“I don’t know. He has just as much right to be mad at me as he has to feel mad at you.”
“We will go on with our programme just as we have planned it,” said Harding desperately. “If the thing works all right, well and good; if it don’t, it will be all wrong for somebody. Mind that.”
The day drew on and night came on apace, and still Claude had no chance to speak to the two squawmen. He had been given his lesson the night before, and he concluded that that was going to do. Now that the time drew near he was beset with fears to which he had hitherto been a stranger. Claude knew by the way Harding handled his revolver that he was going to shoot rather than allow his plans to fall through, and, although he had never heard of his uncle doing such a thing, he thought that he, too, would have recourse to firearms. And where would he be about the time the shooting began?
“I am really afraid I have got myself in a scrape,” thought Claude, so overcome with dread that it was all he could do to sit still on his horse. “I never dreamed of their shooting, but that is the way all Western men have of getting out of a difficulty. I wish I had stayed in St. Louis when I was there. They don’t have any shooting going on in that place.”
Supper being over, Claude did not go out to attend his horse as usual. He whispered to one of the men to attend to it for him, and during the evening sat on the porch with his uncle and cousin. He sat there until ten o’clock, and then Carl said good-night and went to his room. His uncle sat still longer, but finally arose and followed Carl, at the same time laying his hand upon Claude’s arm.
“Is it all right?” said he.
“It is all right so far as I know,” said Claude. “I had a talk with them this morning, and they said they would go on with their regular plans. Be careful of yourself, uncle. They are going to shoot.”
“I will look out for myself. You keep out of the way.”
His uncle went to his room and Claude sat there on the porch, literally benumbed with fear. Finally he mustered up courage enough to go into his room and lie down on the bed without removing his clothes. He lay there until twelve o’clock, and then, everything being still, he got up and sat on the bed.
“I wonder if those two men are as nervous as I am?” said Claude to himself. “I don’t intend to do anything myself, but I feel as guilty as though I had been caught in the act. Well, here goes.”