"
This being the determination, the robbers, thus disappointed of their
game, were nevertheless in better humor than might have been well
expected; but such men are philosophers, and their very recklessness of
human life is in some respects the result of a due estimate of its
vicissitudes. They rode on their way laughing at the sturdy bluntness of
the old wagoner, which their leader, of whom we have already heard under
the name of Dillon, related to them at large. With a whoop and halloo,
they cheered the travellers as they rode by, but at some distance from,
the encampment. The tenants of the encampment, thus strangely but
fortunately thrown together, having first seen that everything was
quiet, took their severally assigned places, and laid themselves down
for repose. The pedler contenting himself with guessing that "them 'ere
chaps did not make no great deal by that speculation."
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE OUTLAWS.
It was in the wildest and least-trodden recesses of the rock and forest,
that the band of outlaws, of which Rivers was the great head and leader,
had fixed their place of abode and assemblage.
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