"Look a-here, Joe," said Brierly, shaking his fist in the boy's face. "It was your father and Dan who fired them guns a bit ago, wasn't it?"
"I don't know—I have no proof of it, and neither have you."
"You do know it," replied the guide. "I've got all the proof I want that it was them, 'cause I know them guns of their'n when I hear 'em go off. Now let me tell you what's a fact, Joe Morgan. If you say a word to anybody about seeing me and Mr. Brown up here, I'll report Silas and Dan for trespass and shooting out of season; and if I do, they'll have to go to jail, and salt won't save 'em. There ain't nary one of 'em worth five cents a piece, and where be they going to get the money to pay their fines? Answer me that. Now, will you hold your tongue, or not?"
"No, I won't," answered Joe, without the least hesitation. "If I can find any evidence against them, I will report them myself as quick as I will report you if you don't get off these grounds."
"I hardly think you will," replied Mr. Brown, with something like a sneer.
"It ain't no ways likely, for it don't stand to reason that he would be willing to say the words that would put some of his own kin into the lock-up," assented Brierly. "But I'll do the work for him as soon as we go home, and what's more, I'll report him, too, for—for—"
"Neglect of duty," prompted Mr. Brown.
"Perzactly. Them's the words I was trying to think of. Then, old man Warren, he'll say to him that he ain't got no use for such a trifling game-warden as he is—that is, if he is one, which I don't believe. Now, Joe, will you hold your jaw?"
Joe replied very decidedly that he would not. He knew what his duty was better than they could tell him, and Brierly might as well hold his own jaw, and stop making threats, because he couldn't scare him into saying anything else.