CHAPTER XXI
PRISONERS
"Steady, Sandy!"
"But, Bob, must we just stand here, and let them take us prisoners?" asked the younger brother, in an agonized voice.
"We can do nothing to help ourselves just now," Bob went on, in a singularly calm tone, "because, you see, there are four of them; and each man has a gun pointed at us. We must try to kill time, hoping that Blue Jacket may bring us help in some way."
"Blue Jacket—where is he?" asked Sandy, wonderingly.
"I do not know," replied Bob. "He disappeared like a shadow. I think he must have heard the breathing of these men as they came along, and, knowing that it was too late to cry out a warning to us, he just melted away, as is his habit."
"Will he desert us, then?" asked Sandy, with a trace of bitterness in his voice.
"Impossible," answered his brother. "We ought to know Blue Jacket better than to think that of him. Forget all about him just now, and perhaps, if things come to the worst, he may show his hand."