"No danger of that with the Homestead dory on this side of the channel," Elisha sniffed.
"For all that, no purpose is served by puttin' off the evil hour. I say we get under way," Eleazer urged. "Have you got everythin'?"
"I—I—guess so," Elisha said weakly.
"Pete fixed up your badge in great shape, didn't he?" was Eleazer's cheerful comment. "It's bright as a new dollar. Anybody could see it a mile away."
Elisha offered no reply.
"An' the handcuffs, too—they look grand. Why don't you kinder dangle 'em so'st they show? Why stuff 'em in your pocket? Was I in your place, I'd stalk into the Homestead with the handcuffs in one hand an' the pistol in the other."
"You ain't in my place!" Elisha snapped. "I wish to heaven you were."
"No, I ain't," his confederate returned promptly. "I'm only playin' second fiddle on this job. The whole responsibility's yours."
"Don't I know it? Why rub it in?"
"I ain't rubbin' it in. I'm just sorter cautionin' myself. You see when I'm mixed up in a job, I get so interested I'm liable to forget an' go ahead as if the whole enterprise was my own."