“What object could they have had in view in taking us so far out of our way?”
“I am sure I do not know, unless they had reason to believe that there is something of value in your wagons.”
“Did they mean to rob us?” cried the old man, in great alarm.
“Their actions were suspicious, to say the least,” returned Archie, who did not care to say anything that would add to the old man’s terror. “But you are safe from them now. If they come about your camp again, all you have to do is to order them away.”
“I certainly have something of value with me,” continued the emigrant, after a moment’s pause, “and I am not afraid to trust you with the secret, for you look honest. There’s a million dollars and more in that first wagon.”
“Whew!” whistled Archie. “And did they know it?”
“They did, for I told them.”
“Well, I wish you hadn’t done it.”