“He’s a great little Kit. He was too quick for me,” said Rat, striving to laugh as he spoke.
“He always is,” suggested Reuben.
“That don’t mean that he always will be, does it?”
“I think it does.”
“He certainly has a good friend in you, Reuben. He makes every one bow down to him.”
“If they do, it’s not because he makes them, but because they want to.”
“It’s all the same, it’s all the same.”
Silence followed, and steadily Reuben led the way back to the place where he had left his comrades. Occasionally he glanced keenly at his companion, but he was unable to discover any signs of fear or even of shame. Apparently Rat was returning to the trappers as a matter of course and expecting that he would be received in the same spirit with which he came. And yet in spite of his manner Reuben was keenly suspicious of the huge boaster. The very fact that he had suffered at the hands of the boyish scout doubtless had aroused a feeling of resentment which could not be quieted until Rat had obtained satisfaction.
To the surprise of Reuben, however, when they entered the camp Rat was greeted without any protest, though it could not be said that there was manifest any feeling of special pleasure at his return. Apparently accepting the condition as one which he had expected, Rat soon made himself at home in response to the quiet invitation of Kit Carson. It was plain, however, within a few days that the prejudices of the trappers were still keen. Indeed there was not one who was not suspicious of him, though there was none as yet who had shown any unfriendly attitude.
Why had the man come back to camp? What had he expected? If he had returned to take vengeance upon Kit Carson, why did he postpone his attack? These questions and others like them were frequently in the mind of Reuben, but when several days had elapsed and no answer had been found, he concluded that the boaster had been taught a much-needed lesson and that now he was cured of his overbearing ways.