“No excuse, Mr Brown. On the contrary, I was about to put the same interrogatory to you. I confess that I feel a little perplexed. Now that we’ve started on this expedition, I begin to see the difficulty—if not the absolute idleness of it. It seems absurd to suppose that the robbers would send one of their number to meet any messenger, who may be deputed to them,—without taking precautions against a surprise?”
“They never do, cap’n. They ain’t sech consarned fools.”
“Well, I thought as much; or do now—now that I’ve had time to reflect upon it. It isn’t the scheme I had intended to have carried out. After all, there’s no alternative, but to go through with it. What’s your advice?”
“Well, cap’n; my advice might be no better than anybody else’s; only that I’ve took notice to a thing or two.”
“Where? When?”
“I kin answer both yer questions at the same time: whar and when the coach was stopped.”
“You noticed something strange?”
“More’n one thing; several o’ ’em.”
“What were they?”
“First, then, the skunks were craped.”