"Now, see here, Pierre," exclaimed Frank, angrily, "Dick and Bob are not rascals. They are honest men, and what they own, they have worked hard for. They will be up here—you may depend upon that—and, if Dick once gets his hands on you"—
"O, won't he shake him up, though!" cried Archie, from his blanket. "I wouldn't be in Pierre's shoes then for all the money he will ever get for us."
"You may make up your minds to one thing," said the chief; "and that is, if so much as a hair of that messenger's head is harmed, you will be swinging from some of these trees at sunrise."
"That is a soothing story to tell to a person who is trying to go to sleep," observed Johnny.
"You can't make us believe that you would throw away sixty thousand dollars," said Frank. "Be careful," he added, as Pierre, after confining his arms with one end of the lasso, began to wind the other around his ankles; "make those knots secure, or I may get away from you again."
"I'll risk that. Now, good-night, and pleasant dreams to you."
The robber lifted Frank in his arms, and laid him upon his blanket, as if he had been a sack of flour, and then walked off, leaving his prisoners to their meditations. Scarcely had he disappeared, when Arthur, who had stood at a little distance, watching the operations of the chief, came up, and, after regarding the three boys a moment with a smile of triumph, inquired:
"How do you feel now? I hope you will enjoy a good night's rest. You see I am at liberty." And he stretched out his arms, to show that they were not confined.