It did not suit Toby Sam, the coward. And others of the gang shared his feelings and his fears. Buffalo Bill, Pawnee Bill, and old Nick Nomad were noted as the most desperate fighters of the border, and they were men not easy to trap. It was a certain thing that in an attempt to “wipe them out,” some of the outlaws would meet death. Toby Sam and those who thought as he did were not yet ready to die.
“It’d be a better and a safer plan,” said Toby Sam, “if we git word to ’em that we’ll swap this young feller fer the emeralds. That girl will jump at the offer, fer she’s goin’ to marry this feller. She’ll take that bait quick; and, as far as the young feller is concerned, we don’t want him, and if we keep him we’ll jes’ have to kill him.”
Even as he talked, Toby Sam looked backward, fearing to see the pursuing scouts.
“If we git them emeralds,” he added, “and make a divvy, we’ll be that well fixed fer money that we can quit this hyer other bizness we’ve been workin’.”
He meant the mustang catching. They followed mustang catching as a blind. As mustangers, they had an excuse for being in that part of the country, and for shifting from point to point; and mustanging explained the money they occasionally displayed in the gambling resorts and saloons of the towns. They did not really care for mustanging, though they were glad enough to sell the mustangs they caught.
Toby Sam, being disguised and anxious to conceal his identity from Bruce, did not say “mustanging,” yet his comrades knew what he meant.
Black John was not pleased to see so many of his men incline to Toby Sam’s view.
“We’ve got to wipe out them cussed scouts!” he declared. “We’ll all be in the penitentiary inside of a month if we don’t. And the thing now will be dead easy. Jes’ lay fer ’em, as they come follerin’ on our trail, shoot ’em from ambush, and that ends ’em. Nothing dangerous er to be skeered of about that.”
Black John’s position as “boss,” together with his arguments, won; and the outlaws began to look for a good point for an ambuscade.
They found it soon, on a hillside that overlooked a narrow pass through which the pursuers would be expected to go. They rode through the pass, circuited around, and gained the hillside, and lay down there under some scrubby trees.