human
What's the matter? Is the camp on fire?
gpt
The diamonds!
human
But, don't you see, this makes it certain that Horace never left that cabin alive!
gpt
Anyhow, Horace risked his life for those stones,--perhaps lost it,--and we 're not going to let those wretches carry them off, he said.
human
Besides, the diamonds are the least important thing. Those fellows have got our cabin, grub, ammunition, everything. We're stranded if we don't get them back.
gpt
We must take them by surprise, said Fred.
human
I'd been thinking that we might come up to the cabin quietly, throw the door open suddenly, and hold them up.
gpt
They have four rifles,
human
Yes, but they won't be ready to use them, said the Scotchman.
gpt
It's the only way.
human
Lend me a couple of cartridges, Maurice.
gpt
Don't say you haven't any! I used the last of mine on those partridges.
human
Then we're done! Peter exclaimed, and he struck his hand furiously on the breech of the empty repeater.
gpt
Not a shot between us.
human
Come, we've got to do something--or starve in the snow, said Peter, at last.
gpt
We'll hold them up, anyhow--with empty guns.
human
But suppose they fire on us?
gpt
At the first move any one makes toward a gun, we'll jump for him. The cabin's too small to use rifles in, and if it comes to a rough-and-tumble, why, we'll just have to keep our end up. But I don't think it will come to that. We'll have them bluffed.