Part 31 (1/2)
The bully started.
”Why--that's my business,” he stammered.
”Perhaps it is, but you might be in something better,” put in Sam.
”Oh, you needn't preach to me!”
”Don't you know that these men are counterfeiters?” added d.i.c.k.
”You had better shut up, kid,” put in one of the men. ”You are in our power, and the less you say, the better off you'll be, see?”
”I have spoken nothing but the truth.”
”That may be so, too; but folks don't always like to hear the truth.”
”What are you going to do with them?” questioned Dan Baxter curiously.
”Put them in a place we have ready for just such skunks.”
”Prisoners?”
”Sure.”
”Down below?”
”That's it.”
Dan Baxter grinned to himself, and then leered at Sam and d.i.c.k.
”You won't like that. It's pretty musty under-ground, and wet, too.”
”I'd rather go there than do what you have done, Baxter,” answered d.i.c.k.
”What have I done?”
”You have joined these law-breakers; you need not deny it.”
”Humph!”
”You may think it smart, but some day you'll rue it.”
”I don't think so. As it is, the law and I are not very good friends,”
and Dan Baxter laughed harshly.
”I can't listen to your talk all night,” put in one of the men.
”March!” the latter word to the prisoners.
They had been disarmed, so there was no help for it, and they walked through the ranch to where there was a big trap-door in the floor.