"Now, men, we'll divide the night into three parts, like a 'running guard,' an' each one of us'll take a third of the night to stand post. An', mind you, don't go to sleep on post or the prisoner might git away. I guess we'll let Jack take the first watch, an' you, Peck, can come on for the middle tour, an' you may call me up for the last turn. Ef you think you won't git sleepy you might bring out one of the camp-chairs an' take a seat where you can keep a close watch of the prisoner; but ef you find yourself gittin' the least bit drowsy you must get up an' walk about, for it won't do for the sentry to go to sleep to-night."
"Why, fellows," whined the big jayhawker, "you shorely don't mean to leave me in this fix all night, do you? I don't see how I can stan' it so long."
"Well, as to that," said Jack with a fierce look of assumed heartlessness, "ef it'd be any accommodation to you we might be able to rig up some sort of a gallows out about the barn an' swing you off to-night so's you wouldn't have to stan' there all night. Come to think of it," he continued, turning to Tom and me, "that would be a good scheme for us as well as to put the prisoner out of his misery, fer ef we hang him to-night instead of waitin' till mornin' we'll save ourselves the trouble of standing guard over him, an' that's quite an item. What do you say to it?"
But Tom and I decided that with no better light than a candle, which the wind might blow out, the jayhawker might escape, and if he didn't we would not be able to do a good job of hanging with so poor a light. And the prisoner concluded that he would try and worry through the night on the wagon wheel rather than put us to so much inconvenience.
Calling us inside the tent and changing our bayonet candlestick to a position where it would be protected from the wind, while the light would still shine on the prisoner through the open tent door, Tom, in a low voice, began giving us the talk that we intended Tucker should overhear.
"Now, men," began the old man, "the objects of our expedition are so nearly accomplished that I thought I'd better explain the situation to you more fully so that you will clearly understand the parts you are to play in our future movements. Everything is working out, so far, just as the captain planned it. I don't believe that anybody along the road or any of these jayhawkers suspects us of being soldiers or anything else but jest what we've told 'em, that we are three wolf hunters goin' out to the buffalo range. There's nothin' military about our team an' camp outfit except the Sibley tent an' our rifles, an' lots of citizens use them; an' laying aside our uniforms an' puttin' on these new buckskin togs makes us look like three tenderfeet tryin' to imitate frontiersmen. I must give our captain credit for long-headedness, for 'twas him planned the whole expedition."