B) He chases after the stranger.
In the story Simon Wheeler says that Smiley "was the maddest man he set the frog down and took out after that feller, but he never ketched him." In this quote Wheeler directly states that Smiley goes after the stranger.
"The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is a story within a story. Similar to Jim Smiley, the narrator of the story is tricked. His friends tricks him into going to see Simon Wheeler to ask after someone. The narrator suspects that his friend set him up to listen to Simon Wheeler's stories. At the end the narrator finds an opening and takes off so he doesn't have to listen to any more from Simon Wheeler.