As proof of the truth of his story, Toma opened his shirt, exhibiting his bare, scarred breast. Sandy turned away, a mist filming his eyes. Here indeed was conclusive proof of the terrible ordeal through which Toma had passed.
“They’ll pay for this all some day,” Dick prophesied. “They can’t keep on doing these awful things and expect never to be punished for them.”
It was late that night before they were relieved from their arduous labors and were permitted to eat or rest. Accompanied by one of the outlaws, they were sent back to an opening among the rocks, where a camp had been erected during the afternoon. At one side of the camp was a large tepee, which served as a sort of mess-hall for the men, while on the opposite side, flanked by rocks and somewhat sheltered by them, was a level strip of ground which afforded ample room for sleeping.
They ate supper in the tepee with several of the other men and when they had finished their guide led them over to the space reserved for sleeping quarters.
“Yuh can roll out your blankets here,” he said gruffly. “But yuh better keep your traps closed if yuh don’t want to get in trouble.”
Although it was not yet dark, Dick’s watch showed that it was after eleven o’clock. Northern twilight, brooding across the land, lent a certain weirdness and eeriness to the camp. Here and there, beyond the sleeping forms of Henderson’s first shift, blinked the red embers of several campfires. Around one of these were three outlaws, drinking from a large bottle. Their coarse voices and loud disputes could be plainly heard by the boys. As Dick lay watching them, unable to sleep, he observed the approach of two other men, whose figures seemed somehow vaguely familiar. Passing by, on their way over to the three tipplers, he recognized them immediately. They were Lee and Pierre, the two packers, who had deserted his own party less than a week before.
Dick was on the verge of waking Sandy to inform him of this discovery, when a third person, no other than Henderson himself, made his way hastily forward and paused just a few feet away from where the three boys lay.
“Are yuh there, Brennan?” he called out.
“Yep,” one of the men answered from the campfire.
“Come here!”