“We got ’em, didn’t we, fellows? If they’d been a dozen ’stead of four we could have done the little trick just as easy. Ain’t they a sorry bunch, though; and now I wonder if they happen to have any more of that fresh meat along with ’em; because I’m a
bit peaked for a bite, and time’s apt to hang heavy on our hands between this and daylight, when we can get busy, and pull out of here.”
Sure enough he did find that there was still a small portion of meat uncooked. After learning this Billie was inclined to allow his chums to do all the planning and figuring while he busied himself by the fire; the four men glaring at him, and in turn reviling and entreating him to let them loose, as they had only been playing a practical joke on Colonel Morrison, since the cattle had been bought the day before and they thought to give him a scare.
But Billie paid no attention to either threats or blandishments, but went steadily about his self-appointed task of preparing a midnight supper for himself and companions, a congenial task it was too, as any one who knew Billie’s weakness would easily understand. There was to be no sleep for the boys on this night, after the little they had enjoyed. They could not guess what the plans of the rustlers might be, and that in itself gave them cause for anxiety. If another lot of the Walkers should turn up before morning, and catch them napping, things would go hard with the youngsters. And then again, with prisoners of that type on their hands Donald and Adrian dared not relax their vigilance a particle lest one of the men manage to get loose, and freeing his mates, pounce upon their late captors.
Donald was used to sizing up cow-punchers, and
could see good in most any chap who followed that profession; but he had to admit that these four were about as hard looking specimens as he had run across for a long while. If they ever found a chance to turn the tables on the Broncho Rider Boys it was easy to guess how they would act. The thought did not afford Adrian any pleasure; but it did make him the more determined that he would neglect no precaution in order to make such a possibility less likely to happen.
Well, Billie finally called the others to sit down and have a bite of late supper; and more to oblige him than because they were really hungry they did eat a little. That satisfied the cook, however, and if his chums chose to partake so lightly of the fare, that only left the larger portion for him to make way with.
“What is the time?” asked Donald, when things had sort of simmered down to a condition of quiet, the prisoners ceasing to talk because they had come to realize that it was a useless expenditure of breath.
“Going on two now,” was the answer.
“That means about four hours of it before us,” said Donald; “well, we’ve got heaps to talk about, and can pass the time away all right. Then we must keep a lookout for signs of trouble, or the coming of any more rustlers, as well as watch this tough bunch.”