“Reckon ye needn't be too shore. We thought thet more'n once,” taunted another.
“I seen him, I tell you.”
“Aw, thet was a deer.”
“But Bill found fresh tracks an' blood on the willows.”
“If he's winged we needn't hurry.”
“Hold on thar, you boys,” came a shout in authoritative tones from farther up the bluff. “Go slow. You-all air gittin' foolish at the end of a long chase.”
“Thet's right, Colonel. Hold 'em back. There's nothin' shorer than somebody'll be stoppin' lead pretty quick. He'll be huntin' us soon!”
“Let's surround this corner an' starve him out.”
“Fire the brake.”
How clearly all this talk pierced Duane's ears! In it he seemed to hear his doom. This, then, was the end he had always expected, which had been close to him before, yet never like now.