Then Perk plainly heard what was surely a low cough, such as might be caused by a sudden tickling in the throat. Some one was undoubtedly approaching the spot, and coming from the west, where they understood the prairie hamlet, or village, lay at the foot of a small ridge.
He merely touched his companion’s right arm to let Jack know something was in the wind. The cough was repeated, so that Perk chuckled softly to himself, as if more than ever convinced that luck was bent on handing them out further fat plums.
Jack was already creeping back so as to reach the spot where those convenient peepholes could be found and of course Perk imitated his example. Thus it came about they were in complete readiness to make good use of their eyes when a slight scratching sound came from within, and a tiny flash announced that the newcomer had struck a match.
Perk could see him there down on his knees, and intent on applying his lighted match to the wick of a lantern he had evidently fetched along for this very purpose. If Perk could have analyzed the feeling that possessed him just then he must have compared it to the exultation of a cat when about to make a jump upon a sparrow, close up to which he had managed to hide, all prepared for the finishing act of the ambush.
No sooner had the man succeeded in lighting his lantern than with eager hands he commenced lifting the adobe under which Jack had again artfully placed the bait in the shape of that tempting packet of bogus notes.
How eagerly he pounced on the contents of his queer _cache_, all the avariciousness of a miser handling his hoard was displayed and at the same time he looked hurriedly from one side to the other, as though his guilty soul, conscious of having thus broken the law of his country, was already seeing the long arm of Justice stretching out menacingly toward him.
Jack evidently had seen enough to satisfy him the genuine criminal was in focus, and that there could be no miscarriage of Justice in effecting his capture with the goods upon him. He was creeping toward the open door of the shack, evidently bent on taking the slick partner of the counterfeiter chief by surprise.
Perk lost no time in crawling at his pal’s heels, bent on having a hand in the closing scene of the little drama—he wanted to see with his own eyes just how such a slimy beast would take his “bump” when he found the meshes of the net closing around him.