“So you captured The Swallow, did you?” he said sneeringly.
“That’s what I told you,” replied Joseph quietly.
“Would you mind letting us look at him?” asked Walt with pretended politeness. At the same time he winked at the others in the crowd.
“Certainly you may see him,” agreed Joseph. “Suppose I do prove to you that I captured The Swallow. Will you believe my other story then?”
“We’ll believe anything,” laughed Walt, good-natured once more at the prospect of making sport of Joseph. Certainly he had thought that the boy was idly boasting about the horse or he never would have undertaken the risk he now was incurring.
“Come along, then,” exclaimed Joseph, and with Robert and Deerfoot walking beside him, he started toward the place where the ponies were tethered. Walt became a bit uneasy now as he saw how ready Joseph was to carry out his suggestion. Perhaps he had captured The Swallow after all, and if so Walt fully understood that he would find himself in a very embarrassing position.
Robert and Joseph conversed eagerly as they went along. “I knew that when we started on the thirteenth of the month bad luck would follow us,” exclaimed Robert. “Just see what has happened! We were defeated and disgraced by a handful of Indians, and then you get mixed up in a quarrel and are called a liar and I don’t know what else. I felt sure we ought not to have started on that day.”
“Don’t be silly, Bob,” laughed Joseph. “We have had some hard luck, I’ll admit, but we’ve had some good luck, too. At least I have. Just think of my capturing the most famous horse in this part of the country and now owning him all for myself.”
“How can you be sure it is The Swallow?” demanded Robert.
“No mistaken,” exclaimed Deerfoot. “That Swallow, sure.”
“I hope so,” said Joseph fervently. “I’m in for it if there has been any mistake.”
They had now come within a short distance of the spot where the horses had been fastened. Joseph at once turned to face the crowd following him. Many more had collected by this time so that more than a hundred men were gathered together to see the result of the argument. Most of them favored Walt, if only for the reason that they had fled as eagerly as he and they had no desire to be publicly acclaimed as cowards.