“Why didn’t he promise me the money to-morrow, so that I can go back to the city?” said Claude, as he took off his clothes and tumbled into bed. “They must see that I don’t want to live here. I wonder if I could punch him up and get him to draw on that five thousand dollars he has in the paymaster’s hands? That is something worth thinking of.”
Morning came at length, and Claude got up to find that he was treated with respect by all hands except the foreman and cook. These two did not seem to want anything to do with him. Of course they bid him good-morning and answered all the questions he asked them, but they did it in a short way, as though his talking bothered them. They were careful not to let Mr. Preston see them in conversation with him, for they knew that their employer would take them to task about it. None of the hands referred to the matter at the breakfast-table, and in fact they seemed to have forgotten all about it, and Claude listened in vain for his uncle to mention the subject of a reward. He finally concluded that he was not going to get any.
“He is the meanest man I ever saw,” said Claude, as he went out to saddle his horse. “He lets me risk my life in saving his money, and doesn’t give me anything. I wish to goodness I had said nothing about it.”
A few days after this, Claude found a couple of strange men in the house when he came home to dinner. They were very different from Harding and his partner, for they were cattlemen on the face of them. They wore their revolvers strapped about their waists, had silk handkerchiefs around their necks, and their hats, which lay beside them on the floor, were sombreros of the widest kind.
“Well, Claude, it seems that you are not out of this scrape after all,” said Mr. Preston.
“What scrape do you mean, uncle?” asked Claude.
“Why, about that safe robbery. Harding and his partner have gone among the Sioux Indians, and are going to kill every one of us.”
“How did you find that out?” asked Claude, his face growing a shade paler.
“These men, who have come down to hire in their places, brought the news straight from them. They are going to kill you on sight, for they blame you as much as anybody for their failure; and Carl they are going to capture and keep until they can get some stock out of him.”
“They say you talked to them very mean in regard to Mr. Preston,” said one of the cowboys with a smile.