"Well, I am thinking that you and I might work in double harness."
"Strike a bargain, eh? There's no knowing! There will be a stir up on the frontier—the Britishers are pressing on that railroad. I want all the friends I can cluster. What's your proposal?"
"Assist me to find the gold hoard in the Firehole, and I, who am not without friends in Congress, will engage to restore your captives in so glorious a manner to their relatives, that you will become a hero and have a monument in every Western city! It is true the Sioux will sharpen their knives to punish your breach of faith, but I never heard that there were many Sioux in the hotels of the Eastern States!"
"Then we unite! And instead of my being a poor leader of only a score hale men, I become a subchief of over two hundred!"
"My lieutenant! The sooner I reinforce you the better, eh? White women in the mountains and Indians within rifle range: it's a temptation they can't withstand. I ought to add that another danger exists. They say in the towns that that old rogue, Jim Ridge, boasts that he regulates this chain of the sierras."
"His friends the trappers lynch a horse thief now and then, and shoot offhand anyone robbing cachés, but that's sound trapper law."
"If he and his friends block our entrance into the Yellowstone 'Park,' what would you do?"
"Oh, when there's a man between me and what my empty pocket gapes for, either he or I go under!"
"You're the true colour," ejaculated Kidd, using a gold miner's phrase, and not, of course, reflecting on his colloquist's complexion—a sore point with mixed bloods. "I will send you a dozen men from the camp the moment I return, and you can join me at our next tent pitching, of which they will bear you word. By the way, tell Quarry Dick to make straight for that Blackstone of a Negro head shape as well as hue. I will meet him there by a circuit, for I can make no way on these confounded snowshoes."
"It comes by practice, my brave captain," said Dagard merrily, "like spending money. Au revoir! Our rally word is—"