Page:Randall Parrish--My Lady of the South.djvu/124

MY LADY OF THE SOUTH spotted sure. I'm fer goin' inter camp yere in this hollow till after dark, an' then strikin' across ter Bald Mounting. Maybe somethin'll turn up atween now an' then. What say, Bud?"

"So I git somethin' to ate an' a slape, it's all ther same to me," agreed O'Brien, loosening the saddle girth about his horse. Av I work at noight I need to refresh meself wid slape in the daytoime, an' 'av I work all day, sure an' I need to slape at noight. It's one an' the same, so I git it, Liftenant. This ould cannibal has the stomach to foight all the toime, but I must have me natural rist, or else foightin' is no fun, at all, at all. Is it refreshmints an' slape we're to have now, sor?"

"Yes," I said, confident in Daniels's judgment. "Let the animals graze well back out of sight from below, and we'll gee what rest we can. I am glad you've found your tongue, O'Brien; I have n't heard you speak before, all night."

The blue eyes danced. "Sure an' the talk wus all scared out o' me, sor, be the bloodthirsty ould villain I'm chummin' wid. I thought wid ivery step we'd be into a massacre, wid a parcel o' women and chidher to be ate up. I did that, from thim things he said."

"You can rest easy on that score for a few hours, but we must content ourselves with cold rations, as it will hardly be safe to start a fire."

I was tired from the long night's tramp among the rocks, but my mind remained active, and my eyes sleepless. I lay there for an hour or more, turning restlessly, wondering how my two companions could slumber so [ 114 ]