ido!" His rifle
was tucked under his arm; he patted the barrel significantly.

It slowly dawned upon Mr. Long that Captain Griffith was not joking,
after all, and an angry man was he. He sat up in bed.

"Oh, piffle! Oh, fudge! Oh, pickled moonshine! If I'm Bransford what the
deuce am I doing here? Why, you was both asleep! I could 'a' shot your
silly heads off and you'd 'a' never woke up. You make me tired!"

"Don't mind him, Long. He'll feel better when he takes a nap," said Gurd
joyfully. "He has poor spells like this and he misses his nurse. We
always make allowances for him."

Mr. Long's indignation at last overcame his politeness, and in his wrath
he attacked friend and foe indiscriminately.

"Do you mean to tell me you two puling infants are out hunting down a
man you never saw? Don't the men at the other side know him either? By
jinks, you hike out o' this after breakfast and send for some grown-up
men. I want part of that reward--and I'm going to have it! Look here!"
He turned blackly to Gurdon. "Are you sure that Bransford, or any one
else, came in here at all yesterday, or did you dream it? Or was it all
a damfool kid joke? Listen here! I worked like a dog yesterday. If you
had me stand guard three hours, tired as I was, for nothing, there's
going to be more to it. What kind of a sack-and-snipe trick is this,
anyway? You just come one at a time and I'll lick the stuffin' out o'
both o' you! I ain't feelin' like any schoolboy pranks just now."

"No, no; that part's all straight. Bransford's in there, all right,"
protested Gurdon. "If you hadn't been working in the tunnel you'd have
seen him when he went by. Here's the note he left. And his horse and
saddle are up at the spring. We left the horse there because he was lame
and about all in. Bransford can't get away on him. Rex is just
excited--that's all the matter with him. Hankering for glory! I told him
last night not to make a driveling idiot of himself. Here, read this
insolent note, will you?"

Long glowered at the note and flung it aside. "Anybody could 'a' wrote
that! How am I to know this thing ain't some more of your funny streaks?
You take these horses to water and bring back Bransford's horse and
saddle, and then I'll know what to believe. Be damn sure you bring them,
too, or we'll go to producing glory right here--great gobs and chunks of
it! You Griffith! put down that gun or I'll knock your fool head off!
I'm takin' charge of this outfit now