"What if some one talks to me? I can't put over their lingo."
"Just grunt. I'll do what talking is necessary. All right. We'll make tracks, boys."
They stepped outside. Yeager relocked the door and drove the staple back into the wood with the end of his rifle by steady pressure and not by blows.
Steve led them through the bear grass into the pasture and across it to the river-bank. Here, under the heavy shadows of the overhanging cottonwoods, he outlined his plans.
Threewit spoke aloud his fears. "But, good Lord! what chance have we got? It's a cinch we can't put four more guards out of business without being seen. And if we are caught—" His voice failed him.
The cowpuncher looked at him, and then at Farrar. The camera man was pale, but his eyes met those of his friend steadily. Steve judged he would do to tie to, that his nerve would pull him through. But the director was plainly shaken with fears. He was not a coward, but the privations and anxieties of the past ten days had got on his nerves. His lips twitched and his fat hand trembled. His life had fallen in too soft and easy places for this sort of thing.
The cowboy reassured him gently, even as he rearranged his plans on the spot. "We're going to pull it off, but as you say there is a chance we won't make it. I'm going to leave you in the corral with the horses. If Frank and I should slip up and get caught you'll still have a chance to get away."
"I'm going through with it just the same as you boys," insisted the director shakily.
"You're going to do as I say, Threewit. I'm elected boss of this rodeo. One of us has got to stay by the horses to make sure they're ready when we need 'em. That's going to be you. You're to sit right steady on the job till we come. If you hear shooting,—and if we don't show up in a reasonable time after that,—light out and save your hide. Keep that star—see, the bright one close down to the horizon—keep it right in front of you all night. By daybreak you ought to be across the line."
"I'm not going to ride away and leave you boys and Ruth here. What do you take me for?" demanded Threewit huskily.