"'Keep within sight of us,' I says. 'We may need you any minute.'

"He nodded and smiled, an' away we went.

"'I'm wonderin' how we're agoin' to get the money,' I says, havin'
told Dan about it.

"'I'll take it away from him,' says Dan.

"'That wouldn't do,' says I.

"'Why not?'

"'Why not!' says I. 'You wouldn't want to be arrested for highway
robbery. Then, too, we must think o' Lizzie. Poor girl! It's
agoin' to be hard on her, anyhow. I'll try a bluff. It's probable
that he's worked this game before. If so, we can rob him without
violence an' let him go.'

"Dan grew joyful as we sped along.

"'Lizzie is mine,' he says. 'She wouldn't marry him now.'

"He told me how fond they had been of each other until they got
accomplishments an' began to put up the price o' themselves. He
said that in their own estimation they had riz in value like beef
an' ham, an' he confessed how foolish he had been. We were excited
an' movin' fast.

"'Something'll happen soon,' he says.