Simon glanced around with a frightened look, and saw that everybody had heard what the hunter said to him. Even the old man raised his head and listened.
“O, you needn’t try to play off on us that way,” exclaimed Silas. “You’re as deep in the mud as we are, every bit. You told us that the ole man was wuth a million dollars—an’ he’s the lad who stole your we’pons from you while you was asleep,” he added, nodding to our heroes.
“We thought so,” answered Archie.
“Now if thar’s any yaller boys about here, whar are they?” demanded Zack.
“I don’t know,” replied Simon, who saw that he could not conceal his real character any longer. “Everything the ole man’s got was in that black chist. He told me so, an’ said he wouldn’t take a silver-mine fur it!”
The hunters looked keenly at Simon, and the expression on his face, rather than the words he had uttered, satisfied them that he had told the truth. The feelings of rage and disappointment which showed themselves in his countenance were genuine, and could not have been assumed.
“Wal, you an’ the ole man atween you have got us into a scrape, an’ we hain’t made nothing by it,” said Zack, at length. “Thar hain’t none of us made nothing, I reckon,” he added, glancing at the ruins of the Pike’s furniture. “Now we want all of you to stay here till we’re safe out of the way; an’ to make sure of your stayin’——”
Here Zack raised his rifle and shot one of the oxen dead in the yoke. Silas shot the other and then the mules, and thus the emigrant and his family were left almost as helpless as they would have been had they been cast away on some desert island in the middle of the ocean. The hunters then led their horses to the place where the boys were standing, and Zack began untying his blankets, which were fastened in a bundle behind his saddle. Addressing himself to Archie, he said:
“A fair exchange hain’t no robbery, they say, so give me them blue ones o’ yourn, an’ I’ll give you mine. We hain’t goin’ away without something, I bet you.”
“I think you’ve got something already,” said Fred. “You’ve got a rifle worth forty-five dollars, and a horse and saddle that cost almost a hundred more.”