“Ah!” said the Frenchman, drawing a long breath; “so; but ze boad, vere ees it?”
“I found her tied up among the reeds in a little branch off the creek here.”
“Tied up! Fastened, eh?”
“Oh, you needn’t be afraid. She’s a stray boat. One of these farmer coves has found her. He’s just run her in there and hitched her to a log. By-an’-bye he thinks to himself he’ll take her out and paint her up quietly, an’ let on he bought her new down the river.”
“Vell, vat you think to do?”
“Borrow the boat for to-morrow night.”
“So, and——”
“Yes; we’ll come down here, get her, pull down quietly to the town. I’ll wait at the place I told you. When you come along with the stuff we’ll pull back an’ tie her up again to the log an’ nobody won’t ever be any the wiser. The cove that’s thinking to hook that boat for himself won’t say anything. It won’t be his game. See?”
“Oui! it is reasonable. Ef so, he ees accuse, an accomplice, eh?”
“Frenchy you got sense. You’ll do.”