trunk.
Gardiner loaded the weapon and put it in his pocket.

"What about me?" demanded Riles. "Ain't I t' have no gun?"

"Better without it," said Gardiner. "It might go off. If we really
see any game, and there's a chance of a second shot, I'll lend you
this one."

The sun was dipping almost to the mountains when they set out on a
cross-trail through the valley. Down by the river, well screened with
cotton-woods, Travers fished in a pool close by the ford. He heard
voices, and, looking up quickly, saw Riles and Gardiner riding slowly
down the road. At first he thought Gardiner had seen him, but in a
moment he revised that opinion. The two rode close by, and stopped
their horses to drink with their forefeet in the river. Jim was going
to call to them when he heard his own name mentioned. He was no
eavesdropper, but he obeyed the impulse to listen and keep out of
sight.

"Travers doesn't suspect a thing," Gardiner was saying. "It's just as
well. He figures on making old Harris his father-in-law some day,
and he might do something foolish if he caught on. If the old man
loses all his money he won't be so desirable from a son-in-law's
point of view...Well, we'll see how he stands the night in the old
shanty up the river road. Strange things have happened there before
now, let me tell you, Riles."

If Jim had been prompted by curiosity at first a very different
emotion laid hold of him as he caught the gist of Gardiner's remarks.
He had no delusions about the principles of either Gardiner or Riles.
His relations with his present employer had been pleasant but by no
means confidential, as he had never sought nor valued Gardiner's
friendship. He was convinced that Gardiner was kind in a general way
to those with whom he came in contact, because kindness cost nothing
and might upon occasion be exceedingly profitable. Riles, on the
other hand, was coarse and unkind simply because his nature rose to
no higher plane. Gardiner was clever enough to conceive almost any
depth of villainy, and Riles was brutal enough to carry out the
muscular part of the plot. Travers had not known Harris to be in the
district, but he had suspected for some days that Gardiner and Riles
were hatching mischief in their long absences together. The
information that Harris was going up the river to-night, apparently
with a large sum of money, and the fact that these two men also were
going up the river, gave to Travers' nimble mind framework on whi