You should have seen how he rode me down, and then shot
Garmon in the arm."
"I'd like to have that hoss of his," said the elder Leffingwell.
"He's the finest brute I ever laid eyes on. Sech power an' sech action.
I noticed him at once, when Mason come ridin' up. S'pose we jest take
the hoss and send the boy on."
"A hoss like that would be knowed," protested the woman. "What if
sojers come lookin' fur him!"
"We could run him off in the hills an' keep him there a while," said
Leffingwell. "I know places where sojers wouldn't find that hoss in a
thousand years. What do you say to that, Kerins?"
"Good as fur as it goes," replied Kerins, "but it don't go fur enough
by a long shot. The Yanks whipped the Johnnies in a big battle at Mill
Spring. Me an' my pardners have been hangin' 'roun' in the woods,
seein' what would happen. Now, we know that this boy rode straight from
the tent of General Thomas hisself. He's a Union sojer, an' young as he
is, he's an officer. He wouldn't be sent out by General Thomas hisself
'less it was on big business. He's got messages, dispatches of some
kind that are worth a heap to somebody. With all the armies gatherin'
in the south an' west of the state it stands to reason that them
dispatches mean a lot. Now, we've got to get 'em an' get the full worth
of 'em from them to whom they're worth the most."
"He's got a pistol," said the elder Leffingwell, "I seed it in his belt.
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