality of Kamp Kill Kare.
"Boys," he said, in leaving, "I'm sure under obligations to you for all this, and any time I can repay the debt don't hesitate to ask me. To get Bismarck back safe and sound after such a storm, is going to be a feather in my cap. And only for you I'd be hunting him yet, with only a slim chance of success."
"Why, that's all right, Mr. Smithson," Frank had declared heartily; "we've enjoyed helping you, though it does make a fellow feel bad to see as clever a man as that laboring under such a ridiculous fancy."
"He was once a professor in a college, and lost his mind through overstudy," remarked the keeper, as he moved off, with "Bismarck" at his side.
168
