Dan, who had witnessed the flight and plunge, could have contributed an item towards the solution of the mystery. But he opened not his mouth.
"Them cussed traitors shall pay fur this!" said Ropes. This was the only consolatory thought that occurred to him. Having uttered it, he looked remorsefully at the spade with which he had rudely wiped the face of his dead friend. "I thought 'twas one o' them rotten scoundrels, or I—But never mind! Kiver him up agin, boys! We can't take him with us, and we've no time to lose."
So they laid the corpse once more in the grave, and heaped the sand upon it.
XXXVI.
CARL FINDS A GEOLOGICAL SPECIMEN.
In the mean time Carl ascended the moonlit slope, with Sprowl's pistol on one side of him, and the corporal's bayonet on the other. Between the two he felt that he had little chance. But he did not despair. He reasoned thus with himself:—
"These two men vill not think to take the cave alone. They must go back for reënforcements. That shall make a diwersion in my favor. If I show them some dark place, and make them think it is there, they vill not go wery near to examine." And he arrived at this conclusion: "I suppose I shall inwent a cave."
They were advancing cautiously towards the summit of a bushy ridge. Suddenly Carl stopped.
"Anything?" said Sprowl. Carl nodded, with a pleased and confident smile. "What?"