Within the appointed hour two warriors returned, bringing with them nothing that they had not taken away, and sat down in the opening, their attitude that of dejection.
"They never struck no sign of no trail, nowhere, nohow," said Long Jim, exultantly.
"Too many negatives, Jim," said Paul, reprovingly.
"Too many what?" exclaimed Long Jim, staring. "I never heard of them things afore!"
"It's all right anyhow. There comes another warrior, and he too bears no bright blonde scalp, such as adorns the head of our faithful and esteemed comrade, Solomon Hyde."
"That's three 'counted fur, an' three to come. I know, Paul, that Sol will git away, that they can't foller him nohow, but I'd like fur them three to come back empty handed right now. It would be awful to lose good old Sol. Uv course he's always wrong when he argys with me, but I'm still hopin' some day to teach him somethin', an' I don't want to lose him."
Paul saw deep anxiety on the face of Long Jim. These two were always in controversy, but they were bound together by all the ties of the border, and the loss of either would be a crushing blow to the other.
Long minutes dragged by and became an hour, and the face of Jim Hart expressed apprehension.
"It's time fur at least one more to come back," he said.
"Well, there he is," said Paul. "Don't you see him stepping out of those bushes on the east?"