"That will do, Hope."
"Very good, sir." With the best salute he was master of the youth left the office.
Hi-u Bill had both eyes wide open, staring at Smoothbore. "What the devil——"
"That is just a tribute to the gods; I may not bribe our enemies, but the fates——"
"A bag of gold you can hardly lift! Why, your man will go down the River and stay down. You know the Yanks would afford him every protection, seeing that he stole from our Government."
"He won't steal the gold," replied Smoothbore.
"He won't! How do you know he won't?"
"I know my men!"
An unusual thing had happened. For a private to ask his Commanding Officer for the loan of twenty thousand dollars in gold, for that Commanding Officer to entrust it to him for some unexpressed purpose was strange—but many strange things happen on the frontier, and this was a time of crisis.