Page:Taylor - In the Dwellings of the Wilderness.djvu/85

 fasten guilt, collectively and individually, upon every member of every gang. His progress through the camp was marked by a storm of wrathful protestations of innocence, of appeals to high Heaven for damaged reputations, of furious denials of complicity.

Merritt laughed shortly and lay down on his back.

"Don't you think all this rumpus might—er—frighten the thief into making off with the property?" Holloway wished to know.

"He couldn't make off very far," Merritt retorted grimly, and waved a hand at the surrounding desert. "If he tried it, we'd miss him from among the men, and be on him quicker than jumping. But it may scare him into quietly