"Well, if you want it so bad, and it"s yours, take it." And in a jiffy I had cut it loose with my knife. "It"s been a hoodoo to me. How did you know I was at any other camp? Are you those three kids?"
"We saw your tracks," I answered. "What three kids?"
"The three kids those other fellows had corralled."
"No, but we"re their partners. We"re looking for them."
He"d had another drink of water and his face squinted at us, as we fussed about him. Kit took off one of the shoes and I the other, to get at the blistered feet.
"Never saw you before, did I?"
"Maybe not."
"Well, I"ll tell you some news. One of your partners got away."
That was good.
"How do you know?" we all three asked.
"I met him, back on the trail, with two new kids."
"Which one was he? What did he look like?"
"A young lad, dressed like you. Carried a bow and arrow."
"Brown eyes and big ears?"
"Brown eyes, I reckon. Didn"t notice his ears."
That must have been Jim Bridger.
"Who were the two fellows?"
"More of you Scouts, I reckon. Carried packs on their backs. Dressed in khaki and leggins, like soldiers."
They weren"t any of us Elks, then. But we were tremendously excited.
"When?"
"This noon."
That sure was news. Hurrah for Jim Bridger!
"Did you see a one-armed boy?"
"Saw him in that camp, where the three of "em were corralled."
"What kind of a crowd had they? Was one wearing a big revolver?"
"Yes. "Bout as big as he was. They looked like some tough town bunch."
"How many?"
"Eight or ten."
Oho!
"Did you hear anybody called Bill?"
"Yes; also Bat and Mike and Walt and et cetery."
We"d fired these questions at him as fast as we could get them in edgewise, and now we knew a heap. The signs had told us true. Those two recruits had joined with the town gang, and our Scouts had been captured; but escape had been attempted and Jim Bridger had got away.
"How did you get that packet?" asked Kit.
"Found it."
He spoke short as if he was done talking. It seemed that he had told us the truth, so far; but if we kept questioning him much more he might get tired or cross, and lie. We might ask foolish questions, too; and foolish questions are worse than no questions.
We had done a good job on this man, as appeared to us. We had bathed his face, and had exposed the worst burns on his body and arms and legs and had covered them with carbolized vaseline and gauze held on with adhesive plaster, and had cleaned the wound in his leg. It was a regular hole, but we didn"t ask him how he got it. "Twas in mighty bad shape, for it hadn"t been attended to right and was dirty and swollen.
Cold clear water dripped into it to flush it and clean it and reduce the inflammation would have been fine, but we didn"t have that kind of water handy; so we sifted some boric powder into it and over it and bound on it a pad of dry sterilized gauze, but not too tight. I asked him if there was a bullet or anything else in it, and he said no. He had run against a stick. This was about all that we could do to it, and play safe by not poking into it too much. (Note 54.)
He seemed to feel pretty good, now, and sat up.
"Well," he said, "now I"ve given you boys your message and told you what I know, and you"ve fixed me up, so I"ll be movin" on. Where are those things I used to call shoes?"
We exchanged glances. He was the beaver man.
"We aren"t through yet," I said.
"Oh, I reckon you are," he answered. "I"m much obliged. Pa.s.s me the shoes, will you?"
"No; wait," said Kit Carson.
"What for?" He was beginning to growl.
"Till you"re all fixed."
"I"m fixed enough."
"We"ll dress some of those wounds over again."
"No, you won"t. Pa.s.s me those shoes."
They were hidden behind a tree.
"Can"t you wait a little?"
"No, I can"t wait a little." He was growling in earnest. "Will you pa.s.s me those shoes?"