All three were trembling with excitement. Below his shock of bright yellow hair, Sandy’s forehead was ashen. The boys hoped that they had not been recognized. Undoubtedly, while making their approach, Burnnel and Emery had seen them, but Dick recalled that in the position in which they sat out there on the front porch, they had been hid somewhat by the figures of Meade and his son.
The coming of the two malevolent prospectors had placed them in a rather awkward, if not dangerous position. It would be impossible for them to remain at the road-house while the partners were there. Burnnel and Emery had not forgotten the encounter of two days before in front of Creel’s cabin. No doubt, they would take a great deal of pleasure in evening the score. Both were remorseless, savage, vindictive. Neither would hesitate for a moment to take any advantage offered, any opportunity for reprisal.
“No, it will never do for us to remain,” Sandy trembled. “You and Toma can stay here if you like, Dick—not I. If we stay here, we’ll be compelled to fight it out.”
“I willing fight,” Toma announced darkly.
“It wouldn’t be fair to Meade,” Dick objected. “There’s sure to be trouble. Anyway, there’s nothing to be gained by remaining here.”
“The thing to do,” said Sandy emphatically, “is to get out—go somewhere and make camp for the night. Either that, or start back at once for Frischette’s road-house, which we had planned to do tomorrow anyway. I’ll repeat that I don’t care to show my face around here—at least, not until Burnnel and Emery have gone.”
They were standing just outside the door on the side of the cabin opposite to the one, where they had previously been sitting talking to the free-trader and his son. They were safe from detection here only for a few moments. As soon as Burnnel and Emery and “Rat” MacGregor’s wife put up their horses, they would enter the cabin. Then the boys would be seen, for not only the door but one window overlooked the space there on the west side of the house, where they were now standing.
Toma pointed to a line of brush two or three hundred yards away, and they proceeded hurriedly toward it. In leaving thus surreptitiously, they had been forced to abandon part of their equipment—their rifles and shoulder-packs, and a small roll of Hudson’s Bay blankets.