"Please take the bonds, and I will tell you. I spent two nights in the outlaws' cave. This afternoon I managed to get away."
"But were not the bonds taken from you?"
"Yes, but I recovered them."
Ernest, without waiting for further questions, told the story as briefly as possible.
"So, after all," he concluded, "I should have been taken again but for my friend here," laying his hand upon the Indian's shoulder.
"I told him you would pay him for his trouble in accompanying me."
"So I will," said the cashier, and he took a five-dollar bill and tendered it to the Indian.
The latter objected to taking it, alleging that Ernest had saved his boy's life, but the cashier overruled his objections, and he accepted it.
They were going out of the bank when the familiar figure of Luke Robbins came up the street. His face was overspread by an expression of anxiety, and he seemed troubled. He had searched everywhere for Ernest, and thus far had failed to find him.
When he saw the boy emerging from the bank his face changed at once.