Page:Allan Dunn--Dead Man's Gold.djvu/103

Rh stumbled upon. If he was the goose he had not yet laid the golden egg. Stone did not trust Healy. Of the two he by far preferred Larkin, self acknowledged crook though Lefty was. But anything that Healy might start would not happen until Stone had disclosed the mother lode. Like Larkin, and like Healy, he had instinctively hung on to his share of the secret. He realized now that Lyman had known that each would do so.

Did Healy plot to get rid of Larkin and of Stone in this wilderness, and keep the entire treasure for himself and his accomplices, if Harvey, and perhaps Castro, were banded with him? To murder them? It would be easy to return and blame the Apaches for whatever crime had been committed. Murder, as Stone knew, was done in New York for half a hundred dollars. Here, in the desert holding, the temptation amounted to millions.

The girl, Lola, had spoken of finding out more definitely what Castro and Healy had been planning. Obviously she had seen them talking together after Stone had lost his stake at roulette and was mooning about the dance hall, before Lola had been waylaid by Padilla. But her knowledge could do him no good, could not be sent to him. He had dropped her a postal card from Globe, stating their destination as Miami and, generally, the Tonto Basin. He had done this out of a feeling of sympathy for the girl who had said she was not selling herself and that she was working in the Mexicali resort because she needed the money for others besides herself. Stone