“Not for long.”
“How long?”
“They’ll let up as soon as you’re shot.”
Lieutenant Russell could not restrain a smile at this way of putting it, while Nellie was so horrified that she gasped and stared and listened in silence.
“There can be little doubt that you are right, but I meant to ask whether you do not think the captain will moderate his anger when he is given time to think it over.”
“He has had all night to do that, and this mornin’ he was hotter if anything, than at any time since he larned what you had done.”
“When did he learn it?”
Thereupon, Vose told the facts which have already 276 been made known to the reader, the most interesting feature of which was that Adams was not an original member of the pursuing party. But, although the guide was so pronounced in his opinion of the continuance of the enmity of Captain Dawson, the lieutenant believed otherwise. He was confident that if he and Nellie could reach Sacramento before meeting the irate father, the latter would be open to reason, and all would turn out well.
Vose turned to the young woman.
“Nellie, do you want a little advice from me?”