“He won’t escape. He won’t try to; will you, Carlos?” continued Bill, turning to me.
“Not much,” I said. “Where shall I lie down so that I will not be in the way?”
Bill selected a place, and picking up my saddle and bridle—I do not know what made me hang on to them, for I did not suppose I would be allowed to ride my own horse in the morning—and with a cheery “Good-night, fellows; pleasant dreams,” I laid down on it. The majority of the men never paid any attention to my salutation. Bill was the only one who noticed it, and he said: “Thank you; the same to you,” and that made me think more than ever that he had been well brought up.
“That’s a brave fellow,” I heard him say as I arranged my saddle for a pillow and laid down with my back to the fire. “It would be a great pity if anything should happen to him.”
“And you are going to give him a chance to escape in the morning,” growled Henderson. “I wish to goodness——”
“Go to bed,” said Coyote Bill, in his ordinary tone of voice.
“I wish to goodness that you, or any fellow like you,” began Henderson, “had sense enough to see——”
“Go to bed!” said Bill, and in an instant his revolver was out and was looking Henderson squarely in the eyes. This was the third time that Henderson had been placed in a similar situation, but on this occasion he didn’t say anything back. He knew that Bill was in just the right mood to shoot. He gathered up his saddle and blanket,—I didn’t have any blanket to cover myself with, and the nights were getting cold,—and that was the last I saw of him that night.
“I made it,” said Bill, as soon as Henderson was out of hearing. “I smoked a pipe with the chief, and he came over to my way of thinking. Jack, you will ride down to the house with us in the morning.”
“But look here, Bill,” said the man who had done most of the talking with me. “Don’t you think those boys would be some kin to the biggest kind of dunces if they went off to escape from the hostiles, an’ left their plunder buried where you could find it? That’s what’s been running in my head ever since you went out to see the chief.”