"They're good enough to carry you to Laramie," answered the hunter, "and when we get there you can trade 'em off to the Injuns for better ones. What I want to make you understand is, that you don't want to spend a cent more in this town than you are obliged to. Things are so dear!"
This was the burden of Eben's advice to the boys, and he repeated it so often while they were purchasing their outfit that they began to wonder at it. Perhaps we shall presently see why it was that the man was so anxious to have Leon take good care of his money.
Breakfast being over, the miners who owned the horses were hunted up, and Eben and the runaways accompanied them to the stable.
The animals were brought out for their inspection, but the boys knew no more about them after they got through looking them over than they did before they saw them.
They were mustangs, and although in very good condition they were by no means handsome, and Frank did not hesitate to say so.
"'Handsome is that handsome does,' pilgrim," said one of the miners. "These hosses have been through two or three fights with Injuns, and if it hadn't been that they're just a trifle faster'n chain lightning, me and my partner wouldn't be here in St. Joe to-day. If we wasn't going back to the States, we wouldn't think of parting with 'em."
These words raised the mustangs wonderfully in Leon's estimation. Without any further hesitation, he pulled out his roll of bills and paid for them on the spot.
The roll was still a pretty large one, although he had paid his own and his cousin's railroad and steamboat fare out of it. It was large enough to make Eben's eyes grow to twice their usual size, and if the boys had seen the expression that settled on his face, and could have read the thoughts that passed through his mind, it is possible that their own eyes would have been opened.
The horses having been purchased, but little remained to be done, and in an hour more the boys, accompanied by the hunter, were on their way to the plains.