“And why didn’t you?”
“He fooled us as he did you. We was talkin’ over matters the very minute you busted into the door and was satisfied that he had larned he was playin’ with fire and had concluded to drop it. We was as big fools as you.”
CHAPTER XVI
NOW
It was the parson who now broke in.
“Why do we sit here, lamenting that which cannot be helped? Do you mean to give up, captain, and let her go? Will you settle down to toil in the diggings, giving her no further thought, while this pretty-faced lieutenant is chuckling over the clever manner by which he fooled you as well as us––”
“No!” fairly shouted the roused parent; “I will follow them to the ends of the earth! They shall not find a foot of ground that will protect them! She has never seen me angry, but she shall now!”
“We are with you,” coolly responded Brush, “but only on one condition.”