d sat down
beside Haight with a growl.

"Damned pretty time, I sh'd think, to talk! What in hell do you
want?"

"Well, you were long enough getting out here," said Haight, in his
smoothest tones, all unaware of a figure that had glided to the open
window behind him, and now knelt within six feet of him. "Now quit
your growling, for you and I are good friends, Jim, and I want your
advice. Jim," he continued in a lower tone, "what would you think two
fellows like Houston and Van Dorn would want with that old chap,
Jack?"

"Huh?" said Maverick, rather stupidly, "what are ye drivin' at?"

"Wake up! you're half asleep, Jim! Your two dandy boarders here only
just came home about twenty minutes ago; they've been for the last
three or four hours down there in Jack's cabin, with the windows all
shut tight and curtains down, and still as death. What do you suppose
that means?"

"Damned if I know," was the laconic response.

"Now, Jim, don't be so uncommunicative; there may be something in this
for you and me if we just put our heads together, 'two heads are
better than one,' you know, so set your thinking machine to work and
grind out some ideas."

"Well," said Maverick, slowly, "I dun'no what that Houston, damn him,
would be runnin' 'round after Jack for, unless he wanted to get some
p'inters on the mines some way."

"That's it, go ahead!" said Haight.

"Houston," continued Maverick, with an oath and applying a vile
epithet, "is too all-fired smart to notice anybody, and Jack's
another, so they'd be likely to hitch."

"That's right," said Haight, "now what object would he be likely to
have in getting information from Jack?"

"I dun'no," said the other, "unless mebbe he's paid by somebody on the
outside."

"Well," said Haight, "I guess we've got about the same idea of it;
it's my opinion he is paid by somebody, and that somebody is Van Dorn,
or whoever's backing him. I don't put much stock in this machinery
business of his; he don't act like a fellow that needs to go peddling
machines about the country, and I notice he don't seem in any great
rush about putting it up, now he's got here; he ain't one of the kind
that has to rustle for a living, like you and me. I think he's just
out here getting pointers on the mines for that old fellow that was
here a while ago, and he's probably paying Houston a good, round sum
for helping him along, and now they've got Jack roped in on the
deal."

"Well," said Maverick savag