"About here? About this fort?" exclaimed another teamster. "Not much. He'll never come through one of our gates unless he comes with a guard over him. You don't want no dealings with him, pilgrim. He's a thief."
"I know it," replied Leon, his lips quivering and his eyes filling with tears. "He stripped me of everything I had, except the clothes I stand in, and left me alone on the prairie."
The teamsters began to prick up their ears when they heard this, and two or three of their companions, who were at work in the stable, came to the door to listen to the conversation.
Leon, finding that he had an attentive audience, began and told the story of his troubles, hoping that, if he could get the men interested, they would assist him in some way.
He told nothing but the truth as far as he went, but he omitted one very important thing which the wagon-master, an old, gray-headed man, who had not yet spoken, supplied for him, after asking a few questions.
"Have you got a father?" he asked.
Leon replied that he had.
"And a mother, too?"
The boy nodded his head.