“Are ye sure, Hunky?”
“If ye don’t believe me, go in there an’ you’ll see what’s left of him. The corp ain’t cold yet.”
The rugged cow-boy entered at once, to convince himself by ocular demonstration.
“Well,” said he, on coming out of the cave, “I wish it had been the Flint instead. He’ll give us some trouble, you bet, afore we bring him to lie as flat as Buck Tom. Poor Buck! They say he wasn’t a bad chap in his way, an’ I never heard of his bein’ cruel, like his comrades. His main fault was castin’ in his lot wi’ the Flint. They say that Jake has bin carousin’ around, throwin’ the town-folk everywhere into fits.”
That night the avengers in search of Jake the Flint slept in and around the outlaws’ cave, while the chief of the outlaws lay in the sleep of death in a shed outside. During the night the scout went out to see that the body was undisturbed, and was startled to observe a creature of some sort moving near it. Ben was troubled by no superstitious fears, so he approached with the stealthy, cat-like tread which he had learned to perfection in his frontier life. Soon he was near enough to perceive, through the bushes, that the form was that of Shank Leather, silent and motionless, seated by the side of Buck Tom, with his face buried in his hands upon his knees. A deep sob broke from him as he sat, and again he was silent and motionless. The scout withdrew as silently as he had approached, leaving the poor youth to watch and mourn over the friend who had shared his hopes and fears, sins and sorrows, so long—long at least in experience, if not in numbered years.
Next morning at daybreak they laid the outlaw in his last resting-place, and then the avengers prepared to set off in pursuit of his comrades.
“You’ll join us, I fancy,” said Crux to Charlie Brooke.
“No; I remain with my sick friend Leather. But perhaps some of my comrades may wish to go with you.”
It was soon arranged that Hunky Ben and Dick Darvall should join the party.
“We won’t be long o’ catchin’ him up,” said Crux, “for the Flint has become desperate of late, an’ we’re pretty sure of a man when he gets into that fix.”