“Huh?”
“Looks to me almost like an exile. I’ve got more to hate him for than you have, but I don’t very long at a time.”
“Ye’ve got more t’ like him for, too; he’s doin’ his best to git rid of Sorez fer you. But I says, ‘Watch him. Watch him day an’ night––mos’ particlarly at night.’”
“But what did he mean by to-morrow? I don’t know but what we ought to let the treasure go and find Sorez first.”
“Find Sorez and ye has ter help him; help him and the Priest fixes us immejiate. Then where’s yer girl? No, th’ thing for us ter do is ter git th’ treasure first and get it quick. Then we has somethin’ ter work with.”
“And if the treasure isn’t there?”
“Get the girl an’ make a run for home. The Priest won’t touch her so long as he thinks she is jus’ bein’ fooled. If we joins th’ band, he won’t think so an’ will kill us all.”
“I don’t know but what you’re right,” answered Wilson.
They pushed their tired animals on to the foot of the mountain and, pausing here just long enough to catch their breath, began the long ascent. It was no child’s play from the first. The path was narrow, rocky, and steep, blocked by undergrowth and huge boulders, many of which at a touch became loosened and plunged with a crashing roar down the slope behind them. With any lesser incentive than that which drove them on, they would have stopped a dozen times.