“Yes; we’ll say five pounds.”
“You got six-shooter short-gun?”
No, Archie was quite sure he had no revolver that he could spare. He had but two, and he might need them before he saw home again. But Eugene suggested that he might purchase a second-hand weapon of the sutler, and after some debate the point was conceded.
The bargaining thus commenced continued for nearly half an hour, the Indian showing himself as smart as any Yankee in a trade, sticking to his points with so much pertinacity that the boys were obliged to yield to every one of them, and finally Archie left his companions in high glee and walked into the Fort. When he came out again, a few minutes afterward, he carried a pair of blankets over his arm, an army revolver in his hand, and his pockets were filled with tobacco, powder, lead, cartridges, pipes and knives. The Indian critically examined every article as it was passed over to him, and then after shifting his saddle to the back of Archie’s horse mounted and rode off, leaving Archie holding fast to his new purchase and looking first at one and then at the other of his companions, who were so highly elated that they could scarcely restrain their glee until the Indian was out of hearing.
“We did it,” said Featherweight, who was the first to speak.
“And so easily, too,” added Eugene. “You got him cheap, Eugene, if he is as good as the lieutenant says he is. Your old horse cost you seventy-five dollars in Salt Lake, and the articles you bought of the sutler, being all second-hand, could not have cost you much more than twenty dollars. Ninety-five dollars is little money for a good horse.”
Archie drew a long breath and looked at his nag with an expression of great satisfaction on his face, which, however, quickly changed to a look of anxiety as a disagreeable thought intruded itself upon him.
“Fellows,” said he, “perhaps this isn’t the horse we want at all. I have my suspicions. That Indian parted with him almost too willingly.”
“Eh?” exclaimed Eugene. “O no, that can’t be. The lieutenant said the horse was mouse-colored and covered all over with white spots, and that his owner was a one-eyed Indian.”
“But if there should happen to be two mouse-colored horses about the Fort and two one-eyed Indians,” said Fred, dolefully, “why then——”