“Don’t listen to ’em, old man,” said Zack. “Tain’t noways likely that me an’ Sile could get lost.”
“We don’t suppose you could,” said Eugene, who had been made so angry by the hunters’ sly winks and nods that he could scarcely restrain himself. “You know where the Fort is as well as we do.”
“I reckon we do, an’ better,” said Zack.
Simon Cool, for some reason or other, had been making persevering, but unavailable, efforts to turn the conversation into another channel, and Archie, seeing that Eugene was treading on dangerous ground, joined in with Simon, and finally succeeded in getting the old man started on the subject of mining, on which he could talk like a book. Archie listened until he had finished his supper, and then went out to look at his horse. He glanced over his shoulder as he went, and saw that Simon and the two hunters were sitting with their heads close together, as if engaged in consultation.
“There’s something afoot,” thought Archie, “and I have half a mind to saddle up and clear out. Here comes Eugene. I’ll see what he thinks about it.”
CHAPTER IX.
AN ENEMY IN CAMP.
“I heard Dick talking about Pikes the other day,” said Eugene, who had followed Archie in order to lend his assistance in case the bay had succeeded in freeing himself from his halter or lariat. “Did he refer to such people as our friends here?”