“There’s nothing to do but lie here until nightfall,” said Henri. “A try for camp now would be almost a sure shot that we would be gobbled up. They’re fighting all around us.” “Held up, you mean, don’t you?”
Billy could see only one fate for walking jewelry shops.
Reddy was in favor of a night move. He favored darkness for this kind of adventure, except in tunnels. He told Henri that if given half a chance he (Reddy) could get them back to their friends[119] with the same ease that he had conducted the excursion to the mouth of the tunnel.
“Billy mustn’t step on any sticks, though,” he added with a twinkle in his eye.
Billy knew that his name had mixed in the conversation, but he was not sure just what the little Frenchman was joking about. Besides, he was too thirsty to care.
“My throat is as dry as a bone,” he complained.
“I’m a little husky myself,” admitted Henri, “and wouldn’t mind spending a few franc pieces for a pitcher of lemonade”—jingling the gold in his pockets.
“That reminds me,” he continued, “that I’m thinking that it would be a good plan to bury this stuff right where we are. There is no telling what kind of a chase we will have getting back to camp, and it would be rough luck to chance losing that for which we have risked so much.”
“But that means another trip here,” argued Billy, “and it’s me for one with no wish to haunt this territory.”
Reddy turned a torrent of French loose on Henri.
“He says,” Henri translating to Billy, “that to-night he will take to the woods alone, reach Colonel Bainbridge and tell him of our troubles, and it may be that sufficient force could be sent to pull us lambkins and the treasure out of the hole.”
“Bet the colonel will do it!”
[120]
Billy enthusiastically approved the scheme.
“Come to think of it, though,” he amended, “if it isn’t unfair to Reddy I think it is a great idea.”
“Don’t you worry about Reddy,” assured Henri, “he is better off around here without us than we would be without him.”
“Then the only thing on my mind now is one big drink of cold water.” Billy drew a long breath at the thought.
But thirst and hunger the boys must endure for a while; they dared not risk all until actually forced to do so.
Billy looked at his watch at least twenty times that afternoon. He was not quite sure that it was right, for the little silver ticker had been badly dented during the struggle for life in the tunnel, but the works were still merrily moving,............