By this time the men had a big fire going and all were busy getting ready the meal except Hains and the black-haired man. They were talking earnestly together a little apart from the rest, and it seemed to the watching boy that the black-haired man was urging the other to some course of action. But, if so, it appeared that his argument was not meeting with much success, for Hains frequently shook his head and finally turned away and went to where the horses were hobbled and carefully looked each one over as though to satisfy himself that none could wander away.
The entire party seemed, for the time at least, to have forgotten all about the boy, for no one paid the slightest attention to him. He watched them carefully and, had it not been for his injured leg, he told himself, he would have made the attempt to slip away into the dense woods, trusting that he might get enough of a start before he was missed to enable him to escape.
But hampered, as he knew he would be, with the sprain, he dared not risk it. So he waited as patiently as possible, wondering what the outcome would be. Finally the supper, consisting of lamb, which they had roasted over the fire, potatoes and hot coffee, was ready and the men began to eat hungrily, still completely ignoring him. Again he was minded to attempt to get away, but the fear of the injured leg again held him back. He pulled out his watch and saw that it was well past six o'clock and he began to feel hungry.
After what seemed a long time, one of the men, at an order from Hains, came to him bearing a good-sized hunk of meat and a couple of potatoes on a piece of birch bark, and a tin cup about half-filled with coffee.
"Here yer are, Kid," he said. "Eat, drink and be merry, for ter-morrow, who knows."
He sat the food down on the ground and turned back. Bob picked it up and, although there was neither knife, fork or spoon, he managed to eat it all. The potatoes were a bit soggy, but the meat was good and he was surprised at the quality of the coffee.
"The fellow who made that coffee knows his job all right," he said to himself as he drained the last of it.
Greatly to his surprise the men, after they had cleaned up after the meal, continued to pay not the slightest attention to him, and soon dusk began to steal over the forest. He could see that a number of the men were playing cards on a blanket, which they had spread on the ground in front of the fire, while others, rolled up in their blankets, for it was beginning to grow cool, were already fast asleep. Apparently it was their intention to pass the night there, and he began to wonder if, after all, it would not be best to make the attempt to escape. He could hardly suppose that they had forgotten him, but he could see no indication that they were aware of his existence.
He had seen neither Hains or the black-haired man since he had eaten and he wondered what had become of them. Were one or both of them concealed somewhere where they could watch him? If he made the attempt to get away would it be to give them the chance for which they were waiting?
"It's a toss up either way," he thought. "If they intend to put me out of business they'll do it sooner or later unless I give them the slip, so I don't know that I'd be much worse off even if I don't succeed. I'm going to make a stab at it just as soon as it gets a bit darker."