Page:Hendryx--Connie Morgan with the Mounted.djvu/100

82 "What's ailin' ye? Hear sunthin'?" Connie's heart thumped almost audibly as the man delayed his reply.

"Naw, I wuz a-thinkin'. How much stuff has Ol' Jap got in th' shaft?"

"'Bout two hundred gallon."

"Ef we c'd git red of it fer him—unbeknownst to Bill—gimlet it off, so's he'd think it leaked out"

"Be y'u a plumb fool?" The voice of the man by the stove held a note of fear. "Don't y'u never try to double-cross Bill Cosgrieve. Y'u won't git away with it—an' they'll be another shaft to cave in down to Two Prong."

"Guess y'u're right—but"

"Bill, he'll be back tomorry, an' we'll hev a hard day, totin' that stuff up to th' cache. He'll likely fetch four-hundred gallon—them Injins has got jes' about enough left to pay fer it. I'm a-goin' to roll in." The shaggy man unlaced a hobnailed boot. The other crossed to the bunk, and Connie recognized him as Crane, whom Corporal Rickey had once pointed out to him in Dawson, as a member of the Cameron Creek gang.