“Gracious! but you’re a good feller,” exclaimed Jim, “if it wan’t fur de boys, I b’lebe I’d settle down among you, an’ take you fur my bruvver chief, if you’ll only let my arms loose, you needn’t be afreed dat I’ll swing ’em round careless.”
The obliging Mohaves, at this point removed the lassoes from his limbs, and left his body entirely unrestrained—a proceeding like the former, the result of the magnanimity showed the Indian, when he expected no mercy.
“I ’gin to tink George is right,” mused Jim, “he always told me to be kind to ebery one, no matter if he was your enemy. If I had come de gold trick ober dis feller, he wouldn’t have been half so cleber. Gracious! he wouldn’t have been at all.”
The prisoner was now almost entirely at ease, and had given over all fear of his own personal safety. He argued that they would not be so lenient and considerate, if they intended any ultimate harm, and he endeavored to content himself as well as he could until the morrow, which he hoped would see him set at liberty.
As the night wore on, none of the party seemed to be sensible of its somniferous tendency. The Mohaves remained wide awake, and Jim had had too many things in his mind to feel drowsy. The former kept consulting together, and finally, when it was quite late, they all arose, and with the prisoner between them, started off.
A half hour later, they came upon the party which held Edwin Inwood.
CHAPTER XII.
It was a painful surprise both to Edwin Inwood and Jim Tubbs when they met each other in captivity. They conversed together, and acquainted themselves with their mutual history after their separation during the day.