“I did not see anything to laugh at,” replied Claude, “but I am more used to riding on horseback than I was a year ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. None of the cattle charged upon me, and so I got off safe.”
In spite of Claude’s impatience, it was nearly ten o’clock before his cousin thought it high time he was going to bed. They had a hard day’s work to perform on the morrow, and they needed some sleep to prepare for it. He bade his cousin good-night and went into the house; and no sooner had he done so than Claude made a motion enjoining silence upon his uncle, and went first to one end of the porch, and then to the other, to make sure that there was no one listening to hear what he had to say. His uncle looked on with surprise, and when Claude seated himself he said:
“A person would think that you have some secret to tell me. Why don’t you want somebody to hear it?”
“Well, I guess you will think it is a secret by the time I tell it,” whispered Claude. “Uncle, there are two men here who have made up their minds to rob you to-morrow night.”
Claude thought that if that revelation had been made to him he would have gone wild over it. Instead of that, his uncle settled back in his chair and looked at him without speaking.
“They are Harding and his partner,” continued Claude. “They say that the reason they came here was to get a look at your safe.”
“How did you find it out?” asked Mr. Preston. He did not seem to be nervous at all. He talked in his usual tone of voice, and in much the same manner that he would have discussed the round-up that was to come off the next day.
“I don’t know why they came to me about it, unless it was because I know where you keep the key,” replied Claude. “I agreed with them until I found out what they were going to do, and then I came to you with it.”
“Where do they think they will find the key?”
“I am to get the key, and I am to feel in your trousers pocket for it. They are no cattlemen, in the first place; and after they rob you they are going among the Sioux Indians, where they will be safe.”