“That’s right; she carried them.”
“Why was you along, then?” Toby Sam howled. “Answer me that!”
“As her escort. I meant to go East with her.”
“What for, if not to carry the emeralds?”
The young man’s face flushed.
“I intended to marry her when we reached the East,” he admitted.
When some further sharp questions and threats did not change the prisoner’s story, Toby Sam and some of his men drew aside and discussed the matter.
“Better wait fer the comin’ of the boss.”
“But if we wait, then the chance of hittin’ the stage may be lost,” was the answer to this advice.
After they had talked a while they came back to Clayton.