“Is Dauntless Dell in Sun Dance, too?”
“Big as life! An’ Nick Nomad is thar, an’ likewise Wild Bill.”
“Oh, oh!” murmured Reginald de Bray, in a spasm of excitement. “I wonder if the king of scouts would take my little hand in his and lead me off to where the reds and the white outlaws are thickest? Do you think he would?”
There was something in the words that brought Pete’s eyes with a start to the tenderfoot’s face.
“Give it up,” said Pete gruffly. “’Pears ter me, Mister De Bray, that the best place fer you is behind a bomb-proof shelter some’r’s. S’posin’, now, we was ter meet up with a lot o’ highwaymen? S’posin’ they was ter come out from behind the rocks, reg’lar fire-eatin’ handy-boys that ye dassen’t say ‘No’ to. How’d ye like that?”
“Br-r-r!” shivered Reginald de Bray. “You—you don’t think there’s any chance of that happening, do you?”
“As long as that pirate, Cap’n Lawless, is loose in the country, anything’s li’ble ter happen.”
The woman on the seat behind leaned forward, and asked, with some apprehension:
“Robbers? Is it possible, sir, that we shall meet with any?”
“I don’t want to alarm ye none, madam,” answered Lonesome Pete, who was merely talking for the effect his words would have on De Bray, “so don’t take what I say too much ter heart.”