“You ride good horses, Fred,” said Smirker, as he put Julian’s saddle on the horse he had just brought out, “but you had better take my advice and get others of a different color. White horses don’t do for such business as this, ’cause they show too plain of nights; and any one who happens to pass you on the road will remember of having seen you. There are plenty of better horses in the world, and the one I am going to send with you is one of them.”
Smirker having by this time saddled and bridled the white nag, went into a second stall and brought out a large bay horse which he walked up and down the stable for Julian’s inspection. The moment the boy’s eyes rested on him he became reconciled to the loss of his mare, and even eager to part with her, if by so doing he could gain possession of this magnificent animal. If his speed and endurance were equal to his beauty, he was certainly a horse worth having.
“He’s lightning on wheels,” declared Smirker, as he slipped a bridle over the bay’s head, “and perhaps he will give you as much as you want to do to lead him. He came from Fort Stoughton, and was stolen from the major, who had just brought him from the States. There you are,” he added, waving his hand toward the horses, intimating by the gesture that Julian was at liberty to take charge of them as soon as he pleased. “I wish you a pleasant journey. You have been very lucky so far, and I hope your good fortune will continue.”
The boy was prompt to take advantage of the permission thus given him to leave the cabin. He quickly mounted the white horse, inquiring as he did so:
“Yes, there is,” replied Smirker, “and I came near forgetting it. You can tell the fellows below that the captain’s cub has got back at last.”
“Why, Julian; the one he’s been looking for so long. We’ll finger some of that money and find out where that hidden gold mine is now.”
“No, but Silas Roper does. Sanders was here this morning and told me the whole secret.”
“The captain hasn’t got hold of Silas, has he?”
“Not yet, but he will have him before long. It is a little the queerest thing I ever heard of, this plan of the captain’s is,” continued Smirker, placing one hand on the horn of Julian’s saddle, and settling into an easy position against the side of the horse as if he had a long story to tell, “and it shows what a head he’s got on his shoulders, and what education will do for a man. You see—but in the first place you know that he is no more of a Mortimer than I am?”