He was rolling a cigarette, the black-haired man. Now he looked up sideway at the lieutenant, as he put away Durham and papers, with the ready grin that showed his white teeth.
“Prob’ly didn’t look no worse, at that,” he smiled, “than me’n Bill here!”
The lieutenant laughed with him, then sobered abruptly.
“Well, I’m glad you fellows happened along,” he remarked. “I think I’ll have a look at your back-trail tomorrow and see if I can have a talk with Lengthy and his friends. Four, eh? By Jove! That would be the tally, now, if they killed two in Kansas!”
Behind the spring-wagon rolling south again with dawn, the cavalry camp had vanished. The troopers were in the saddle, heading north to investigate “Lengthy.” The black-haired man turned on the box-seat and his white teeth showed; he shook with noiseless laughter.
“An’ he’s goin’ to have a look at ‘Lengthy!’ he exploded suddenly. “Oh, Lawdy! I sure wish him lots o’ luck!”
“Well, he pitched a big scare into me, just the same!” nodded Jack Davis, sourly. ‘When he says he’s a-lookin’ for train-robbers, Sam, I could count the bars on the winder!”
“He never scared me half as much as you did!” grunted Sam Bass, irritably. “You blame’ fool! You like to make him suspicious o’ us!”
“Do you reckon they are a-lookin’ for us?” Jack Davis was plainly uneasy at the thought. “Hell! Mebbe we better not figger on goin’ to Denton, Sam! We got twenty thousand between us. Let’s head for South America.”