t in silence; without a protest,
not without a twinge.

"And suppose," said I, "suppose the opium is so securely hidden that I
can't get hands on it?"

"Then you will stay there till that brig is kindling-wood, and stay
and split that kindling-wood with your penknife," cried Pinkerton. "The
stuff is there; we know that; and it must be found. But all this is
only the one string to our bow--though I tell you I've gone into it
head-first, as if it was our bottom dollar. Why, the first thing I
did before I'd raised a cent, and with this other notion in my head
already--the first thing I did was to secure the schooner. The Nora
Creina, she is, sixty-four tons, quite big enough for our purpose since
the rice is spoiled, and the fastest thing of her tonnage out of San
Francisco. For a bonus of two hundred, and a monthly charter of three, I
have her for my own time; wages and provisions, say four hundred more: a
drop in the bucket. They began firing the cargo out of her (she was part
loaded) near two hours ago; and about the same time John Smith got the
order for the stores. That's what I call business."

"No doubt of that," said I. "But the other notion?"

"Well, here it is," said Jim. "You agree with me that Bellairs was ready
to go higher?"

I saw where he was coming. "Yes--and why shouldn't he?" said I. "Is
that the line?"

"That's the line, Loudon Dodd," assented Jim. "If Bellairs and his
principal have any desire to go me better, I'm their man."

A sudden thought, a sudden fear, shot into my mind. What if I had been
right? What if my childish pleasantry had frightened the principal
away, and thus destroyed our chance? Shame closed my mouth; I began
instinctively a long course of reticence; and it was without a word
of my meeting with Bellairs, or my discovery of the address in Mission
Street, that I continued the discussion.

"Doubtless fifty thousand was originally mentioned as a round sum," said
I, "or at least, so Bellairs supposed. But at the same time it may be an
outside sum; and to cover the expenses we have already incurred for the
money and the schooner--I am far from blaming you; I see how needful
it was to be ready for either event--but to cover them we shall want a
rather large advance."

"Bellairs will go to sixty thousand; it's my belief, if he were properly
handled, he would take the hundred," replied Pinkerton. "Look back on
the way the sale ran at the end."

"That is my own impression as re