es nothing to Stan. And now I shall strip his mine
from him and leave him to rot in the penitentiary. For I always hated
him, quite aside from any thought of my uncle's estate. I hate him for
what he is. I always wanted to trample his girl-face in the mire."

"Leave your chicken-curses and come to the point," urged the junior
member of the firm impatiently. "It is no news to me that your brain is
diseased and your heart rotten. What is it you want me to do? Calm
yourself, you white-livered maniac. I gather that I am in some way to
meddle with this mine. If I but had your head for my very own along with
the sand in my craw, I'd tell you to go to hell. Having only brains
enough to know what I am, I'm cursed by having to depend upon you. Name
your corpse! Come through!"

"You shut your foul mouth and listen. You throw me off."

"Give me a cigar, then. Thanks. I await your pleasure."

"Zurich warned me that Stanley's partner, this old man Johnson, had gone
East and would in all probability come here to bring proposals from Stan.
He came yesterday, bearing a letter of introduction from Stan. The fear
that I would not close with his proposition had the poor old gentleman on
needles and pins. But I fell in with his offer. I won his confidence and
within the hour he had turned himself wrong side out. He made me a map,
which shows me how to find the mine. He thinks I am to go to Arizona with
him in a week--poor idiot! Instead, you are to get him into jail at
once."

"How?"

"The simplest and most direct way possible. You have that Poole tribe
under your thumb, have you not?"

"Bootlegging, chicken-stealing, sneak-thieving, arson, and perjury. And
they are ripe for any deviltry, without compulsion. All I need to do is
to show them a piece of money and give instructions."

"Get the two biggest ones, then--Amos and Seth. Have them pick a fight
with the man Johnson and swear him into jail. They needn't hurt him much
and they needn't bother about provocation. All they need to do is to
contrive to get him in some quiet spot, beat him up decently, and swear
that Johnson started the row without warning; that they never saw him
before, and that they think he was drunk. Manage so that Johnson sees
the inside of the jail by to-morrow at luncheon-time, or just after, at
worst; then you and I will take the afternoon train for Arizona--with my
map. I have just returned from informing my beloved uncle of Stanley's
ignominious situatio