ped in Reilly.

"Put a name to it."

"Well, I want to know what's the game, and where we come in."

"Think you're getting the double-cross?" asked Leroy pleasantly, his
vigilant eyes covering them like a weapon.

"Now you're shouting. That's what I'd like right well to know. There he
sits"--with another thumbjerk at Collins--"and I'm a Chink if he ain't
carryin' them same two guns I took offen him, one on the train and one
here the other day. I ain't sayin' it ain't all right, cap. But what I
do say is--how about it?"

Leroy did some thinking out loud. "Of course I might tell you boys to go
to the devil. That's my right, because you chose me to run this outfit
without any advice from the rest of you. But you're such infants, I
reckon I had better explain. You're always worrying those fat brains of
yours with suspicions. After we stuck up the Limited you couldn't trust
me to take care of the swag. Reilly here had to cook up a fool scheme
for us all to hide it blindfold together. I told you straight what would
happen, and it did. When Scott crossed the divide we were in a Jim Dandy
of a hole. We had to have that paper of his to find the boodle. Then
Hardman gets caught, and coughs up his little recipe for helping to find
hidden treasure. Who gets them both? Mr. Sheriff Collins, of course.
Then he comes visiting us. Not being a fool, he leaves the documents
behind in a safety-deposit vault. Unless I can fix up a deal with him,
Mr. Reilly's wise play buncoes us and himself out of thirty thousand
dollars."

"Why don't you let him send for the papers first?"

"Because he won't do it. Threaten nothing! Collins ain't that kind of a
hairpin. He'd tell us to shoot and be damned."

"So you've got it fixed with him?" demanded Neil.

"You've a head like a sheep, York," admired Leroy. "YOU don't need any
brick-wall hints to hit you. As your think-tank has guessed, I have come
to an understanding with Collins."

"But the gyurl--I allow the old major would come down with a right smart
ransom."

"Wrong guess, York. I allow he would come down with a right smart posse
and wipe us off the face of the earth. Collins tells me the major has
sent for a couple of Apache trailers from the reservation. That means
it's up to us to hike for Sonora. The only point is whether we take that
buried money with us or leave it here. If I make a deal with Collins,
we get it. If I don't, it's somebody else's gold-mine. Anything more the
committ