Page:The trail of the golden horn.djvu/244

240 “They tried to. Oh, Lord! I thought it was all up with me.”

“It’s too bad it wasn’t for the sake of others. But the Indians won’t harm you now, and you have that noble missionary at The Gap to thank for it.”

“Why, where does he come in on this?” the man asked in surprise. “I thought it was yer guns, an’ the hell-fear the Police have put into the hearts of the Injuns.”

“Oh, that had something to do with it, I suppose. But unless these Indians had been taught the difference between right and wrong, what could two of us have done with this bunch? No, it was mainly due to the teaching they received, and don’t you forget that. We’ve been on your trail for some time, and would have caught you sooner or later. We’ve got you now, and intend to hold on to you.”

With peace thus restored, the sergeant and the constable were able to rest. The Indians supplied them liberally with food, and gave them a comfortable place to sleep. They were tired out after their strenuous exertions, but thankful for what had happened. As the sergeant lay upon the robes spread over a wealth of fir boughs, he thought of Marion and wondered how she was making out. He went to sleep with her in his mind and heart, and did not hear the constable repeating one of his favorite verses:

God bless the man who first invented sleep,

So Sancho Panza said and so say I.

And bless him, also, that he didn’t keep

His great discovery to himself, nor try

To make it, as the lucky fellow might—

A close monopoly by patent right.’”