Page:Arthur Stringer - Gun Runner.djvu/223

 "But where's the hole, this time?" mildly inquired the operator.

"Not bein' dead sure I've got you on my side," said his candid enemy.

"But you have got me!" protested the other.

"Then why haven't you been sayin' so?"

"I can't say so, openly! I've got to watch myself and go slow," equivocated McKinnon.

"But what's the use o' falling between two stools? Why not swing in with the right side, nip and tuck, while you've still got the chance?" Ganley was on his feet by this time, standing over him.

"See here, you're no piker. You're quick, and you're clever.

"You're not afraid of a big thing, just because it is big. I've got my wires laid, and I'm going to knock that Locombian government off its feet, if it costs me half a million to do it. I'm goin to blow it higher'n Gilroy's kite. They've got chromium-mines down there worth more'n a million. I'm going to clean out that Guariqui gang and I'm going to do it good when I do it. That's my country down there," and he waved a great apelike arm toward the south-west, "and a week from now'll see it made into a white man's land."

McKinnon peered up at him, wondering if by