“Here, boys!” shouted the foreman as he galloped up; “you don’t drive these cattle fast enough. It will be dark before we get them down to the corral. You Claude! take after that fellow and bring him back.”
Claude put his horse into a gallop and “took after” the unwilling steer who objected to going toward the corral; but he was grateful to Thompson for sending him away, for he wanted to have time to compose his features. His chance for making money had come at last. Of course there was a chance for him to arouse the suspicion of the squawmen, who would take speedy revenge upon him, and that was one thing against which he must guard himself. He would not be seen any more in his uncle’s company than he had been heretofore, and when Carl came toward him for the purpose of helping him he had business on the flank of the drove, at some little distance away.
“I know I am all right now,” said Claude to himself, “and the main thing must be to keep myself all right. If I am seen around in your company, and the squawmen shall slip up on their plan of robbing the safe, I will be the first to suffer for it. I’ll wait until night, and then I’ll fix things as they ought to be.”
But it seemed to him that night was a long way off. The cattle were driven toward the corral, the calves separated from them and put in the inclosure, and amid the confusion and noise that attended all this Ainsworth found time to give Claude an encouraging wink.
“What do you mean by that?” whispered Claude.
“It is all right,” was the reply. “We will see you to-morrow night and tell you what to do.”
“Look here,” said Claude, looking all around to make sure that no one was watching him, “I am not to do anything but get the key, am I?”
“No—that will be enough for us.”
“And I am to get my third of the money as soon as we get it?”
“Sure. You don’t think we would try to take it away from you?”