"Naither of 'em."

The hunter looked surprised, and the Irishman hastened to explain.

"I never knowed his mother--she havin' been dead afore I lift owld
Ireland--and his father was taken down with a sort of fever a week
ago, when we was t'other side of Fort Aubray. It was n't anything
dangerous at all but it sort of weakened him, so that it was belaved
best for him to tarry there awhile until he could regain his
strength."

"Why did n't you and the younker stay with him?"

"That's what orter been done," replied the disgusted Irishman. "But
as it was n't, here we are. The owld gintleman, Mr. Moonson, had
considerable furniture and goods that went best with the train, and he
needed me to look after it. He thought the boy would be safer with
the train than with him, bein' that when he comes on, as he hopes to
do, in the course of a week, be the same more or less, he will not
have more than two or three companions. What I wanted to ax yez,''
said Mickey, checking his disposition to loquacity, "is whether ye are
in dead airnest 'bout saying the copper-colored gentleman will be down
here for the purpose of blotting out the metropolis of New Boston?"

"Be here? Of course they will, just as sure as you're a livin' man.
And you won't have to wait long, either."

"How long?"