"Yes," said Roland sternly, "and with us and our expedition he must and shall go. We can watch his every move, and if I find that he is a villain, may God have mercy on his soul! His body shall feed the eagles."
Dick Temple was a wild and reckless boy, it is true, and always first, if possible, in any adventure which included a spice of danger, but he had a good deal of common sense notwithstanding.
He mused a little, and rolled himself a fresh cigarette before he replied.
"Your Mr. Peter," he said, "may or may not be guilty of duplicity, though I do not see the raison d'être for any such conduct, and I confess to you that I look upon lynching as a wild kind of justice. At the same time I must again beg of you, Roland, to give the man a decent show."
"Here is my hand on that, Dick. He shall have justice, even should that just finish with his dangling at a rope's end."
The two shortly after this parted for the night, each going to his own room, but I do not think that either of them slept till long past midnight.
They were up in good time, however, for the bath, and felt invigorated and hungry after the dip.
They were not over-merry certainly, but Mrs. St. Clair was quite changed, and just a little hysterically hilarious. For as soon as he had tubbed, Roland had gone to her bedroom and broken the news to her which Benee had brought.
That same forenoon Dick and Roland rode out to the forest.
They could hear the boom and shriek and roar of the great buzz-saw long before they came near the white-men's quarters.