"You live there?"
"I want to get there. Do you know the shortest road?"
This was asked as if Sam might be well acquainted with the longest road himself.
"Oh, yes," said the chief.
"If you guide me—by the shortest way—to Hurley's Gulch to-morrow morning, I will give you money, rifles, pistols, knives, blankets, and lots of other good things," said Sam with lavish generosity.
"You got money, rifles, knives, blankets, all good things with you here, eh?" asked the chief.
"We have all the arms we need for our own defense, and we know how to use them. But you guide me to Hurley's Gulch, and I will keep my word," said Sam, with more confidence than he felt.
Instead of replying at once to this generous proposition, the chief spoke with his followers for some minutes in low, guttural tones.
Sam could hear the murmur of their voices, and he rightly guessed that they were discussing whether to accept his offer in good faith, or to kill and rob himself and his companions.
"We see you, sun up; you no leave," called out the chief at length.