“An’ the fi’ dollar?”
There was something so unsophisticated in the man’s rascality that Seth almost smiled. He turned on him severely, however.
“You’ve been workin’ with your countrymen, murderin’ an’ lootin’, an’ now you see the game’s up you come around to me, ready to sell ’em same as you’d sell us. Say, you’re a durned skunk of an Indian!”
“Jim Crow no Indian. I, Jim Crow, scout,” the man retorted.
Seth eyed him.
“I see. You figger to git scoutin’ agin when this is through. Say, you’re wuss’n I thought. You’re wuss’n——”
He broke off, struck with a sudden thought. In a moment he had dropped his tone of severity. 326
“See, I’m goin’ to hand you twenty dollars,” he said, holding the other’s shifty eyes with his own steady gaze, “if you’ve a notion to earn ’em an’ act squar’. Say, I ken trust you if I pay you. You ain’t like the white Injun, Nevil Steyne, who’s bin Black Fox’s wise man so long. After he’d fixed the mischief he gits around to us an’ turns on the Indians. He’s fought with us. An’ he’s goin’ to fight with us to-morrow. He’s a traitor to the Indians. You belong to the whites, and you come to help us when you can. Now, see here. You’re goin’ to make north hard as hell ’ll let you, savee? An’ if the soldiers git here at sundown to-morrow night, I’m goin’ to give you twenty dollars, and I’ll see you’re made head scout agin.”
Seth waited for his answer. It came in a great tone of self-confidence.
“I, Jim Crow, make soldiers dis night. So.”