“I think I would know his figure, but not his face, for I did not see it.”
“Strange!” remarked the scout, with a simple look; “an’ you’re sartin sure you don’t know where Leather is now?”
“Not got the most distant idea.”
“That’s well now; stick to that an’ there’s no fear o’ Leather. As to yourself—they’ll never think o’ hangin’ you till ye can walk to the gallows—so cheer up, Buck Tom. It may be that ye desarve hangin’, for all I know; but not just at present. I’m a bit of a surgeon, too—bein’ a sort o’ Jack-of-all-trades, and know how to extract bullets. What between Mr Brooke an’ me an’ time, wonders may be worked, if you’re wise enough to keep a tight rein on your tongue.”
While the scout was speaking, the tramp of cavalry was heard outside, and a few minutes later Captain Wilmot entered the cave, closely followed by Charlie Brooke.
Chapter Twenty Two.
The Cave of the Outlaws Invaded by Ghosts and US Troops.
We need scarcely say that Buck Tom was wise enough to put a bridle on his tongue after the warning hint he had received from the scout. He found this all the easier that he had nothing to conceal save the Christian name of his friend Leather, and, as it turned out, this was never asked for by the commander of the troops. All that the dying outlaw could reveal was that Jake the Flint had suddenly made his appearance in the cave only a short time previously, had warned his comrades, and, knowing that he (Buck) was mortally wounded, and that Leather was helplessly weak from a wound which had nearly killed him, had left them both to their fate. That, just after they had gone, an unusually broad powerful man, with his face concealed, had suddenly entered the cave and carried Leather off, in spite of his struggles, and that, about half-an-hour later, Hunky Ben had arrived to find the cave deserted by all but himself. Where the other outlaws had gone to he could not tell—of course they would not reveal that to a comrade who was sure to fall into the hands of their enemies.