"Well," said Jack sorrowfully, "I suppose we'll have to stan' it; but I hate like blazes to break my promise to the jayhawker, for I told him he could depend on bein' hung at daylight."
"But, sergeant," I put in, "won't the jayhawkers down at their camp, waiting for their chief, suspect something wrong when he don't show up?"
"No, it ain't likely. They were all pretty full on leaving the store, Jack says, an' they'll be apt to go right to sleep on gettin' to camp an' think no more about it till mornin'. An' ef they do happen to miss him they'll think he got too drunk to git back to camp an' so laid out some'ers.
"Now, Jack," said Tom in concluding this conversation, "you may as well put that candle out an' take post outside where you kin keep an eye on the prisoner. An', Peck, you'll take a turn around camp, to see that the animals are all tied securely, an' then turn in, an' you an' me'll be tryin' to get what sleep we can afore it's time for us to go on."
As we came out of the tent the captive seemed to be just rousing up from a nap he pretended to have been taking and whined:
"Men, would you mind loosenin' these strings around my wrists and ankles a little mite? They're cuttin' into my flesh."
"Well," replied Tom compassionately, "we don't want to torture a man unnecessarily. It'll be enough to put him to death properly, when the time comes, without keepin' him a-sufferin' so long. Loosen up them cords a little, Jack. There won't be much danger of his gettin' away, without you should go to sleep, an' I know you won't do that."
Jack complied with Tom's instructions with apparent reluctance, grumbling as he did so. He purposely slackened the cords on the wrists so much that the man would probably be able to slip his hands out of them, seeming to rely on his watchfulness and shotgun to prevent the possibility of an escape. Then bringing out a camp-chair, the Irishman sat down with the shotgun across his lap while I made a tour of the camp as directed. Then joining Tom in the tent, I put out the light and we pretended to turn in for a sleep. In reality we lay down near the open tent door, where, having the prisoner between us and the white wagon cover, we could see every motion he might make, for it had been arranged that Jack should apparently go to sleep in his chair and let the jayhawker have a chance to get away.
Jack had prudently taken his seat far enough from the prisoner so that the latter could not, after freeing himself, spring upon him and seize his shotgun, and Tom and I, in anticipation of such an effort, lay down with pistols ready to defeat the move should it be attempted. We had chained the dog far enough away to be out of reach of the jayhawker, for fear that he might catch the fugitive and thus spoil our scheme.
Tucker remained in his fixed position on the wagon wheel an exasperatingly long time before he began to make any move toward freeing himself, and he remained so still that I began to think that he had fallen asleep in spite of his uncomfortable position.