“And did he escape?”
“Well, I should say so. He took right down toward your ranch, too, and I didn’t know but you had seen him there.”
“And yet, in the face of all this——”
Henderson didn’t say any more, for Coyote Bill turned around and looked at him. He thought his companion was in earnest when he told him to keep still.
“I didn’t know but that it would be a good chance for lucky Tom to try his hand on that mule,” said Coyote Bill, with a smile. “He has been lucky in finding one pocket-book, and he might be equally lucky in this.”
“He will go down among those rich cattlemen and be captured,” said Henderson bitterly. “The men who don’t care a cent for those five thousand dollars will have just that much more to jingle in their pockets; while we, who are hard up for the money—dog-gone the luck! it is so the world over.”
Coyote Bill laughed again.
“I don’t see anything so very laughable about this matter,” said Henderson. “You laughed because we got the wrong boy——”
“That will do,” said Bill. “You are getting off on your old subject, and I won’t sit here and be abused. Haven’t had any supper yet, have you, Carlos?”
“No, I haven’t; and I feel as though I could do justice to some corn bread and bacon.”