“I don’t know,” answered Jefferson, with a note of anxiety in his voice. “Where did you see him last?”
“Fighting on the drawbridge,” replied Chick. “And he was giving a very good account of himself, too. He has Adil with him, I guess. At least, Adil isn’t here.”
“They’re somewhere around,” said Jefferson, with a shrug. “So long as Adil is with him, I’m satisfied.”
“Leslie had some of that money with him,” remarked Chick. “I hope he won’t lose it. That would be too bad after all the trouble we’ve had to get it.”
“That wasn’t the only thing,” returned the millionaire. “I could have stood the loss of the money. But I did want to get that blackguard Pike. A man who would betray a trust like that deserves no mercy.”
“He will never betray another in this world,” commented Nick solemnly. “He has paid the penalty.”
“Well, yes—that’s so,” murmured Jefferson Arnold thoughtfully. “I am rather sorry for that. You see, I didn’t want him killed. A few years in prison would have done him good, perhaps, and he might have been a better man when he came out. I’m glad it was none of our party who had to put him out of the world.”
“Yet, if that spearman hadn’t got him, it might have been necessary for one of us to do it—so it comes to about the same thing,” answered Nick Carter. “However, let’s get a little back into the pass, where we can hold it in case any of those rascals from the city take it into their heads to come after us.”
“We don’t want to go too far back,” suggested Chick. “Jai Singh isn’t here yet.”
“That fellow would find us wherever we went,” grunted Jefferson Arnold. “Men of his race are as good on the blind trail as our own Sioux ever were.”