“I’ll have Bruce go with me, and I’ll let him carry them,” he heard Lena say. “I’m going East, Mr. Cody, for a little visit, and perhaps Bruce can go part way with me, on the stage.”
“Bruce! Bruce!” the rascal muttered. “Who’s Bruce? So he’s to carry ’em, is he? He’s sweet on the girl. I’ve heard that she has a ‘steady,’ and that they’re going to marry. She’ll have him go with her, and she’ll have him carry the emeralds, for no one will ever think of him carryin’ ’em. That’s the game, is it? Oh, no; nobody will ever think of that!”
The listening rascal slapped his leg so hard in his jubilant mood that he became startled; the sound of talking ceased. He heard the scout walk to the door, and then walk back.
“That was my horse, I guess, made that noise,” he heard the scout say.
The man crouched into as small a space as he could, and lay shivering, fearing now to breathe. Soon he heard the talking going on again.
“Oh! Aha!” he muttered, listening. “She’s goin’ to take the next stage, which comes through here day after to-morrow, and go on that, and her young man is to go with her. I reckon that when they git East they’ll marry. He’ll be a fool not to marry her, if they git through with the emeralds. But I reckon them gems aire due in this direction; and, somehow, I think I’ll git ’em!”
When he had heard apparently all that was to be said concerning the emeralds and the manner of their transmission to the East, he crawled from under the house.
He was standing under a tree, beyond the corner of the house, when he was surprised there by Buffalo Bill, who came on him suddenly, the scout having issued from the front door.
“Hello!” said the scout gruffly. “What are you doing here?”
Instead of answering, the man turned about and ran.