“They are smaller certainly.”
“I wa'n'. going to let you know, but it's a heap easier to be fair with you; those down yonder's white men; this new lot's Indians—there's no mistaking that.”
“What!” cried Stephen in astonishment.
“It's Basil and Raymond and some cutthroats from the valley trigged out to look like redskins.”
“Nonsense, Rogers, that's the wildest surmise; how can you know that?”
“You don't believe me. Well, I seen him.”
“You saw whom? Basil?”
“No, Raymond.”
“The deserter—when?”
“This morning;” and Rogers told him in the fewest words of his meeting with Raymond. “I allow they're mainly after me, and I reckon you can make some sort of terms by handing me over to them. I ain't saying but what it would be right for you to do this; you got your folks back East to think about; I only got Benny; I reckon you'll look out for him. My first notion was to let matters stand until we'd put our mark on a few of them, knowing it would be too late to do anything then.”