“Mebbyso ketchum one dolla, yo',” hinted Charlie, the buck.
But Good Indian went on without paying any attention to him. At the road he met Jack and Wally, just returning from the orchard.
“No use going down there,” Jack informed him sulkily. “They're just laying in the shade with their guns handy, doing nothing. They won't let anybody cross their line, and they won't say anything--not even when you cuss 'em. Wally and I got black in the face trying to make them come alive. Baumberger got back yet? Wally and I have got a scheme--”
“He and your dad took the train for Shoshone. Say, does anyone know what that bunch over in the meadow is up to?” Good Indian leaned his back against a tree, and eyed the two morosely.
“Clark and Gene are over there,” said Wally. “But I'd gamble they aren't doing any more than these fellows are. They haven't started to pan out any dirt--they haven't done a thing, it looks like, but lay around in the shade. I must say I don't sabe their play. And the worst of it is,” he added desperately, “a fellow can't do anything.”
“I'm going to break out pretty darned sudden,” Jack observed calmly. “I feel it coming on.” He smiled, but there was a look of steel in his eyes.
“Now, you fellows' listen to me,” he said. “This thing is partly my fault. I could have prevented it, maybe, if I hadn't been so taken up with my own affairs. Old Peppajee told me Baumberger was up to some devilment when he first came down here. He heard him talking to Saunders in Pete Hamilton's stable. And the first night he was here, Peppajee and I saw him down at the stable at midnight, talking to someone. Peppajee kept on his trail till he got that snake bite, and he warned me a plenty. But I didn't take much stock in it--or if I did--” He lifted his shoulders expressively.
“So,” he went on, after a minute of bitter thinking, “I want you to keep out of this. You know how your mother would feel--You don't want to get foolish. You can keep an eye on them--to-night especially. I've an idea they're waiting for dark; and if I knew why, I'd be a lot to the good. And if I knew why old Baumberger took your father off so suddenly, why--I'd be wiser than I am now.” He lifted his hat, brushed the moisture from his forehead, and gave a grunt of disapproval when his eyes rested on Jack.