Page:Allan Dunn--Dead Man's Gold.djvu/102

88 It was chilly work and he paced off a sentry-go to keep his blood in circulation, smoking pipe after pipe, listening to the steady murmur of the shallow, busy stream and the night noises—a scutter on the hillsides, a rustle in the bushes—that kept him on the alert. Once he caught sight of two spots of green glaring out of the blackness, but as he shifted his rifle they disappeared.

He got to thinking about Larkin's idea that Harvey and Healy were not strangers and along this line suspicion grew. One thing showed plainly: If they were going to have any trouble with the Indians it would not be advisable to let Harvey return. It might not be dangerous for the Desert Rat to leave, for he would be obeying the wish of the Apaches, but his departure would deprive them of all the benefit of his experience and the possibility of holding any parley with the tribesmen. It would be better to let him have a share in the gold. There should be plenty for all. They could guard against him starting any rush. All they had to do was to keep him with them; and he did not seem to be the type to babble of his own good fortune for benefit of those who had mocked at his plans for finding riches.

But if he and Healy were in some sort of league? Stone remembered the warning of Lola, that Castro and Healy had some mutual scheme against Stone. Stone still held the trump card. Compared to the Madre d' Oro, the placer mine was only a drop in the bucket. He knew that the secret of its uncovering, revealed to him by Lyman, could not lightly be