l.
He could not speak, but he made it as clear as daylight that if anyone
went back with the news, he was the man to go.

'Nonsense!' the landlord rejoined fiercely, 'We cannot leave Antoine to
go on alone with him. Give me the stuff.'

But Clon would not. He had no thought of resigning the credit of the
discovery; and I began to think that the two would really come to blows.
But there was an alternative--an alternative in which I was concerned;
and first one and then the other looked at me. It was a moment of peril,
and I knew it. My stratagem might react on myself, and the two, to put
an end to their difficulty, agree to put an end to me. But I faced them
so coolly, and showed so bold a front, and the ground where we stood was
so open, that the idea took no root. They fell to wrangling again more
viciously than before. One tapped his gun and the other his pistols. The
landlord scolded, the dumb man gurgled. At last their difference ended
as I had hoped it would.

'Very well then, we will both go back!' the innkeeper cried in a rage.
'And Antoine must see him on. But the blame be on your head. Do you give
the lad your pistols.'

Clon took one pistol, and gave it to the shock-headed man.

'The other!' the innkeeper said impatiently.

But Clon shook his head with a grim smile, and pointed to the arquebuss.

By a sudden movement, the landlord snatched the pistol, and averted
Clon's vengeance by placing both it and the gun in the shock-headed
man's hands.

'There!' he said, addressing the latter, 'now can you do? If Monsieur
tries to escape or turn back, shoot him! But four hours' riding should
bring you to the Roca Blanca. You will find the men there, and will have
no more to do with it.'

Antoine did not see things quite in that light, however. He looked at
me, and then at the wild track in front of us; and he muttered an oath
and said he would die if he would.

But the landlord, who was in a frenzy of impatience, drew him aside
and talked to him, and in the end seemed to persuade him; for in a few
minutes the matter was settled.

Antoine came back, and said sullenly, 'Forward, Monsieur,' the two
others stood on one side, I shrugged my shoulders and kicked up my
horse, and in a twinkling we two were riding on together--man to man.
I turned once or twice to see what those we had left behind were doing,
and always found them standing in apparent debate; but my guard showed
so much jealousy of these movements