“It’s a go, sir, and we take you up on that,” declared the leader of the scout patrol.
Accordingly they talked over the arrangements, and how they might meet again in the town where the prisoners could be placed in charge of the authorities, until the proper officers came to take them to Augusta.
Giraffe managed to get Thad alone later on in the evening. The sheriff was feeling pretty good after his feed, and sat there by the fire swapping stories with old Eli, while the rest of the scouts lay around, listening and laughing.
“I noticed that you didn’t say anything about that other pile of stuff we landed under the stone in the old cabin?” remarked Giraffe.
“That’s right, I didn’t,” answered Thad, readily; “and I kept mum on purpose. In the first place, it was none of their business, because they knew nothing about that plunder. And if they knew that we had it, perhaps it might have made bad feelings. Just remember, and don’t mention it. Of course, if Charlie happens to give the secret away later on, when he’s with them, that can’t be helped. I wouldn’t think of denying it, if they mentioned the matter right now; but I don’t believe it’s any of their business. Understand, Giraffe?”
“Sure I do, and let me say I’m of the same mind too,” replied the other. “I’ll just try and let Bumpus and Step Hen know, because, you see, they’re kind of easy marks, and apt to talk too much. If that sharp sheriff ever gets a hint of what we dug up, he’ll want to hear the whole story.”
Of course, with an experienced officer to look after Charlie, none of the scouts saw any reason for anxiety, or losing sleep in fear of the desperate hobo breaking loose. Thad confined his labors to the sick and wounded. He had managed to accomplish that delicate little surgical job with a fair amount of success, considering his lack of experience. Kimball was loud in his praise of the boy’s nimble fingers and ready brain.
“You’ll sure be a great surgeon some day, younker!” he declared. “That was as nice a job as many a doctor could have done. And I reckon I’m agoin’ to get well now, and stand for that twenty year sentence the judge’ll hand out to me. I wish there had been such a thing as Boy Scouts when I was young; p’raps, then, there’d been a different story to tell about me.”
Thad was sitting there, listening to the talk, when some one plucked him by the sleeve, and looking up, he saw Sebattis. There was a glitter in the black eyes of the dusky guide that surprised the patrol leader.
“Get gun—come ’long—think hear moose call ’gain,” whispered the Indian.