"What was the use----" began another. 

But Hare-Lip laughed, and broke in quietly: 

"Do ye take me for a fool, mates? I was not going to take away that original sheet of paper and proclaim it to our chiefs that it was one of us who killed Red-Poll. No! I took the sheet of letter-paper with me when I went to meet Red-Poll. After he fell--I shot him between the shoulders--I turned him over on his back and ransacked his pockets; that was a blind. Then I found the paper with the figures and copied them out carefully--that was another blind--in case Silver-Leg heard of the affair and suspected us." 

One or two of the others gave a growl of dissent. 

"You might have been caught while you were playing that silly game," said one of the men, "which would not deceive a child." 

"Silver-Leg is no gaby," murmured another. 

"Well, he'll be here anon," concluded Hare-Lip lightly. "If you think he means to play a dirty trick, he can go and join Red-Poll, that's all." 

"He may not come, after all." 

"He must come. I had his message to meet him here to-night without fail. The chiefs have planned another attack: on the Orleans coach this time. Silver-Leg wants us to be of the party." 

"We ought to have got hold of the last booty before now!" 

"Impossible! Mole-Skin and I have not figured out all the directions from the book and the numerals yet. It is not an easy task, I tell you, but it shall be done soon, and we can take you straight to the spot as soon as we have the directions before us.""Unless Silver-Leg and Madame remove the booty in the meanwhile," grunted one of the party caustically.
"I sometimes wonder----" said another. But he got no further. A peremptory "Hush!" from Hare-Lip suddenly silenced them all.
With a swift movement one of them extinguished the lanthorn, and now they cowered in absolute darkness within their burrow like so many wild beasts tracked to earth by the hunters. 
The heat was suffocating: the men vainly tried to subdue the sound of their breath as it came panting from their parched throats.
"The police!" Hare-Lip muttered hoarsely.
But they did not need to be told. Just like tracked beasts they knew every sound which portended danger, and already from afar off, even from the very edge of the wood, more than a kilomètre away, their ears, attuned to 

 Prev. P 25/184 next