“Well, what do I care about that?” said Tom, when Matt paused and looked at him. “I tell you I am not interested in these things. Come to the point at once.”
“I’m comin’ to it,” answered the squatter. “I give up one of the scatter-guns, like I told you, but t’other one an’ the rifle I’ve got yet. There’s been a reward of a hundred dollars offered for them two guns—fifty dollars apiece—an’ I want it.”
“Then why don’t you give up the guns and claim it?”
“Now, jest listen at the fule!” exclaimed Matt. “I dassent, ’cause there’s been a reward of a hundred more dollars offered for the man that stole them guns. That’s me. I can’t go up to Injun Lake to take them guns back to the men that owns ’em, an’ I’m afeared to send the boys, ’cause they would be took up the same as I would. See?”
“Yes, I see; but I don’t know what you are going to do about it. You’ve got the guns, and if you are afraid to give them up you will have to keep them. I don’t see any other way for you to do.”
“I do,” said Matt; and there was something in the tone of his voice that made Tom uneasy. “I don’t want the guns, ’cause I can’t use ’em; but I do want the money, an’ that’s what I am goin’ to talk to you about. I want you to buy them guns—”
“Well, I shan’t do it,” exclaimed Tom, who was fairly staggered by this proposition. “I’ve got one gun, and that’s all I need. Besides, I am not going to become a receiver of stolen property.”
“I’ll give ’em to you for twenty-five dollars apiece,” continued Matt, paying no heed to the interruption, “an’ you can take ’em up to Injun Lake an’ claim the whole of the reward. You’ll make fifty dollars by it.”
“I tell you I won’t do it,” repeated Tom. “I’ll not have any thing to do with it. I’m not going to get myself into trouble for the sake of putting money into your pocket.”
“There ain’t no need of your gettin’ yourself into trouble less’n you want to. When you take the guns up to Hanson you can tell him that you found ’em in the bresh—that you didn’t know who they belonged to, an’ so you made up your decision that you had better take ’em to him. See? That’ll be all fair an’ squar’, an’ nobody will ever suspicion that I give ’em to you. Come to think on it, I won’t give ’em to you,” added Matt. “You hand me the twenty-five dollars apiece, an’ I will tell you right where the guns is hid, an’ you can go up there an’ get ’em. Then when you tell Hanson that you found ’em in the bresh you will tell him nothing but the truth. What do you say?”