“Would you care very much if Tom Smith and myself crept on ahead, to see how the ground lay?” asked Thad, determined to take advantage of the sheriff’s kindness while the other was in a mood to accommodate him.
The officer glanced toward the guide.
“Would you think that to be a good play, Tom?” he asked; “’case if ye do, I ain’t got a wo’d to say agin the same. This youngster beats my time, an’ I’m right glad I run up ag’inst him. Neveh did have much use fo’ Yankees sense they run off my ole man’s slaves yeahs an’ yeahs ago, leavin’ the fambly po’ as church mice; but if they raise his breed up thar, I’ve got to change my ideas, that’s all. How about that move, Tom Smith: be ye of theh same mind as him.”
Now, possibly the guide had not up to then even considered such a move; but he was quick to see the wisdom of it, since Thad had brought the matter up. He was also too shrewd an old chap to disclose his ignorance; and accordingly he made out that he had himself been considering such benefits as might come to them from a spying expedition, but through a sense of modesty had refrained from mentioning it thus far.
“Wanted tuh say sumpin like thet myself, Shurff, but didn’t know jest how yuh mout take hit,” he observed, complacently; “but sense Thad, he opens the ijee, sot me down as favorin’ theh same.”
“Oh! all right then, just as you figger, son,” the sheriff went on to say, turning once more to the young scout-master; “but take us along as fur as ye dar, Smith; and fix it with me so as how if ye need help suddent-like we’ll know it’s time to git busy.”
Thad felt almost like shaking the hand of the sheriff again and again, he was so delighted with the readiness with which the other had fallen in with his scheme.
Under similar conditions there were many pigheaded officials, so inflated with a sense of their own importance, that nothing could have induced them to yield one atom of their authority in a case like this. They would have insisted on taking the lead, and running things as they pleased, no matter if failure resulted through their recklessness.
“We’ll give a loud whistle if we get in any trouble, and want you to rush up with the whole posse,” he said, quickly, fearing that unless he clinched the bargain immediately the sheriff might repent himself of having made it.
“No need of tellin’ ye to be keerful, son,” continued the other, as Thad and the old swamp guide prepared to leave the party; “because I reckons as how ye jest couldn’t be anything else if ye tried. Yes, this heah scout business hes cotchcd my fancy right smart, an’ I ’spect to look into the same later on. Good luck, Thad, and heah’s wishin’ she may turn out to be all ye hopes fo’!”