“I tell you what, Kimball,” said the other, after a pause, “we’ll give the poor feller till to-morry night. If he ain’t better then, we jest got to leave hyar by the next mornin’ sure. The best we kin do is to fix him comfortable like, with a plenty o’ water and grub handy, and let him take chances. Now, as I hev got my hands on this hyar bundle o’ stuff again, I jest don’t feel like bein’ caged.”
“That’s all right, Charlie,” replied the other. “I don’t like to desert a man any more than you do; but what’s a fellow goin’ to do? We’d all get caught if we hung out here too long. As it is, we can send the sheriff word when we’re safe over the line, and he’ll find Dick. They ain’t got much on the boy, you know; and if he’s sent up at all, it’d only be for a few years.”
By this time Giraffe himself was crawling past under the little window. He knew that he must be making more or less of a rustling sound while moving along; to his ears all trifling things were magnified immensely; why, he could even hear the pounding of his rapidly beating heart, and wondered if it was calculated to catch the attention of those within the cabin.
However, he realized that several things were acting in his favor. In the first place the wind made more or less of a constant rustle through the tops of the tall pines, and this in itself would have deadened other sounds. Then again, the fact of the two hobo yeggs talking together acted as a buffer, since they were not so likely to keep their ears on the alert for suspicious noises from without.
There were Sebattis and Eli turning the last angle now. That must bring them to the front of the cabin, where they could crouch down behind some of the shrubbery that Giraffe remembered grew on that side. Doubtless the keen-witted Indian had this very fact in mind when he chose to pass along to this side of the door, rather than take the other route; as Giraffe realized he must have done, simply because in that case he would not have to pass under a window at all.
Did they mean to suddenly spring into the cabin, and cover the men before they could snatch up their guns? Giraffe hoped not, for in that case the rest of them might not have any share at all in the winding up of the affair; and all the glory would pass to Sebattis, Eli, and perhaps Thad and Allan.
But then, the fact that the leaders were now crouching there would seem to indicate that just then at least there was no intention of going further.
So Giraffe, also pulling his long figure forward, found a place where he too could stretch out, and with his gun in his trembling hands, wait for the next move in the game.
Now he remembered what the man with the heavy voice had just said about meaning to start out after the sick member of the trio, after he had recovered his wind. That looked as if Sebattis might be laying for him there. And when he stepped into the open, doubtless the two guides expected to suddenly spring to their feet, at the same time cowering him by leveling their weapons.
Giraffe realized that perhaps this was rather queer business for a Boy Scout to be in, rounding up desperate law breakers; but if Thad thought it all right, why, there could be no objection.