ve."

"Well, let them stay," said Bob, savagely. "I have come here to get
ready to shoot the Hoxie well, and I'll do it before I go home again."

"Perhaps you will, and perhaps you won't," said Jim, doubtingly; "but if
my opinion's worth anything, you won't."

Bob made no reply to this; but attacked the tin cartridges on which he
had been working with an energy that told plainly of his determination;
although how it might be possible for him to do more than to get ready
for the work, no one could imagine. He no longer tried to be silent, but
made so much bustle with his work that George said:

"What makes you so careless, Bob? Even if they did hear you when you
fell, there is no reason why you should advertise the fact that you are
making cartridges."

"What difference does it make what they hear now?" asked Bob, not even
looking up from his work as he spoke. "Do you fancy that Newcombe,
finding us here, does not know just as well as we do what there is
inside here? If we remain quiet, he will say to himself that we are all
ready for the shot, and only waiting for him to get out of the way
before we let it off. If we work, he will know no more, and we may as
well take things comfortable."

"It isn't any use for us to try to do anything," said Dick,
disconsolately. "Newcombe will stay right where he is until we go out,
and the best thing we can do is give the thing up for a while."

"Yes," interrupted Jim, "let's go home, and wait until we can give him
the slip and get out again."

"I'll do nothing of the kind," replied Bob, doggedly. "I agreed to shoot
Hoxie's well to-night, and I'm going to do it."

"You can't without Newcombe's seeing you, and you know that your arrest
would follow as soon after that as he could get out a warrant," said
George, thinking it was high time for him to interfere with advice.
"They have never been able to get any proof against you yet, and you
don't want to give them the chance now just through spite."

"I'm not going to give them the chance," said Bob, calmly. "I am going
to take what I need out of this place while they are guarding it, and
without their seeing me. If any of you fellows are afraid, and want to
go home, you know how to get there; but I am going to stay, and do just
as I have said."

Bob could have used no better argument, if he had been anxious to have
his companions remain with him, than when he proposed they should go
home if they were afraid. Much as Ralph w